Pear Tree Album Launch Tour

Adrianna and I just wrapped up our album launch tour for The Pear Tree! Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate the record and the season with us!

Doomsday Fantasias

On Dec 6, New Hermitage released a new record, Doomsday Fantasias. It was released on Watch That Ends the Night Records and features New Hermitage in quartet formation - Andrew MacKelvie, India Gailey, Ross Burns, and myself - with guest appearances by Jeff Reilly. Here are a few words about the album from Andrew:

We recorded this album in 2022 in a house by the sea on the south shore of Nova Scotia. We moved in for the week with our instruments, recording equipment, and make-shift baffles. And what it became is called Doomsday Fantasias.

We recorded Unearthed in 2017. We recorded Doomsday Fantasias five years later. In that time we grew as people and artists. We defined our container, we deepened our lore; we built a repertoire and collective language for improvisation. We toured and we joked and we sang songs that we knew and that we made up.

Doomsday Fantasias was supposed to be something else. But, we let the piece become what it was meant to be. The compositions were always going to happen that way. Not through divine fate, but humble adherence to a practice. It’s a record of spontaneous compositions.

I hope you enjoy it. And if you do, please share it with others.

Fantasia ~ noun
1: a free usually instrumental composition not in strict form and often an improvisatory style
2a: a work (such as a poem or play) in which the author's fancy roves unrestricted
2b: something possessing grotesque, bizarre, or unreal qualities

band photo by Jamie Kronick

Cherry Tree Carol Video

On December 1st, Adrianna and I released our music video for The Pear Tree album. It was filmed in Helen Creighton's study at Evergreen House in Dartmouth by Luke Fraser and features the 6th track on the album "The Cherry Tree Carol / The Back of Winter". Many thanks to Luke and to the Dartmouth Heritage Museum for making it such a fun shoot!

Inner Space Conundrum

Jack and I performed our fall program one final time on November 12 as part of Inner Space Concerts in a house in Dartmouth. Inner Space Concerts takes classical chamber music into homes in the Halifax area for very intimate concert experiences.

Songs and Madrigals of the Renaissance

On November 27th, I joined counter tenor Andrew Pickett for some lute songs as part of Night FYP at King's College. Andrew and Helios vocal ensemble presented songs and madrigals of the Renaissance in the beautiful college chapel.

Scions Tour

To launch our new album, To Cry Out In The Wilderness, Scions went on tour this past week to Halifax, Sackville, Saint John, and Fredericton! Thank you to all the beautiful venues, opening bands, and audiences we visited with this week. The album is available on vinyl and as a digital download. Take a listen on bandcamp:

Conundrum Garden Room Concert

Jack and I played a second concert this weekend in Wolfville, as part of the beautiful Acadia Garden Room series. Special thanks to Elisabeth for inviting us and for organizing this event.

 

Conundrum Cookie Concert

Jack and I played a Cookie Concert in Lunenburg on Saturday! Presented through Musique Royale, these concerts are monthly, family-friendly events that take place at the Lunenburg School for the Arts. We played works by Andres, MacKelvie, Bach, Shankar, Morlock, Debussy, Gluck, Tournier, and Clarke. Thanks so much to our lovely audience and hosts.

Pear Tree Christmas Tour Announced

Adrianna and I will be doing a five-stop tour to celebrate the release of The Pear Tree in December!

Thursday, December 5th - Riverport 

Old Confidence Lodge, 7pm 

Tickets $20 advance | $25 door 

onstagedirect.com/buy/event_info.action?eventId=2277&token=72C0143EA0

Saturday, December 7th - New Glasgow 

Trinity United Church, 7pm 

Tickets $20 | PWYC

tickettailor.com/events/liveatmerrytimemusicco/1453930 

Sunday, December 8th - Halifax 

St. Andrew’s Church, 3pm 

Tickets $20 | PWYC | kids free 

tickettailor.com/events/liveatmerrytimemusicco/1453450

Friday, December 13th - Annapolis Royal 

St. Luke’s Church, 7pm 

Tickets $20 | PWYC 

tickettailor.com/events/liveatmerrytimemusicco/1453940

Saturday, December 14th - Canning 

Ross Creek Annex, 7:30pm 

Tickets $15 advance | $20 at the door ($10 | $15 students)

musicincommunities.com/event/5779627

Pop-up Renaissance Faire

Cafe Goodluck in downtown Dartmouth organized a little pop-up Renaissance Faire yesterday with turkey legs and costumes!

