NEW RELEASES: Montreal composer's debut recording (12/21/03)

NEW RELEASES

Montreal composer's debut recording

MONTREAL - Tendershoot Music announced the official release on November 5 of Montreal composer Oleksa Lozowchuk's debut chamber music recording "Bright Sadness." Fusing ancient and contemporary musical idioms of the East, Mr. Lozowchuk's suite of spring songs, laments and dances features Blair Lofgren, principal cellist of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra.

Two sections of "Bright Sadness" will be premiered by Mr. Lofgren and the cello section of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra on November 8 at the Musée de Quebec in Quebec City, as part of an ongoing chamber music series "Sons et Couleurs au Musée."

Both Messrs. Lozowchuk and Lofgren are natives of Saskatchewan who moved to Quebec in recent years.

"Bright Sadness" is a new chamber work written for solo cello and accompaniment (contrabass, string quartet, mixed voices and tenor sopilka), loosely based on sacred and folkloric motifs of Carpathian and Eastern Orthodox traditions. Combining raw elements of the past with a unique Western instrument, the cello, the work weaves both traditions together, reflecting and reconciling two distinct emotions within human experience - joy and sadness.

This recording has received support from the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Taras Shevchenko Foundation.

Bright Sadness will be available at www.tendershoot.com and retail stores.

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Mr. Lozowchuk has composed and produced music for film and television, as well as for various musical albums. His music and film work has aired on CBC, RDI, WTN, SCN, Lviv Television and Ukrainian National Television, and has been performed by principal players of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Lozowchuk has received numerous awards both for his music and film projects, including a Canada Council for the Arts Grant for Music Composition (2002), and a DuMaurier Arts Award (2001) for his film "Anna's Wedding."

For more information readers may contact: Oleksa Lozowchuk and Tendershoot Productions, 514-998-8353; e-mail, [email protected]; website, www.tendershoot.com.

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