amuna baraka-clarke is striving to leave the world more beautiful than she inherited it. She is a published poet and award winner who has been featured in various anthologies, textbooks, documentaries and magazines. She is a strong supporter of cultural arts production and inclusive communities where different perspectives can take flight. amuna dances every single day and is never not thinking about travel.
World Premiere Recordings (Tracks 2-15)
Track 1 was previously released on Night Star, Chamber Music by Ronald Royer – Akashic Classics, AE23001.
Odin Quartet – Alex Toskov and Tanya Charles Iveniuk, Violins, Veronica Lee (1) and Laurence Schaufele (14), Violas, and Samuel Bisson, Cello.
Tracks
The Canadian Expedition album invites listeners to buckle up for a variety of musical journeys. Written by 10 Canadian composers, these excursions are inspired by musical and cultural elements from Canada, the United States, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. These expeditions range from the exciting cinematic orchestral showpiece, Epitaph, to the intimacy and humour of the solo violin Variations on Green Bushes. The composers use a variety of styles, instruments and themes, engaging listeners in thoughtful, and fun adventures.
This album also is a sequel to the SPO’s first commercial album, Canadian Panorama (2017). Both albums showcase a group of Canadian composers and professional performers who are part of SPO’s extended family. The SPO is thankful for all their efforts on this album, and we are pleased to present their talents to a national and international audience through this recording.
SPO is pleased to announce the election of a new Board Chair, Paul Tichauer. Paul brings a wealth of knowledge and skills that will be invaluable as SPO continues to thrive and respond to the challenges of the times. Paul A. Tichauer MA (Oxon), PhD (MIT), MBA, is a Rhodes Scholar and a highly experienced, successful CEO and COO with early roots in materials technology and marketing. He has held senior leadership positions with a broad array of companies – large, small, public, private – in Canada, the United States and Europe. Most recently, he was President of the Langen Packaging Group, a global manufacturer of highly automated packaging machinery systems based in Toronto and the Netherlands.
Since 2012, he has guided numerous CEOs and other senior business leaders to greater success through work as a professional mentor and business coach. The annual revenues of his clients’ businesses range from $3 million to over $1.2 billion and span a broad array of sectors and industries.
Formerly serving as Treasurer on the SPO Board, Paul has stepped up to the challenge of piloting the Board of Directors as they begin their first Strategic Planning Process, renew community connections, and work for sustainable growth responsive to the community who support, enjoy, and collaborate with, our work.
Paul is also a valued member of our cello section!
Nicholas Ma (b. 2001) is a student pianist-composer completing a double major in Piano Performance and Composition in addition to a minor in Music Theory at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.
At McGill, Nicholas obtained two consecutive Composer-in-Residence positions for the McGill Schulich Singers (2023/24) and Brass Quintet (2022/23), in addition to a McGill commission as a result of obtaining the Luba Zuk Piano Duo Composition Prize. He also received the Luba Zuk Scholarship in Piano Performance, the Frank Mills Scholarship, and the Paul-Marcel Gélinas et Verna-Marie Parr Gélinas Piano Award, enabling him to further his studies under the tutelage of Canadian composers Melissa Hui, Jean Lesage and Chris Paul Harman, as well as Georgian concert pianist Marina Mdivani.
Nicholas’ recent activities include a commission by the Coalition for Music Education in Canada to compose a celebratory song for 2022/23 based on Mimi O’Bonsawin’s lyrics as part of the Music Monday program, a yearly event where a song of celebration is sung by hundreds of thousands of children and youth in schools and communities across Canada. This work later received a SOCAN Young Composer Award in the Under 21 Choral Category.
Nicholas also served as the Vice-President of the McGill Association of Student Composers for the 2022-2023 year, in addition to being the Schulich Liaison for the Montréal Heart of the City Piano Program. He is currently experimenting with creating works that explore the boundaries between intertextuality, layered meaning, and humor.
Qiushi Jiang is a Toronto-based composer whose music strives to bring a bit of magic to the mundane everyday life. He has composed music for a diverse array of settings, including film, opera, choir, orchestra, and video games. Some of his recent works have been performed by Cantabile Choirs of Kingston, UofT Opera, and Babεl Chorus. Qiushi holds a BMus in composition from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Abigail Richardson-Schulte, Alexander Rapoport, and Christos Hatzis. During his time of study, he was the recipient of the Arthur Plettner Scholarship and the Robert & Jean Elliott Mcbroom Scholarship. Qiushi is also the co-founder of AutumnRock.dev, a music technology startup where he works on building creative audio plugins and tools used by millions of music makers around the world.
Qiushi Jiang is a Toronto-based composer whose music strives to bring a bit of magic to the mundane everyday life. He has composed music for a diverse array of settings, including film, opera, choir, orchestra, and video games. Some of his recent works have been performed by Cantabile Choirs of Kingston, UofT Opera, and Babεl Chorus. Qiushi holds a BMus in composition from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Abigail Richardson-Schulte, Alexander Rapoport, and Christos Hatzis. During his time of study, he was the recipient of the Arthur Plettner Scholarship and the Robert & Jean Elliott Mcbroom Scholarship. Qiushi is also the co-founder of AutumnRock.dev, a music technology startup where he works on building creative audio plugins and tools used by millions of music makers around the world.
I was twelve when my parents told me I couldn’t be a Jedi when I grew up. So, I decided, I wanted to be a film composer.
Since then, I had the honor of scoring short 4 films in 2023: Cash Cow, by Shubham Chhabra, screened at VAFF (Vancouver Asian Film Festival); The Gift Of Life by Aviel Kurulkar, screened at the GRFF (Grand River Film Festival); and films with the Vancouver Film School and Nova Scotia College of Arts and Design.
Outside of film, my pieces premiered in the Nocturne Halifax Arts Festival (2023) and the Open Waters Festival (2024). Additionally, I wrote for the Alkali Collective (2023) and The Rostova Quartet (2024).
Currently, I study Composition with Amy Brandon at Dalhousie University, where I have participated in workshops with The Bozzini Quartet and Conductor Karl Hizer.