GARY KULESHA

                                           Composer

 

GARY KULESHA'S CATALOGUE IS NOW HANDLED EXCLUSIVELY BY COUNTERPOINT MUSICAL SERVICES. 

The upcoming 2010-2011 season will be an extraordinarily busy one for Gary Kulesha.

In September of 2010, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Peter Oundjian, will tour "Torque" once again as part of their Northern Residency Tour.

In October, the Victoria Symphony, conducted by Alain Trudel, will perform "Torque".

In January of 2011, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, conducted once again by Music Director Peter Oundjian, will take "Torque" on a multi-city tour of Florida.

From January 29 to February 4 of 2011, Gary Kulesha will be one of three featured Guest Composers at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's New Music Festival.  Mr. Kulesha will be joined by his colleagues John Corigliano and Krzysztof Penderecki.  As part of the Festival, the WSO and the Winnipeg Wind Ensemble will premiere a new work commissioned by the Canada Council for the Festival, which will feature two ensembles placed spatially in the hall conducted by two conductors.  The Festival will also include a performance of Mr. Kulesha's First Symphony, one of the most successful works in the history of Canadian orchestral music.

In mid-February, Gary Kulesha will be the first Composer in Residence at Cambrian College in Sudbury.  He will visit for several days, and the school will present a concert featuring his music.

In April of 2011, Gary Kulesha will be the SOCAN Composer in Residence with the Kindred Spirits Orchestra in Toronto, who will perform his "Divertimento for Strings."

 

 

Gary Kulesha continues his work as Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and as a professor of composition and performance at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music.

 

A NOTABLE ACCOMPLISHMENT

Gary Kulesha's work continues to enter the repertoire of artists all over the world.  It is rare for a new work to be commercially recorded, but three of Mr. Kulesha's works have multiple recordings, both Canadian and International.  "Mythologies" for Two Piano, "Mysterium Coniunctiononis" for Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and Piano, and the "Bagatelles:  From the Devil's Dictionary" for Woodwind Quintet are all currently or are about to be available in two different interpretations on CD.

 

GARY KULESHA WAS A FINALIST IN THE ONTARIO PREMIER'S AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN THE ARTS, 2009.

Mr. Kulesha was the recipient of an Esther Gelber Fund commission, for a new work for soprano and piano trio.  This work, "Wave", with a text drawn from "The Waves" by Virginia Woolf, was premiered by Valdine Anderson and the Gryphon Trio on November 5 of 2009.  It will be repeated in August of 2010 at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival.

Another performance of the Third Symphony took place in the 2009-10 season.  The Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra performed this work on February 11 of 2010, conducted by Scott Speck.

Danish Recorder Virtuoso Michala Petri returned to Canada to perform Gary Kulesha's Concerto for Recorder and Small Orchestra on May 4, 2010, with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Winnipeg.  This work was written for Ms. Petri in 1991, and was recorded by her with the English Chamber Orchestra on the RCA Red Seal label.

Gary Kulesha was commissioned to compose the required work for the Concours International de Montréal of 2009.  "Darkness Comes" features a polyglot text by the composer, and was premiered (with 26 performances!) between May 19 and 21, 2009, in Montréal.

Mr. Kulesha was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for a new opening work for their Northern Residency in September of 2009.  "Torque" was premiered by Music Director Peter Oundjian.

Pianist Yoko Hirota has just released a CD which includes Gary Kulesha's Two Pieces for Piano from 1996.

The Third Symphony has been a stunning success.  After performances by the National Arts Centre Orchestra in May of 2007, the National Academy Orchestra in July of 2007, and the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra in November of 2007, the work was performed by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra in February of 2009, conducted by the composer, by Symphony Nova Scotia in April, conducted by Jamie Somerville, and by the Calgary Philharmonic in May, conducted by Music Director Roberto Minczuk.

Concerto for Cello and Orchestra was presented at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's New Creations Festival in March of 2009.  Shauna Rolston was once again be the soloist, and the orchestra was conducted by the composer.

"The Greatness of the New-Found Night" for wind ensemble was premiered  by the Toronto Wind Orchestra conducted by Tony Gomes on Nov. 1, 2008.

"Sonatine pour Orgue", commissioned by the Royal Canadian College of Organists' Ottawa Centre, was premiered by Thomas Annand on Nov. 28, 2008, in Ottawa.

Fireworks and Procession was presented by the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra on October 13, in Ann Arbor Michigan, conducted by Kenneth Keisler.

On September 28, 2008, Fugue and Postlude was premiered by pianist Andrew Burashko, at the Glenn Gould Studio.  This work was comissioned by the CBC and was released on a CentreDisc CD.

