The nominees for the 2015 Western Canadian Music Awards were announced on May 5th and I’m thrilled to be able to say that my sophomore solo album, Sins & Fantasies, was nominated for Classical Recording of the Year. This recording, released by Redshift Records, is the culmination of a little project I began in 2010. I asked a number of Canadian composers to each write a solo flute piece inspired by one of the Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath, Greed, Pride, Lust, Envy, Sloth, and Gluttony. It was fascinating to see who gravitated towards what sin — some struck me as perfect pairings; others completely surprised me. But in the end, I was gifted with six amazing pieces: Dorothy Chang‘s Wrath; Gregory Lee Newsome‘s Avarice (Greed); Owen Underhill‘s Three Reflections on Pride; Jocelyn Morlock‘s L (Lust); James Beckwith Maxwell‘s invidere (Envy); and Benton Roark‘s Untitled (Sloth). And to round things out, I made my composer-ly debut with a salute to Gluttony, Le dernier repas de Monsieur Creosote, and included three Fantasias by the 18th century composer G.P. Telemann — hence the album title, Sins & Fantasies.
And here we are, in all our depraved glory (or is it just a flimsy excuse to post a photo of me in a chicken mask? We’ll never know…).
Sins & Fantasies is in first-rate company and I’m proud to say that many of my fellow nominees are close friends and colleagues. These include PEP (Piano-Erhu Project), featuring Corey Hamm and Nicole Li; Sea and Sky, featuring François Houle and Jane Hayes; the Victoria Baroque Players; and violinist Karl Stobbe. The WCMA ceremony will take place on September 20th, 2015 in Victoria, BC.
Reblogged this on Jocelyn Morlock and commented:
Yay Mark! (And us, the sinful gaggle of composers…)
Mark – What a wonderful concept (yikes!), resulting album (very interesting pieces – each and every one!), and now WCMA nomination. Congratulations on the whole project!
Mark – what an imaginative concept (yikes!), wonderful resulting album – very interesting pieces all of them – and outcome (WCMA nomination. Congratulations on the whole project!