DESCRIPTION:
February 15, 2013 at the Array Space
The Array Ensemble:

Rick Sacks - conductor
Stephen Clarke - piano
Colleen Cooke - clarinet
Blair Mackay - percussion
Anita McAllister - trumpet
Lydia Munchinsky - cello
James Pugliese - percussion
Adam Scime - double bass
Rebecca Van Der Post - violin


Program Notes: Hypnic jerk draws its title from a particular phenomenon where one who is sleeping, just about to be totally immersed in slumber, suddenly (and seemingly inexplicably) jolts awake. The "jerk" is often accompanied by a falling sensation. I came across this term while in the midst of finishing this work and somehow it felt relevant, despite the lack of conspicuous jerk-like gestures in the piece. The hovering, liminal quality of the work for me was evocative of that not-quite-dreaming state, and that falling feeling that, for me, often precedes a hypnic jerk.

Bio : Nick Storring is a Toronto-based composer/ cellist with a wide palette of interests. Winner of the 2011 Canadian Music Centre's Toronto Emerging Composer Award, he also placed first in the 2008 Jeux de Temps/ Times Play Competition with the first section of his broken violin-derived electronic work Artifacts. His music has been presented by the Esprit Orchestra, Madawaska String Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini, the X-Avant Festival, and the Open Ears Festival. He is currently working on a commission for the 10th Anniversary of Montreal's Akousma Festival, as well as one for Inter Arts Matrix, a new choral/intermedia collaborative work called Signature for Inter Arts Matrix. Both are slated for premiere later this year. Interactive piece Tentacles, featuring Storring's music and sound design, was featured at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2011, while his score for theatre group the MT Space's Last 15 Seconds travelled across Canada and the Middle East in 2010-11. Rife, his debut album of abstract electronic work was released on UK imprint Entr'acte in 2011. www.nickstorring.ca