Gregory Oh

Some of you may be familiar with Sean Griffin\’s wonderful piece Pattycake. If not, check it out below, as played by Toca Loca percussionist Aiyun Huang! My U of T group, the Chainsaw Ensemble, is working on a group version of this piece right now.

I\’m also going to be playing in and conducing the world premiere of his new show, Cold Spring, at the now legendary EMPAC in Troy, NY, with Aiyun Huang and the Jack Quartet. December 3 & 4. Hot!

Some of you may be familiar with Sean Griffin\’s wonderful piece Pattycake. If not, check it out below, as played by Toca Loca percussionist Aiyun Huang! My U of T group, the Chainsaw Ensemble, is working on a group version of this piece right now.

I\’m also going to be playing in and conducing the world premiere of his new show, Cold Spring, at the now legendary EMPAC in Troy, NY, with Aiyun Huang and the Jack Quartet. December 3 & 4. Hot!

Thanks to everyone for a great x avant festival. I can\’t describe the feeling of relief as Halo Ballet finished and the Halorinas shot their pistols into the air. For those who missed it or are mystified, check out the video below:

Also, nice interviews with the Torontoist and EYE WEEKLY. An interview in the Globe and Mail was print edition only, but you can read it below the fold:

» Read the rest of this entry «

We just finished the 6th concert of our Haydn cycle at the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society. 29 down, 14 to go. Our next show is July 14th. KWCMS website here

We got a nice review from the Kitchener-Waterloo record here

X Avant V is happening Oct 16-24. I curated this year\’s festival and I\’m pretty excited about the lineup. I highly recommend the Jeff Mills/Big Zang show on Oct 16 for anyone who is a techno fan, percussion aficionado or anyone with an interest in musique concrete. I heard Jeff do something wondrous strange in Berlin last year. Also, Donatienne Michel-Dansac is performing the complete Aperghis Recitations on the 17th. She is phenomenal. The shows on the 23rd (50-minute ring) and 24th (Halo Ballet) are co-productions with Toca Loca. Complete festival details at musicgallery.org

Blurbs in pitchfork, the Globe and Mail and a strong Book it now! recommendation from NOW Magazine.

I\’m playing with Quatuor Arthur-Leblanc in the Syrinx Salon Concerts on February 6th. Dvorak piano quintet, which should be serious fun. Details here.

Guelph has its own Nuit Blanche now, apparently, and I\’ll be there with the Lollipops at 2:30 am on Saturday (technically Sunday morning) in the Guelph CIty Council Chambers.

The Music Gallery just announced the lineup for X Avant V, which I got to curate this year. Details at the Music Gallery website.

Finally, check out this photo I dug up from a Toronto Symphony concert. Hint: one is a hologram, one is a harpist and one is omnipotent.

We just released our new CD, Sacred Prune of Remembrance. It is pretty fun, with a harder edged sound – Nichol plays electric guitar and I\’m on farfisa for this one.

Listen here. Buy here. Read about it here and here

Also, some more reviews for Toca Loca\’s P*P. EYE Weekly and Johnson\’s Rambler.

Playing the harmonium and celesta in the chamber arrangement of Mahler\’s Lied von der Erde. It\’s on August 7th at MacMillan Theatre at the University of Toronto, as a part of the Toronto Summer Music Festival. Some great players, including one of my favourite violinists, Erika Raum.

There\’s also the world premiere of a TSMF commission by Glenn Buhr.

More info here

June 18-20 I\’ll be participating in the Waves Festival at the Young Centre as a part of Luminato. I was part of last year\’s incarnation (then called the New Waves Festival) and it was terrific fun. A great place to hang out for a few hours alone or with friends or with a family – it\’s a very kid friendly event. I don\’t have space to list all of the great artists that will be a part of this event, but some of my favourites include Weyni Mengesha, Claudia Moore, Patricia O\’Callaghan, Andrew Craig, Andrew Downing, Miranda Mulholland, Andrea Nann and John Millard. Fun! More info here

In July I\’ll be at the National Youth Orchestra of Canada training session, playing great chamber music and corrupting the youth. More details here

On July 13th, I\’m playing with the fabulous Mercer Grrlz. Akemi, Rachel and I will be continuing our Haydn Piano Trio Cycle for the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Music Society at the Music Room. Check it out here!

Saturday July 31st at the Tranzac, Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People will be releasing our new CD, Sacred Prune of Remembrance. Details here or on FB here.

On August 2nd, I\’ll be at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, with a crack ensemble and the amazing DJ P-Love, playing the music of Nicole Lizee. Our show in Toronto garnered a rare standing O at the music gallery, thanks in part to the sweet stylings of Leanne Zacharias, the Karaoke mastery of Christine Duncan and the serious set drumming of Greg Samek. Other great contributors will include Tim Francom, Megumi Masaki and Justin Haynes. This show is one of my personal faves. More info here

Thomas Rolston passed away last Saturday, May 29th, 2010. I remember him so fondly, and give thanks for the myriad ways in which he made my life and my music better.

I first attended the summer program in 1996, and from the very beginning Tom made me feel appreciated and supported. He was dedicated to making the Music and Sound program at the Banff Centre a welcoming place for artists. A simple idea, but in no other environment have I felt so well understood and free to learn. Tom and his wife Isobel knew that the greatest gift they could give to an artist was a place where they were treated like artists, trusted as artists and given everything they needed to function as artists.

Through his life and his ideals, he has touched the lives of so many people. He had so much love to give, and he receives so much love back in return.

Edit: Here\’s an excerpt from a wonderful note by Myra Davies (full text here)

One of my earliest music presentations came about when Tom came to my office of UofA, introduced himself and suggested a series of lunch hour concerts with his Alberta String Quartet, at SUB Gallery. \”Music to the people\” Later at Banff, Tom & family formed the nucleus of the music program; interpretive artists, dedicated to classical rep, radiating the vibe, promoting continuity, generating energy, forming artists and producing concerts non-stop.

It was wonderful to work with them in their vibrant dedicated international community. Classical music isn\’t dead. It\’s closer to immortal. Constantly regenerating itself, it moves steadily through time on a conveyor belt of dedicated artists who serve it and pass it on to those they\’ve trained. Through the Rolston years, I watched individual artist, rising and descending in power, and knew many of them. They\’re amazing. They will play on until they drop, even when demented or terminally ill they keep on playing and doing concerts.

The subculture of contemporary arts tends to hostility to the classical music scene. I wonder if some of this attitude is because they have what we don\’t; a rock solid belief in the lasting significance of the work they service. Each to his own. I\’m so thankful that way back when, Tom Rolston invited me into his world.

Edit 2:

No obit in the Globe and Mail, but the Calgary Herald was the first to memorialize him.

Edit 3:

Obit in the Globe and Mail by Tamara Bernstein.

Hey friends – here\’s the rundown on my remaining April days.

Giiwedin!

Conducting this First Nations Opera at Theatre Passe Muraille. Closing April 24, Wed-Fri eve, Sat mat. Fri and Sat PWYC. More info here.

Steve Reich Live with NEXUS and PSiDock. April 29, 2010, 8 pm @ Koerner Hall. Details here.

Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People are opening (middling) for Run With The Kittens CD Release at the Great Hall on April 30th. Should be a really fun show – RWTK are always fun. We should be on around 1030pm or so. I\’ll be playing Farfisa and we\’ll be playing some stuff from our new album, Sacred Prune of Remembrance. Details here.