Cobalt

***Winner of Classical Composition of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, 2015***

***Nominated for Classical Composition of the Year and Classical Recording of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards, 2014***

« Jocelyn Morlock […] has emerged as one of the most talked about Canadian composers of the moment. » – Vancouver Sun 4 out of 5 stars; Album of the Week

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Album+week+Jocelyn+Morlock+Cobalt/10748853/story.html#ixzz3PZ0vBYma

Praised for writing « richly satisfying harmonies and solo melodies full of emotion » (Gwenda Nemerofsky, Winnipeg Free Press) with « an acute feeling for sonority » and an approach that is « deftly idiomatic » (David Gordon Duke, Vancouver Sun), Juno-nominated composer Jocelyn Morlock’s music embraces influences as diverse as Ravel, Saariaho, Nikolai Korndorf, and Balinese gamelan into a distinctive and lyrically exquisite voice.

In her ­first full-length CD release, Jocelyn Morlock presents a selection of predominantly orchestral music written between 2001 – 2010 , performed by an array of stellar ensembles and soloists. The title track features violinists Jonathan Crow and Karl Stobbe and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in a virtuosic performance conducted by Alain Trudel. Mark Fewer, then VSO concertmaster, shines on the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra recording of « Solace » conducted by Bramwell Tovey.

Jocelyn Morlock is currently serving as inaugural Composer-in-Residence for Vancouver’s innovative concert series, Music on Main. Morlock’s international career was launched at the International Society for Contemporary Music’s World Music Days with Romanian performances of her quartet « Bird in the Tangled Sky. » Since then, she has become the composer of record for signi­ficant music competitions, including the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition and the Montreal International Music Competition, for which she wrote « Amore, » a tour de force vocal work that has gone on to receive more than 70 performances and numerous radio broadcasts.

TRACK LIST:

1. Music of the Romantic Era (10:54)
Windsor Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: John Morris Russell

2. Cobalt (7:14)
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Jonathan Crow, Karl Stobbe, violins
Conductor: Alain Trudel

3. Disquiet (4:13)
CBC Radio Orchestra
Conductor: Alain Trudel

4. Asylum (10:00)
Duo Concertante with Vernon Regehr, cello

5. Oiseaux bleus et sauvages (10:52)
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Bramwell Tovey

6. Golden (10:54)
Pacific Baroque Orchestra
Philippe Magnan, oboe
Conductor and concertmaster: Marc Destrubé

7. Solace (11:14)
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Mark Fewer, violin, Zoltan Rozsnyai, cello
Conductor: Bramwell Tovey

PERFORMERS:
Windsor Symphony Orchestra
National Arts Centre Orchestra
CBC Radio Orchestra
Duo Concertante
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
Pacific Baroque Orchestra
Vancouver Symphony Orchestra

The production of this album was graciously supported by FACTOR. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada’s Private Radio Broadcasters.

REVIEWS

« It’s hard to think of another figure in contemporary Canadian music who could not only go from the ecstatic complexity of the title work, Cobalt for violin and chamber orchestra, to the postmodern one-liners that abound in Music of the Romantic Era, and do so with consistency and charm. Two rather more intimate works — Golden for oboe and strings and Solace for violin, cello and two string ensembles — plumb emotional depths with quiet grace: compelling and uncompromisingly beautiful. » – David Gordon Duke, Vancouver Sun

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Album+week+Jocelyn+Morlock+Cobalt/10748853/story.html#ixzz3PZ1EDebF

« All told this collection of works does not shy away from what music does better than any other art form. It is about the exploration of emotion. It delves into moments of humour, but also unease, and intelligent curiosity. This is the music of a composer on a path to explore a world that is at one moment a wondrous place, and in another moment a terrifying yet beautiful muddle. She writes: ‘What sustains life can also destroy it; beauty is transient and fleeting.’ Just wow. » – Michael Vincent, Musical Toronto

Featured in the WholeNote’s Editor’s Corner by David Olds: « …this is a wonderfully lyrical disc and a great reminder that we do have an important body of orchestral work in this country. »

« Morlock becomes the fifth composer-in-residence for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra on September 1, 2014. Accordingly we can expect to look forward to more finely crafted orchestral works from her distinctive voice. Tonally-based but not in the classical sense, she often establishes home pitches through the use of the perfect fifth interval and drones over which she spins emotionally-charged melodic lines. Truly this recording documents an outstanding Canadian creator of music. » – Elaine Kellior, CAML Review

This recording generously supported by:

We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage (Canada Music Fund) and of Canada’s Private Radio Broadcasters.