Release Date: October 30, 2020
Title: Twilight Hour: Collected Stories for Piano
Format: CD/Digital
Artists: Jennifer King (piano) in works by Kabalevsky, Ravel, Schumann, Copland, Turina, Prokofiev, Weiner and Grieg
Produced by: Anne Simons and Rod Sneddon
(Halifax, NS) Twilight Hour: Collected Stories for Piano is the latest recording from Halifax pianist Jennifer King, a collection of twelve short piano works inspired by fairy tales. The album has an accompanying video by multimedia filmmaker Katrina Westin, which can be viewed on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram via @jenniferkingpiano. The recording features illustrations and design by Andrea Ledwell and was recorded at First Baptist Church in Halifax by sound engineer Rod Sneddon.
The twelve tracks on Twilight Hour range from dreamy magical-sounding works like two Preludes by Dmitry Kabalevsky to the energetic Fox Dance by Hungarian composer
Léo Weiner. Fox Dance was the inspiration for one of the video components brought to life by stop motion animator Katrina Westin, who collaborated with Jennifer to bring this project to life during the current pandemic. “When everything got disappointingly cancelled with COVID in the spring, this was a great project to work long distance on with Katrina in Toronto,” explained Jennifer. “She’s created a whole storyline and charming characters to go with the piano pieces, and since she’s a singer, she really understands the timing and flow of the music. We were going for Tim Burton meets Edward Gorey meets The Snowman, and I love the results she’s come up with.” The finished video is about eight minutes, with short excerpts being released over the month of October, and with support from the Canada Council for the Arts through their Digital Originals program.