Drop

Drop is haunted by ghosts of violin sonatas past, ghosts whose desires are sometimes indulged, but more often frustrated. It was commissioned with the assistance of The Ontario Arts Council by the Sabat-Clarke Duo, who premiered it in Toronto in January 1999.

Toronto composer James Rolfe (b. Ottawa, 1961) writes for chamber ensemble, orchestra, and choir. He has been commissioned and performed by ensembles in Canada, the USA, Europe, and New Zealand. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000, the K. M. Hunter Music Award in 2003, the 2005 Louis Applebaum Composers Award, and the 2006 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for raW.

Mr. Rolfe is also known as of Canada’s leading opera composers. His opera Beatrice Chancy was produced between 1998 and 2001 in Toronto, Dartmouth, and Edmonton by The Queen of Puddings Music Theatre Company. In February 2009 the same company premiered Inês, which was nominated for a Dora Award. The children’s opera Elijah’s Kite was premiered in New York in 2006 by Tapestry New Opera Works with the Manhattan School of Music, and later presented at Rideau Hall in Ottawa before the Governor-General. His masques Orpheus and Eurydice and Aeneas and Dido (with words by André Alexis) were premiered by The Toronto Masque Theatre in 2004 and 2007. Swoon was premiered in December 2006 by the Canadian Opera Company, which has since commissioned a new opera. Other upcoming premieres include Norway’s Trio Mediaeval and the band of North Toronto Collegiate Institute.

For more information about James Rolfe, click here.