|
(Canada)
|
||||||
|
One of Canada's most unique chamber music ensembles, Hammerhead Consort, is continuing its mission to extend both the range of music for its unique instrumental combination, as well as the definition of what chamber music can be.
The ensemble formed in 1992, comprising two pianists and two percussionists. And almost from its inception, the group has achieved success on many fronts. Hammerhead Consort received the 1992 Sir Ernest MacMillan Foundation Chamber Music Award, and their debut 1993 recording won the Best Classical Recording Award from the Alberta Recording Industry Association. Hammerhead Consort's musical complement has meant that the creation of new music has been a part of its mandate from the outset. To date, over 30 new works have been written for Hammerhead Consort. Many, of course, are by some of Canada's top composers, such as three-time JUNO Award winner Malcolm Forsyth, Howard Bashaw, Omar Daniel and Alfred Fisher. Hammerhead Consort's second CD, "Traffic" (released February, 1999) features music from some of these Canadian creators. But Hammerhead Consort has also commissioned works from American and international composers, including Danish composer Kim Helweg, Melissa Hui and others. One of the most exciting events in Hammerhead Consort's future is a concerto, commissioned for the group, by leading Canadian composer Howard Bashaw. The concerto will be premiered at the 2000 edition of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra's rESOund Festival of Contemporary Music. The 1999 edition of the festival provided the ensemble with a great opportunity to shine in Edmonton's new acoustic jewel, the Francis Winspear Centre for Music. Of the group's performance of Kim Helweg's America Fantasy (A Tribute to Leonard Bernstein), the Edmonton Sun wrote: "Hammerhead Consort played a raucous percussion fantasy on Bernstein's song America (from West Side Story), which brought down the house." Other accolades from the media for Hammerhead Consort are not hard to come by. Hammerhead Consort have shown new music aficianados that they are powerful and virtuosic advocates for new music performance. Yet their visual appeal and innate musical sense have proven them to be popular among lovers of more "conventional" chamber music presenters as well. All four members of Hammerhead Consort are accomplished solo performers – Corey Hamm and Haley Simons (pianists), and Trevor Brandenburg and Darren Salyn (percussionists) – yet they have shown that together, they create chamber music not easily forgotten.
|
||||||
|
|