REVIEWS
Mary Jo Carrabré, Director of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Conservatory
“I think Bruce has a real gift for writing for young people”
Pat Carrabré, Composer/Professor/Administrator
“He’s a very gifted composer. He had a very recognizable style right from the first piece I ever heard of his.”
Paul Acree, The Argus
“Canadian composer Bruce Shavers’ Exposition Folksong and Finale is a piece which demands the highest calibre of violinist and Schultz measures up admirably. The Exposition in particular is a wonderful platform for a violinist to display his technique and Schultz did just that: left hand plucking, harmonics, and double stops are only some of the skills which Victor displayed with such fearsome accomplishment that I feared the violin might burst into flame! Truly breath taking”
James Manishen, Winnipeg Free Press
“L’impression is a stately and pleasingly dramatic piece by Winnipeg’s Bruce Shavers. A sense of ambient, other-worldly space plus a nicely coloured central section of contrary motion were well realized by Burge.”
Neil Harris, Winnipeg Free Press
“A concert highlight was the premiere performance of String Quartet No. 2 by Winnipeg Composer Bruce Shavers. This is music that goes beyond technical or academic excellence. It says something, and that is most welcome in any new music.”
Ronald Hambleton, The Toronto Star
“... the idiom was consistent throughout, as it was in Bruce Shavers’ Quartet, where the four strings blended with a pleasing naturalness.”
Randal McIlroy, Winnipeg Fee Press
“Nothing grabbed the ears until after Frederick Liessens wheeled out a vibraphone and a marimba to duet with Soucy on Bruce Shavers’ Two Etudes. The first etude had Soucy blowing the darker-toned alto flute and Liessens playing strategically at the vibes. For the second etude, Liessens turned to the marimba, matching the flute’s harmonies and conjuring sheets of sound behind Soucy’s ornithological flights.”
James Manishen, Winnipeg Free Press
“Bruce Shavers’ Polaris Quintet is a cheerily eclectic piece with a sensible formal structure that happily prevented the music from flying apart. It is strongly rhythmic with a fine succession of shifting colours and motifs.”
James Manishen, Winnipeg Free Press
“Bruce Shavers’ Circles had electric pianists Riske and McIntosh producing a voltage-controlled legato that sounded somewhat like an extra-terrestrial Tombeau de Couperin. This piece showed a clear logic of Structure and appealing percussive effects.”
Neil Harris, Winnipeg Free Press
“The final work of the evening was Polaris Quintet by Bruce Shavers. This is a piece that gives much aural pleasure. Shavers matches the tonal qualities of the different instruments in a fascinating manner. It is restless music, almost too much so, but the constant shifting of colours provides a constant delight.”
Karen Clavelle
“The 20th-century style of music brings a freshness to the Lucy Poems by juxtaposing the composer’s sense of word painting with the poetry. Rather than word painting, however, Shavers colours whole thoughts dramatically and, in his own terms, emotionally.”
Randal McIlroy, Winnipeg Fee Press
“Bruce Shavers’ Individuation, played by piano, cello, violin and French horn, was a stunner. Episodic but not disjointed, it grew excitingly from a luscious match of cello and horn, accelerating with a beautiful piano melody.”
Neil Harris, Winnipeg Free Press
“L’impression presented a spare and somewhat harsh theme against sonorous chords. It is an intense work with the virtue of directness, moving in a straight line from a valley to a mountain top.”