On April 13, 2008, Concerto for Trumpet, Horn, and Trombone, with Brass Band was premiered at the Jane Mallett Theatre, featuring Andrew McCandless, trumpet, Neil Deland, horn, and Gordon Wolfe, trombone, (principal players of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) with the Hannaford Street Silver Band, conducted by Curtis Metcalfe.

RESIDENCIES

In June of 2009, Gary Kulesha once again returned as Lead Composer for the Young Composers' Programme at the National Arts Centre.

www.nac-cna.ca

Gary Kulesha  was featured on the cover of the Spring 2007 edition of Words and Music Magazine. Click here and follow the links to previous editions to read the online edition of the magazine.

Click here to read an article by Gary Kulesha written for the online journal Ecclectica concerning the future of music education.

Recent comments from the press

Concerto for Cello and Orchestra was premiered on Nov. 18 and 20, 2006, with Shauna Rolston and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bramwell Tovey.  This new work was commissioned for Ms. Rolston by the CBC, and will be broadcast on Radio 2.

Review from the National Edition of the Globe and Mail:

We are an information -obsessed society, so much so that museum-visitors can spend as much time reading about the work or the artist as they do gazing at the art, progressing through the galleries with audio guides strapped ot their ears while computer kiosks broadcast additional information at the press of a button.  It is hardly an ambience that inspires silent, rapt wonder.....

....Especially welcome was Kulesha's comment associating the genesis of his piece with Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness", referring to his concerto...as "an extended journey into a dark place."  Readers of Kulesha's program notes would have come across standard musical vocabulary as rondo, scherzo, first and second themes, chorale and sarabande-- nothing to suggest what was to come.  Darkness, in music, often suggest sadness.  But here the salient quality was malevolent, and it truly set the piece apart.

Kulesha focused on the low and middle registers of the cello, its "speaking voice" as it were, opening with a brutal recitative (an exchange with "tribal" drums), but evolving into a number of keening but constricted melodies....

Textures were dense and sticky, shot with deft timbral grimaces, including double-stopped cello harmonies that are caught up and amplified in the hollow cusp of drum resonance; the sardonic, unison accompaniment of a single percussionist's clapping that snatches Kulesha's second "scherzo" movement, with its jigging rhythm and swirling winds, back from the brink of the jocular non-sequitur; the iron and grit of bassoon, the snarl of trumpet, the shrill cry of winds.

The most affecting movement was the third, a sarabande with a stumbling ostinato that was somewhat reminiscent of the chaconnes in piano concertos by both Benjamin Britten and Alan Rawsthorne, though certainly more intense.  [Shauna] Rolston, who plays a carbon-fibre cello of powerful tone, was in her element here, sustaining a blistering level of passion through fairly minimal melodic activity.  Her sound seemed exactly right for the piece, gruff when it needed to be, searing when the lines permitted it, never just pretty and always of commanding presence....

Elissa Poole

 

Third Symphony was premiered by the National Arts Centre Orchestra on May 16-17, 2007, conducted by Roberto Minczuk.  This work was commissioned by the NACO as part of their Composer Awards programme.  It has been widely broadcast on CBC Radio 2, and is available at their Concert On Demand website.

Review: Kulesha symphony 'ingenious and attractive'

Richard Todd, Ottawa Citizen

Published: Thursday, May 17, 2007

Symphonies have never been a big item in Canadian composition. Healey Willan wrote a pair of them three generations ago, tepid imitations of Elgar. Jacques Hetu has written four and a few other names come to mind.  Gary Kulesha, for example. His Third Symphony received its world premiere at the hands of the National Arts Centre Orchestra Wednesday evening.  Commissioned by the NACO, it was given under the baton of guest conductor Roberto Minzcuk rather than the orchestra's music director, Pinchas Zukerman.

Though there were some empty seats in the NAC's Southam Hall - at least a few dozen patrons exchanged their tickets so they could watch the Ottawa Senators playoff game being played across town at Scotiabank Place - they didn't add up to the "sea of red" that greets so many Canadian works there. In fact, the NACO audience responded with uncommon warmth. But then this is uncommon music. 

The first and last of its three movements are ingenious and attractive, combining a lightness of touch with a seriousness of purpose. They  are complex, but not in ways that tax the average listener unduly. The middle movement was pure loveliness and was played beautifully, especially by the first chair winds. 

