Meanwhile SHHH!! Ensemble

• Jocelyn Morlock (b. 1969): Spirit Gradient:
• 1Morlock: Spirit Gradient06:24
• Noora Nakhaei: Echoes of the Past:
• 2Nakhaei: Echoes of the Past06:21
• Kelly-Marie Murphy (b. 1964): Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine:
• 3Murphy: Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine05:10
• Micheline Roi (b. 1963): Grieving the Doubts of Angels:
• 4Roi: Grieving the Doubts of Angels11:34
• John Gordon Armstrong (b. 1952): The Angels' Share:
• 5Armstrong: The Angels' Share: I. Like a Fist to the Jaw03:06
• 6Armstrong: The Angels' Share: II. Smells like Vanilla Ice Cream04:04
• 7Armstrong: The Angels' Share: III. A Spicy Little Dram02:49
• Monica Pearce (b. 1984): leather:
• 8Pearce: leather07:48
• John Beckwith (b. 1927): Meanwhile:
• 9Beckwith: Meanwhile11:09
• Total Runtime58:25

Info for Meanwhile

The debut album “Meanwhile”, features electrifying new music for piano and percussion by some of Canada’s most creative voices.

SHHH!!… a powerful utterance designed to draw attention forward… creating space and awareness… opening ears to something important.

Percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham, the two members of the duo SHHH!! Ensemble, have carved a space for themselves as compelling performers, collaborators, and commissioners of electrifying new music. They have toured across Canada, performing works written for them by both established and emerging composers. A keen taste for experimentation and discovery has guided their “avant-accessible” projects, which they have workshopped at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, and the Canadian Music Centre, leading to feature performances at the Tuckamore Festival, Ottawa Chamberfest, Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, the National Arts Centre #CanadaPerforms series, and a live-for-broadcast performance on the CBC Radio 2 program “In Concert.” Upcoming projects include the world premiere of Machines, Mannequins, and Monsters, a new double concerto written for them by Kelly-Marie Murphy, with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, as co-artistic directors of the Ottawa New Music Creators, Zac and Edana enjoy curating performances by leading Canadian and international artists in their home base of Ottawa, Ontario.

SHHH!! Ensemble

SHHH!! Ensemble
is the piano/percussion duo of pianist Edana Higham and percussionist Zac Pulak, an Ottawa-based duo dedicated to the creation of new and innovative programs for that combination. Zac and Edana pride themselves on presenting programs that are as accessible as they are groundbreaking by commissioning works by exciting and creative new Canadian voices while collaborating with luminaries such as John Beckwith, Jocelyn Morlock, and Kelly-Marie Murphy. SHHH!! Ensemble has performed from Western Canada to the Atlantic provinces, appearing in venues such as Ottawa’s Shenkman Arts Centre, Calgary’s Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall, Toronto’s Trinity Church and Edmonton’s Convocation Hall.

In 2017 and 2018, SHHH!! Ensemble developed their unique “avant-accessible” programs through residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Belgium’s Vormingscentrum Destelheide with the additional support of the Canadian Music Centre and the ARTicipate Endowment Fund. The National Arts Centre, the Health Arts Society Ontario (Concerts in Care), OrKidstra, and more have partnered with SHHH!! Ensemble to present these captivating programs for students and community members, which integrate arrangements of classical repertoire, immersive participatory pieces, and a selection of specially commissioned works.

SHHH!! Ensemble’s provocative “Spirits” program premiered at the Canadian Music Centre in January 2020, following a week-long residency there, and has since toured at concert venues and universities across Canada. “Spirits” is a mixed program of J.S. Bach, Andy Akiho, Jocelyn Morlock, Micheline Roi and more which reveal the composers’ reflections on the nature of creativity, meditation, as well as Scotch whisky and the beyond, and was called “truly virtuosic and intense” by Toronto’s Confluence Concerts.

In early 2020, SHHH!! Ensemble was accepted into the prestigious Evolution: Classical residency at the Banff Centre. This led to major 2020 highlights, including a live-streamed National Arts Centre #CanadaPerforms concert, the world premiere of JUNO-winning composer Jocelyn Morlock’s “Spirit Gradient” with the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland, a multidisciplinary collaboration with the Ottawa New Music Creators and the Ottawa International Writers Festival, and a CBC Radio 2 live-for-broadcast performance with Toronto’s Music Mondays.

Booklet for Meanwhile