The Music

Mercury

Rodney Sharman’s inspiration for Mercurio dal ciel in terra was both scientific and musical. The 88-day orbit of Mercury matches the 88 keys of the piano, all of which Sharman employs in this piece. To launch our journey into the heavens, the piece quotes Mercurio’s aria from Monterverd’s L'incoronazione di Poppea as he informs Seneca of his impending execution: Lieto dunque t'accingi Al celeste viaggio, Al sublime passaggio, T'insegnerò la strada, Che ne conduce allo Stellato Polo; Seneca or colà sù io drizzo il volo. With joy, then, ready yourself for the celestial journey, For the sublime passage I will show you the way That leads to the starry pole; Seneca, now towards those heights I direct my flight.

Composer, Rodney Sharman

Rodney Sharman is Composer-in-Residence of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. He was Composer-in-Residence and Composer/Music Advisor with the Vancouver Symphony from 1997 to 2001 and Composer-in-Residence of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in 2004. His chamber opera, Elsewhereless, with libretto and direction by Atom Egoyan, was performed in concert in Amsterdam, and staged thirty-five times since its 1998 premiere. His work has been performed in more than thirty countries worldwide and has been featured at new music festivals which include the Bourges Festival (France), Ars Musica (Belgium), International Gaudeamus Music Week, Festival Confrontaties, Holland Festival (Netherlands), Wien Modern (Austria), Nyyd Festival (Estonia) the Almeida and Huddersfield Festivals (UK), ISCM World Music Days (Canada, Mexico, Germany), the North American New Music Festival, New Music Across America, Sub-Tropic Music Festival, Bang On A Can (USA) and the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music (Germany), at which he was awarded the 1990 Kranichsteiner Music Prize.

His music has been performed by orchestras in Canada, the U.S. and Europe under conductors Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Mario Bernardi, Andrey Boreyko, Sergiu Comissiona, Charles Dutoit, Hans Graf, Eri Klas, Pavel Kogan, Ed Spanjaard, Bramwell Tovey, Bruno Weil and Keri-Lynn Wilson. Ensembles and soloists who have performed his work include the Hilliard Ensemble, ARRAYMUSIC, Ensemble SMCQ, Ensemble Exposé, CIKADA Ensemble, het Nieuw Ensemble, the Ives Ensemble, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Arditti Quartet, the Vancouver New Music Society, pianists James Clapperton, Anthony de Mare, Michael Finnissy, Yvar Mikhashoff and John Snijders, organist Hans Ola Ericsson, violinist Denise Lupien, doublebassists Stephano Scodanibbio and Robert Black, flutist Camilla Hoitenga, harpsichordist Colin Tilney, harpists Erica Goodman, Ernestine Stoop and Rita Costanzi.
His music has been choreographed by Marie-Josée Chartier, David Earle, Christopher House and James Kudelka for Benoit Lachambre, Toronto Dance Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada.

Elsewhereless, a chamber opera with libretto and direction by film-maker Atom Egoyan, has been performed in concert in Amsterdam and staged thirty-five times since its 1998 premiere in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.
Dr. Sharman is a graduate of the University of Victoria School of Music (Victoria, B.C.), the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik (Freiburg, Germany) and the State University of New York at Buffalo, from which he received a Ph.D. in May, 1991. His former teachers include Murray Adaskin, Rudolf Komorous, Brian Ferneyhough, Morton Feldman, David Felder, Frederic Rzewski, Louis Andriessen and Lucas Foss.

During 1983-84 he was guest composer at the Institute of Sonology (Utrecht, Netherlands). He has taught at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of British Columbia School of Music, the School for the Contemporary Arts and Faculty of Graduate Liberal Studies, Simon Fraser University.

Rodney Sharman was President of the Canadian League of Composers (CLC) from 1993-98 and was president of the Canadian Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) from 1991-95. He has served on the CLC Council from 1988 to 1999.
Visit Rodney Sharman's website