For all its merits, the Kulesha had to contend with a potentially unfortunate bit of programming. It came immediately after Haydn's Symphony no. 88 in G, one of the finest works in  the symphonic repertoire. It might be a stretch to say that the new piece is the equal of the old but, believe it or not, Kulesha got considerably more applause than Haydn. (Of course Haydn didn't make a personal appearance.)

...

© The Ottawa Citizen 2007

 

 

BIOGRAPHY

GARY KULESHA is one of Canada's most active and most visible musicians.  Although principally a composer, he is active as both a pianist and a conductor, and as a teacher.

Mr. Kulesha's music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by musicians and ensembles all over the world.  His "Angels" for Marimba and Tape has become a standard repertoire item for percussionists, and receives over a hundred performances per year.  His works for Danish recorder virtuoso Michala Petri are toured by her throughout the world each year, and have been recorded on RCA Red Seal.  Over 15,000 copies have been sold in Europe alone.  Works such as "Mysterium Coniunctionis" for Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and Piano, and the Sonata for Horn, Tuba, and Piano, are performed regularly in England and Europe, and are often taught as part of performance curricula in these places.  "Celebration Overture" is one of the most performed orchestral pieces written in Canada.  "Four Fantastic Landscapes" has entered the repertoire of several noted pianists from Canada and Europe.  Mr. Kulesha's first opera, "Red Emma", was included in Opera America's book of "Operas which should be performed more often", beside works by Copland, Bernstein, and Weill.

In 1988, he was appointed Composer In Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 1992.  In 1993, he was appointed Composer In Residence with the Canadian Opera Company, a position he held until the end of 1995.  "Red Emma" was premiered on Nov. 28, 1995.  On Sept. 1 of 1995, he was appointed Composer-Advisor to The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, where his duties include composing, conducting, and advising on repertoire.  In February of 1998, the TSO premiered his "Symphony" for two conductors and orchestra, with Jukka Pekka Saraste and Gary Kulesha conducting.  In winter of 1999, the TSO took his work "The Gates of Time" on their American tour.   In February of 2000, the TSO premiered "The True Colour of the Sky" in Toronto, prior to taking it on their European tour.  As well, the TSO presented the Symphony again, in November of 2000, as part of the Massey Hall New Music Festival.  The Symphony was awarded a prize at the Winnipeg Symphony New Music Festival in 2001 as Best Canadian Orchestra Composition of the 1990s.  The Symphony opened the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's 2001-2002 season, on a programme with Beethoven's 9th Symphony. In November of 2000, Music Canada 2000 premiered his second opera, written in collaboration with librettist Michael Albano.  In March of 2005, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra premiered Second Symphony, conducted by Oliver Knussen.  In November of 2006, Shauna Rolston premiered Concerto for Cello and Orchestra with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bramwell Tovey.  In May of 2007, the National Arts Centre Orchestra premiered Third Symphony, conducted by Roberto Minczuk.

On March 19, 2002, Mr. Kulesha was one of three composers awarded the first National Arts Centre Orchestra Composer Award.  This began an extended relationship with the NACO and its Artistic Director, Pinchas Zuckerman.  Mr. Kulesha has toured twice with Mr. Zukerman and the orchestra, and has written several works for them.

In 1990, Mr. Kulesha was nominated for a Juno award for his "Third Chamber Concerto."  He was nominated again in 2000 for "The Book of Mirrors."  In 1986, he was named Composer of the Year by PROCanada, the youngest composer ever so honoured.   Also in 1986, he represented Canada at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.  In the summer of 1990, he was the first composer ever appointed to the position of Composer In Residence with the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound, Ontario.  He continued to direct this programme from 1996 until 2004.  In July of 1998, Mr. Kulesha was, with Krzystztof Penderecki, one of the two Composers in Residence at the Banff Centre's summer session.  He returned to the Banff Centre in 2002 as a Fleck Fellow, to direct the chamber orchestra programme.  He returned again in 2004 and in February of 2005.  Mr. Kulesha has directed the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Young Composers Programme twice, and is scheduled to return in the summer of 2007.

An active supporter of young composers and performers, Mr. Kulesha was the Artistic Director of The Composers' Orchestra from 1987, stepping down in 2004 in favour of three young composers.  His conducting activities are extensive, and he has premiered literally hundreds of works.  He has guest conducted frequently with several major orchestras throughout Canada, and has recorded for radio and CD.  Although he is well-known as a specialist in 20th Century music, his repertoire is extensive, ranging from little-known Baroque music through to the music of our time.

Mr. Kulesha was one of the chief architects of the Massey Hall New Music Festival, which ran for 7 years from 1995-2002.  He is currently assisting Toronto Symphony Music Director Peter Oundjian with the design and programming of the Toronto Symphony's New Creations Festival, the most successful new music festival in the history of Canadian music.