Charlie & Ellen at the Helen Creighton Folk Club

Charlie and I had a great time at the Dartmouth Heritage Museum last week, playing as featured artists on a double bill at the Helen Creighton Folk Club! This regular event has an open mic portion and takes place at Evergreen House, where Helen Creighton lived. 

Pear Tree pre-orders open!

Adrianna Ciccone and I have recorded a Christmas album! Entitled The Pear Tree, it is an eight track fiddle and harp instrumental album. We've arranged a selection of our favourite carol melodies along with some original tunes and traditional tunes. Visit bandcamp to see the track listing and to hear a preview track! The album will be released on November 15, 2024. 

You can pre-save the album on streaming services here: Pre-Save!

La Journée de la Harpe

I had a lovely time in Montreal this weekend at La Journée de la Harpe, a festival organized by La Société des Harpistes de Montréal. I presented a workshop and performed in a concert with the wonderful kora player Zal Sissokho, and took in some very cool workshops and performances throughout the day. Thank you to the harp community of Montreal for such a great day!

Conundrum Duo Concert at Memory Lane

Jack and I had a very fun evening playing at Memory Lane Heritage Village for this Musique Royale concert. The music was followed by a delicious dinner inspired by our repertoire. Many thanks to all the organizers and volunteers who did an incredible job putting together this experience!

Our program consisted of works by Bach, Mozetich, Morlock, Shankar, MacKelvie, and Andres.

Photo by Charles Bourne

Fight Song

Scions' debut album "To Cry Out In The Wilderness" will be released on November 8th! In the meantime, we have released our first single "Fight Song" today.

The song features Cormac Culkeen (vocals), Andrew MacKelvie (bass clarinet), India Gailey (cello), Ellen Gibling (harp), Ross Burns (electric guitar), Gabriella Ciurcovich (double bass), Dave Grenon (live processing & effects), Michael Cloud Duguay (voice), Rebecca Fairless (pipe organ) Donald MacLennan (violin), Al Melnyk (granular synth), and the Scions choir: Jay Perry, Arden Rogalsky, Janet Ross, Jenny Lapp, Valmy Assam, Tamsin Robson, Stephen Burns, Sophie Noel, NAT chantel, Lance Sampson

Produced by Michael Cloud Duguay
Recorded by Jake Nicoll + his solar-powered Scamper RV at St. George’s Round Church
Engineered by Jake + Dave Grenon
Mixed by Steve Chahley
Mastered by East End Mastering

The album photo comes from the archive of the Halifax Regional Fire Department, and shows the St. George’s round church steeple mid-blaze during the fire of 1994. 

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, FACTOR, the Government of Canada, Canada’s private radio broadcasters, and Ontario Creates.

 

Elsewhere

Olivia Barrett's debut album, Elsewhere, was released yesterday! Elsewhere is full of incredible tunes, most of them originals, realized by Olivia's elegant and impeccable fiddling. The wonderful Adam Dobres (guitar) and Adrian Dolan (mandolin, accordion, piano, recording engineer) feature on this record, with harp appearing on a few tracks too (Sparkle Horse, Last Light, Mountain Blessing)

Monophilia Recording Sessions

Last month I travelled to rural Ontario for a fun few days of recording for an upcoming project composed by Tom Richards! 

Pink Breath

Daughter of a Drum (Aoife McAtamney) released her stunning debut album Pink Breath today! The music on this record is luscious, anthemic, and deeply personal, and it was an honour to contribute harp to a couple of tracks: Heart River, and Youth.

Festival Musique de Chambre du Lac Baker

In early August, I had the good fortune to be part of the 4th edition of the Festival Musique de Chambre Lac Baker! There were beautiful works programmed for harp this year including chamber music by Debussy, Ravel, Vivaldi, Gluck, and new arrangements of folk music by Jaeyoung Chong.

Tunes at No. 9

Roy and Colin (The Narrows) and I played some tunes at No. 9 Coffee Bar in Lunenburg for a back patio wine night.

