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Diana McIntosh
is well known for her creative imagination
and originality, and she has written several works of unusual
instrumentation, such as, Four on the Floor,
for 4 pianos, 3 brass
and 2 percussion, with creative coloured lighting, (this work was
commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for its New Music
festival), several works for toy piano and mouth percussion, and a work
for food processor and spoken text.
Her
earliest compositions were little piano pieces, written when she was
about 12 years old. Her piano teacher was not very interested in
her creativity, and her mother merely said, "That's nice, dear".
So that aspect of her nature was sublimated until she was in the
Bachelor of Music program at the University of Manitoba - as a "mature
student"(!) - when her talents were properly encouraged. An
assignment in Peggy Sampson's Form in Music classes required writing
arias for voice and piano, and a sonata for piano. It turned out
that Diana was about the only one in the class who wrote the works in a
modern idiom. A bit later, for an assignment from Dr. Robert
Turner, in his clases on Contrapuntal Music, she wrote a Prelude and
Fugue for piano, and a Bagatelle for wind quintet. For the
latter, she was given 100%. Now that's
encouragement! She has always laughed about it, knowing full well
that it's never the case that something can't be improved upon!
Certain
characteristics are evident in all the music she writes.
Structure is vitally important to her - a reflection of her "classical"
music background. Sound-colours are usually evident as well, as
she explores all the sounds a given instrument can make. Shortly
after graduating from the U.of M. she discovered another hidden ability
when she took part in a week-long, live-in acting workshop. It
should have been no surprise that she was good at it, and enjoyed it,
because as a child she and a friend put on little shows in their
neighborhood! This newly-released genie soon developed into a
serious part of her musical writing and performing. A list of
some of her theatrically oriented works is given at the foot of her
catalogue of works.
As
indicated, Diana writes music not only for herself, but also
for others - for virtually any solo instrument or combination of
instruments. Her catalogue
has more than 70 works, listed in categories (solo piano, solo viola,
chamber, etc.). Her scores are available through the Canadian Music Centre. Many of her works have been
written on commission, as shown below:
Diana
lived in Calgary, Alberta until she was married, and she spent many
summers as a young girl with an aunt who had a cabin above Bow Falls,
in Banff. As a consequence, she is enthralled by the grandeur and
the peace of the mountains,
and it seems that her muse resides among them. Her keenest desire
when composing is to be in the ambience of the mountains, and she has
had many residencies at the Leighton Artist Colony, at The Banff Centre.
She has a reputation with the staff there for absolute devotion to her
work, virtually to the exclusion of all else. She
is extremely grateful for that institution, and for the privilege
of using it, completely undisturbed. Many of her
compositions are directly inspired by the Rocky Mountains, several of
which have been assembled into a one-woman show called Solitary Climb,
which is auto-biographical, and speaks to her personal mountain
climbing experiences - the struggle to the summit - and to her striving
to write and to communicate new music. There are
similarities! She also performs Cloud
Walking, a full solo program of shorter works inspired by high
places
ast
Africa to join them in celebrating 75 years of aviation in
Kenya, by performing her original, 50-minute one-woman show, Beryl
Markham -
Flying West With The Night,
for their members. (Markham lived in Kenya and learned to fly
there in the late 1920s, and she was a member of the Aero Club).
While in Nairobi Diana gave two other performances of the same work, in
the Karen Club (named after Karen Blixen) and the Muthaiga Club.
The Aero Club, in appreciation, gave Diana and her husband a safari on
the Masai Mara, including a hot-air
balloon safari. It was an experience of a lifetime, never to be
forgotten. Absolutely perfect, with no down-side. (Except,
perhaps, the flight over
the Rift Valley in
a rain storm, in
a small plane!)
At the Leighton Artist Colony a few weeks after her return from Kenya,
Diana wrote Uhuru
Kamili (Swahili
for "complete freedom"), for piano and percussion, to express her
reaction to that balloon trip and the magnificent animals. She
and Beverley Johnston premiered the
work in a
GroundSwell concert in Winnipeg early in 2003, and gave the Eastern
Canadian premiere in
a concert of Diana's music at
The Music Gallery, Toronto, in April 2004.
Two
CDs - The
Original McIntosh and Another Byte
of McIntosh, and a
video, Serious
Fun With McIntosh, all feature McIntosh's work
exclusively, and many of her works are included on other CDs.
"An individual but genuinely poetic atmosphere.".................. New York Times.
"Diana McIntosh is a national treasure. She is a leading light for any composer, particularly for female composers, and she also brings a very welcome sense of humour and creativity to the concert stages of Canada."..................................................................................................Bravo TV News
4Home
4Bio
4Performing
4Composing
4Catalogue
4Program
Notes
4Hear & See
4Past
4Workshops
4Discography
4Teachers
4Press
Releases 4Awards 4Tours
4Photos 4Associations
4Links
4End
5
composer
469
Kingston Cr., Winnipeg, Canada
R2M 0V1
Tel: (204) 233-4163 Fax: (204) 237-3773
mcint@mts.net
