*Palm Tree-0 (2003)

Marubatoo ( 1988)

Moon Dance Two (2002)

*M-Beer-ah (2003)

El Quitapesarus

Comfort

Mitsue ( 1995)

Belo Horizonte (2000)

*The Beaten Path (2003)

*Premiere performances

Donald F. Cook Recital Hall M.O. Morgan Building

Saturday, 29 March 2003 at 8:00 p.m.

THE BEATEN PATH with percussionists

BILL BRENNAN ROB POWER JOHNWYRE and special guest

PAUL BENDZSA, saxophone

Bill Brennan/Rob Power/John Wyre

John Wyre

John Wyre

Bill Brennan/Rob Power /John Wyre

trad. Venezuelan, arr. Bill Brennan

trad. Venezuelan, arr. Bill Brennan

- Intermission -

John Wyre with Paul Bendzsa, alto saxophone

Bill Brennan

Paul Bendzsa/Bill Brennan/Rob PowerjJohnWyre

This evening's concert is being recorded by CBC's Musicrafi for broadcast on Sunday, April 13, at 12:35 pm on CBC Radio Two and at 4:35 pm on CBC Radio One.

PAUL BENDZSA has developed a unique musical career in Canada as clarinettist, saxophonist, improviser /performance artist, and teacher. After early training in London, Ontario, in the London Police Boys Band, he went on to study at the University of Michigan, Ohio, and University of Iowa.

Besides performing his own multi-media works, which often combine improvised acting and playing with electronic tape and visual art, Paul has collaborated in the commissioning and performance of over thirty new works by Canadian composers in a broad range of styles and genres. As a clarinettist and saxophonist he has been a founding member of several diverse groups in addition to The Atlantic Arts Trio, such as The Blue Rider, Canadian Saxophone Quintet, Fusion, The Webem Trio, and the Avalon Trio. He has toured in Asia, Australia, Spain, England, and most of Canada and has been broadcast on Spanish Radio, CBC's Arts National, Two New Hours, Musicraft, and Radio Canada, and CBC Television.

BILL BRENNAN is a percussionist/pianist/composer living in St. John's. Bill has been active on the musical scene in Canada for the last twenty years. He has played with such groups as the National Ballet Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company and NEXUS, and has backed up such greats as Cab Calloway, Eartha Kitt, Placido Domingo and Dizzy Gillespie.

As a studio musician Bill has performed on more than fifty CDs including those by Kevin Breit, Oliver Schroer, Andy Stochansky and Andrea Koziol.

He has composed music for dance, the concert stage and TV including music for the CBC's "The Nature ofThings". Bill has also been musical director for CBC's "Vinyl Cafe" with Stuart McLean and for the Michael Redhill play "Building Jerusalem" which won the Dora Award for best new production in 2002. His own concert works have been recorded on numerous CDs and have been heard frequently on CBC radio. His co-written work Alma Chillin has been released on the CD "Introduction to Canadian Music" on the NAXOS label. He has also composed music for Sarah Chase, including Lamont Earth Observatory and Muzz.

As well as being a member of the Evergreen Club Gamelan, Vuja De, and the Loretto Reid Band, Bill was in demand as a pianist for folk and jazz singers and a variety of other groups around Toronto. His performances have taken him to Belgium, Japan, Holland, Norway, the USA, England, Austria, Scotland, the Czech Republic and all across Canada.

Bill was the recipient of the Freddie Stone Award for 1999.

ROB POWER is a percussionist, composer, and instrument builder. He has performed with some of Canada's fmest musicians, including Rivka Golani, Trichy Sankaran, and Bobby McKudo. He has played with the new music ensembles Continuum, Timeworks, and Attacca, the Celtic group Picket Line, and the orchestras of Windsor, London, and Kitchener­Waterloo. As a chamber musician Rob has appeared in world premieres by R. Murray Schafer, James Harley, Osvaldo Budon, Clark Ross, Bill Brennan, John Wyre, and Anthony Craig Hall.

Rob is currently the principal percussionist with the Newfoundland Symphony and teaches percussion at the MUN School of Music, where he directs the Scruncheons Percussion Ensemble.

An avid builder of new and unusual percussion instruments, his recent constructions include the po-pipes, the glass triangle, and the quarter-tone mirrophone.

JOHN WYRE, performer and composer, was a founding member of NEXUS. After thirty-one years with the ensemble, John resigned from NEXUS in October 2002 to devote more time to composing. His compositions have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Japan Philharmonic, NEXUS, and other orchestras and chamber ensembles in North America, Europe and Asia.

As creator and artistic director of World Drums, John has organized and directed intemational drum festivals since 1984, bringing musicians together from around the world. The next World Drum Festival will be held in Coimbra, Portugal, in June 2003.

John is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. He has been part of the Toronto Symphony, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, and the Marlboro Music Festival.

John's music and his book, Touched by Sound, A Drummer's Journey, are published by Buka Music in St. John's.

PROGRAM NOTES

Palm Tree-0 (2003) B. Brennan, R.Power, J.Wyre An exploration of hand drumming.

Marubatoo (1988) John Wyre "Marubatoo has evolved in many incarnations from the original piece called Maruba

that combined marimba and tuba. In generating a piece for Nexus, I transcribed the tuba part for bass marimba, which sustains the melodic part throughout the piece, and added a vibraphone part to accompany the two marimba parts. This trio version will be performed tonight."

Moon Dance Two (2002) John Wyre "A duet for marimba and vibraphone, Moon Dance Two explores some of the ideas

that evolved from writing Moonlight for solo marimba and orchestra. The vibraphone and marimba form a dance-like partnership and interact throughout the piece. Moon Dance Two is the first in a series of duets for marimba and other instruments that is being composed as part of a project supported by the Canada Council for the Arts."

M-Beer-Ah (2003) B.Brennan, R.Power, J.Wyre Ajoumey with the mbira (Zimbabwe} accompanied by bells and Bubba can.

El Quitapesarus Traditional Venezuelan, arr. Bill Brennan

Comfort Traditional Venezuelan, arr. Bill Brennan

- Intermission -

Mitsue (1995) John Wyre "While performing in northem Alberta I met native Canadians from the Cree culture.

Mitsue comes from their language and means 'meeting place.' Music is a meeting place- a coming together of different sounds, instruments, ideas, perceptions, performers, composers, and audience, all fmding unity in the music. This reconciliation of differences is one of the precious miracles of music.

The initial inspiration to begin this piece was the artistry of Thomas Stacy, master of the English Hom. The solo melody can be performed by a variety of instruments, however, ~d for this performance Paul Bendzsa will choose from his array of instruments to carry the melody."

Belo Horizonte (2000) Bill Brennan "In 1991 I traveled to Brazil to spend a month with my friends of the renowned group

UAKTI. They lived in the city called Bela Horizonte (pronounced 'horizonch} in the mountains of the province Minas Gerais. I would regularly take rooming walks with Marco (the artistic leader of the group} in the main city park just a short walk from where I was staying. During these jaunts I experienced the park 'waking up'. Inevitably the walks would start with a meditative beginning of silence or just a slight breeze. The bamboo trunks would softly rub against each other. The birds would then start chirping. Following this the monkeys would start acting up. All these sounds intensified over time until I came out the other end of the park to the quiet streets beyond. This piece is a musical representation of that walk in the park."

The Beaten Path (2003) P. Bendzsa, B.Brennan, R.Power, J.Wyre This piece brings together all of this evening's musicians in a spontaneous

collaboration. ***