Christos Hatzis, is currently enjoying a growing international reputation as one of the most important composers writing today. His works are being performed, broadcast and recorded in Canada, the US and in Europe by some of the world’s best known soloists and ensembles. This new recording on CBC Records offers two perspectives, and two discs, featuring Hatzis’ writing. The first disc offers more traditional fare with two of his choral masterpieces, while the second, offering music inspired by trips to Canada’s north, offers a fascinating soundscape of music and voices that will hit an emotional chord unlike you’ve heard before. On DISC I, there are two works featured, De Angelis and everlasting light. Christos Hatzis comments that, “The two works on this CD are two stops on a spiritual journey that is still very close to its starting point and very far from its destination. They are a feeble attempt to capture in sound the mystical experience of Light, an experience that is as elusive and resistant to ‘translation’ as it is powerful in its impact to the individual who has it. Time, space and patience are the active ingredients in connecting with this experience and the music breathes very deeply and slowly, to make this connection possible. I am grateful to the master musicians of this CD, who through their vocal and instrumental alchemy, have transformed the notes on the page into something that has surpassed even my own vision of what is possible through music.” Those master musicians include counter tenor DANIEL TAYLOR, tenor BENJAMIN BUTTERFIELD, baritone RUSSELL BRAUN, percussionist BEVERLEY JOHNSTON, with the ELMER ISELER SINGERS and the AMADEUS CHAMBER SINGERS, all conducted by LYDIA ADAMS. The common element that permeates all of the compositions on DISC II, entitled footprints in new snow, is the katajjaq (¥�Õç§), the Inuit throat games. There are four compositions: String Quartet No. 1 (The Awakening) (1994), Hunter's Dream (1994), Footprints in New Snow (1996), and Fertility Rites (1997). Hatzis comments, “The magic of the arctic north, its people and particularly their vocal games have become an obsession with me for a number of years and the works in this CD are the creative testimony to this obsession. I hope the music and its ability to transport and engage the imagination will take you to Canada's north, the stark, clear and limitless vistas of the arctic, and let you experience a society in transformation, one which has managed to strike a balance between the wisdom of the past with the vision of a future.” The throat singers featured in the recording include ANGELA ATAGOOTAK, PAULINE KYAK, ELISHA KILABUK, KOOMOO NOVEYAK, ELIGAH MAGGITAK, NAPACHIE POOTOOGOOK, TIMAGIAK PETAUTASSIE and HAUNAK MIKIGAK, with instrumental performances and accompaniment from BEVERLEY JOHNSTON on marimba, flutist ANNE THOMPSON, violinists ANNALEE PATIPATANAKOON and CAROL FUJINO, violist DOUGLAS PERRY and cellist DAVID HETHERINGTON.

CD 1: Everlasting Light De Angelis Everlasting Light CD 2 : Footprints in new snow Fertility Rites Hunter’s Dream footprints in new snow      -Welcoming Song      -Winds of Change      -Voices of the Land      -Katajjaq      -In the Name of God      -Footprints in New Snow String Quartet No. 1   (The Awakening)

Description courtesy of CBC Records www.cbcrecords.ca