MUSICIAN OF THE MONTH: DEREK CHARKE
Summer is pushing full-force ahead, and that means it’s time for our August Musician of the Month: Derek Charke!
Derek Charke is a JUNO and three-time ECMA award-winning composer and flutist. He has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, Toronto Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, Duo Turgeon, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, as well as an impressive list of other performers and organizations. Derek is a professor of composition at Acadia University, he co-directs the Acadia New Music Society, and he continues to perform regularly on the flute. Although his music tends to defy categorization it has been described as post-modern and post-minimal, inventive, rich textured, full of colour, and imbued with drama and rhythmic vitality.
Recent works include Drift for the remarkable piano duo Duo Turgeon: Anne Louise-Turgeon and Edward Turgeon—a work that muses on lake effect snow and an abstract concept of drift. Tangled in Plastic Currents commissioned for cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, former cellist with the Kronos Quartet, deals with the plastic clogging our oceans. Earth Airs for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, his second symphony, muses on the infinite nature of air. After Chaos, the Earth and Love came into being commissioned by Harvey and Louise Glatt for the National Arts Centre Orchestra, takes its inspiration from Plato and Hesiod and their philosophies on the creation of the universe.
Derek has written many pieces for the flute, including two chamber concertos and a popular series of flute ensemble works.
1.What is your idea of perfect happiness? Right now, it’s pretty simple—get up early in the morning, exercise, coffee (very important!), compose, play some flute, do other obligations, then a long walk or some other outside activity later in the day, and finally a good book (or movie). That’s about it. Maybe some travel once in a while. I’m not complicated.
2. Which living musician do you most admire and why? There are a number, but I’d pick Louis Andriessen. I’m a big fan of his music, firstly, and then his philosophical outlook on the arts. I remember the eureka moment when I first heard his De Staat. His career has been about breaking down barriers in the establishment, and throwing a wrench into what contemporary concert music can be. I’ve always really admired the way he has been able to do this. I had the fabulous opportunity to study with him in Holland for a year in the late 1990s.
3. What do you consider your greatest achievement? Hard question! I’ve been involved in music pretty much my entire life. Keeping an open mind and learning from both my successes and failures, I believe, is one of my achievements. I don’t like to tally up accomplishments—they’re in the past, over and done with. What I’m excited about is what comes next. How can I improve on what I did yesterday? This means I’m always excited to have another project to work on. That said, winning a JUNO for Sepia Fragments was pretty great, and unexpected. And I’ve had some pretty amazing experiences with different ensembles and performers. But if I have to choose just one I’d probably go with my First Symphony, Transient Energies. This was a big, four movement, 45-minute work for orchestra and electronic soundscape commissioned by Bernhard Gueller and Symphony Nova Scotia in 2011. It was such a pleasure to work with the fabulous musicians in our orchestra, and to be granted the space and freedom to develop a large and involved work in my home province of Nova Scotia. SNS gave it 110%, both in rehearsals and performance. And CBC was there to record it, and sponsor some of the commission. It was a really amazing experience from start to finish—one I remember fondly to this day.
4. If you weren’t a musician, what would you like to do, all things being possible? An airline pilot.
5. Where would you most like to live? Anywhere near the ocean. Obviously, I’m very lucky to have a job in Nova Scotia.
6. Which composer (dead or alive) would you most like to have dinner with and why? J.S. Bach. Wow! That would be something. He was a brilliant composer, performer, pedagogue, organ repair technician—he did it all. I admire his technique and skills in form, harmony and counterpoint. I’d want to discuss with him his work ethic.
7. Do you have a favourite work for the flute? A few, actually. But I’d highlight the Italian composer Salvatori Sciarrino and his catalogue of work for flute—L’opera per flauto. I admire the way in which he experiments with sounds. Each work is an exploration and magnification of very specific and unusual performance techniques. This music opened up a vast array of sound worlds and extended techniques for me.
8. What are you doing this summer? It’s been a busy summer. I’m working on a new flute and percussion piece for Acadia University School of Music Alumni Chris Eagles and his wife, flutist Kathryn Hendrickson. They have a duo in Colorado. I’m really looking forward to writing this work for them. I’m also working on a piece for flute and guitar for my Acadia colleague, Eugene Cormier and myself called The Equation of Time—Eugene and I have been performing as a flute and guitar duo for the past couple of years, and most recently performed at LAMP this June. I finished a work for Nathan Beeler and the Halifax All City Music Program called Mercury in Transit based on the recent Transit of Mercury. I’m excited to hear them premiere this next year. Another recent project is Drift, a 22-minute work commissioned for the amazing piano duo, Duo Turgeon, Anne Louise-Turgeon and Edward Turgeon. Duo Turgeon premiered the work this past April in Toronto, and performed the US premiere in Chicago this month. I have to say, they sound phenomenal!
One of the largest projects this summer was an epic recording session of four of my works: Lachrymose, WARNING! Gustnadoes Ahead, and What do the Birds Think?, plus a new chamber flute concerto, In Sonorous Falling Tones. We had stellar performers including: Mark Adam (percussion), Norman Adams (cello), Simon Docking (piano), Mark Hopkins (conductor), Max Kasper (double bass), Susan Sayle (viola), Gillian Smith (violin), Naoko Tsujita, (percussion), and Eileen Walsh (clarinet). I performed solo flute. John D.S. Adams of Stonehouse Sound recorded the sessions at University Hall in Wolfville and will be mixing and mastering the final album. The Canadian Music Centre is scheduled to release the CD sometime in the winter/spring 2017. I’m thrilled about this project, and look forward to the release!
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- Charke’s works incorporate unique soundscapes and atmospheric sounds of the natural world.
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- Many of Charke’s compositions are written for flute.
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- Capturing the sounds of the ocean.
For more information on Derek’s activities, visit www.charke.com.