Left to Right: Lee Pui Ming, Erin Donovan, Norman Adams

Lee/Adams/Donovan

On Saturday, March 10, 2012, at the Wood Hall (900 Johnson St.), Open Space presented suddenlyLISTEN’s Lee/Adams/Donovan trio. The trio consists of Lee Pui Ming (piano), Norman Adams (cello), and Erin Donovan (percussion).

This adventurous ensemble, all the way from Halifax, presented a concert of collaborative improvisation and original compositions. Drawing from a broad range of influences spanning from classical to contemporary, this ensemble stimulates, entertains, and expands horizons. Their music is described as rich, spontaneous, and emotionally charged. S. Pedersen from the Halifax Chronicle Herald describes their concert as "a pure experience, full of strangeness and astonishment."

In their improvisational practice, the Lee/Adams/Donovan trio creates an intimacy and closeness in the musical experience akin to the idea of chamber music. Norman Adams, the cellist for the group and suddenlyLISTEN’s artistic director, describes it as experiencing  "being up close, and the intimacy that you can feel listening to 'music in a chamber' — a small place where you can be close to the musicians and feel where the music’s coming from."

BIOGRAPHIES

One of Canada’s most searchingly experimental pianists Lee Pui Ming’s practice has led her to new ways of transforming and integrating Chinese material into her work; creating a live performance gestalt that includes sounding all parts of the piano, engaging her body and her voice; finding fresh ways of weaving tonalities; and diving into the wide expanse of open improvisation.

Norman Adams is principal cellist of Symphony Nova Scotia and the Artistic Director of suddenlyLISTEN music. Norman has been a soloist with SNS and Les Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal and has performed chamber and improvised music throughout the US and Canada and in the UK. His performances have also been heard across Canada on CBC Radio One and Two. His musical career finds him performing in diverse venues, in collaboration with a broad range of performers. Amongst others, he has collaborated with Pauline Oliveros, Eddie Prevost, Jean Derome, Buck 65, and Gerry Hemingway; in Festivals such as the Lincoln Center Outdoor Festival, Halifax Jazz Festival, and Festival des Musiques du Creations; and as a soloist with SNS.

Percussionist and composer Erin Donovan is active in the creation, performance, and presentation of new music. Erin presents concerts as director of Hear Here Productions — an organization that designs multi-media events for alternative spaces. Recent Hear Here events include Two Jack Wish (a co-production with the Banff Centre and Parks Canada) at Two Jack Lake near Banff and the Bankhead Project — a large-scale site-specific event at Lower Bankhead, a ghost town just outside of Banff. Erin is also active in the dance community, collaborating with and creating/performing music for performance artist Katherine Duncanson’s Fossil, dancer Yvonne Ng’s Brocaded Clouds (a Love Story), and Paper Women and in dancer/choreographer Peter Chin’s Tulmiskat and Converse. Most recently, Erin was privileged to create music for choreographer Yvonne Ng’s newest work "Frequency," which premieres in Toronto in March 2012. She will be in St. John’s, Newfoundland, this summer, performing with her percussion quintet at the Sound Symposium. Erin lives in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, with her family.