We are excited to be hosting a special SuzukiMusic Fundraiser, to benefit the cello program!
SCROLL DOWN AND PRESS ON THE 'YOUR PRICE' BUTTON TO BUY TICKETS.
FOR LARGER DONATIONS: Please donate by e-transfer. You can send your donation to info@suzukimusic.ca and put Marbyllia in the message box. If you would like a tax receipt please email info@suzukimusic.com with your mailing adress after you donate. Or donate at the door.
Our faculty member, Margaret Maria, with her improvising duo pianist, Bill Gilliam, will perform on July 6, 2024, 12pm at First Baptist Church (141 Laurier Ave.) along with cello faculty members Sonya Matoussova and Emma Grant-Zypchen (with our amazing Liko Yamane as collaborative pianist). There will be a live-stream of the concert if you are not able to make it in person.
Margaret Maria has not performed in Ottawa for at least 10 years, and is finally back on stage, performing her own music and also creating atmospheric spontaneous music with Bill in their Marbyllia duo.
Along with Popper’s Requiem for 3 cellos and piano (with Suzuki cello faculty: Sonya Matoussova and Emma Grant-Zypchen, with Liko Yamane as collaborative pianist), here are some of the pieces you will hear live (all composed by Margaret Maria). About Marbyllia: The Marbyllia duo with Margaret Maria (cello) & Bill Gilliam (piano) invite you to a Suzuki Music Fundraiser and double CD release event in Ottawa, July 6, 2024. They just released their new CD ‘Uncountable Spheres‘ and will perform some spontaneously created music in this same improvisational style. Margaret Maria will also present her 15th album, ‘Goddess of Edges‘. ‘The “Goddess of Edges” is created on the wings of courage. Courage to be who she needs to be, courage to look deep within and see who she is and be radically honest with herself. She has the courage to give everything, knows she can create something out of nothing, is courageous in making choices but also choosing to leave when the environment becomes toxic and harmful. Choosing to be achingly alone to create, with the courage to follow her path against all odds. To live between things is like living in a paradox; a liminally intoxicating untethered state. This is the fate of The Goddess of Edges. She and I are one.’ – Margaret Maria”
“Marbyllia’s debut album “Uncountable Spheres” is a journey where our experimental cello and piano free improvisations imagine a passage through the ethereal nature of the different levels of our earth’s atmosphere sadly impacted by climate change. As we reach the very edge of the exosphere where atoms and molecules escape into space and satellites orbit the earth, we encounter the weightlessness of space and begin our search for unexplored worlds.” - Margaret Maria & Bill Gilliam
MARBYLLIA’S “UNCOUNTABLE SPHERES” MEDIA INTERVIEWS, QUOTES & REVIEWS (JAN, FEB 2024)
Interview with Cellist and Composer Margaret Maria on Her Latest Album, Goddess of Edges – March 2024 interview in Medium by Jenny Poole.
“I don’t think you’re going to hear anything like Uncountable Spheres no matter how far and wide you scan the underground section of your local record store this month.” – Trace Whittaker, Popicon
“Simply put, this is top-notch listening for experimental fans of all stripes”. Heather Savage, Top Buzz Magazine
“The two improvisors push the limits of each other: Gilliam’s extensive range of sounds from his piano and Maria’s extended cello technique and unusual sound makers. The track Stratosphere in Distress is a solid representation of this dynamic team”. – Cheryl Ockrant, TheWholenote
Margaret Maria - bio With her masterful skills as an extraordinary cellist merging with the intuition of a gifted creator, Margaret Maria is a unique and exciting new voice in the world of new music. Her compositional talents have been described by her colleagues as, ‘an unstoppable force of nature - seamless in its complete unification of technical and subconscious realms’. ‘With a kind of synesthesia, I take energy waves of a moment in time, expand its emotions within me, then coat it in musical notes that are sent back out into the world as music. It is my voice making a statement on what it means to be a spirit in a human form living in this world today.’ A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music, her performance career has seen her play on concert stages around the globe and in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Her later in life transition into composition has seen her work performed on stage in her very first World Premiere. ’Between Worlds’ was premiered in 2019 by the Ottawa Chamber Orchestra, with the great Canadian soprano Donna Brown and the soprano with cello orchestra version was released June 2022 on CMC’s Centrediscs Label. Her first professional composer debut is being presented by ‘Concerts at Bourgie Hall’ in Montreal, March 2025. From releasing 16 Studio albums, co-creating Rage Angel (Toronto), Marbyllia (Toronto) and Cinematic Steampunk (Los Angeles), co-creating ‘Art in Divine Harmony’ videos with the incredible Spanish surrealist painter Ángel Muriel, co-founding and conducting OrKidstra in Ottawa, teaching cello at Ottawa’s SuzukiMusic school, guiding the innovative ‘Creativity, Improv and Composition’ Retreat at BIIMA in Breno, Italy, collaborating on songwriting and ‘Music Can Change the World’ social innovation initiatives with soul/reggae singer Tréson, receiving Ontario Arts Council recording grants and Canada Council Grants for study abroad and music creation, to being a Kickass Canadian and featured in the book ‘Canadians Who Innovate - The Trailblazers and Ideas That Are Changing the World’, the sky is the limit when it comes to Margaret Maria’s imagination and creations.
