Photos by Lindsay Lozon; hair and makeup by Paul Langill; styled and co-ordinated by Liz Parker.

Experiences of the world are just as important to musicians as practicing and performing. For composers, it is even more important, as experiences feed ideas, and ideas are sometimes most aptly expressed as music.

Rob Teehan captures the feeling of exhilaration and elation that young musicians feel when they experience a break-through in their musical lives in an orchestral piece entitled “Dreams of Flying”. The piece was written for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYOC), who performed and recorded it in 2009.

“Dreaming you can fly is a metaphor for dreaming that you can be a musician and living that dream. I was in the National Youth Orchestra once when I was younger. I remember being there and you feel like you’ve stepped up, and you’re in this new level of success. You’re surrounded by people like you, gunning for it, professional faculty supporting you, and everyone’s basically there saying, ‘Go, go, go, you can do this! You can have a career!’ I channeled that energy into a musical composition, and it was very well received by the members of the orchestra.”

Read more this JUNO-nominated composition, which will be performed on our February 4th concert, and Rob Teehan’s music career.

Photo Credit: Bo Huang

The idea for “Foundation” struck Kevin Lau during an ordinary ride on the subway. As a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music, his thesis composition had been preoccupying his subconscious. Suddenly, a novel idea struck him: his doctoral thesis would be a cello concerto, and Rachel Mercer was going to perform it.

It wasn’t a totally random thought, truth be told. In 2010, Rachel was looking for new music to perform and came upon a composition by Lau for cello and piano entitled “Starsail”, which was commissioned by Sarah Steeves in 2008. She emailed Lau for the score, and made first contact. When Lau was putting together a recital later that year, Rachel was one of the performers that he invited to perform his work. He recalls their first musical meeting:

 “When I heard her rehearse ‘Starsail‘, I knew immediately that I wanted to collaborate with her on a major project.”

Read more about how the composition, which will be premiered on our February 4th concert, came into being.