The Canadian Music Centre Presents Cellist India Gailey — Problematica
“The Canadian Music Centre will present cellist India Gailey in performance on January 31. She’ll be playing pieces from her upcoming release Problematica, available on February 23.
Problematica will include a series of pieces that were written for Gailey by Canadian composers. India performs on the cello solo as well as sings on some of the tracks.
India Gailey
American-Canadian cellist India Gailey is also a composer and multidisciplinary artist whose work generally falls into the classical or experimental genres. Her influences are drawn from centuries of repertoire. She is equally at home with composed and improvised music, setting her apart from the vast majority of Western classical musicians.
Based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she has toured North America and Europe as a solo artist and collaborator, and is a member of the New Hermitage improvisational quartet. Together, the ensemble has released several well received albums.
India has worked with Philip Glass, Yaz Lancaster, and Nicole Lizée, among many other composers.
Problematica is her third solo recording. Available on February 23, 2024 on People Places Records, it’s a collection of pieces that were written for India by Canadian composers. They include:
- Grotesquerie by Nicole Lizée
- Bending, breaking through by Julia Mermelstein
- Joinery by Joseph Glaser
- LessVox_MoreVerb by Andrew Noseworthy
- Universal Veil by Fjóla Evans
- Where I can be as big as the Sun by Thanya Iyer
And, I long by Sarah Rossy, performed by India Gailey, which you can sample from the upcoming album Problematica below:
India and her work have won awards and recognition from Arts Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, the Canada Council for the Arts, and Acadia and McGill Universities, among others.
As a composer in her own right, India often explores themes revolving around environmentalism and magical realism. She is the 2023 recipient of the Paul Cram Creation Award from Upstream Music Association. That funding will go towards the premiere of Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth, her new concerto for cello, with Symphony Nova Scotia in 2024.”
