Zachary joined journalist Mike Goldberg, composer Courtney Bryan, and violinist Laura Frautschi in a conversation about the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s winter tour with Branford Marsalis. Click here to listen to this conversation on Virginia Public Media about Courtney’s new composition Carmen Jazz Suite on Themes by Bizet and Zachary’s new orchestration of Debussy’s saxophone Rhapsody.
As part of Stefan Heucke’s Praetorius Projekt, Zachary wrote Fixation II for solo piano. Composer/Pianist Edward Rushton premiered the piece during a concert of more than 20 new works inspired by the “Pavane de Spaigne” by Michael Praetorius.
A recording of the November 1st concert was broadcast on Westdeutscher Rundfunk 3 on December 2, 2021. The concert recording will be available to stream here for the next 30 days, and Zachary’s work begins at 1:18:55.
Writing for the Calgary Herald, Kenneth DeLong wrote admiringly of Luminous' Voices’ Brahms and Wadsworth concert, which paired Brahms’ “Ein Deutsches Requiem” with two new works by Zachary. DeLong wrote:
Since no composer today writes in the style of Brahms, it is all too easy for the connection between these works to seem artificial, forced or arbitrary. But Wadsworth has too much experience with choral music and too much taste and musical judgement to fall into this trap. Together a splendid account of the Requiem by Luminous Voices, it was Wadsworth’s contributions that gave the concert its unique feeling and atmosphere — an “across the generations” mood that gracefully linked past and present, all in a sober reflection on death in the context of war.
Click here to read the full review in the Calgary Herald.
Virtuoso violinist Joanna Kurkowicz performed the premiere of Zachary’s Fixation I during her recital “Bach and Beyond,” premiered on YouTube. Click below to watch the recital, which includes two sonatas by J. S. Bach, as well as premieres of solo violin works by Ileana Perez Velazquez and John McDonald.
Watch the recital below (Fixation I begins at 21:20):
The new recording of Zachary’s oratorio When There is Peace has been nominated for a JUNO Award for Best Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral. The album features performances by Chor Leoni Men’s Choir, soprano Arwen Myers, tenor Lawrence Wiliford, the Borealis String Quartet, and percussionists Robin Reid and Martin Fisk. Erick Lichte, who co-wrote the piece’s libretto with Peter Rothstein, conducts.
The awards ceremony will take place on March 15, 2020 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the WWI Armistice, When There Is Peace is a bold reflection on the time when guns fell silent and hope bloomed once more.
When There Is Peace: An Armistice Oratorio by Chor Leoni Composer-in-Residence Zachary Wadsworth is Chor Leoni’s first recording since winning the prestigious Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence from the professional organisation, Chorus America.
Told in the words of Great War-era poets and the found writings of infantrymen in the trenches, When There Is Peace draws the listener in to experience the journey from war through that tenuous moment when word of the Armistice first broke, and finally to the delirious ecstasy when the guns fell silent, and hope bloomed again.
Joining Chor Leoni to tell this compelling story are the renowned Borealis String Quartet, noted Canadian tenor Lawrence Wiliford, soprano Arwen Myers, and percussionists Martin Fisk and Robin Reid.
Commissioned and premiered by Chor Leoni, When There Is Peace marks the first work for the choir by Zachary Wadsworth. Premiered on the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of World War I, When There Is Peace was recorded live at Vancouver’s St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church and broadcast across Canada by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation on Remembrance Day, 2018.
