Some January events - UPDATED

Howdy, new music enthusiasts!

Well, the back half of December was unsettlingly traditional (attention fellow composers: we need to write some avant-garde xmas music!), but January has a few instances of new sounds for you.

Mike Essoudry kicks things off on the 10th with his jazz octet at the NAC's Fourth Stage. Yeah, it's not the sort of thing we usually plug on here, but with the amazing Petr Cancura on saxophone, we can be assured of things going in very exciting new directions. Also, the trumpet player is an old friend of mine, so, you know. It's $21 ($15 for students) and starts at 7pm.

Pianists Catherine Donkin & Amelie Langlois are putting on a recital of piano duets as part of the recital series at St. Luke's church. In addition to works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, they'll be performing the music of Derek Healy, who was, for a brief period during the 1970s, a Canadian composer. January 11th, St. Luke's Anglican Chuch (760 Somerset West), 7:30pm, admission by donation.

On January 16th, Ottawa's Thirteen Strings bring cellist Amanda Forsyth on board to play music by Joly Braga Santos and Dvarionas, among other Spanish composers. Tickets are $35 ($30 seniors, $10 students); the show starts at 8pm, at St. Andrew's Church (82 Kent st.).

Whose Solo is it Anyway? I'm not entirely sure what to expect from this show... but that fact alone convinced me to include it here. "Audience-directed musical improvisation... free jazz meets chamber music meets improv theatre". It could be a lot of fun. Nine musicians from the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra will be performing. 8pm on January 17th at the NAC Fourth Stage, $20.

Also on the 17th, Gatineau's Ensemble Prisme will put on a show called "Les Grands Quintettes", featuring quintet music by Hindemith, Hetu, Nielsen, and Beethoven (now that's the kind of balance I like to see). It's at 8pm, Salle Jean-Desprez (25 rue Laurier, Gatineau), and tickets are $22, $20 (seniors), and $10 (students). I'm really looking forward to this one - not only is there lots of music that's less than 100 years old, but I like the idea of a whole concert devoted to the genre of quintets. The Hindemith and Hetu are standard woodwind quintets, but the others are less usual combinations of instruments.

The Ottawa Chamber Music Society presents the Borodin Quartet, who'll be playing Beethoven, Borodin, and Shebalin on January 18th. It's at 3pm at Dominion-Chalmers United Church (355 Cooper St.). See the OCMS website for ticket info.

Capital Brassworks will be celebrating their tenth anniversary with a concert conducted by Alain Cazes. No official word on the repertoire, but between you and me, they'll be premiering something of mine; it definitely qualifies as 'new music' when the ink isn't quite dry! January 30th, 7:30pm, Centretown United Church (507 Bank street).

That's all for now - I'll do some more hunting and see what I can come up with. Aura Giles, if you're reading this, when does your concert series start?

-Ryan