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john gzowski

2016

The Lion in Winter

First time working out at the very lovely Grand Theatre in London, ON.
Director Krista Jackson put together a great cast and interesting design, which made my job easy as all I had to do was to help pull those elements together and support the vision with some sort of period, sort of modern music.
"
the sound design by John Gzowski an inspiration, beautifully supporting the action and emotion on the stage."
http://www.lfpress.com/2017/01/13/theatre-review-the-lion-in-winter-delivers-lovable-evil

Jacqueries part 2

Worked on the second phase of Jacqueries for Jacob Niedzwiecki. The piece will be a site specific, but movable piece, built to work in a large room. Most of the music is very polyrythmnic, using a quad sound setup with different metric modulated pieces in each corner, except for this piano piece. This is a form of theme and variation, where the melodic theme becomes a lahara like ground bass for metric modulation variations. With some electro bits at the end.

The Last Wife

The Belfry Theatre in Victoria presented a version of Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife, directed by Esther Jun. Since the show is about Henry VIII and his last wife, but set as if it was in modern days, I arranged the real music of Henry VIII into more modern settings. Sometimes using one bar, sometimes slowing down the harmonic movement or looping 4 bars, but always using his melodies and harmonies in a more modern setting. Here's the curtain call, its an arrangement of Henry the VIII's Whoso that Will Obtain.

Disgraced

Mirvish presented a great version of Disgraced, a very smart play about race today. I did some New Yorkish modern jazz, hinting at Caravan, for the theme.

A Woman of No Importance

For the Shaw Festival’s production, with Eda Holmes directing, I wrote for a string quartet of sorts. With Sarah Fraser on violin, Anna Redekop on viola, Amber Ghent on cello and Andrew Downing on bass we put together a quartet that only used one violin and had bass as well. Created a lovely and fuller sound then the standard quartet. I recorded the quartet myself, conducting and recording at the same time.

Das Ding

Ashlie Corcoran directed a cool production of the german play, Das Ding, a co-pro between Canstage and Theatre Smash. Very fun and odd play about a piece of cotton.

Twelfth Night

Jillian Keiley’s production at the National Arts Centre, where she requested a mix of 90’s pop tunes redone as if they were rough sounding string quartet recordings of the period. Also set three pieces to Shakespeare’s song lyrics. Set by the excellent Old Trout Company, all around a really fun and smart production.

In a Blue Moon

Went to Kamloops to rehearse this new play by Lucia Fangione, a lovely story and a co-production between the Arts Club, Western Canada Theatre and Thousand Island Playhouse. We opened in Vancouver and the show is touring through the spring and summer of 2016.
http://artsclub.com/shows/on-tour/2015-2016/in-a-blue-moon