 |
 |
|
  |
|
COMPOSER
John Gzowski is a composer, musician and occasional
instrument builder. He has written concert music for
Hemisphere’s, Array Music, Evergreen Club Gamelan Ensemble,
and the Madawaska String Quartet. In theatre he has worked
on over 50 plays with companies such as Soulpepper, Tarragon
Theatre, Factory Theatre and Canadian Stage. He has been
nominated for eight Dora Mavor Moore Awards, winning four of
them for Froth’s Quartet, DVXT’s The Dollhouse, Coyote Ugly;
and Guardian Spring’s.
MUSIC FOR DANCE
For dance he has written for Dancemakers, Kaeja D’dance,
Andrea Nann, Kate Alton, for the dance filmwork of Veronica
Tennant and Margie Gillis and about a dozen works with
partner Julia Aplin.
MUSICIAN
As a musician he has played in many rock and pop groups,
such as The Garbagemen, Meryn Cadell and Meril Nisker (now
known as Peaches).
IMPROVISED MUSIC
His work with improvised music has included John Zorn, Eliot
Sharp, The Space Trio, N.O.M.A., Paul Cramm’s early groups,
winning him the 2003 Freddy Stone Award.
OTHER CULTURES
His interest in music from other cultures has led him to
performing Romany Gypsy music with the Altin Yidiz Okestar,
South African pop with Siyakkha, Greek and Arabic music with
Maza Meze, and North-Indian-flavoured jazz with Tasa, on
instruments such as oud, tambouritsa, cumbuc, cello and
mandolin, garnering him a Juno nomination and awards from
Toronto’s Greek community.
BUILT INSTRUMENTS
An interest in tuning and temperament led to the building of
several instruments designed for higher resolution tunings,
including guitars in Harry Partch’s 43-tone just intonation
system known as Monophony. He has led the microtonal group
Critical Band, with concerts across North America, and built
replicas of Partch’s instruments for the performance of
newly-commission music as well as performances of several of
Partch’s early works. He has also built and plays the Cat’s
Cradle, electric 2x4, and the surrogate chromelodeon, some
of which have been exhibited in the Art Gallery of Ontario.
John Gzowski has played Banjo in Banff, oud in Wells, guitar
in Whitehorse, cello in Toronto, electric dowel in
Kitchener/Waterloo, adapted guitar in New York, and Ship’s
horn in St. Johns’. Recently he has begun studying Indian
Classical music with North Indian legend, Ali Akbar Khan and
Carnatic master U Shrinivas.
www.johngzowski.com
jgzowski@sympatico.ca
Get a hard copy of my cd Gziganes, at
http://www.cdbaby.com/gzowski
or download it at iTunes.
www.itunes.com |
