Oh so many, here are some: Music: Hildegard, Dufay, Cornysh, Dunstable, Byrd, Isaac; H. Purcell, Hotteterre, Charpentier, L. Couperin and J.S. Bach; Messiaen, Warlock (esp. his songs), Hindemith, Cage, James MacMillan; Big Mama Thornton, Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin, Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, Frank Zappa and Björk; most of Merseyside rock and roll; Northern colliery brass bands; Glenn Gould, Evelyn Glennie, Frans Brüggen, Jeanette van Wingerden; Klakki, Emma Hardelin, H. Chaurasia, Oliver Schroer... Writing:e.e. cummings, Aldous Huxley, H.Hesse, R.M. Rilke, Mary Oliver, Denise Levertov, Tarjei Vesaas, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Basho, Alistair McLeod, Augusten Burroughs... Photography: Eugène Atget, Edward Burtynsky, and many closer to home including Colin Savage and his friends in the TLR Club Film: Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismäki, Doris Dörrie Painting: Kandinsky, Rembrandt, Modigliani, Soutine, Carr And Charlotte Joko Beck, Pema Chödron, James Hollis, Antero Alli, Alan Watts, Piet Hein, Joanna Field, Rob Breszny, Louise Wisechild
Sounds Like
"...some very hot recorder playing." California Early Music News
"She approaches this treasury of melody with a fine ear and a stunning technique on both instruments, but also with that swaggering X-factor which allows her to bring out the essential character of this idiomatic repertoire...always in an authentic frame of mind and in a wide-eyed spirit of discovery." Newsletter, Early Music Forum of Scotland, Oct. 2006
Since playing her first CBC radio recording gig at the age of 20, Alison Melville's career has taken her across Canada from Whitehorse to St. John's, and to the USA, Iceland, Japan, New Zealand and Europe. As a player of historical flutes and recorder, her extensive performing experience includes hundreds of concerts of solo, chamber and orchestral 'art' music; sessions for radio, television, film and recordings; and spans repertoire from the 13th to 21st centuries. Besides playing venues like Tokyo's Bunkamura Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall and Montreal's Salle Pierre Mercure, there have been many gigs in prisons, school gymnasiums, gardens, parks, barns, hospitals, ferries...Some of Alison's more recent preoccupations involve Scandinavian traditional music, improvisation with prepared sound, and music's connection with the natural world (see myspace.com/thebirdproject).
A member of Toronto Consort and a frequent player with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, she has appeared with many other ensembles and festivals across North America including the Boston Early Music Festival, la Nouvele Sinfonie, Early Music Vancouver, Opera Atelier, Canadian Opera Company, Festival of the Sound, Aradia Ensemble, I Furiosi, Festival Vancouver, etc. As a concerto soloist she has performed with Tafelmusik, the Toronto Symphony, Orchestra London, Aradia, the Niagara and Mississauga Symphonies; and as a performer of 20th- and 21st-century music she has appeared with Soundstreams, New Music Concerts, ArrayMusic and others.
Her television, film and radio performance credits include CBC/Radio-Canada, BBC, Radio New Zealand, NPR, Iceland State Broadcast Service and others, and soundtracks for films by Atom Egoyan, Amnon Buchbinder and Ang Lee; the TV series The Tudors; and CBC-TV’s beloved The Friendly Giant. She can be heard on over 45 CDs, including four critically-acclaimed solo recordings. The most recent of these are Archipelago, and She's Sweetest when she's Naked on early-music.com.
Alison is also a member of the Arctic fusion band Ensemble Polaris, in which she also plays the Norwegian seljefløyte (willow flute)(see www.myspace.com/ensemblepolaris). As a creator of original music her work has been heard with Ensemble Polaris and in 999 Years of Music (dir. Peter Hannan), the Post-Medieval Syndrome project, Amherst Early Music in Connecticut and Vermont, and at the Oberlin Conservatory (OH).
Alison has been a professor at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music since 1999 and also teaches for the University of Toronto. She trained at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis for several years as the winner of numerous awards from the Canada Council, and was the first recorder player to receive an M.Mus.Perf. on full fellowship from the University of Toronto.
Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering, There is a crack in everything, That's how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
Archipelago is available at http://cdbaby.com/cd/melville (CD) and digitally at
http://payplay.fm/melville
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 162 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): TEES TO TYNE: FIRST IMPRESSIONS - SUMMER 2001
Where traditions are not so rare; Sea, country and works scent the air; A multitude of monuments, Planted tubs and patterned pavements.
The longish pedestrian malls; The remnants of defensive walls; Historic buildings are a gauge Of the respect for heritage.
Wheat, rape and pines in the fields; Estuaries guarded by shields; Long sandy beaches and wide scenes; Romantic-ruin go-betweens.
Rivers in parts licked by trees, Or fringed by boat clubs, wharfs, gantries, And crossed by practical delights - Varied spans, forming pleasing sights.
Fine churches headed at Durham; Football kits ad infinitum; Kept castles - one for study; Masonry behind masonry.
And, with moulding-works out that way, It’s somewhere for a longer stay..?
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on myspace...
Poem 2 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (please see my blog): WALKABOUT WITH MY PEN
Once drove an old sedan, up north, From a place in Sydney to Cairns; Then to Kuranda I went forth, By train, to look without set plans.
I browsed through the trendy market, With fresh fruits of tropical kind; Walked to the creek through lush thicket - Nature’s hand giving peace of mind.
I dined in a scenic cafe; Then, outside, as I wrote for yen, Some passing Kooris called-out: “Hey, You go walkabout with your pen.”
Request or question, I don’t know - Assured voices, elderly men. That’s now several years ago, And I’ve seen the world - with my pen.
Hello, I hope this message finds you well. I am extending an invitation to all my MySpace friends to visit my new site at www. reverbnation. com/christoshatzis and add their email address to my mailing list. The mailing list will be used only for periodic announcements of concerts, releases of recordings and other events featuring my music. I hope you can take a moment to visit and join. Alternatively, you can join by filling in the info on the widget below.
we are very happy as well and we are very much looking forward to start with new projects. We wish you a merry christmas and all the best for 2008! Andrea & Daniel
Hi Allison, That was a lovely concert last night! I especially like the canary and bull finch pieces. So avian!! Hahaha My friend who I was with wants me to tell you that he loved the seljefloyte and has many recordings of it. It was a nuit blanche highlight for me! -kristofir
Hi Alison, thanks for adding me! I’ve just recently started listening to recorder over the summer and am excited to hear your music! I hope to see your performance at Nuit Blanche next week! -kristofir
Alison, thanks so much! You are very nice to say so. I had a great trip to California in August. My Symphony No. 1 premiere was successful in Santa Cruz. (Read my blog about the premiere...) Just a crazy time! And my String Conference was so well attended again in San Diego, students of all ages, levels and styles. I also have some new sound clips up on www.markoconnor.com under the sheet music and repertoire pages. I hope all is well in your musical world. It is nice to know that this community on MySpace is doing what we can to make it happen with the musical notes out there! I have heard from folks all around world . Oh, and there is a free download on MySpace of an old track of mine. I will change the free download selection every month or two featuring old recordings. See you out in the "real space" on the road hopefully soon. Best Wishes, Mark O'
