This week, Ottawa composer Leonard Lightstone sent a sampling of excerpts from a live concert recording I did of his multi-movement piece for solo viola d’amore and prerecorded track, Avrix Mi Galanica. The concert was presented by Innovations en Concert in Montreal a couple of years ago, when I first started commissioning new music for viola d’amore. While I’ve performed movements of this piece since then, I’ve never had the chance to program the whole thing, including the sections using recorded tracks of hand claps or synth sounds, and have never recorded it since. Hearing it again is a reminder to keep it alive! It’s a great piece composed of variations on a beautiful sephardic folk melody, playing with a diverse palette of timbres and characters in the viola d’amore. Have a listen: