John Burge

Below is a collection of videos of John Burge's compositions:

Nicholas Capozzoli gave a super performance of Dance, the very first solo organ work I wrote, on the Canadian International Organ Competition's Bach-Mobile, which is a mobile stage and organ console, in front of Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Montreal in October 2020.  Stunning!

Aaron Tan gave a wonderful performance of a Chorale Prelude I wrote on the Quaker melody that I grew up singing to the words of "Lord of the Dance" but many people will know it as"Simple Gifts". This video was part of his Yale University's Masters of Music recital program at Woolsey Hall from February 2020.  So glad he shared this with me.

Always great to work with Nurhan and Sinfonia Toronto and attend this December 2019 concert. This video is the opening 10 minutes of an 18-minute, three movement work that was written for the Music at Port Milford Summer School String orchestra over three summers as a fund-raiser from 2016-18. Each year, the opportunity to title each movement was auctioned off to donors of the summer school with all proceeds going to the organization. All donors were able to hear their commissioned work performed by the summer school orchestra each summer. Sinfonia Toronto presented the first complete performance and for that I am very grateful.

Leonid Nediak (a very talented young Kingston pianist who studied composition with me for many years and whom I have helped out by playing the orchestral reduction for many of his orchestral engagements), presented the first professional performance of my Prelude and Fugue No. 1 (C Major) at a concert at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Kingston, ON, on October 29, 2019. The Bach-inspired ornamentation of this Prelude will be immediately apparent to knowledgeable listeners but the Fugue subject is more chromatically derived with flashes of syncopation. This is the first of an anticipated complete set of 24 that will probably take about a decade to complete as it is my intention to practice these daily myself and before trying them out myself in very relaxed public concerts and making corrections and revisions as needed. I played this one in public for the first time at a free Sunday afternoon concert at the Agnes Etherington Music in January 2019, before passing it along to Leonid, who certainly performs this work with more control and poise than could be heard coming from my own hands.

The Isabel String Quartet is the resident string quartet of the Dan School of Drama and Music at Queen's University where John Burge teaches. "Oil Thigh" is the gaelic title of the Queen's University school song that is sung at alumni gatherings and sporting events to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." In 2017 for an alumni event, John Burge incorporated this tune as a theme in a very classical styled composition titled, "Haydn Does The Oil Thigh." Below is a recording that the Isabel Quartet made of this movement in 2019.

The New Orford String Quartet, in their first season as Music Directors of the Prince Edward County Chamber  Music Festival in 2018, commissioned and premiered a one movement, 20-minute string quartet that is really an elegy/celebration of Leonard Cohen, who died in November 2016. Labelled as String Quartet No. 2, it is subtitled, "Death of a Lady's Man", which is a title borrowed from a book of Cohen's poetry. The subtitle also captures an allusion to Schubert's very famous string quaret known as "Death and the Maiden." Attentive listener's will hear the first few notes of Cohen's song, "Hallelujah", used as one of the piece's main building blocks.

The Japanese String Orchestra, Musica 14.8, led by Etsuko Kimura, has recently posted a wonderful video of a live performance all three movements of Upper Canada Fiddle Suite that was taken from a performance in Kyoto, Japan on July 27, 2017.  Etsuko also lives and performs in Toronto and played with Sinfonia Toronto in the CD recording that ensemble made of the work.

The National Youth Orchestra of Canada, Jonathan Darlington, conducting, performing John Burge's Four Seasons of the Canadian Flag at Maison symphonique, Montreal, July 23, 2017. The four movements are ordered: Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring.

Joshn Lyon, a talented Kingston videographer, filmed an archival copy of the cabaret/musical, One Last Night with Mata Hari [Book/lyrics by Craig Walker; Music by John Burge] from the premiere production in Kingston, 2017. Using some of this footage, Josh created a 9-minute trailer that provides a good overview of the show and the talents of Patricia O'Callaghan and Gregory Oh.

Cathedral Architecture exists in three versions: organ and brass band; organ and orchestra; organ and piano.  This last version was written specifically for Duo Majoya, Marnie Giesbrecht, organ, and Joachim Segger, piano, who gave a wonderful premiere performance of the piece at West End Christian Reformed Church, Edmonton, AB on November 4, 2016.  Note that the work is in five movements.

A parent of one of the students in the Music at Port Milford Summer School String Orchestra posted this video of the premiere performance of At Water's Edge, August 7, 2016, on YouTube [what might be missing in tuning is made up for with energy]:

Mathew Walton performed the complete set of John Burge's Twenty-Four Preludes as part of his DMA requirements on Sept. 11, 2016 at the University of Alberta:

Oscillations is the last piece in the collection Piano Reflections for solo piano.  This video was made of the composer playing the piece, recorded at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts, Queen's University, Feb. 2016:

 Everything Waits for the Lilacs (1996) performed by Scott Meeks at Indiana State University, May, 2010