I am happy to report that I just completed a new work for vibraphone, cloud gongs and string orchestra called MIRAGE, a commission by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. The work will tour Western Canada in September 2009 starting with a premiere in Winnipeg, Manitoba on September 9. The ensemble will be conducted by Anne Manson. For more information on this work, please visit http://www.hatzis.com and click on Principal Compositions on the left-hand-side menu.
 
I am now embarking on the composition of a new work for string quartet and chamber orchestra, commissioned by City Music Cleveland for the Pacifica Quartet and the City Music Cleveland Chamber Orchestra to be conducted by David Alan Miller. I will have its premiere and five additional performances in Cleveland, October 13-18. The Pacifica Quartet was just honoured by the 2009 Grammy Award for "Best Chamber Music Performance" for its recording of Elliott Carter's String Quartets Nos. 1 & 5 on the Naxos label. A few months earlier the Pacifica was also honoured by Musical America as its 2009 Ensemble of the Year. City Music Cleveland is one of America's most exciting new ensembles with an admirable outreach mandate which enables them to bring classical music to diverse communities in the greater Cleveland area.
 
On July 1 2009 I will take a one-year sabbatical research leave from the University of Toronto to be able to engage in the composition of some new exciting project which I will let you know in a future bulletin posting.
 
All best wishes,
Christos

At the 2008 SOCAN Awards, held in Toronto on the evening of Monday, November 17, 2008, Christos Hatzis was awarded the Jan V. Matejcek Concert Music Award.

The Jan V. Matejcek Concert Music Award goes every year to the Canadian composer with the most performances of his/her music in Canada and internationally. The award is named after Jan V. Matejcek, founder and first CEO of SOCAN (Composers, Authors and Publishers of Canada—the performing royalties society of Canada).

Dear friends and colleagues,

As I am about to leave for Vancouver and Calgary I would like to inform you about a few upcoming events. The main event is four performances of my Tongues of Fire, a concerto for percussion and orchestra with Dame Evelyn Glennie on the solo part.

Evelyn Glennie and Tongues of Fire

May 24 and 26 with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey conducting in Vancouver's Orpheum Theatre.

May 30 and 31 with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Roberto Minczuk. Jack Singer Concert Hall, Calgary.

The work was commissioned by the Scotia Festival of Music for Beverley Johnston and Evelyn Glennie and Bev gave the first of the two official premieres at the Scotia Festival last year. I feel particularly fortunate to have this work performed by such distinguished soloists and ensembles and I will be travelling to Vancouver tomorrow and then to Calgary to attend all of Evelyn's performances.

…….

On a different note, my previous message about the Luminato Festival round table discussion was off by one month. All other details were correct except the month. I did not realize my mistake until it was too late (I even went to the event myself only to be confronted by an empty room) so I decided not to burden your inboxes again with an apology for my mistake until now. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused to some of you. For those who might be interested in attending, here is the correct info.

ILLUMINATIONS Crossing the Line: Disappearing Boundaries in the Arts

It is a free event. Here is the Luminato blurb:

It is in Canada's global village that artists from all over the world cross the line to abolish boundaries between artistic disciplines, cultures, and media. Graham Sheffield, Artistic Director of London's Barbican Centre, moderates this discussion with a panel of internationally acclaimed artists from a wide range of disciplines: Greek-born composer and University of Toronto professor Christos Hatzis, composer Mikel Rouse, and Montreal director Marie Brassard.

Sunday, June 8, 1:00 pm

Toronto Film School Studio, Studio 887
39 John St , 8^th Floor
Toronto, ON M5V
Canada

39 John Street is where the CBC Broadcast Centre is located. You can go by subway exiting at either St. Andrew's or Union stations. If you need a map go to http://www.luminato.com/festival/eng/venumap.php?id=67 Once in the building, take the central Atrium elevator to the 8^th floor.

For more info about the event, go to http://www.luminato.com/festival/eng/events/ID67/index.php

…….

There are quite a few things that are gearing up for the summer. Here are some of the larger events:

A performance on June 12 of my new work WATER for children's choirs, Celtic fiddle and Irish Bouzouki in St. John's Newfoundland on June 8 by the Shallaway Newfoundland and Labrador Youth in Chorus. It is a dry-run for official premiere of the work in Copenhagen on July 24 as part of the SONGBRIDGE project where Shallaway will be joined by children's choirs from China, Denmark and Hungary for the performance of WATER.

A performance of my oboe concerto, Telluric Dances in Bulgaria by Maestro Alexander Myrat, a tireless advocate of my music around the world.

A performance of my hour-long cross-over cantata Wormwood in Ottawa. Wormwood was written in 2006 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. This mounting of the work at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival will feature celebrated young basso Robert Pomakov, the internationally renowned Gryphon Trio and the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Amadeus Choir. This concert is marketed as "Chamberfest's 15th Anniversary Extravaganza". Don't miss this opportunity to hear this rarely performed work in the glorious setting of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. For more information visit the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival web site at www.chamberfest.com as it will become available in the next few weeks.

