Colin Eatock, composer
  • Home
  • About Colin Eatock
  • Composing
  • Catalogue of works
  • Media
  • Writing about music
  • Eatock Daily (blog)
  • New and upcoming
  • Contact me

Luminato presents Song of Extinction

6/27/2016

2 Comments

 
PictureThis year, Luminato was presented at the old Hearn Generating Station.
Song of Extinction is a film by Toronto-based documentarian Marc De Guerre. But, as the audience at Toronto’s Luminato arts festival found out on Wednesday, it’s not a conventional documentary.
 
The best way I can find to describe it is to say it’s directly descended from the 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance. Like Koyaanisqatsi, the film is a montage of striking images: the screen is filled with art, landscapes, war-scenes, animals and scientific diagrams, among other things. Some of the footage looks “archival”: grainy stuff from various decades of the 20th century.



Read More
2 Comments

James Ehnes with the Toronto Symphony

6/15/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureCanadian violinist James Ehnes.
In a musical landscape increasingly populated much-ballyhooed child prodigies, competition laureates and every manner of publicity-seeking flash-in-the-pan, it’s nice to know there’s a violinist out there named James Ehnes.
 
Of course, Ehnes was a prodigy, and his exceptional musical gifts were duly noted and cultivated when he was a child. Also, he did win a few competitions in his early years. But these things were never made into launching-pads for a “meteoric” career. Rather, his rise to international prominence has been steady and methodical – more about stamina than speed, and more about artistry than sensationalism.
 
He turned 40 earlier this year, an age when classical musicians are no longer considered young, and are expected to don the mantle of maturity. But Ehnes has been a mature musician for many years. Every time I’ve heard him perform – and I’ve heard him a number of times over the last two decades – he has played with intelligence, sensitivity and sincerity.



Read More
0 Comments

Yannick Nézet-Séguin Goes to the Met

6/4/2016

2 Comments

 
PictureYannick Nézet-Séguin.
Here’s a short piece I wrote for Canada’s National Post newspaper about Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s new gig at the Metropolitan Opera. Also, four years ago, I wrote a more extensive article about his appointment at the Philadelphia Orchestra, which you can read here.
 
Canada’s super-conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin — who leads the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain — has added yet another podium to his list. And it’s a big one.



Read More
2 Comments

21C at the Royal Conservatory

6/4/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureComposer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh.
This review was originally written for the Classical Voice North America website.
 
So what can be said about contemporary music nowadays – especially after attending Toronto’s third annual Twenty-First Century Music Festival?
 
It’s a harsh, atonal cacophony, or it’s consonant with a vengeance. It’s a high-volume assault on the eardrums, or it’s a barely audible whisper. It’s a dense, opaque wall of sound, or it’s sparse and spacious. It’s a through-composed stream of consciousness, or it’s repetitious in the extreme. It’s jarringly experimental and iconoclastic, or it’s deeply rooted in ancient traditions. It is all these things, and more.



Read More
0 Comments

Kathleen Battle at Roy Thomson Hall

6/3/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureSoprano Kathleen Battle.
As one of the northern terminals of the Underground Railroad, Toronto was an apt place for soprano Kathleen Battle to make a rare appearance, with a program of spirituals.
 
For the last two decades, Battle’s performances have been infrequent – and the reasons why have become the stuff of operatic legend. By all accounts, at the height of her career  she was cruel, and she was unusual.



Read More
0 Comments

    Eatock Daily

    I'm a composer based in Toronto – and this is my classical music blog, Eatock Daily.

    When I first started blogging, Eatock Daily was a place to re-post the articles I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and National Post newspapers, the Houston Chronicle, the Kansas City Star and other publications.

    But now I have stepped back from professional music journalism, and I'm spending more time composing.

    These days, my blog posts are infrequent, and are mostly concerned with my own music. However, I do still occasionally post comments on musical topics, including works I've discovered, enjoyed, and wish to share with others.


    – CE

    Archives

    April 2025
    August 2024
    May 2024
    March 2024
    October 2023
    March 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    October 2020
    June 2020
    September 2019
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Index

    Click here for an alphabetical list of blog entries.

    RSS Feed

    Follow colineatock on Twitter
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.