Canadian Mosaic

INTRODUCTION
The Canadian Sinfonietta (CS) is a Toronto based classical music organization that performs a variety of concerts every year, featuring a large-scale orchestra, small intimate chamber ensembles, as well as a youth orchestra concerts and other activities. The mission of the Canadian Sinfonietta is to attract a new generation of concert goers by presenting concerts that have a balance of traditional and newly composed or culturally interesting programs. Our concerts are both accessible as well as new and fresh. Our programs often feature interdisciplinary artistic presentations, multi-cultural music, non-western    instruments and  diverse Canadian artists.

We are excited to present our first commercial album: Canadian Mosaic. Our ensemble, founded in 1998, is thrilled to be able to share our music worldwide. Performing Canadian music is part of our mandate, so it made sense to record music by some of the composers involved in our community. The music on this album finds its inspiration from various cultures  from around the world, from Canada to the USA, France, China and more. Our hope is this     Canadian musical mosaic will take you on an engaging and enjoyable journey.

We started planning the album in 2018, and recorded Mirage in the fall of 2019. We booked more recording sessions for June 2020 but had to cancel due to the pandemic. We didn’t give up and were able to record Romance No. 2 and Night Star in June 2022. We completed recording in February and June of 2024. We were thrilled to finally release the album on November 15, 2024 using the Toronto based record label, Akashic Rekords with their distributor, the Universal Music Group.

This project has been a special experience, allowing the musicians to work closely together creating a feeling of family and friendship. There was a lot of passion and love for music in creating this album, particularly since every piece is by a composer in our community. Thus the process began not just in the practice room, but with the composer, with whom the musicians could closely work with to create the best possible performance.
This album is the culmination of many years of work and perseverance by a group of devoted people in the organization. Tak Ng Lai, the founder and music director of the Canadian Sinfonietta, has given us his constant leadership and musical guidance. Tak Ng conducted four of the compositions on the album and provided his Romance No. 2. Aster Lai, the wife of Tak Ng, has been tireless working to raise money, not just for the album but for the over 26 years of concerts and events that the orchestra has been involved with. Plus, there are all the supporting members of the family who both play for and help with each and every event. This album is co-produced by artistic director and concertmaster Joyce Lai along with composer and conductor Ronald (Ron) Royer, each bringing their own expertise to the album. They led the planning and organization of the album, ran the recording sessions, and were
involved with editing and the distribution of the music. Joyce also performed on every work on the album, and Ron provided two compositions (Mirage and Night Star) and conducted the CS ensemble for Pilgrimage.

Acknowledgement needs to be given to the other composers involved on this album: CS composer-in-residence Michael Pepa, An-Lun Huang, and Bruno Degazio, who composed their works especially for the orchestra.

There are other wonderful musicians on the album, many of whom have performed with the       ensemble for all 26 years. Two of our musicians were asked to take on a solo role, clarinetist Kaye Royer and mezzo soprano Maria Soulis. A special thank you goes to violist Máté Szücs, Hungarian born soloist and former principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, who graciously recorded with CS while on tour in Southern Ontario in 2019. Thanks also need to be given to
the recording engineers and editors and all the people behind the scenes who helped. Finally a big thank you to all the sponsors who’s donations made this recording happen.