{"id":148434,"date":"2010-07-07T15:29:32","date_gmt":"2010-07-07T15:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socancom100stg.wpenginepowered.com\/composer-john-burge-is-melding-his-musical-languages\/"},"modified":"2010-07-07T15:29:32","modified_gmt":"2010-07-07T15:29:32","slug":"composer-john-burge-is-melding-his-musical-languages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/composer-john-burge-is-melding-his-musical-languages\/","title":{"rendered":"Composer John Burge is melding his musical languages"},"content":{"rendered":"

Les traductions pour les articles avant l\u2019automne 2013 ne sont pas disponibles pour le moment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Burge<\/strong> has been living and composing in Kingston, Ont., for 23 years. Over that time, his reputation has steadily grown and one work after another has streamed from his pen. Of late, things have been coming together nicely for him \u2014 converging, you might say.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One upcoming convergence is a series of three performances this fall of his latest work: Prelude Variations<\/em>, which will be performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Qu\u00e9bec (Sept. 29 and 30), the Kingston Symphony Orchestra (Oct. 3) and the Calgary Philharmonic (Nov. 27). The piece is a solo composition for piano and orchestra, and the pianist for whom it was written \u2014 and who will play all performances \u2014 is the renowned Canadian Janina Fialkowska.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As Burge explains it, the project came about as a result of his and Fialkowska\u2019s common interest in the music of Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Chopin. \u201cIt\u2019s based on Chopin\u2019s Prelude in C Minor, op. 28 no. 20<\/em>,\u201d says Burge, \u201cand the theme is clearly recognizable. I teach a Chopin course at Queen\u2019s University, and Janina is renowned as a Chopin interpreter.\u201d As well, he points out that 2010 is the bicentennial of Chopin\u2019s birth, making the coming concert season a perfect occasion for a tribute to Poland\u2019s most famous composer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prelude Variations<\/em> is the latest in a series of concert pieces by Burge for solo instrument and orchestra. Once again, he\u2019s working closely with the soloist. \u201cWith every concerto I\u2019ve written,\u201d he recalls, \u201cI\u2019ve known the soloist really well. That includes my Piano Concerto<\/em> for Brian Finley, my Trumpet Concerto<\/em> for Stuart Laughton and my Clarinet Concerto<\/em> for Gordon Craig.\u201d He\u2019s also written a Veena Concerto<\/em> for Lakshmi Ranganathan, who teaches this Indian stringed instrument at Queen\u2019s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Something else that\u2019s been gradually converging is Burge\u2019s own musical language. There was a time, he recalls, when his choral and instrumental styles were separate and distinct: \u201cdissonant\u201d for instrumental works and \u201clyrical\u201d for choral compositions. \u201cThose have merged,\u201d he says, \u201cso my choral music has more angst and my instrumental music has some sweeter curves.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Both choral and instrumental compositions figure prominently in Burge\u2019s oeuvre. \u201cI write one or two orchestral pieces each year,\u201d he says, adding that he\u2019s also composing a lot of chamber music these days. Since he teaches at Queen\u2019s University during the academic year (where he serves as associate director of the School of Music), much of his composing is done at a summer cottage where there\u2019s no telephone or television.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s his music for choirs, however, that he\u2019s best known for internationally. Burge has an ongoing agreement with Boosey & Hawkes to show them all the choral music he writes, and a dozen of his works have been issued by that prestigious publisher. One of his best-known works is Angel Voices<\/em> for children\u2019s choir. In 2005, it was performed at New York\u2019s Carnegie Hall, and the following year it won the Outstanding New Choral Composition award from the Association of Canadian Choral Conductors. Also recently honoured was his orchestral work Flanders Fields Reflections<\/em>, which won a Juno Award in 2009 as Best Classical Composition for a recording on the Marquis label.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One thing Burge hasn\u2019t yet done is write an opera, but that may soon change. \u201cI\u2019m quite keen to write an opera,\u201d he says. \u201cIt might be a chamber opera, but having learned to flex my orchestral choral muscles, it would be great to do something really dramatic. Currently, I\u2019ve got three libretto ideas on my desk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Instrumental and choral convergence<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-148434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-non-categorise"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148434\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uat.socan.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}