This album captures the essence of its geographical source, and offers a heartfelt tribute to the land that birthed it.
Much of the material on the debut recording from Vancouver Island chamber group Aerie Trio emerges from the convergence of the kitchen and concert hall, with geography introduced as an additional agent of cohesion. In 2023, Aerie’s flautist and composer Diane Berry was at a birthday party—a cooking class—with fellow Trio member Kathryn Le Gros, vocalist Marnie Setka- Mooney (heard on the present album’s title track), and others when the idea emerged in conversation. Said class was led by Chef Castro Boateng at the beloved House of Boateng restaurant in Victoria, British Columbia (Vancouver Island’s largest city).
Everyone present was enthusiastic including the chef, who was eager to try something diferent. Berry and he subsequently connected and later The Art of Harmonizing Music and Food emerged—an event that saw Berry and her two collaborators performing her original compositions, each one inspired by a specific place on Vancouver Island. Boateng replied to each work with a dish that celebrated the very same location.
This music is assembled here as Vancouver Island Suite, and it constitutes one of the two works on Water, Rock, Tree, Sky, slated for release on Redshift Records, an imprint based on British Columbia’s mainland in Vancouver.
Berry’s approach as a chamber music composer is informed by her omnivorous musical diet. She has performed with a number of groups covering a wide stylistic breadth including jazz, Celtic music and music drawing from, and operating within various global traditions. This assortment of styles guides her approach to creating concert works, as does her immersion in the classical world— both the more recent and historical aspects of it. The resultant sonic recipe sates those hungry for contemporaneity, yet manages to respond to traditional appetites as well.
Vancouver Island Suite is an eight-part work scored for fute, cello, and piano. Generously melodic, Berry’s writing emphasizes the inherent warmth of this instrumentation, putting the sonorities of the trio in conversation with one another while crafting ingenious blends of them as well. In this work, her harmonic sensibility skews transparent, a decision that conjures the open, natural expanses that dominate the landscape on which it is based. And Berry’s keen ear for orchestration illuminates passages with an unexpected lustre. Two thirds of the way through the sixth movement “Garry Oak Meadow” following the conclusion of a more robust section, she introduces a fute ostinato atop which the (plucked) cello and piano trade broken chord motifs before joining together on staccato punctuations. On paper it sounds simple but to the ear it’s a bewitching texture. Around the two-minute mark in the same piece, there’s a wondrously delicate and colouristic fute and cello moment that suggests the soundscape of the wilderness—wind and distant birdsong.
Berry’s aforementioned eclecticism is especially apparent on the titular work, which closes the disc. A trio for flute, clarinet and soprano vocalist, the brief Water Rock Tree Sky has a more ambiguous character than its counterpart, largely on account of its unique instrumentation. All three voices inhabit a similar pitch register, and can only produce one pitch at time. The pair of wind instruments can also easily elide together. Berry works deftly with these intrinsic parameters, alternating between contrast and uniformity and allowing the limited harmonic capacity and pitch scope to impart a foating quality throughout the work. Te sung phrases are distributed spaciously within the piece, and between them the clarinet and flute engage in a variety of different exchanges. It’s in this playful banter where one encounters the improvisatory spirit of jazz and folk musics coming into play.
Housed in a sleeve employing photos taken by Berry’s husband Remi Odense around Vancouver Island, this album captures the essence of its geographical source, and offers a heartfelt tribute to the land that birthed it.
Diane Berry grew up in Toronto, graduating from the music program at York University. Since then, she has been active as a teacher, performer, arranger and composer in such diverse places as Halifax, Nova Scotia, Suva, Fiji, Smithers, British Columbia.
Her output includes pieces for soloists, small ensembles, choral music and works for chamber orchestra. She has often written for the groups she performs with, she has also had works played by the Erato Ensemble, the Turning Point Ensemble, NuBC, the McGregor-Verdejo Duo, Beth Ratay of the Boston New Music Initiative, the Kirkus Ensemble, Clotilde van Dieren & Stefano Poletto, the Gemini Duo, and Mark Takeshi McGregor. Her work has been heard in such places as Seattle, Boston, Dublin, Brussels, Toronto, Hamilton, and throughout British Columbia .
In 2018, Access Contemporary Music commissioned Gaslight 1904, a clarinet and cello work for Open Doors Milwaukee. The same year both the Vancouver and Victoria Symphonies did readings of her piece Ethereal. In 2019 Ontario’s Whispering River Orchestra commissioned the string orchestra work October Blaze from her as part of their Bert Weir Memorial Music Commission initiative. Her piece Refections 1 for solo violin, can be found on Tatiana Warszynki’s CD The Shape of Things. Calling, her work for flute and electronics, was selected for performance in the International Alliance for Women in Music’s Dublin concert, and was also recorded for Jaye Marshe’s release Flute in the Wild from her as part of their Commission initiative.
Berry is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, the Canadian League of Composers, the Association of Canadian Women Composers and The International Alliance for Women in Music.
Since 2018, Aerie Trio has been bringing a unique blend of classical and contemporary classical music to both traditional and unconventional spaces. Based in Victoria, BC, the ensemble currently comprises Diane Berry on flute,Maria Wang on cello, and Kathryn Le Gros on piano and clarinet. Initially, the ensemble included Nathan Jacklin on cello until his relocation to Switzerland, where he continues his career as an active performing musician. The name of the group is inspired by their rehearsal and sometimes performance space on southern Vancouver Island which ofers a panoramic view of everything from urban vistas to snow-capped mountains.
The trio is dedicated to making classical music accessible to a wider audience by performing in an assortment of settings including cofee houses, markets, restaurants, and even the Ward Room at CFB Esquimalt, BC. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they presented a streaming outdoor programme, August Tunes of Passion.
Of course, they also perform in more conventional locales including a recent appearance at the Murray Adaskin Salon in the Canadian Music Centre’s British Columbia Headquarters. The ensemble is passionate about featuring and promoting music by Canadian (and local) women composers, as well as performing pieces specifcally written for them. Aerie Trio continues to enrich the cultural landscape with their dynamic performances and commitment to showcasing diverse musical voices.
