Community News
Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra presents Family Stories featuring Anansi Odyssey
BY PAUL JUNOR
It will be an exciting concert on Saturday, February 10th, at St. Paul L’Amoreaux Anglican Church when the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) presents Family Stories.
It has been 44 years since the SPO has been enriching the musical life of Scarborough. It is a training ground for new generation artists and is committed to featuring original Canadian creations and collaborating with Scarborough’s diverse artists and ensembles. The upcoming concert “Family Stories” will feature musical compilations that will feature the heartwarming narration of the character Anansi.
I interviewed Ted Runcie (Composer-in-Residence of the SPO) regarding the upcoming concert. Runcie was born in 1970 in Mandeville, Jamaica and grew up in Aberdeen, St. Elizabeth before his parents moved to Kingston. He was strongly influenced by Jamaican folk songs, ska and reggae as a youngster, which left an indelible impression on him. He mentioned that his maternal grandmother was a lead vocalist and accordionist at the Moravian church that he attended. The hymns and songs he heard exposed him to organ music.
His musical education began after his parents moved to Canada. He started studying the tuba. He later took violin, voice and piano lessons. He attended Agincourt Collegiate Institute and performed with the city-wide youth orchestra and choir.
He traveled to Wales in 1985 where he competed in the National Eisteddfod with the Scarborough Schools’ Youth Choir where they placed 3rd. The impetus to pursue conducting was a strong one that contributed to hearing contrapuntal lines in his head. “It started happening every day, sometimes all day. The music came so fast and in such volume that all I could do was to sing along with it as I worked or walked.” Singing and playing this unfamiliar music impressed his teachers and they came to the awareness that these musical ideas were his own.
Runcie played and recorded a number of his small chamber and solo works while still in high school and during his university years, which included solo instrumental pieces with his peers.
He pursued post-secondary studies in music and French at McGill University. After completing his Bachelor’s Degree he moved to the United States in 1989 and lived in New Hampshire.
Runcie has many compositions to his credit, which are listed on his website. They include:
Two Maroon Folk Songs
It premiered in October 1996 by Jamaican clarinetist Michael Maxwell and Chinese pianist Sooka Wang.It was inspired by the master’s work on Jamaican folk music by Stephanie Williams.
Reflections
In the late fall and early winter of 1996, two movements of this piano suite were premiered by Brazilian concert pianist, Ricardo Peres which was recorded by CBC radio and broadcasted across Canada.
String Quartet No.1
It premiered in Taiwan on February 6th, 2010, at the Taipei Philharmonic Recital Hall.
December 1919
It premiered on May 4th, 2011, at the University of Oklahoma and was conducted by Andrew Marshall. It was based on the eponymous poem by legendary Jamaican poet Claude Mackay.
Sinfonietta: Xamayaca 1494
It is a three-movement work, and the first movement was performed on November 7th, 2015, by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Jamaica (POJ), conducted by Franklin Haliburton.
Runcie returned to Scarborough in 2021. His upcoming concert will only feature a seven-minute excerpt from the entire composition which would take about 25-30 min. It will be performed in its entirety at a later date. Through sponsorship from Canada Council of Arts, he conducted research on Anansi stories in New York, Toronto Library System and at the Institute of Jamaica. His work on “Sinfoniettas” continues as he explores Jamaican history.