Joanna Stark- Musican

A very Happy New Year to all friends, family, and followers alike! Despite the numerous challenges we've faced over the last year, there's a lot I am certainly grateful for, not least the ability to be able to write/arrange, record and edit music independently. Nature, too, has been a significant inspiration for me this year, especially in light of the climate crisis. And so, to celebrate these gifts and approach the new year with a glimmer of hope, I thought you might like this wee cover of Steeleye Span's 'The Holly and the Ivy'. This is the first time I have experimented with making a music video, so I'd be interested to hear your feedback on whether the video married well with the music (or not!). I hope you enjoy, and would like to thank each one of you for your valued friendship and support this year, whether that was online, in person or in a collaboration of some kind. All the Best for 2021!

🌟New Announcement!🌟

Over lockdown, I have found myself keen to write a lot more, mainly for the two ensembles I have been performing with for the last two years. After having arranged a trad set for my piano trio 'Forth Trio' back in January (which we performed in our Netherlands concerts pre-lockdown) I knew I wanted to write more for the group, and draw on these traditional influences.

And so...having Jesse Ofgang commission me to write for pipes and trio for his final Master's Project (no pressure...!) back in August was just as much a shock as it was a massive delight, as I got to learn more about an instrument I have heard so much growing up but never performed alongside with.

The piece was largely inspired by a 2011 recording of 'Der Leiermann' from Schubert's 'Winterreise', ft. Matthias Loibner on the Hurdy Gurdy. Broken down, I think the instrument sounds a bit like pipes playing the melody with string drones, and then of course there are keys to play, so I felt like the quartet could represent one whole instrument at times. However I knew that I would also allow for the trio texture to expand where it communicates in a more traditional dialogue with the pipes, like you would have within a classical piano trio for instance.
After a bit of improvising on the cello (how I usually compose things...!) I came up with the main swung melody which comes in pipes and cello, whereas the chant-like beginning (incidentally, this was not a play on the word 'chanter!) was focused on giving a more lyrical voice to the pipes whilst experimenting with its chromatic range (and perhaps also influenced by the many occasions when I have been singing medieval music in St Giles' with a distant pipe accompaniment coming from the 'Mile'...).

I really hope you like it, and please do share if so! Huge thanks must go to Jesse for his amazing playing, editing, mixing, not to mention all the other projects he was involved in whilst doing this! Big big thanks go out to my fellow Forth Trio buddies whom I miss performing with so very much!! I feel really inspired to develop my composition portfolio from projects like this, and hope to write more in the months ahead whilst performing is still limited to online 🎶🎻🎹🪗