Ariadne’s note: World Poetry Café Radio with hosts Ariadne Sawyer and Israel Mota welcomed the special musician, teacher and composer Anthony Prosk by phone on Salt Spring Island! He was launching his new CD GULF ISLANDS SUITE”, a musical tribute to “Canada’s Jewels”, the Gulf Islands of British Columbia. We also want to mention the E-poem by Dr. Hadaa Sendoo from Mongolia,Vancouver Love’
Here are some comments about his performances:
World class entertainer…we always hire Anthony for all our events…totally recommendable”
Norm MacKenzie, South Surrey Administrator’s Association
“Anthony flooded our garden with a rich tapestry of sound that greatly added to the enjoyment of our special day.”
Bob and Joanna McKay, Salt Spring Island
“Anthony’s performance set a very elegant tone for our National Conference Banquet in Whistler.”
Anne Naiyme, Canadian Association of High School Principals
To listen to this fascinating interview on the radio CLICK HERE!
Anthony Prosk
Tone began his musical career during his teens playing bass guitar in rock and country bands in Southern Alberta. He went on to earn 7 scholarships while accomplishing a Bachelor of Music, Cumme Laude, at the University of Lethbridge, with a triple major in flute performance, music theory and ensemble performance. This was followed by a degree in Music Education, and subsequently, his 40 years as a working musician during which time he taught music in public schools for some 20 years.
Currently he stays busy performing his solo show FLUTATION and playing with many collaborative musical groups, most notably his contemporary art music performance ensemble NU IMPRESSIONS. Tone conducts workshops on a variety of musical topics, has created music for film and stage and tries to respond to new musical projects. He has just completed his third CD, “GULF ISLANDS SUITE”, a musical tribute to “Canada’s Jewels”, the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, where he now lives.
Amidst all these self generated activities Tone stills finds time to teach private lessons from his home studio, but mostly he enjoys being the musical performer at special occasions and events.
Anthony Prosk flutnik@gmail.com To buy a CD: www.flutation.com To contact him for a special occasion:1-250-221-0065
About the Music of Gulf Islands Suite by Anthony Prosk
Here is some information on his new CD!
“The music of Gulf Islands Suite takes the styling of Romantic and Impressionist composers and places it in a modern West Coast elemental genre. The result is a soundscape of timeless sophisticated music that portrays the essence of the Gulf Islands and brings the listener into their peacefulness.
Gulf Islands Suite draws on my Romantic inclination and love of the Impressionists. Hearing Hip-Hop artists interjecting jazz and pop riffs into their songs provided me further impetus to proceed. I came up with the idea to interject melodic motifs from Impressionist composers into my songs then expanded that idea to become counter melodies and harmonic threads subtly woven into the underlying fabric. Sometimes these fragments were played forward, backward, upside down or altered with other compositional techniques. Sometimes short motifs were looped together in longer strings; sometimes I used them in their raw form as “quotes”. This became one of the main compositional devices I used when writing the Suite.
To help create the organic elemental feel of the Islands, the sounds of nature: wind, rain, waves, running water and thunder, were recorded and woven into the underlying texture of each piece. Viewing the magnificent land and seascapes as I rode the water taxi to work each day inspired different pieces of music. I would use harmonic passages and melodic motifs from Romantic and Impressionist compositions as a basis for improvisation in my mind. This became both a point of departure and a key element in Gulf Islands Suite.
I wrote the suite backward from the usual composing methods of harmonizing a melody or writing melody and harmony together. The bed tracks were created and recorded first to set the moods of each island, then I improvised the flute parts, often in one or two takes, which gave the melodies a fresh organic spontaneity. I modified some of the flute parts with digital delay, pitch shifting and flanging to create a broader palette of tonal colors and textures to better capture the essence of the Islands.
Gulf Islands Suite was created, recorded and performed by Alex Höchsmann and myself with the assistance of Chris Kodaly on piano. This new and greatly improved second edition features two original paintings on the cover by Salt Spring artist Diana Dean, and is dedicated to the memory of Constance Clarinda “Goodie” Goodall who first encouraged me to play the flute here on Salt Spring in 1973. I hope you enjoy listening to the music of Gulf Islands Suite as much as we enjoyed making it.”
Anthony Prosk (C)
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