BILL GILLIAM

Deceptive Moves - 2005-09-30 - The Music Gallery, Toronto

A concert of new music compositions by Bill Gilliam & Colleen Ostoforoff

The Music Gallery, as part of the "Composer Now Face to Face" series, presented "Deceptive Moves", the compositions of Bill Gilliam and Colleen Ostoforoff.

This concert was an evening of World premieres of new music showing how each composer approaches, explores and embraces the theme of "deception".

Bill & Colleen decided to collaborate on this music project based on their common artistic vision, approach and style of composition. The topical theme of deception allowed each artist a broad scope of interpretation while at the same time providing an opportunity to compliment each other's work and explore collective comment on current then events.

For this concert, Bill's compositions were motivated by observations of deceptive behaviour in nature, children's emotions and adult machinations, using extended techniques for voice and instruments. In the same vein, Colleen's compositions focused on the themes of political systems' deception, manipulation and environmental concerns. Her chamber music scores explored the limits of the ensemble's sonic pallet through the use of concealed sound re-enforcement and signal processing.

Bill's style of music ranges from scores for new music ensembles to pieces for contemporary jazz performance to improvised soundscapes using handcrafted electronic samples. The music for this project included contemporary new music compositions interwoven with sampled / processed sound.

Bill's premiere works were:

• Natural Deception, Voice, French Horn, Bass Clarinet, Bassoon, tape
• Childs Play, words & music by Bill Gilliam in 7 sections for Voice, Clarinet, Bassoon, Cello, Percussion
• The Shadow, poetry by Penn Kemp, music for Voice, Clarinet, French Horn, Bassoon, Cello, & Percussion

Often inspired by the challenges of a unique sound source, Colleen set out to re-create the sound or create a useful musical notation for an unconventional instrument (for example a push lawn mower, a toy laughing stick, sheet metal or a water phone).

Her world premieres were:

• Polymer Smog with adapted lyrics from the poet, Penn Kemp, for Voice, Bb Clarinet, French Horn, Bassoon
• Standing Frozen In The Forest, a multi-disciplinary work featuring Bassoon/Contrabassoon, Cello, Percussion, Dancer & Multi-Disciplinary artist
• tra... ces... for Female Voice, Radio, Cell phones, sampled & environmental sounds