Vivian Fung Nominated for Juno Award

The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) announced this morning that Edmonton-born composer Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto is nominated for the 2013 Juno Award in the category of “Classical Composition of the Year.”

The concerto was released on the new studio album Dreamscapes featuring soloist Kristin Lee and “played with precision and heart by the Metropolis Ensemble” (NPR). The recording is receiving critical acclaim for its “welcome lyricism and grace” (SF Chronicle) and “intimate, often pensive, but frequently playful sound world” (Philadelphia Inquirer).

“Complete shock and elation!” exclaimed Ms. Fung on hearing the news of the Juno nod. “What an honor to be nominated next to such esteemed and admired Canadian composers. However, the award is symbolic for the entire team of people who worked so hard to make this CD happen.”

Kristin Lee echoed this enthusiasm: “I am absolutely thrilled to hear this incredible news! I feel truly honored to have been a part of this experience.”

Dreamscapes is the first release on the brand new Naxos Canadian Classics label that will feature 6-8 composers from across Canada annually. “It is a terrific roster of composers with whom to be nominated,” said Raymond Bisha of Naxos. “Clearly this nomination is the result of everyone’s hard work and inspiration and congratulations all around are deserved.”

All three of the works on the new recording have drawn their inspiration from Ms. Fung’s travels to Bali. Both the Violin Concerto and Piano Concerto were commissioned by Metropolis Ensemble and recorded at Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood in 2011.

“I couldn’t be happier — we’ve covering all bases now between the Grammys and Juno Awards!” remarked Andrew Cyr, artistic director and conductor of Metropolis Ensemble. “This is a truly special nomination which honors Vivian’s vision and the internationally recognized award brings to the spotlight the artistry of our players, soloist Kristin Lee, and our engineering team led by Tim Martyn, who all worked so hard to match Vivian’s inspiration. I also wish to thank Paul and Elizabeth De Rosa for providing the critical support to for Metropolis Ensemble to commission and record this work.”

The 2013 Juno Awards will be presented on April 21 on CTV with host Michael Buble. Dreamscapes is now available on iTunes and Amazon. Show your support for Vivian Fung and Metropolis Ensemble’s album and request Violin Concerto to be played on your local radio station today!

Praise for Dreamscapes

“Played with precision and heart by the Metropolis Ensemble” -National Public RadioDreamscapes, the new Naxos album from Metropolis Ensemble featuring the works of Vivian Fung, is receiving high praise in the media. Here is a roundup of the reviews and commentary on the recording. NPR’s Bob McQuiston lauds the new album on the Deceptive Cadence blog:

“The new album Dreamscapes… features works by one of today’s most eclectic composers, Canadian-born Vivian Fung. John Cage fans will love her solo pieces for prepared piano, while traditionalists should find intriguing the concertos for violin and piano… Violinist Kristin Lee’s performance is not only technically brilliant but her sensitive phrasing and pacing endow the music with both an emotional and intellectual appeal… Pianist Conor Hanick’s performance is laudable for its agility… Both soloists receive magnificent support from conductor Andrew Cyr and the Brooklyn-based Metropolis Ensemble, whose members not only turn in virtuosic performances, but follow their extracurricular instructions to the letter. Also, the recording engineers get a big gold star for a spectacular sounding disc.”

Both local classical stations in New York City have included the new album in recent broadcasts. John Schaefer featured the recordings with its “clear inspiration or influence from Indonesian gamelan music” on

WNYC’s New Sounds

.

And Olivia Giovetti introduced the album on

WQXR’s The New Canon

with the following review:

Two concertos dominate Dreamscapes, Vivian Fung’s new album on Naxos’s Canadian Classics series, and both demonstrate Fung’s prepossessing predilection for cross-cultural conversations. Her own Violin Concerto was written with a symbiosis similar to that of Salonen and Josefowicz’s, responding to Fung’s time spent in Bali with violinist Kristin Lee (the violin often resembles the Balinese gamelan). The Metropolis Ensemble, under Andrew Cyr, gave Fung’s Violin Concerto its world premiere last year and returns here for the recording, which also features Fung’s Piano Concerto, “Dreamscapes.” The study of contrasts is apt for an instrument that can juggle two musical lines at once, and here that honor falls to Q2 Music’s own Conor Hanick.“

Joshua Kosman from the

San Francisco Chronicle

hails the album and its "welcome lyricism and grace.”

“The scales and rhythms of Balinese and Javanese gamelan suffuse the three pieces represented here… Yet the further Fung strays from that stylistic foundation, the more fascinating and rewarding her music becomes… The year-old Violin Concerto that leads off the disc boasts a certain winsome charm, especially in the fluid performance of soloist Kristin Lee… the final Piano Concerto, in a powerhouse rendition featuring soloist Conor Hanick. Here at last is music of dramatic urgency and depth, in which Fung draws on ideas from gamelan while also adding plenty of her own original material – clangorous, dissonant harmonies, off-kilter rhythms and a sense of wild unpredictability.”

David Patrick Stearns from the

Philadelphia Inquirer

suggests that with the

Violin Concerto

, "Fung is in her own more intimate, often pensive, but frequently playful sound world, which indeed lives up to the album’s title… At every point in the disc, Fung has a strong sense of thematic control and structural overview that suggests more great things to come.” David Olds from

The Whole Note

praises the release saying “the disc lives up to my expectations.”

“All three of the works presented here are based on gamelan motifs and melodies giving the disc a wonderful continuity… Like a number of composers before her Fung has taken inspiration from her own travels to Indonesia and truly made this music her own.”

Dreamscapes Review: "A Powerhouse Rendition"

Joshua Kosman from the San Francisco Chronicle hails the new Metropolis Ensemble album, Dreamscapes, and its “welcome lyricism and grace.” Here’s an excerpt from his review:

“The year-old Violin Concerto that leads off the disc boasts a certain winsome charm, especially in the fluid performance of soloist Kristin Lee….the final Piano Concerto, in a powerhouse rendition featuring soloist Conor Hanick. Here at last is music of dramatic urgency and depth, in which Fung draws on ideas from gamelan while also adding plenty of her own original material – clangorous, dissonant harmonies, off-kilter rhythms and a sense of wild unpredictability.”

Read the complete review…

Dreamscapes on WNYC and WQXR

Dreamscapes, the new album from Metropolis Ensemble featuring the works of Vivian Fung, is already turning heads and getting airplay ahead of the formal Naxos release on September 25 (and the Metropolis CD launch event on October 1). Both local classical stations in New York City have included the new album in broadcasts this week. John Schaefer featured the recordings with its “clear inspiration or influence from Indonesian gamelan music” on WNYC’s New Sounds. And Olivia Giovetti introduced the album on WQXR’s The New Canon with the following review:

Two concertos dominate Dreamscapes, Vivian Fung’s new album on Naxos’s Canadian Classics series, and both demonstrate Fung’s prepossessing predilection for cross-cultural conversations. Her own Violin Concerto was written with a symbiosis similar to that of Salonen and Josefowicz’s, responding to Fung’s time spent in Bali with violinist Kristin Lee (the violin often resembles the Balinese gamelan). The Metropolis Ensemble, under Andrew Cyr, gave Fung’s Violin Concerto its world premiere last year and returns here for the recording, which also features Fung’s Piano Concerto, “Dreamscapes.” The study of contrasts is apt for an instrument that can juggle two musical lines at once, and here that honor falls to Q2 Music’s own Conor Hanick.

Send a request to your local classical radio station to get

Dreamscapes

played near you!