Kevin Mallon - Wonderful Evening of Entertainment

Review: Thirteen Strings presents a much-needed, satisfying concert during trying times - Sophia Foglia.

The atmosphere was comfortable at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre on the evening of March 19. Audience members chattered excitedly amongst themselves in anticipation of the concert. Highlighted by calming blue and purple lighting, the stage was set in front of the church’s pipe organ. Thirteen Strings, a professional orchestra in Ottawa founded in 1976, collaborated with guitarists Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan as part of their Re/String project for the evening’s programming. According to the orchestra’s website, Cicchillitti and Cowan are a “unique duo that focuses on expanding the contemporary classical guitar repertoire through commissions and collaborations with living composers.” Cicchillitti and Cowan’s Re/String project involved commissioning six new pieces from a diverse range of composers from all over the world, with the intention of having a guitar duo accompanying the orchestra. 

Before the concert began, Pierre Gratton, president of the Mining Association of Canada and Thirteen Strings’ sponsor for their performance season, spoke a few words to the audience.  “One of the greatest forms of release and a great reminder of what is great about humanity is a concert such as this,” Gratton said. “I know that every one of us will be leaving here tonight feeling much better than we were probably feeling when we came.”  He also thanked Thirteen Strings’ funding agencies, including the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa Trillium Foundation. The audience clapped loudly with anticipation as Gratton invited Kevin Mallon, the orchestra’s music director, to the stage. “What an amazing project it is for us to have commissioned six new pieces,” Mallon said.  He also mentioned that before each piece, he would read the audience a note about each of the compositions to provide some context about the pieces. The first piece of the night was entitled Landscape and Memory, composed by Stephen Goss. 

Immediately, the guitarists’ creative ways of utilizing their instruments were made known to the audience. Instead of the joyful strumming that is usually associated with guitar-playing, the two artists’ movements were sharp and precise, adding drama and intrigue to the piece.  The second piece of the night, The Confectioner’s Handbook, was composed by Kelly-Marie Murphy. Created to be the recreation of the process of sugar boiling, Murphy intended to show through her composition “the heat, the bubbling mixture, the precise temperature, long strands, threads, and times.” “But there are moments of beauty and indeed sweetness,” Mallon read out from Murphy’s note. The audience waited a while after the piece ended before clapping and cheering, seemingly stunned by the majestic sounds that graced their senses. Half-thorn Blooms, composed by Bekah Simms, was the third piece of the evening. While enchanting in its own way, its high-pitched frequencies gave the impression of being on the precipice of danger and sounded a little too much like audio feedback.  Patrick Roux composed the fourth piece of the evening: After The Exodus. Before the piece could start, Cicchillitti’s gaze swept over the audience. “This is for you, Pat,” he said, leaving the audience with a lingering curiosity of who Pat may be.  Representing the tumultuous path of migration towards a better life, Roux’s piece was absolutely chilling with its hair-raising raw emotion and heavenly beauty. Even the mood lighting illuminating the pipe organ behind the orchestra reflected this through the colours pink, red and blue. The fifth song of the night, Cloud path, was composed by Amy Brandon. It held its fair share of drama and mystery, however they were not as pronounced or striking as in the other pieces performed. 

The evening ended with a piece composed by Harry Stafylakis, titled To wake and find the world still burning. Composed a year into the pandemic, the piece lived up to its name and its pertinence to current events in the world. Audience members were pulled into an almost dreamlike trance that was mixed in with mystery and suspense.  The artists’ creativity was greatly seen here, as the orchestra stomped their feet to create a beat and the guitarists rapped their knuckles on their instruments to make rhythm. So moved after these incredible performances, the audience gave a standing ovation that lasted around a minute and a half. The musicians bowed as the audience gathered their belongings and met up in groups to converse about the emotions evoked during the concert.  On their way out, still reeling from the music, the audience got the chance to thank Kevin Mallon, the evening’s organizers and the musicians for a wonderful evening of entertainment.

Kevin Mallon - Irish Conductor, Violinist and Composer

The Irish conductor, violinist and composer, Kevin Mallon, was born in New Jersey, USA. However, at an early age he went to live in Belfast, Northern Ireland and became a student at St. Malachy's College. He won a scholarship to Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, UK, where he was greatly influenced by the conductor and early music specialist John Eliot Gardiner. Under him Mallon developed an interest in performance on period instruments, leading to a distinguished career as a violinist and conductor. At Chetham’s, Mallon was involved in the choirs, singing with the award winner Chetham’s chamber choir and at Manchester Cathedral. He was a member, and rehearsal conductor, of the National Choir of Great Britain. Mallon later studied composition with Peter Maxwell Davies at Dartington College of Arts, and studied violin at the Royal Northern College of Music. While a student Mallon played in projects with the Hallé Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1989-1992 Kevin Mallon led and directed The Irish Baroque Orchestra, was concert- master of Le Concert Spirituel and Les Arts Florissants in Paris. With these groups, he recorded and performed concerts all over Europe, including Vienna, London (Wigmore Hall), Berlin, Paris (Versailles), Russia, The Baltic States, China, and Japan. In 1993 he accepted positions with the University of Toronto and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and has developed parallel career as a conductor of opera, choral and orchestral music. He now left those positions in order to pursue his conducting career.

In 1999 Kevin Mallon founded the vocal and instrumental group the Aradia Ensemble, with whom he has toured widely, and become conductor of the Toronto Chamber Orchestra. With these ensembles he has made over 50 recordings for Naxos (including a series of 20th century works), has produced two music videos and appeared on numerous film soundtrack including Yes Man- Jim Carey (2008). The Aradia Ensemble has toured extensively across Canada, to Ireland, Italy, the USA and New Zealand. From 2010 to 2013 Aradia Ensemble was the orchestra in residence at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy with Mallon conducting: George Frideric Handel’s Giulio Cesare (2010), W.A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni (2011), Le nozze di Figaro (2012).

Kevin Mallon has conducted the contemporary opera company Opera Anonymous– Igor Stravinsky’s Rakes Progress (1999), and the early 19th century opera Lucas et Cecile by Canadian Joseph Quesnel (2001). With Toronto’s Opera in Concert, he has conducted G.F. Handel’s Semele (2002) and Rameau’s Castor and Pollux (2003), G.F. Handel’s Rinaldo (2004), G.F. Handel’s Tamerlano (2005) Antonio Vivaldi’s La Griselda (2006), W.A. Mozart’s Zaide (2008), Il mondo della luna, by Haydn, (2009), G.F. Handel’s Giulio Cesare (2010), Die Freunde von Salamanka by Schubert (2012) G.F. Handel’s Orlando (2103) and Hippolite et Arice of Rameau (2014). With the Toronto Operetta Theatre has conducted Wiener Blut by Johann Strauss (2006) The Merry Widow by Franz Lehár (2007) and Lehár’s Count of Luxembourg (2008).

The Gramophone and BBC magazines have featured major profiles on Mr. Mallon. He won Gramophone Editors Choice Awards for his recordings of Boyce symphonies and G.F. Handel’s Water-Music and Royal Fireworks. Further awards include a 2009 Juno nomination for a Haydn Symphonies CD.

In Ireland Kevin Mallon was appointed Artistic Director of Opera 2005, formed to celebrate Cork’s tenure as European Capital of Culture. With this company he conducted W.A. Mozart’s Figaro’s Wedding (2005), Georges Bizet’s Carmen, (2005), Weill’s Threepenny Opera (2006) and Rossini’s Barber of Seville (2006), Don Giovanni (2007), Verdi’s Ballo in Maschera (2008). The company was three times nominated for the Irish Times Theatre Award. In 2004 and 2005 he conducted several cantatas in Orchestra of St Cecilia: Bach Cantata Series in Dublin. In 2009 he undertook a contact with the Odessa Opera, Ukraine, as to conduct in Odessa, then on tour to Holland, Belgium and Spain.

Kevin Mallon’s most recent appointments are as Music Director of Thirteen Strings Chamber Orchestra in Ottawa (2010), as Conductor of New York’s newly formed West Side Chamber Orchestra (2011), Music Director of Orchestra Toronto (2013) and as Interim Artistic Director of Opera Lyra, Ottawa (2014).

He also fulfills a wide range of guest conducting engagements, recently including the Windsor Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia and Symphony Niagara, the Hamilton Philharmonic, Thunder Bay Symphony, Orchestra London, Seattle Baroque Orchestra, Cambridge Concentus, Halifax Summer Opera Festival etc.

Kevin Mallon is an Irish fiddler and is also a composer; most recently writing music for the TV series Camelot.

Kevin Mallon — Irish Music Director

Kevin Mallon was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey but at an early age he went to live in Belfast, Northern Ireland and became a student at St. Malachy's College. He won a scholarship to Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, England, where he was influenced by John Eliot Gardiner. He later studied composition with Peter Maxwell Davies at Dartington College of Arts, and studied violin at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Mallon played violin with orchestras such as the Hallé Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic, and later became concertmaster for Le Concert Spirituel and Les Arts Florissants. He performed with these groups around the world, in many European countries, in the United States and Canada, and in Asia. In 1993 he accepted positions with the University of Toronto and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. In 1996, Mallon founded the Aradia Ensemble, of which he is the music director.  With this early music group, and with the Toronto Chamber Orchestra, of which Mallon is music director, he has recorded more than fifty CDs for the Naxos label, including works by Buxtehude, Charpentier, Handel, Lully, Purcell and Vivaldi.