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.