EL MAHBOOB

Category: Arraymusic

  • ex tempore (live)

    ex tempore, for small ensemble (2024) 9′
    Commissioned by Arraymusic with support from SOCAN

    Premiered February 1, 2024 at the Array Space, Toronto
    This is an excerpt from the concert recording made by
    Matt Legge, House & Production Manager

    The Array Ensemble:
    Stephen Tam, flute
    Colleen Cook, clarinet
    Aiyun Huang, marimba & vibraphone
    Sheila Jaffé, violin
    Lydia Munchinsky, cello
    David Schotzko, conductor

    With just over two weeks to go before the world premiere of my newest work blood of infinity at Arraymusic’s upcoming New Encounters concert, I present an excerpt from an earlier commission by the Array Ensemble.

    ex tempore premiered in the first of three New Encounters concerts that I curated, alongside works by Hanna Benn, Anthony R. Green, and Kathryn Patricia Cobbler. The work is dedicated in memory of Ann Southam, a pioneer in Canadian composition and for women in this field. During a radio interview in 1999, I asked her if she had advice for young composers to which she responded, “Don’t get pushed around by influences, just listen to your own voice as much as you can.”

    I intend neither to be pushed around by influences and expectations of so-called new music, nor to avoid influences altogether but rather incorporate them in a way that represents me. Much of Canadian composition occupies a rigorous, expansive and rarefied sonic space, often in a singular and compelling way. I feel contemporary concert music can also be diasporic, folksy, terse like pop, and still sometimes exploratory.

    The title is meant to suggest several possible meanings, including something improvised, a snap judgement, and the temporal expansion characteristic of Southam’s minimalist works.

    Image: Array Ensemble, screenshot from video by Matt Legge

    Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2026

  • blood of infinity – World Premieres at New Encounters

    “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” — Assata Shakur, 1987, 139. While sketching ideas for what would be my only composition of 2025, Shakur passed away in Havana. Her words became instruction, a history to reflect upon while seeking an intention. On January 31, 2026, David Schotzko of the Array Ensemble will give the premiere of blood of infinity, a mallet percussion solo in memoriam to this iconic freedom fighter, who died in exile without justice. This concert, New Encounters III, will be the final program I’ve created for my composer-curator residency with Array.

    The concert will include the world premiere of Palestinian Canadian composer, pianist, visual artist John Kameel Farah‘s By the Side of the Road, a special Arraymusic commission and performance collaboration. It will also mark the first concert to feature incoming co-composers in residence Bekah Simms and Monica Pearce, programming their exploratory works alongside Louisiana native Courtney Bryan‘s powerful Elegy, a response to Abel Meeropol’s composition “Strange Fruit.” Tickets for in-person or livestream are available here.

    Black Lives Matter. End Empire. Free Congo. Free Palestine. Free Sudan.

  • Interview with Linda Catlin Smith

    On August 29, 1998, composer, educator and former Arraymusic Artistic Director Linda Catlin Smith walked up to the attic studio of CIUT 89.5 FM on St. George St. and gave a brilliant, illuminating, live interview on Radio Music Gallery. I was a year into hosting the show, brash and awkward, and yet made space for Linda to speak expansively about her work and ideas. She was gracious in correcting my on-air mispronunciation of her name. I was fortunate to have made this early connection, and be present for what in retrospect felt like a composition lesson.

    The source audio is an aircheck recording on cassette, digitized in July 2025. The release of this interview was authorized by Linda Catlin Smith.

    Recordings referred to during the interview:

    The Surroundings (1995), performed by Barbara Pritchard

    The View from Here (1992), performed by Barbara Pritchard

    Versailles (1988), performed by Les Coucous Bénévoles

  • Arraymusic New Encounters II

    On Saturday, February 15, 2025, Arraymusic presents the second in a concert series I’ve titled New Encounters. In-person and livestream tickets available here. I curated this program, and it’s wonderful to assist in bringing these composers to a new audience.

    Curator’s Note: The idea of the New Encounters concert, in contrast to its older cousin Four New Works, is that the pieces on the program are previously unheard by Arraymusic audiences if not all world premieres. This year, we’re fortunate that all four works will indeed be premieres, two of them arrangements by Pouya Hamidi and Morgan-Paige Melbourne of their existing music, and two freshly minted compositions by Maria-Eduarda Mendes Martins and Eldritch Priest. These creators are from very different sound worlds, and I’m excited for those to align in one evening with the Array Ensemble.

  • In Conversation with Stephanie Chua and Adam Sherkin

    On Thursday, November 14th, I will be part of Artists in Conversation, discussing my piano compositions in person with junctQín keyboard collective‘s Stephanie Chua and Piano Lunaire‘s Adam Sherkin, and listening to them perform solo selections of mine that they are also playing in concerts during November. Questions and input from those in attendance are welcome. Details are below.

    Date & Time: Thursday, November 14th, 7:30 pm (doors 7:00 pm)
    Location: Arraymusic, 155 Walnut Ave, 2nd floor, Toronto
    Admission: Free
    Duration: 1 hour
    Register your attendance in advance: info@pianolunaire.org

    Go to my Events page to see the concerts related to this event.

    There is also a Facebook event page.

