“Well on his way to becoming one of the world’s leading flutists”
- Alex Varty, Georgia Straight (Vancouver) |
“Mark McGregor’s playing verged on the superhuman. I cannot imagine a finer performance – nor a more convincing one.
- Derek Barker, Music in Victoria |
February 2011
Recent news: Mark Takeshi McGregor premiered a new concerto for flute and ensemble, Vovere, by the composer James Beckwith Maxwell with the Aventa Ensemble, Bill Linwood director, on February 6th, 2011, in Victoria BC. Preparation for this work included an inspiring weeklong residency at The Banff Centre. To listen to an excerpt of Vovere, Click here.
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| Flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor is the winner of numerous honours, including the CBC Pacific Spotlight and Debut Young Artists competitions, and has collaborated with many respected musicians, such as violinist Dmitri Sitkovetsky, cellist Steven Isserlis and Icelandic pop star Björk. Described as a musician of “huge physical energy,” McGregor’s performances have been lauded by the press as “mind-blowing” and “verging on the superhuman.” He has performed in festivals and music series across Canada, including Festival Montréal-Nouvelles Musique, Music Gallery (Toronto), New Works Calgary, Vocalypse (Halifax), and the Adaskin Series (Victoria), and throughout Europe, Australia and Israel. |
| An outspoken advocate of new music, Mark is principal flute of the Aventa Ensemble in Victoria, one-half of the Vancouver-based Tiresias Duo with pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and co-artistic director of the Redshift Music Society, a new music society dedicated to the performance of Canadian composers in alternative venues. McGregor has given many local and world premieres, including the first North American performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Ypsilon for solo flute, the premiere performance of Anna Höstman’s flute concerto Trace the Gold Sun with the Victoria Symphony, and the premiere performance of Turmalin, a major multi-movement solo flute work by the Danish composer Anders Nordentoft, at Scandinavia House, New York City, in June 2009. More recently, Mark's performance of Stephen Chatman's Wild Cat at the 2010 Western Canadian Music Awards in Kelowna was singled out by the Province newspaper as "a festival highlight." |
| Mark's 2010/11 season saw the premieres of two new Canadian flute concertos: Tombeau sur la mort de Monsieur Górecki by Piotr Grella-Mozejko, and Vovere by James Beckwith Maxwell, both performed with the Aventa Ensemble under the direction of Bill Linwood. This season will also see the mounting of Seven Deadly Sins, a new solo flute project presented by Redshift Music in which McGregor will perform new solo flute commissions by seven Canadian composers, each inspired by a deadly sin. This event takes place on June 16, 2011 at the Cultch, Vancouver. |
| Since 2008 McGregor has performed extensively for the Health Arts Society, a non-profit society dedicated to bringing live music to the aged and ill throughout Canada. To date, Mark has given nearly one hundred performances in care facilities, retirement communities and palliative care units throughout British Columbia. These continue to be some of the most rewarding and enriching experiences of his career. |
| Mark’s discography includes le Signe du Lion with the Aventa Ensemble, as well as Delicate Fires with Tiresias, which features newly commissioned works by Canadian composers Jocelyn Morlock, Rodney Sharman and Jennifer Butler, and was nominated for a 2008 Western Canadian Music Award. In May 2009, McGregor released his first solo disc, Different Stones, featuring new works by Christopher Kovarik, Gregory Lee Newsome, James Beckwith Maxwell, Jennifer Butler, Marci Rabe, Tudor Feraru and Jordan Nobles. This CD was released on the Redshift Records label, and was the recipient of generous funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, was nominated for "Classical Album of the Year" at the 2010 Western Canadian Music Awards.In 2010 Tiresias received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to record a new CD, Halos of the Moon, to be released in 2011. |
| Mark McGregor’s tuition includes studies at the University of British Columbia, le Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, the University of Sydney (Australia) and the Stockhausen Courses in Kuerten, Germany. His teachers include Margaret Crawford, Camille Churchfield, Sonja Boon, Samuel Baron and Wilbert Hazelzet. In 2007 he received a Professional Musicians grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to undertake a month of specialized studies in Paris with the renowned flutist Pierre Yves Artaud. |
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