Aunt Helen is a one-act opera for soprano, with music and lyrics written by Monica Pearce inspired by Dr. Helen Creighton. Dr. Helen Creighton was truly a pioneer in collecting folk songs, and her contribution to the documentation of Maritime folk songs is unparalleled. She lived a life of adventure, from helping survivors from the Halifax Explosion, to driving an ambulance to help with health education, to collecting innumerable folk songs, and many more untold. Featuring Simon Docking on piano.
Nominated by Music Nova Scotia for Classical Album of the Year. Monica Pearce work featured: Aunt Helen
"With her 2020 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber, Angela Schwarzkopf became the first harpist to receive the award in 25 years, joining fellow Canadian harp icons Erica Goodman and Judy Loman."
PERFORMERS: Angela Schwarzkopf – Harp Michelle Colton – Vibraphone Étienne Levesque – Vibraphone TRACKS: attach/detach – Monica Pearce Garden – Cecilia Livingston (with Michelle Colton, Vibraphone) A Portrait of Tschamiu – Patrick Arteaga Contemplation – Mark Nerenberg Sonatina for Vibraphone & Harp – Elisha Denburg (with Étienne Levesque, Vibraphone) Castles in the Sand – Kevin Lau Monica Pearce works featured: attach and detach for solo harp
Toronto’s junctQín keyboard collective—comprised of Stephanie Chua, Elaine Lau and Joseph Ferretti—commemorates a decade of intrepid exploration with their long-awaited debut album. Offering a spirited and diverse collection of multi-limbed pieces spanning Maurice Ravel’s 1918 curio Frontispice to works by contemporary music’s leading up-and-comers, reTHINK captures everything from phantom textures summoned from the piano’s inner sanctum to Casio-caressing postmodernism. It’s a buoyant and decidedly celebratory album that sits at the sweet spot between virtuosity and focussed listening, and whose whimsy always remains anchored in profound musical insight.
Monica Pearce work featured: Chess Suite for two toy pianos
Chest of Toys (recorded at Real World Studios, for Coviello Classics)
Music for various chamber ensembles by Thomas Kotcheff, Monica Pearce, Michael Cryne, Utku Asuroglu, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Franco Donatoni, Jack Sheen, and music selected from our 2016 Call for Scores: Lee Westood, Yukiko Watanabe and Heather Stebbins.
Monica Pearce work featured: Kandinsky for soprano and toy piano
The Toy Piano Composers (TPC) is a Toronto-based collective of composers that presents imaginative new music to curious audiences in a playful concert environment. Since 2008, TPC has produced twenty-six concerts, and premiered over 120 new works of opera, chamber music, and orchestral music. This debut album highlights some of the most memorable chamber music that TPC has presented over the years, showcasing a generation of young composers from across Canada who are creating music over a vast range of styles. These seven pieces provide a musical snapshot of a vibrant community of composers and musicians that has grown out of Toronto in the last decade.