BIO

Artist Statement:

“Bright Sadness is my debut piece into more serious music composition…it comes out of a personal need for empathy, or at least a means of expression in the wake of war and endless suffering around the world.  Written as a suite for solo cello and accompaniment, the work explores two distinct emotions within human experience - joy and sadness.  The cello leads us on this journey through a suite of spring songs, laments and dances.  To capture this paradoxical dilemma, Bright Sadness, I use two seemingly different tonalities to explore the spectrum between two fundamental states: triad – both major and minor.”

more on the concept and form

Oleksa Lozowchuk

Oleksa Lozowchuk has composed and produced music for film & television, dance and theatre, as well as for various musical albums. His work has aired on CBC, Radio-Canada, Icelandic NBS, Estonian Klassikaraadio, Radio New Zealand, Lviv Television and Ukrainian National Television. Lozowchuk has studied privately with internationally-renowned composer, Ivan Moody, and has had works commissioned by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the cello section of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra, and most recently by marimbist, Anne-Julie Caron. He has also received numerous awards both for his music and film projects, including Canada Council for the Arts Grants for Music Composition (2004 & 2002), and a DuMaurier Arts Award (2001) for his film Anna’s Wedding. The recording of his much-acclaimed chamber work ‘Bright Sadness’ was nominated for a 2004 Opus Prize in the the Album of the Year Category. Most recently, Lozowchuk’s music was featured in Pigeons International’s new dance work, the Earth Trilogy, which toured in Canada, Portugal and Columbia. Lozowchuk composes and produces music that compels you to ‘hear what you see’ and to ‘see what you hear’.