History

September 2021 Berlin, Germany — Pierre Boulez Saal *World premiere

November 2022 Vancouver, BC — Modulus Festival *Canadian Premiere

October 2023 Rimouski, QC — Tour de bras

June 2024 Novara Jazz Festival — Novarra, Italy

November 2024 Basel, Switzerland — Veranstaltungsraum

June 2025 Hamilton, ON— Something Else Festival

Ottawa Jazz Festival — National Arts Centre

Montreal, QC — Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival

September 2026 Guelph, ON — Guelph Jazz Festival

In 2019, Piotr Turkievicz, Artistic Director of Jazz and Improvised Music at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, commissioned me to compose a full evening work for creative musicians entitled The Secret Lives of Color. The work takes its inspiration from a book by British author and journalist Kassia St. Clair that reveals the rich stories of color, unearthing facts about their origins, social conditions that brought them to our culture, and their connection to the art world. My goal is to create music that is evocative of these stories, conveying the irrepressible moods and imagery these colors suggest, and making poetic associations between the symbiotic worlds of color and sound.

The musical personnel selected varies greatly for each performance of The Secret Lives of Color. The ensemble is composed of some long-time collaborators, leading international figures active on the creative music scene today, along with musicians I’ve had the desire to collaborate with but never had the opportunity to do so.

Past performers

CORE ENSEMBLE (2024 - present)

François Houle (CAN) — clarinet, basset clarinet, composition

Joëlle Léandre (FRA) — bass

Myra Melford (USA) — piano

Gerry Hemingway (USA/SUI) — percussion

Gordon Grdina (CAN) — guitar/oud

BERLIN (2021) - (World Premiere/première mondiale)

François Houle (CAN) — clarinet/clarinette, basset clarinet/clarinette de basset, composition

Hamid Drake (USA/Italy) — percussion

Gordon Grdina (CAN) — guitar/guitare/oud

Joëlle Léandre (FRA) — bass/contrebasse

Myra Melford (USA) — piano

VANCOUVER (2022) - (Canadian Premiere/première Canadienne)

François Houle (CAN) — clarinet/clarinette, basset clarinet/clarinette de basset, composition

Alexander Hawkins (UK) — piano

Kate Gentile (USA) — drums

Joëlle Léandre (FRA) — bass/contrebasse

Gordon Grdina (CAN) — guitar/guitare/oud

Hamin Honari (CAN) — percussion

RIMOUSKI (2023)

François Houle (CAN) — clarinet/clarinette, basset clarinet/clarinette de basset, composition

Eric Normand (CAN) — electric bass/basse électrique

Clarisse Beriault (CAN) — oboe/hautbois

Tom Jacques (CAN) — vibraphone

François Landry (CAN) — guitar/guitare

Kalun Leung (CAN) — trombone

Jean René (CAN) — viola/alto

BASEL/Bâle — Switzerland/Suisse(2024)

François Houle (CAN) — clarinet/clarinette, basset clarinet/clarinette de basset, composition

Marco von Orelli (SUI - Basel) — cornet, trumpet/cornet, trompette

Gordon Grdina (CAN) — guitar/guitare/oud

'Andrea Grossi (ITA) — bass/contrebasse

Tibor Elekes (SUI - Basel) — bass/contrebasse

Tatiana Timonina (RUS/Basel) — flutes

Gerry Hemingway (USA/SUI) — percussion

Pio Schürmann (SUI - Basel) — piano

Eva-Maria Karbacher (SUI - Basel) — Tenor Sax/saxophone ténor

The music score for this project represents the culmination of years of detailed research and professional development initiatives in areas of composition techniques, extended instrumental techniques, graphic design, technology and collaborative multi-media. I am using Sibelius music notation software as a tool to export graphic data to Adobe Illustrator and other graphic apps to “illuminate” the music with original images, colors, text, and vector graphic objects. This process allows me to fully integrate and/or transform traditional music notation into icons for musical graphic notation.

The live recording of the concerts will be released as a digital album on my Bandcamp label, Afterday Audio.