Arctic Dreams 1

promoted Inuit culture

promoted Inuit culture around the globe. His strongest inspiration is his own religious faith, and his religious works have been hailed by critics and audiences alike as contemporary masterpieces. In addition to composing and teaching, Hatzis has written extensively about composition and contemporary music. His writings have been published on Interface, Organized Sound and Harmony, are increasingly translated into other languages and are frequently listed as required reading for music courses in tertiary educational institutions. Two of Hatzis’s works – String Quartet No.1: The Awakening (PE117) and Constantinople – have earned him Juno Awards for Classical Composition of the Year (2006 and 2008, respectively) by a Canadian composer. In 2008 Hatzis also received the Jan Matejcek Concert Music Award, awarded to the most performed and broadcast Canadian composer of the year. In 2010 Hatzis was commissioned by virtuoso violinist Hilary Hahn to write a new work for violin and piano. The resulting work, Coming To (PE119), appears on Hahn’s album In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores, which went on to win the 2015 Grammy Award for Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance. A second commission from Hahn soon followed, with Hatzis writing the hyper-virtuosic Dystopia (PE121) for solo violin. In 2013 the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra commissioned Hatzis to score a major new ballet work, Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation. Hatzis collaborated with award-winning aboriginal throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Steve Wood and the Northern Cree Singers in creating the score for the groundbreaking production. The ballet’s subject matter is close to the composer’s heart as it confronts the impact of the residential school system on Canada’s aboriginal young people. Upon premiering in October of 2014, Going Home Star received critical acclaim. Most of Hatzis’ writings and other information about the composer can be found at http://www.hatzis.com. PE103 – iv

Arctic Dreams I (2002) Arctic Dreams I is a palimpsest; a work composed on top of a pre-existing work. The original source was “Voices of the Land”, the third movement of Footprints In New Snow, a radio documentary/composition about the Inuit and their culture, created by Christos Hatzis and Keith Horner in 1995 with the support from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Ontario Arts Council. The composer writes: Voices of the Land employs the same audio material as Arctic Dreams I with the addition of the haunting voice of Winston White, an Inuit Elder and broadcaster from Nunavut, in the foreground speaking about the north and its inhabitants. It was my intention all along that this audio material would become part of a completely different composition. The opportunity did not present itself until seven years later when my wife, percussionist Beverley Johnston, and flutist Susan Hoeppner asked me for a work they could perform as a duo. They were engaged to perform at a “Collaborations” multiarts series in Toronto. When Valerie Kuinka, the Artistic Director of Collaborations, visited us with her seven-year-old daughter Lauren Margison, at our home in mid April 2002, to listen to possible works for that program, I played the remixed tape from Voices of the Land. Val decided that she wanted to make this the centrepiece of her concert, which was to take place a couple of weeks later. Arctic Dreams I came into being in three days as a result of this meeting, and included an obligato singing part for Lauren Margison and Beverly Johnston. It was premiered on 26 April 2002 at the “Collaborations” concert at Isabel Baden Theatre in Toronto. The work became the first in a set for different combinations of instruments with digital audio from the original radiophonic work. Subsequent works in the same series include (Light) Arctic Dreams II for children’s choir, flute, vibraphone & digital audio, (Light) Arctic PE103 – v