Mr. Kulesha is on the fulltime faculty of the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.

Gary Kulesha lives in Toronto with his wife, composer Larysa Kuzmenko.

 

Please follow these links to important organizations:

Canadian Music Centre

Canadian League of Composers

University of Toronto

Toronto Symphony Orchestra

National Arts Centre Orchestra

please visit my colleagues and collaborators:

Larysa Kuzmenko

Shauna Rolston

Jeffrey Ryan

Patrick Carrabre

Ka Nin Chan

Christos Hatzis

Rodney Sharman

Kelly Marie Murphy

Heather Schmidt

The Gryphon Trio

Ain't No Lie

SELECTED REVIEWS

review of "Mysterium Coniunctionis" (Crossroads, James Campbell, CENTREDISCS CMC-CD 4392) in Fanfare, March/April, 1993

"By far the best [work on the disc] is Gary Kulesha's Mysterium Coniunctionis, a five-movement, eighteen-minute suite for clarinet, bass, clarinet, and piano. It's one of the finest contemporary clarinet works I've come across...The disc is almost worth buying for this one work." (Alex Ross)

review of "Romance" for Brass Band (Canadian Impressions, Hannaford Street Silver Band, Stephen Chenette, conductor, CBC SMCD 5136) in Fanfare, January/February 1995

"The performance is exquisite, with a bell-like climax at 3:20 that sounds as if the work has actually arrived somewhere. I usually have to pause to hear this nearly six-minute-long work a few times before continuing with the rest of the disc." (Randy A. Salas)

review of Concerto for Recorder and Small Orchestra (Toronto Symphony Orchestra concert, Handel, Telemann, Kulesha, and Walton; Michala Petri, soloist, Hugh Wolff, conductor) in The Globe and Mail, Jan. 29, 1994

"...Lucky Toronto Symphony, to have a composer as smart, articulate, and capable as Kulesha to provide it with music. Kulesha's "Concerto" was the best reason to attend Thursday's concert...It was simply the most interesting music on the programme." (Robert Everett Green)

review of Symphony (Toronto Symphony Orchestra concert, Feb. 11, 12, 14, 1998, Jukka Pekka Saraste and Gary Kulesha, conductors) in The Globe andMail, Feb. 13, 1998

"...[a] fantastical gateway...seemed to open out of the texture of the work's final movement, ... through which musical tensions were magically resolved..." (Christopher Reibling)

review of "Sinfonia for Brass Band, Piano, and Harp" (Hannaford Street Silver Band, Bramwell Tovey, condutor) on CBC CD 5188, in American Record Guide, May/June, 1999

"The effect is to form an array of shifting harmonies and effects in an approachable, stunning work..."

review of "The True Colour of the Sky" in the Berlin Morgenpost

"...a well-sounding, hefty, undogmatic thing, easily listenable, full of fantasy and played in the most spirited manner.  The applause was respectful and big." (Klaus Geitel)

review of Symphony (Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Bramwell Tovey and Michael Hall, conductors):

"Kulesha's piece was a symphony in the grand tradition...The first two movements were played simulaneously by two squads with different conductors-- a risky and remarkably successful move...Certainly the piece should be heard more often, and recorded at once."  (Robert Everett-Green)

mention of "Mysterium Coniunctionis" in "The Cambridge Guide to the Clarinet":

"Of special note is [James Campbell's] recording of Gary Kulesha's 'Mysterium Coniunctionis' for clarinet, bass clarinet, and piano, a rewarding work of almost nineteen minutes duration."

review of National Arts Centre Orchestra performance on their Eastern Tour:

"Gary Kulesha's 'Syllables of Unknown Meaning'...illustrated with transparent delicacy how music from even as long ago as 1,000 years, can generate a complexly imagined and brilliantly excecuted palette of sound and texture that is unmistakeably modern."

review from "Wholenote Magazine" of the new Gryphon Trio CD "Canadian Premieres":

"Gary Kulesha’s Trio No. 2 is, by contrast, conventional in its approach to questions of form and musical discourse. Brimming with cogent musical argument, dramatic silences and poignant meditative moments, it remains for me the most compelling of these compositions." (Daniel Foley)

HIGHLIGHTS from 2005-2010

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

 

In January of 2005, Gary conducted a Young People's Concert with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

At the end of January, Gary returned to Banff for one week as Distinguished Visiting Composer.  Two works were performed:  Fantastic Landscapes, for solo piano, and Suite for Percussion Quartet.