Stay tuned for more. For further info on the above events, please visit www.hatzis.com or see posted events on this MySpace site.

All best wishes,

Christos Hatzis

Christos Hatzis’ multimedia music theatre work CONSTANTINOPLE won last night the 2008 JUNO AWARD in the Classical Composition of the Year category. Recorded and produced by the Gryphon Trio and featuring the voices of Patricia O’ Callaghan and Maryem Tollar in addition to the trio, CONSTANTINOPLE was released as a CD by the Analekta record label in January 2007.

This is the second Juno Award for Hatzis in the past three years and the fourth nomination in the past six years.

Read a profile on Christos Hatzis and CONSTANTINOPLE in the CTV website: http://www.ctv.ca/mini/junos2008/story/christos.html

For a complete list of last night’s winners, go to http://www. thespec. com/BreakingNews/article/350429

From the Song of Songs 
Thurs – Sat March 6 – 8 at 8pm
Sun March 9 at 3:30pm
In the Garden of Delights:
Music Inspired by the Song of Songs
Maryem Tollar, alto
Rufus Müller, tenor
Bassam Bishara, oud
The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir
Jeanne Lamon, Ivars Taurins, conductors
Trinity-St. Paul's Centre
427 Bloor Street West, Toronto
(between Spadina and Bathurst)
for tickets click HERE or call 416-964-6337 
for directions click HERE

 

Psalm 91
Friday, March 7, 8pm
Choral Celebration
The Elmer Iseler Singers—Lydia Adams, conductor
The Vancouver Chamber Choir—Jon Washburn, conductor
Erica Goodman, harp
Metropolitan United Church
56 Queen St. East (at Bond), Toronto
For tickets click HERE
or call 416-217-0537

 

For more information on each of the above works click on the respective title of each work or visit www.hatzis.com

 

 

Toronto, February 5, 2008. It was announced this morning that Christos Hatzis' recording of his multimedia music theatre work CONSTANTINOPLE has been nominated for two JUNO AWARDS, one in the Classical Composition of the Year category (for Christos Hatzis) and one in the Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Performance (for the Gryphon Trio).

The JUNO Awards are Canada's equivalent to the American Grammy Awards. Hatzis has been nominated four times during the past six years and won the Classical Composition of the Year award in 2006.

For more information visit the JUNO Awards web site at http://www.junoawards.ca

Happy New Year everyone. There are some imminent performances of two of three of my larger works in the next few days and I would like to alert everyone. Please follow links below for venue and performance details. I was planning to attend the Athens performance of LIGHT FROM THE CROSS, but I am up against some imminent composing deadlines, so unfortunately I will not be able to meet with all my new MySpace friends from Greece who will be attending this concert. I will take a rain check till my next performance in Athens. Equal apologies to my Calgary, Whitehorse and Vancouver area friends. I am planning, however, to be in Vancouver and Calgary in May for the performances of TONGUES OF FIRE with Dame Evelyn Glennie.

CONSTANTINOPLE  at the
 2008 High Performance Rodeo
Calgary, Alberta
 January 11, 12 2008

CONSTANTINOPLE  
Yukon Arts Centre,
Whitehorse, Yukon
 January 17, 2008

 

 January 15
Light from the Cross
a 50-minute-long cantata
based on the chants of the Holy Week
of the Armenian Apostolic Church
(with surtitles in Greek)
Ani Maldjian, soprano
The Camerata Orchestra of Athens
The ERT (Greek National Radio & Television) Choir
Alexandre Myrat, conductor
Friends of Music Hall
Athens Concert Hall
Athens, Greece

 

January 19, 7:30 PM.
Telluric Dances
Pippa Williams, oboe; The Vancouver Island Symphony,
under the direction of Carlo Palleschi.
Port Theatre; Nanaimo, Vancouver Island,
British Columbia

"Not since John Corigliano's Oboe Concerto has there been such a work,
and truth to tell, I think that Hatzis' surpasses it".
Raymond Tuttle CLASSICAL NET (USA)

The THE TROPARION OF KASSIANI one of my best choral works to date has now been uploaded on my MySpace audio player. Listen to an excerpt with soprano Patricia Rozario and the English Chamber Choir under the direction of Guy Protheroe on Track 6. This studio recording was made in May 2005 and it will be part of an upcoming CD by the English Chamber Choir. Record label TBA.

The THE TROPARION OF KASSIANI was commissioned by the English Chamber Choir and it was given its world premiere by the artists of this recording on March 11, 2004 in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, UK as part of the 2004 Byzantine Festival in London. The work has been performed repeatedly since then.

The entire work is available in facsimile edition from Promethean Editions. For more information on this work please visit www.hatzis.com.

By the way, the track that was taken out of my MySpace player, the excerpt from the first movement of PYRRICHEAN DANCES has migrated to Beverley Johnston's MySpace site (Track 2). You can listen to it and the other wonderful tracks by Beverley at her site.

Enjoy the music.