Alexina Louie, Composer & Canadian Icon

Description
Alexina Louie is one of my favourite Canadian composers of contemporary classical music. I first heard her work “Music For Heaven and Earth” in 1990, which was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony. This is one composer you should definitely get to know. Join me, as we take a minute to get the scoop!

Fun Fact
Alexina Louie settled in Toronto in 1980, and over the subsequent four decades, she created a brilliant and ongoing career whose highlights are far too many to mention. Some of the most notable ones include her work O Magnum Mysterium: In Memoriam Glenn Gould, composed in response to the tragic and untimely death of Gould in 1982; two JUNO awards, as well as numerous JUNO nominations; her opera, The Scarlet Princess, commissioned by the Canadian Opera Company; her 2005 appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada; and esteemed awards like the 1999 Jules Leger Prize for New Chamber Music and the 2019 Canada Council Molson Prize in the Arts.

About Steven
Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.

A Note To Music Students et al.
All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

Got a topic? Pop me off an email at: TCMMPodcast@Gmail.com 

Transcript

One of my favourite Canadian composers of contemporary classical is Alexina Louie. I first heard her work Music For Heaven and Earth in 1990, which was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony.

I was mesmerized by how Alexina fuzed Asian and western orchestral combinations. I would say, my ears couldn’t get enough. 

Alexina Louie has been described as “A versatile, imaginative and prolific creator.

She has written for all musical genres, from piano, voice and orchestra to opera and film. And although thoroughly Canadian, her musical work is heard, recognized and acclaimed around the world.

Louie sums up the essence of her achievement when she says, "Music is the most ephemeral of the arts — a mere vibration in the air. The string, the vocal cord, a length of tubing, a block of wood are set in motion by a bow, the breath, a mallet. The air vibrates and it travels to you. Your eardrum quivers with those vibrations — you are moving with the music. The composer controls those vibrations that you receive. What a job!"