From March 30 to April 7, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra presented their first New Creations Festival in Toronto, a new music festival which Gary helped programme and design.

On March 30 and 31, Oliver Knussen conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Gary's Second Symphony, commissioned by the orchestra.  The concert included music by Henze and Knussen, and featured soloist Pinchas Zukerman.  This concert was broadcast on CBC Radio 2 in two separate programmes.

On April 11, Gary conducted the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in a reading session of new orchestral works by 4 composers:  Abby Richardson, Roger Bergs, Scott Good, and Daniel Palmo.  This session was open to the public.

On April 15, Gary conducted "Chants Convergents" by Montreal composer Gilles Tremblay in a CBC concert and broadcast.

On April 26, Gary conducted the Continuum ensemble in a programme featuring Canadian and international new music, and a premiere.

On May 1, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra performed "The Gates of Time", conducted by Rolf Bertsch.

In April and May, Gary's Trio for Violin, Viola, and Cello, a work he wrote when he was 16 years old, was performed no fewer than 8 times all across Canada, by 8 different ensembles.  Included among these presentations is a concert as part of the Music in Architecture festival in Montreal.

In June, Gary joined the Gryphon Trio for a presentation on the Brahms' Trio in C Major as part of Music Toronto's concert series at the Jane Mallet Theatre.  This series has featured Gary as presenter, performer, and illuminator for a series of the great piano trios.

In June, Gary was Visiting Composer at the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Young Composer Workshop in Ottawa.

On Aug. 1, at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, two of Gary's works were featured in an evening concert:  Trio for Violin, Viola, anc Cello (1971) and Mysterium Coniunctionis for Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, and Piano.

From September 12-16, 2005, "Fireworks and Procession" was toured by the Toronto Symphony, conducted by Alain Trudel, in Northern Ontario.

The Sault Symphony performed "Serenade for Strings" in Sault Ste. Marie on September 24, 2005.

"Celebration Overture" was performed on October 1, 2005, by the Sudbury Symphony Orchestra.

"Celebration Overture" was performed shortly after that, on October 27, 2005, by the Orchestra symphonique de Longueuil.

Concerto for Recorder and Orchestra, recorded on RCA Redseal by Michala Petri and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Okko Kamu, was broadcast in Hong Kong and the U.S. during the 2005 season.

In February of 2006, Gary conducted a week of performances with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for school concerts.

In April of 2006, the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound featured the Gryphon Trio's presentation of the Brahms Trio in C Major, with Gary as illuminator.

"Without Fanfare" was premiered by Soundstreams Canada in June of 2006 as part of their Brass Festival in Toronto.

From June 19-30, Gary directed the Young Composers' Programme at the National Arts Centre Orchestra's Summer Institute.  The guest composer was Augusta Read Thomas.

"Variations on a Theme by Benjamin Britten" was performed by members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra on June 28, 2006.

In August of 2006, the National Academy Orchestra and Boris Brott performed "The Boughs of Music" in Hamilton, Ontario.

From September 11-15, "Fireworks and Procession" was toured by the Toronto Symphony, conducted by Alain Trudel, in Northern Ontario.

Oct. 13, the St. John's Symphony Orchestra performed "Celebration Overture", conducted by Marc David.

Oct. 24, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra performed "Celebration Overture", conducted by Geoffrey Moull.

Oct. 26, 2006, Toca Loca performed "The Book of Mirrors" at the Music Gallery in Toronto.

Nov. 18 and 20, Shauna Rolston premiered Concerto for Cello and Orchestra with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bramwell Tovey.

On Wednesday, February 14, 2007, Gary Kulesha stepped in at the last minute for an indisposed Maestro Valery Gergiev to conduct the Stravinsky Concerto for Piano and Winds, and the same composer's Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra, with soloist Alexander Toradze and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Feb. 28, 2007, Oliver Knussen conducted "Fireworks and Procession" with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall, as part of the TSO's New Creations Festival.  This performance was broadcast by CBC Radio.

March 6, 2007, the Gryphon Trio and guest hornist Joan Watson premiered Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano, at a Music Toronto concert at the Jane Mallett Theatre.

March 18, 2007, Gary Kulesha conducted the University of Toronto Contemporary Music Ensemble in the premiere of a new version of his own work, Invocation and Ceremony, for solo Alto saxophone and string trio.

March 25, 2007, Ariana Chris and the Canadian Chamber Ensemble conducted by Justin Bischof premiered the newly scored version of "Love Songs" at the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in New York City.

e-mail Gary Kulesha at mail@garykulesha.com

contents of this page are copyright 2010 by Gary Kulesha

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