Violinist Gillian Smith Launches CD Of Works By Canadian Women Composers

Halifax violinist Gillian Smith is en route to Toronto this fall to launch her first solo CD, the premiere recording of solo violin works by five Canadian women composers. In conjunction with Leaf Music, she presents a one-hour performance to launch Into the Stone, Saturday, October 5, 7 p.m. at the Glenn Gould Studio, 250 Front St. W. The concert also marks the Toronto debut of this well-known Nova Scotian musician.

Pianist Emily Rho will join her as guest artist.

"Intense, passionate and imaginative" is how Gillian Smith describes the five different compositions featured on Into the Stone. The CD, released by Leaf Music, draws its title from the composition Inside the Stone by Veronika Krausas, inspired by a line by Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, "What lives inside the stone? Miracles, strange light."

Also on the CD are works by JUNO Award winning composer Ana Sokolović (Cinque danze per violino solo); and JUNO nominees Alice Ping Yee Ho (Caprice) and Kati Agócs (Versprechen). Le ciel doit être proche, by Montreal-based composer Chantal Laplante completes the list.

Toronto composer Alice Ping Yee Ho will be present October 5 to talk about her work.

Tickets, $15; or $20 with a CD included, are available from www.eventbrite.com (search "Into the Stone"); (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/into-the-stone-album-launch-gillian-smith-tickets-66482949291).

More information is also available via https://www.facebook.com/gilliansmithviolin.

Officially launching September 27, the CD was produced and recorded by Jeremy VanSlyke in the stone sanctuary of First Baptist Church, Halifax. This project is funded in part by FACTOR, the Government of Canada and Canada's private radio broadcasters.

A dynamic and intuitive violinist, Gillian Smith enjoys a rich and varied career. Deeply committed to the music of contemporary composers, she has recorded two CDs with members of the Acadia New Music Society on the Centrediscs label: Live Wired (music by Derek Charke, Jérôme Blais, and Anthony Genge); and In Sonorous Falling Tones (music by Derek Charke), which was nominated for an East Coast Music Award for Classical Recording of the Year in 2018. She can also be heard on a recording of the chamber music of Carmen Braden, being released in November 2019.

Ms. Smith has appeared at such series and festivals as the Acadia Performing Arts Series, the East Coast Music Awards, Inner Space Concerts, the Music Room Chamber Players, Open Waters Festival, Shattering the Silence Festival, and Sunday Music in the Garden Room. She has also performed and recorded as an orchestral musician with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony, and Symphony Nova Scotia.

A dedicated teacher, Gillian Smith serves as an instructor of violin and viola at the Acadia University School of Music and as head of the upper strings department at the Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts. Her students have won top prizes and awards in regional and national competitions.

Gillian Smith holds degrees in violin performance from the Eastman School of Music (B.Mus.), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (M.Mus.), and the University of Minnesota (D.M.A.). Her teachers have included Jorja Fleezanis, Camilla Wicks, Peter Salaff, and Philippe Djokic.

More information is available at https://gilliansmithviolin.com,