“Three weeks to the day after attending Chalmers House (home of the Canadian Music Centre) for the launch of John Beckwith’s book Musical Annals, I was back in the same space (though arranged in a more intimate horseshoe pattern for the attendees), for the return of Edana Higham and Zac Pulak, aka SHHH!! Ensemble, who had come in from Ottawa to perform at the Beckwith launch, and were back to launch their own opus – SHHH!! Ensemble’s first CD, Meanwhile. I’m sure I will find myself at more Chalmers House events like these as things continue opening up. The otherwise obscured work of many fine composers and performers of Canadian music needs this kind of shelter, immune to the vagaries of public demand.
Chalmers Hall, added to the main floor of the House in 2012, is perfectly sized for the kind of events like the two launches in September: events that are great for listening and also for meeting and mingling among players, writers, composers and the interested public. The usual business of the CMC contributes to the ambience: upstairs, the ever-growing library (25,000 scores and counting) is being updated and digitized daily; and the CMC’s recording arm, Centrediscs, boasts just under 300 releases…”
