Mark Takeshi McGregor | |
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 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | December 20, 1972 Richmond, British Columbia |
| Occupation(s) | flutist, visual artist |
Mark Takeshi McGregor is a Canadian flutist, educator, producer, curator, and visual artist.
Mark Takeshi McGregor | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Background information | |
| Born | December 20, 1972 Richmond, British Columbia |
| Occupation(s) | flutist, visual artist |
Mark Takeshi McGregor is a Canadian flutist, educator, producer, curator, and visual artist.
McGregor was born in Richmond, British Columbia, and grew up in North Delta, British Columbia. He received his Bachelor of Music (BM) degree from the University of British Columbia in 1995; studied at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal in 1997; received a Master of Music (MM) from the University of Sydney, Australia, where he studied with Margaret Crawford and Richard Toop; (thesis topic: Evolution of extended techniques in the flute music of Brian Ferneyhough ); and Doctorate of Musical Arts (DMA) from the University of British Columbia in 2012, where his thesis topic was Of Instrumental Value: Composer-performer collaboration in the creation of avant-garde flute music, and notably includes the first overview of the performance career of Severino Gazzelloni written in English language, as well as an in-depth interview with renowned Canadian flutist Robert Aitken and writings about McGregor's collaborations with three contemporary Canadian composers. [1] [2]
In 2001, Jordan Nobles and Mark Takeshi McGregor co-founded of Vancouver's Redshift Music Society, [3] [4] an organization founded in 2001 which commissions and premieres new works by Canadian and international composers. McGregor was co-artistic director along with Nobles from 2005 to 2012 [2] and helped launch the Redshift Records label, which released its first CD in 2007. McGregor has been featured on, and produced, a number of their 40 releases, which feature the music of contemporary Canadian and international composers. [5]
McGregor was the Artistic Director of Powell Street Festival Society in Vancouver, Canada from 2015 to 2016. [6] [7] In 2021 he succeeded S.D. Holman as artistic director and executive director of the Queer Arts Festial in Vancouver. [8] [9]
Mark Takeshi McGregor has premiered flute concertos by Gordon Fitzell, Anna Höstman, James Beckwith Maxwell, and Piotr Grella-Mozejko, and has commissioned and premiered dozens solo and chamber music by dozens of contemporary Canadian and international composers, including Pedro Alvarez, Dániel Péter Biró, Philip Brownlee, Jennifer Butler, Dorothy Chang, André Cormier, Michael Finnissy, Graham Flett, Patrick Giguère, Etsuko Hori, Kaiyi Kao, Yota Kobayashi, Chris Kovarik, Emilie LeBel, Hope Lee, Ellen Lindquist, Nicole Lizée, Simon Martin, Cassandra Miller, Jocelyn Morlock, Gregory Lee Newsome, Jordan Nobles, Anders Nordentoft, James O’Callaghan, Michael Oesterle, Nova Pon, Marci Rabe, Benton Roark, Jeffrey Ryan, Farshid Samandari, Alfredo Santa Ana, Rodney Sharman, Paul Steenhuisen, Edward Top, Hiroki Tsurumoto, and Owen Underhill. [2] [10] He is most frequently heard in concert as soloist, with Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa as the Tiresias Duo, [11] and as flutist for the Victoria-based new music ensemble, Aventa. [12]
Until 2021 McGregor was instructor of flute at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) School of Music, [13] the Vancouver Academy of Music, [14] and Vancouver Community College. [15] He served as sessional faculty (flute) at the University of Victoria in 2016. [2]
Classical Artist of the Year
Classical Recording of the Year
The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute produces sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, flutes are edge-blown aerophones. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist or flutist.
Walter Hamor Piston, Jr., was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University.
Bill McBirnie is a jazz and Latin flautist, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was raised in the small town of Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada.
Daniel Dorff is an American classical musician and classical composer.
Vancouver Community College (VCC) is a public community college in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Founded in 1965, it is the oldest community college in British Columbia, offering 79 certificate programs, 24 diploma programs, 9 award of achievement programs, 8 apprenticeship programs, 4 statement of completion programs, 3 bachelor's degree programs, and 2 associate degrees programs. VCC has two campuses: Broadway and Downtown.
