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ALBUM CONCEPT OVERVIEW I’ve always been intrigued by the human capacity to learn, adapt, and (hopefully) collaborate. Scientific research keeps pointing in the direction of analogy as the only real way in which we connect with this world of creation we find ourselves in. If we don’t immediately understand something, we use a memory to help us relate. Part of us loves this novelty, and if we are to believe the increasing data from studies in neuroscience, this is one important way to stay healthy over the course of our lives. Continually experiencing new things but using what is already inside of us, as a way to make our worlds larger, expanding ad infinitum. Over the course of my own life as a musician, it has been those inquiring artists who relate to one another as open systems who have inspired me the most. This album, I believe, features music that gives the listener a deeply rewarding experience when heard from this point of view. It is all string-based music (my immediate world) but brings in ideas and sounds from many different worlds of experience. I encourage anyone who sits and hears these notes to find their own “alikenesses,” and I hope, in turn, that their worlds become larger because of it. —Mark Fewer Angmalukisaa means “round” in Inuktut. Translated by Inuktut interpreter and translator Mary Nashook, this multi-song cycle has a theme of rings: the rings that tell the age of a tree, the spiral structure of an iglu, concentric sound rings, and ripples of water.  This work comes from a very personal place and speaks to how we relate to one another and our planet. I believe that our treatment of the land, the water and each other will reverberate throughout the universe for eons. We can all do more to care for ourselves, one another and our environment. We need our call to action to resonate, reverberate and rebound, a legacy left in honour of our descendants. —Deantha Edmunds, composer Épisodes by Serge Arcuri was originally written for the Montreal Baroque Orchestra in 1998. It uses the historical baroque “concerto grosso” form, updating it with modern sounds and ideas. Haunting but also visceral, it goes back and forth between timeless/fantasy style sections and rhythmically forceful moments that reflect the anxieties of the modern world. —Mark Fewer I first heard The Simple Life performed alone by the composer himself—Matt Brubeck —at a private home concert. I was immediately taken into its world of beauty, not wanting to leave it. I hope the performance of this new arrangement for strings and violin fully honours the intimacy and warmth of that performance Matt gave years ago. —Mark Fewer “C” is the third letter of the alphabet and the third letter in J. S. Bach’s surname.  It is also the name of the third movement of “B-A-C-H”, a suite for string orchestra composed in 2013 for the Sweetwater Music Festival.  Each of its four movements is a blurred distortion of elements found in Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.  “C” is the most lyrical of the four: a violin cadenza that implies a meandering improvisation, supported by a slowly evolving sequence of strings. —Robert Carli, composer Alikeness is an eight-movement suite originally composed in 2015 for the St. Lawrence String Quartet and Aiyun Huang. At her invitation, as well as that of Mark Fewer, the quartet parts were arranged for a string orchestra for this premiere recording. Drawing inspiration from the powerful simplicity and colour contrast in Henri Matisse’s "Jazz" cutouts, the composition often plays with the contrasting edges between strings and percussion, alternately concealing and revealing one sound world from behind the other. The title "Alikeness" evokes portraiture and a joyful recognition of the familiar. In the same spirit, my projects are frequently intermedia “remixes” of works by recognizable artists and composers like Chopin, Webern, Scarlatti, or Mondrian, as well as poetic reinventions of everyday objects like airports, typewriters, and fruit. I view these creative endeavours as my personal stands of affirmation against entropy. —Jaroslaw Kapuściński, composer   ARTISTS Aiyun Huang  Aiyun Huang enjoys a musical life as a soloist, chamber musician, researcher, teacher, and producer. Globally recognized since winning the 2002 First Prize and Audience Prize of the Geneva International Music Competition, she is a champion of existing repertoire and a prominent voice in the collaborative creation of new works. Aiyun has commissioned and premiered over two hundred works as a soloist, chamber musician, and producer in the past three decades. The Globe and Mail critic Robert Everett-Green describes Aiyun Huang’s playing as “engrossing to hear and to watch” and her choice of repertoire as capable of “renovating our habits of listening.” Her past highlights include performances with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and San Diego Symphony Orchestra.   Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Aiyun holds a DMA degree from UC San Diego. She currently serves as the Head of Percussion and directs the University of Toronto Percussion Ensemble. She is also the Director of the Technology and Performance Integration Research (TaPIR) lab and serves as the Artistic Director for soundSCAPE Festival in Blonay, Switzerland. Deantha Edmunds Deantha Edmunds is Canada’s first Inuk professional classical singer. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in December 2023 for her work, which seeks to empower Indigenous people and share their stories. Her work has international reverberation and possesses community integrity.   Deantha has released three albums. Her original album Connections won two 2022 MusicNL awards in the categories Classical Album of the Year and Indigenous Artist of the Year. It was also nominated for a 2023 East Coast Music Award. Her EP My Beautiful Home (2019) and full-length CD Pillorikput Inuit: Inuktitut Arias for All Seasons (2016) also garnered ECMA nominations.  Notable appearances include the opening ceremony of the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2021, performing for His Holiness, Pope Francis in Iqaluit at the official apology to Inuit residential school survivors in 2022, and singing the Nunatsiavut anthem for King Charles III at the St. John’s welcome ceremony of the 2022 Canadian Royal Tour, which focused on Reconciliation.  Through performing, writing, and composing, Deantha shares her voice and vision with her whole heart, drawing accolades from across Canada and the world. Mark Fewer In a career that now spans over three decades, violinist/director Mark Fewer has been an interpreter of music past and present in virtually every genre and setting.  From appearances at famous concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Salle Pleyel, to other venues including Bartók House (Budapest), the Forum (Taipei) and Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), Fewer has appeared as featured guest soloist with ensembles ranging from the Zapp Quartet of Amsterdam, the Fodens-Richardson Brass Band (UK), the Chieftains, Stevie Wonder and his band, and the major symphony orchestras of Toronto, San Francisco, Melbourne and others. Having given premieres of over 200 works including more than 50 written specially for him, his extensive and unique discography includes appearances on multiple JUNO-winning recordings, one Grammy-winning recording, and an Opus Prize for a recording celebrating the work of Canadian composer Serge Arcuri. He has held the positions of Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony, Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University, William Dawson Scholar at McGill University, and currently serves as Head of Strings at the University of Toronto.  As a chamber musician, he was a founding member of the Duke Piano Trio, violinist with the SuperNova and St. Lawrence string quartets and was an original member of the ARC Ensemble.  He is currently first violinist of the Axelrod String Quartet at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, where the ensemble performs and records exclusively on Stradivari and Amati instruments from the museum’s famed collection. After 16 years as the founding artistic director of the SweetWater Music Festival, he is now in his sixth season at the helm of Stratford Summer Music.  Newfoundland Sinfonia (NSO Sinfonia) The NSO Sinfonia is based in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, and was founded by Peter Gardner. The ensemble consists of core string players from the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra supplemented with other musicians as required. Formed in the 1990s, the NSO presents three concerts each season, as well as Handel’s Messiah. Sinfonia repertoire is broad-ranging and includes music from the baroque period to the modern era, including newly commissioned works. TRACK LISTING Angmalukisaa — by Deantha Edmunds (b. 1972) 1 - Rings I – Arranged by Bill Brennan 2 - Rings I I– Arranged by Andrew Downing 3 - Rings III – Arranged by Jeff Johnston 4 - Rings IV – Arranged by Robert Carli Deantha Edmunds, soprano Newfoundland Sinfonia Mark Fewer, conductor Épisodes — by Serge Arcuri (b. 1954) 5 – Moderato-Allegro 6 – Largo 7 – III Mark Fewer, violinist and conductor Newfoundland Sinfonia 8 – The Simple Life — by Matt Brubeck (b. 1961) Arr. for Violin and Strings by Andrew Downing Mark Fewer, violinist and conductor Newfoundland Sinfonia 9 – “C” — by Robert Carli (b. 1970) Mark Fewer, violinist and conductor Newfoundland Sinfonia Alikeness — by Jaroslaw Kapuściński (b. 1964) Arr. for String Orchestra by Yoshiaki Onishi 10 – I 11 – II 12 – III 13 – IV 14 – V 15 – VI 16 – VII 17 – VIII Aiyun Huang, percussion soloist Newfoundland Sinfonia Mark Fewer, conductor