‘I listened in awe’ - The WholeNote Magazine ‘A brilliant display of virtuosity’ - The WholeNote Magazine ‘edgy, challenging and incredibly powerful’ - Bluewolf Reviews ‘Absolutely fantastic’ - Bluewolf reviews ‘Mesmerizing’ - CBC Radio ‘Absolutely transporting’ - CBC Radio ‘A magic in itself’ - Ottawa Life Magazine ‘I take heart from Margaret Maria’s music. It does have healing powers’ - WholeNote Magazine ‘She creates mesmerizing soundscapes with her cello and some technological tricks in her studio’ - CBC Radio
Bill Gilliam, is a Toronto-based composer/pianist, originally from London, UK, who studied jazz and film composition at Berklee College of Music and composition in Toronto. His diverse chamber compositions, performances and recordings have been presented at Canadian venues as well as in England and the USA with support from the Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council. He has composed for film and dance and his album recordings include: “Outside The Maze” (2023), “Light Through Dark” (2021), “Counterstasis – Refracted Voices” (2019), “Entangled Pathways” (2017), Ensorcell (2012), Signposts (2011), Spirit Matter (2001), Urban Undercurrents (1998). In 2009, Bill received grants from the Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council to compose, author and produce a 45 min multimedia opera called “Poems from a Love Triangle“, staged as a “radio drama” for actor, mezzo soprano, flute, clarinet, piano and percussion at the Music Gallery, featuring mezzo soprano Marion Newman. From 2010 to 2019 Bill presented each year his collaborative projects at Gallery 345 in Toronto featuring actors, visual designers, poets, spoken word performers, new music works and improvised music performances. His jazz trio was featured at the 2018 TD Toronto Jazz Festival and the 2019 & 2021 Something Else! Festivals in Hamilton. In 2023, his collaborative trio “Counterstasis” with Glen Hall and Joe Sorbara performed at the Open Ears 23 Festival in Kitchener with special guest bass clarinettist and former Numus artistic director, Kathryn Ladano. His recent collaborations include Marbyllia, an improvising duo with cellist Margaret Maria, who released their debut album “Uncountable Spheres” in Toronto in December 2023 and in Guelph, April 2024. This year he continues to present and perform in his “Art of Improv” series in Toronto featuring guest improvising composers and sound artists such as Kye Marshall, Bruce Cassidy, Gayle Young and performs with ongoing improvisation collaboratives such as Audiopollination, Exit Points and CoexisDance.
Suzuki Music Fundraiser
Concert tickets: pay what you can. (Suggested donation $20 for adults, $15 for students, $10 for seniors and children).
Livestream: pay what you can (Suggested $20.00)
Donation Tiers (your donations include admission to the July 6’th concert):
$50 donation - will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s ‘A Cello for Chelsea’ and ‘Zara the Maggini’ children’s storytelling CD’s.
$100 donation - will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s latest ‘Goddess of Edges’ album CD + will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s ‘A Cello for Chelsea’ and ‘Zara the Maggini’ children’s storytelling CD’s.
$200 donation - will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s ‘Goddess of Edges’ and Marbyllia’s ‘Uncountable Spheres’ album CD’s + will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s ‘A Cello for Chelsea’ and ‘Zara the Maggini’ children’s storytelling CD’s.
$500 donation - 2 special guest passes, with access to rehearsals and concert for Margaret Maria’s debut at Bourgie Hall in Montreal (March 16, 2025) + will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s ‘Goddess of Edges’ and Marbyllia’s ‘Uncountable Spheres’ album CD’s + will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s ‘A Cello for Chelsea’ and ‘Zara the Maggini’ children’s storytelling CD’s.
$1000 donation - will receive a private house concert given by Margaret Maria + will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s ‘Goddess of Edges’ and Marbyllia’s ‘Uncountable Spheres’ album CD’s + will receive a gift of Margaret Maria’s ‘A Cello for Chelsea’ and ‘Zara the Maggini’ children’s storytelling CD’s.