Gabriella & Ellen at the Trellis Cafe

Gabriella Ciurcovich and I played some dinner music at the Trellis Cafe in Hubbards on the weekend.

photos by Nathaniel Cole and Jamie Kronick

The Mountain Blessing / The Secret Elsewhere

Olivia Barrett just released the first single from her upcoming album! This track features two beautiful original tunes of Olivia's. I contributed some harp sounds to these tunes and Adrian Dolan contributed accordion and production wizardry! Special thanks to Joel Waddell for making some remote tracking possible here in Halifax. Stay tuned for Olivia's full album, coming in September!

Long & McQuade Presentation

Today I hosted a little info session about the harp at the Long & McQuade lesson centre in Halifax!

photo by Jamie Kronick

Pennybrook Row On Album Release Tour

This weekend I was very happy to be part of the launch of Pennybrook's long awaited album Row On! We played launch shows in Broad Cove, West LaHave, and Harbourville. The album is available on bandcamp: 

Festival of Small Halls

This week, The Bombadils were part of PEI's amazing Festival of Small Halls, playing 3 concerts in 3 different PEI venues. 

The Bombadils at Open Book Coffee

The Bombadils played an intimate show on Friday in bookstore and cafe Open Book Coffee! 

Many Worlds at Everyseeker

Many Worlds played its second ever show at Everyseeker Festival last night, sharing the bill with NO HAY BANDA from Montreal.

Scotia Festival of Music Closing Gala

The Scotia Festival of Music's closing gala this year included Ravel's La Valse, with two harps: Karen Rokos and I were the harp section. The concert also featured Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and the Evangelista Piano Concertant, with soloists Dominic Desautels (clarinet) and Louise Bessette (piano).

Studio time

Adrianna Ciccone and I were in the studio this weekend with recording engineer Graeme Campbell. New music coming later this year!

Rutter Requiem with the Kings Chorale

I had the pleasure of playing with the Kings Chorale for the first time this week for a performance of John Rutter's Requiem at Wolfville Baptist Church in the valley. The program consisted of works by all living composers, and included a World Premiere by Joyce Riddell and a Canadian Premiere by Santiago Veros.

Halifax Celtic Festival

The Halifax Celtic Festival was held at Citadel High School this year with performances in the Spatz Theatre. I had a great time playing a short set with the band Delhaven and dancer Elizabeth MacDonald on Saturday evening!

Debussy with SNS

On Thursday night, I was delighted to join first harpist Karen Rokos for a performance of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune with Symphony Nova Scotia, conducted by Holly Mathieson. The concert also featured pianist Philip Chiu in Ravel's G major piano concerto.

Borrowers at Mx3N

This week included the launch of a new band, Borrowers, which played its first show at Radstorm, as part of the awesome Mask Mandatory Music Night (Mx3N). Playing compositions by Andrew MacKelvie, the band was Andrew (saxophone), Ellen (harp), Sam Wilson (guitar), and Casey Thompson (bass).

Canadian Folk Music Awards

Congratulations to the Bombadils who took home Vocal Group of the Year at the Canadian Folk Music Awards in St. John's Newfoundland! I went up with them to play in their showcase at the Ship Pub and got to attend the awards ceremonies and have a blast in St. John's.

St. Patrick's Day at the Carleton

Last night for St. Patrick's Day, a newly assembled pub band provided some classic songs and tunes at the Carleton!

Musical Exorcism

Last week, I was part of a show at Radstorm with a great premise conceived of by Tom Richards - a musical exorcism to "expel the demons from some of our most insidious ear-worms."

New Bombadils Videos

The Bombadils just released seven new videos, completing the Live Visual Album of "Dear Friend"! You can check out the whole visual album here.

The Road to the Junos - Classical Concert

Last night, CBC and the Scotia Festival of Music co-presented a classical concert at the Music Room. The concert was the last a series of shows this week paving the way for the Junos, which are coming to Halifax in March. The concert featured performances by Devin Huang (piano), India Gailey (cello), Jennifer King (piano), LaLa Lee (piano), and myself, and will be broadcast on CBC radio on March 24th as part of "In Concert" hosted by Paolo Pietropaolo.