About
Malcolm Forsyth
Instruments: Composition/Songwriting, Conductor, Trombone
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Canadian composer, teacher, trombonist, and conductor Malcolm Forsyth has earned international recognition.Born in 1936 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, Forsyth majored in trombone, conducting and composition at the University of Cape Town and played trombone for 8 years with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. In 1968 he emigrated to Canada and settled in Edmonton where he joined the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Forsyth's works have been performed and broadcast throughout the world. He has received commissions for noted artists such as singers Maureen Forrester and Judith Forst, the Canadian Brass, Helmut Brass, Bl�serensemble Mainz, the Montreal, Edmonton, Cape Town Symphony Orchestras and the Natal Philharmonic. His work has been extensively recorded, with the most recent discs being of his Complete Works for Solo Cello and Piano, performed by his daughter Amanda Forsyth, currently Principal Cellist of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and pianist Peter Longworth; Sun Songs with Judith Forst and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra conducted by Mario Bernardi.
Forsyth has produced richly expressive music for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal media. He has received 3 Juno Awards: in 1987 for the orchestral suite Atayoskewin; in 1995 for his Sketches from Natal for string orchestra; and in 1998 for Electra Rising, a cello concerto composed for his daughter Amanda. In 1989 Forsyth was named Canadian composer of the year by the Canadian Music Council.
"Forsyth's recent music shatters the myth that modern music is dry and academic. (His) work has the sense of a constant wind, a lightness, an optimism blowing through it, (and) there is always the sense of mystery..."
Murray Dineen, The Ottawa Citizen
On the Ottawa premiere of Electra Rising
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Alix Goolden Performance Hall