Robert Dick is a flutist, composer, teacher and author.
Maggi Payne is an American composer, flutist, video artist, recording engineer/editor, and historical remastering engineer who creates electroacoustic, instrumental, vocal works, and works involving visuals.
The Powell Street Festival is an ongoing annual festival in Paueru-Gai, Vancouver. Originating in 1977 the Powell Street Festival is the largest Japanese Canadian festival and the longest ongoing community event in Vancouver. The festival takes place in and around Oppenheimer Park. The Festival takes place every BC Day long weekend, which usually lands around the beginning of August.
Derek Charke is a Canadian classical composer and flutist.
Imani Winds is an American wind quintet based in New York City, United States. The group was founded by flutist Valerie Coleman in 1997 and is known for its adventurous and diverse programming, which includes both established and newly composed works. The word Imani means "faith" in Swahili. They are also active commissioners of new music with the intent of introducing more diverse composers to the wind quintet repertoire.
Lorna McGhee is a Scottish flutist and teacher, currently serving as Principal Flute of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2012. In addition, she is an Artist Lecturer in Flute at Carnegie Mellon University. Past positions include co-principal flute of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and associate professor of flute at the University of British Columbia. She is currently a member of a flute, viola, and harp ensemble, 'Trio Verlaine' with her husband, violist David Harding and harpist Heidi Krutzen. McGhee is known for her "luscious tone colors and dynamics."
Marina Piccinini is an Italian American virtuoso flautist. She is noted for her performances of compositions by Mozart and Bach, and has performed with many of the world's top orchestras and conductors.
The Queer Arts Festival is a multi-disciplinary arts festival produced annually in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Laura Chislett is an accomplished Australian flute player known for her inspiring and versatile performances. She performs contemporary repertoires including Brian Ferneyhough's Unity Capsule, James Dillon's Sgothan, Michael Finnissy's Sikangnuqa, Reza Vali's Song flute solo and Maurice Weddington's Deovolente. Her repertoire also includes neglected 20th-century works by Lili Boulanger, Willem Pijper, Augusta Holmès, and Jean Binet. Laura has performed as a guest soloist with orchestra/ensemble at major festivals, including the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Sydney Spring Festival, Insel Musik Berlin, the Pittsburgh International Music Festival and the Australian Chamber Orchestra performing Michael Smetanin's flute concerto Shakhmat/Supremat.
Valerie Coleman is an American composer and flutist as well as the creator of the wind quintet Imani Winds. Coleman is a distinguished artist of the century who was named Performance Today's 2020 Classical Woman of the year and was listed as “one of the Top 35 Women Composers” in the Washington Post. In 2019, Coleman's orchestral work, Umoja, Anthem for Unity, was commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Coleman's Umoja is the first classical work by a living African American woman that the Philadelphia Orchestra has performed.
Jordan Nobles is a Canadian composer who specializes in creating spatial music and open instrumentation compositions. His music is performed worldwide and has won several international and national awards including the 2017 Juno Award for Classical Composition of the Year.
Brandon Patrick George is an American flutist. He studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Michel Debost, in Paris with Sophie Cherrier, and received a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music. He was appointed flutist of Imani Winds in 2018, succeeding founder Valerie Coleman. Brandon has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, and with the Orchestra of St. Luke's chamber ensembles. Prior to his work as a solo and chamber musician, Brandon performed as a guest with American orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. A Resident Artist with Imani Winds at the Mannes School of Music at The New School, Brandon is on the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. He plays the Verne Q. Powell platinum flute made for the 1939 World's Fair, which was previously owned by William Kincaid, and displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Musical Instrument Collection. Brandon's album of works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Pierre Boulez, Kalevi Aho, and Sergei Prokofiev was released by Hänssler Classics in September 2020. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Robert Lemay is a Canadian composer of solo, chamber and orchestral works.
Heidi Krutzen is a harpist. She is the principal harpist for the Philharmonia Orchestra, a member of the Turning Point Ensemble, and a chamber musician and soloist. She is the former principal harp at the CBC Radio Orchestra and the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.
