Music

Recordings

Serious

Also Spracht Zarathustra
From a performance we played broadcast on CBC radio. Crappy audio is from a tape deck belonging to a family member of a musician. Apparently CBC doesn’t keep old tapes. Too bad.

Fun

Got My Mojo Working (Muddy Waters)
Butterfly (Weezer)
Funny Music Man
Untitled
Kletva (Sturzite)

Classical Music

Vancouver Academy of Music National Youth Orchestra of Canada, 1994

I started studying violin and viola at the Vancouver Academy of Music at the age of 7 and continued to the end of high-school. I then spent one summer touring and performing with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, under Kazuyoshi Akiyama. In my undergraduate years I served as principal viola in both the Queen’s Symphony Orchestra and the Queen’s String Orchestra. During this same period I played professionally with the Kingston Symphony. We recorded a CD of Disney music which was #1 on the Billboard charts (off-priced classical category. meh). After finishing my undergraduate degree I effectively retired from the world of serious classical music.

Teachers that I am proud to have studied under include Mark Koenig, Gerald Stanick, of the Fine Arts Quartet, and Kenneth Perkins, of the Orford String Quartet.

The Saw Rex Project

On a more recreational note, I’ve spent a while messing around with popular music of a rock bent. Many years ago some friends and I formed “The Spanish Inquisition,” now on hiatus. My solo efforts, some of them closely tied to SI stuff, are labeled as “The Saw Rex Project.”

My Musical Timeline

  • Vancouver Academy of Music, 1983 – 1994
  • National Youth Orchestra of Canada, 1994
  • Queen’s Symphony Orchestra, 1994-1995
  • Queen’s String Orchestra, 1994-1997
  • Kingston Symphony, 1994-1998

Orchestral Repertoire (that which I remember)

  • Bach St. Matthew Passion, Concerto for 2 Violins
  • Bartok The Miraculous Mandarin
  • Beethoven Symphony #1, #2, #3, #5
  • Dainty Suite for Strings
  • Franck Symphony in D minor
  • Mahler Symphony #1, #5
  • Mendelssohn Symphony #4
  • Mercure Kaleidoscope
  • Mozart Symphony #39
  • Prokofiev Symphony #5
  • Respighi Pines of Rome, Fountains of Rome
  • Saint-Saens Cello Converto #1
  • Schoenberg Verklarte Nacht
  • Sibelius Symphony #1, Finlandia
  • Strauss Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel, Also Sprach Zarathustra
  • Stravinsky The Firebird, Rite of Spring
  • Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto #3, Symphonies #4, #5, #6
  • Vivaldi The Four Seasons, Concerto for Bassoon