  • Perhaps Bells: New Piano Music by Bruce A. Russell

    Perhaps Bells: New Piano Music by Bruce A. Russell

    On November 16th, 2024, my second portrait concert “Perhaps Bells” will take place at Arraymusic, with much anticipated performances by the adventurous and multi-talented junctQín keyboard collective. This is a special program I’ve been hoping to hear since the start of my Array residency. It’s all piano solos and duos, all world premieres of work composed in the 90s and 00s when there were few audiences or concerts if any, and includes a new arrangement of Madra (originally for variable instrumentation). These pieces relate directly to my recent ones written for Array and other ensembles. They were created under the influence of American and Canadian minimalists, popular music in general, and a more expansive list that includes Wally Badarou, Harold Budd, John Cage, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Henryk Górecki, Kraftwerk, Arvo Pärt, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Erik Satie, Ann Southam, Linda Catlin Smith, and James Tenney.

    On the same weekend, Freesound will present their season opening program in the Array Space (“Music for Piano Quartet II,” November 15th and 17th), making for an exciting mini-fest of contemporary concert music.

    Stay tuned for another piano announcement (November is my piano month) and more.

  • ex tempore CBC In Concert Broadcast

    On Sunday, June 23, 2024, a concert performance of my latest composition ex tempore (ik’stempəri) will be broadcast across Canada on CBC Radio’s “In Concert with Paolo Pietropaolo,” along with two other recorded performances from Arraymusic’s “New Encounters” concert on February 1st. Hanna Benn‘s Introitus and Kathryn Patricia Cobbler‘s Echoes will also be included in the broadcast. This will be a first for me both as a composer and curator. “In Concert” runs from 11:05am-3:00pm in five of Canada’s time zones (11:35am-3:30pm NT) and can be heard on terrestrial radio (94.1 FM in Toronto), streaming live at cbc.ca/listen or on the CBC Listen app. Select a city in the desired time zone on the app or website. The best time to tune in prior to the Arraymusic portion is 2:15pm.

  • 2004+20 aix

    aix (“waters”), for two pianos, is a short study in rising and falling patterns, with alternating chordal and canonic textures. It’s a slightly unsettled lullaby, composed on “04 04 04” (April 4, 2004, the 36th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.).

    The primary melodic shape, an ascending seventh followed by a descending second, is heard in several of my piano pieces of the period. The piece is written in diatonic A-flat major, with a harmonic progression on the scale degrees 4-3-2-1-5-6.

    Stephen Clarke, Wesley Shen, pianos
    Recorded live at The Array Space, Toronto by Daniel Tapper, November 21, 2020

    Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2024

  • ex harmonia World Premiere

    On April 20 and 22, 2023 as part of Four New Works, the Array Ensemble premieres ex harmonia, in memoriam to my former teacher, the late James Tenney. There have been a few big firsts for me as a re-emerged composer in the past three years, and this is perhaps the one closest to my heart.

    35 years ago, I sat in Jim Tenney’s composition class for the first time and dreamt of composing music for a contemporary classical ensemble – the Linda Catlin Smith-era Arraymusic in particular. Despite that fortunate and promising beginning, I ended up focusing on self-performed, non-notated music outside of the concert scene in my early years and eventually put my arts career on hiatus. Three decades would go by before I had the first concert of my music (by Array) and my first commission (Gryphon Trio). Life has taken me the long way round, and I’m so overwhelmed with joy as this great circle closes.

    Still being a bit new to this kind of collaboration with other musicians, this was the hardest piece I’ve had to write so far. I sincerely hope it doesn’t sound that way, though! I had both the memory of Jim and my 20-year-old self quietly with me at times, and what felt like eons of struggle and loss emerging as grief in the process. I went through many revisions as the pandemic wore on and the premiere was delayed.

    Old binary conflicts sowed some tension once more: am I an experimental or sentimental composer? Forward looking or traditional? In my skin as a Black creator, or not? I thought of Jim seeking to overcome dichotomy in his compositional explorations, and that one was of several ways he was an inspiration. Those familiar with his work may also hear echoes of it in ex harmonia. Hence the title: “out of harmony,” a tribute to his Harmonia pieces among others. It’s a strange composition for me in some ways, but I’m most eager to share it as part of integrating my experience of personal change, growth, and movement.

    I also wrote my first grant application in decades and am grateful to Toronto Arts Council for coming through. On top of that, I feel the support of my family and extended community this week. Not least, my good friend and editor Ash Mistry, the magic man, was of critical help with his always excellent work.

    As I’ve been getting to know the community of classical musicians working in Toronto and North America more broadly, some of whom I knew before as a fan, I’m so floored to have players of such high calibre offering their time and incredible talent to realize my work. It’s really cool and also humbling.

    I’m honoured also by the composer company on the program: Seung-Won Oh, Rose Bolton and Cheldon Paterson (aka SlowPitchSound). And my thanks continue to go out to David Schotzko, Sandra Bell, Mark Wilson and the rest of the Array team and Board of Directors for making me feel so welcome as the inaugural Composer in Residence.

    Both live audience and livestream pay-what-you-want tickets are available, depending on the night.

  • 2012+10 Fourths + Fifths

    “Fourths + Fifths” is the first of three movements from Kenza (2012), and the fourth movement in the cycle of nine in Children’s Suite (2007-2014). It was composed the year my second child Kenza was born. Like all the other movements in the suite, it’s written entirely on the white keys of the piano, in pandiatonic C major. My intention was to create music that was both childlike and abstract.

    The movement is structured around a sequence of six diatonic modes, each associated with a melodic pattern. Each pattern is built up from a single, seven-note arpeggio into a homophonic canon by layering the pattern against copies of itself with different starting points. The intervals of the fourth and fifth predominate throughout.

    Performed by Stephen Clarke, piano, as part of a composer portrait concert by Arraymusic, November 2020

    Audio and image from video by Daniel Tapper

    Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2022