Points of Departure

When Nicholas Papador moved to Canada in 2005 he started participating in the Windsor Canadian Music Festival presented annually by the Windsor Symphony Orchestra and University of Windsor. Over the course of several years, and after exposure to a fantastic body of work by a range of composers, he became enthralled with the rich repertoire of contemporary Canadian solo percussion music.

The title of this recording is the English translation of François Rose's Points d'emergence, and the idea of borders-as simultaneously rigid and porous-links the composers and the cultural and aesthetic influences emerging in their music. François Rose is a French Canadian living in the U.S; Linda Catlin Smith, producer Ray Dillard, and myself are American born, but now living in Canada. Nicolas Gilbert's work crosses genre and applies extra musical narrative touches to his solo vibraphone piece; Catlin Smith's work, coincidentally enough, also is inspired by literature. Christien Ledroit engages punk rock and nuances of world music; François Rose draws from the drumming of South India; and Isabelle Panneton evokes European and French Canadian expression even as angular gestures and sharp dynamics echo the formidable sonic aggression of a 1960s Japanese marimba repertoire.

This recording contains primarily première recordings; Papador is, in most cases, the second performer to play these pieces and the first to commercially record them. This reflects his commitment to explore, cultivate, and increase the visibility of significant existing repertoire rather than seek the notion of propriety that fuels commissions and premieres.