The Management Sincerely Regrets...

... that the opportunity to acquire a free bicycle from the Paris Review came to our attention only after the July 22 deadline. We are sure our readers could have provided admirable descriptions of the contest picture in 300 words or less of pure Bishop-ese...



A search of the announcement page for the contest using the term 'Bishop' should allow the perspicacious reader to find at least one entry pertaining to Our Heroine (tm). Perhaps readers who would care to try their hand in this venue could submit their efforts as a comment appended to this post? While we haven't a bicycle to hand, we will be happy to provide those who answer the call to glory by August 1, 2012 with an Elizabeth Bishop Centenary pencil (while supplies last -- when they run out, we'll think of something equally toothsome to offer as an acknowledgment of your efforts)...

Suzie LeBlanc on Bluenose Opera House

On 24 June 2012, Suzie was a guest on Paul Kellogg’s radio show the Bluenose Opera House (http://www.bluenoseoperahouse.ca/),inspired by the “Grand Ole Opry” but with the colourfully salty heritage of Atlantic Canada. It is a radio program promoting Maritime culture, heritage and great artistic talent.  Featured are the most gifted musicians, artists, storytellers, civic leaders, inspiring volunteers; people of all ages with new ideas or who’ve reinvented their lives to survive and move on. The show is filled with music of every genre produced not only locally, but with familiar present and past classics that are done by artists from around the globe who tour the Maritimes or are simply beloved by Atlantic Canadians.

 

You can listen to this show as a podcast on the Bluenose Opera House website http://www.bluenoseoperahouse.ca/index.php/podcasts— click on the podcast for 2012-06-24.

You can download the podcast, too. There is a separate page for downloads.

The Bluenose Opera House show is a two-hour programme with a guest artist in each hour. Suzie is featured in the second hour of the show, after Liverpool, N.S., writer and newspaper editor Vernon Oikle. So, keep listening and you will hear the chat with Suzie. During the interview, Suzie mentions that the Indiegogo campaign for the Elizabeth Bishop Legacy recording would start “tomorrow.” The launch of this campaign was delayed, BUT it will soon go live and we will be in touch with the link as soon as that happens, hopefully, Wednesday, 25 July 2012. Stay tuned!

“First Death in Nova Scotia” film going to Berlin!

Film-maker John Scott and his team at Magpie Productions recently learned that the adaptation of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “First Death in Nova Scotia,” shot in Great Village in January 2012, is one of thirty movies selected from over 700 for the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin in October 2012.

http://www.literaturwerkstatt.org/index.php?id=1169&L=1

Congratulations!!

We will let you know when this adaptation will be available for viewing online -- in the not too distant future.

John and Magpie Productions are in the early stages of a full-dress documentary about Elizabeth Bishop and recently received funding from the Massachusetts Humanities Foundation to help with the development of this project. Again, Congratulations!!

To learn more about Magpie Productions and the Elizabeth Bishop films, go to its website: http://www.magpieproductions.com

*******

Stay tuned for a big announcement coming soon about the Elizabeth Bishop Legacy recording, being spear-headed by Suzie LeBlanc. We’ll have some exciting news connected to this project!

Emily Doolittle wins Theodore Front Prize for “A short slow life”

[Ed. Note: This update is written by Suzie LeBlanc, who is heading up the exciting EB100 Musical Legacy Project, which involves the recording of the settings of Elizabeth Bishop’s poems composed for her by several amazing Canadian composers and the releasing of a cd. Suzie will be hosting a new section on the EB100 blog: “Musical Legacy Project” – she will be providing posts, images and updates. Please stay tuned in the weeks to come to read more about this exciting project.]

Suzie LeBlanc writes:

Emily Doolittle, who composed “A short slow life” for the Elizabeth Bishop Centenary Opening Concert with Symphony Nova Scotia and myself (on 10 February 2012), has won the Theodore Front Prize for Chamber and Orchestral works, as part of the “Search for New Music by Woman Composers 2012,” for this setting. Emily is preparing a chamber version of the score and I sincerely hope to be able to record this piece along with the other settings by John Plant, Christos Hatzis and Alasdair MacLean, which we are recording this summer in Halifax with the Blue Engine String Quartet, winds from Symphony Nova Scotia, harp, timpani and piano.

Congratulations to Emily for this brilliant achievement! Emily’s other big news is that she’s pregnant and the baby is due in November!! Click here to see Emily's website.

Here is the formal announcement:

Winners of the Search for New Music by Women Composers 2012

Theodore Front Prize – (minimum age 22) Chamber and Orchestral works:

Winner: Emily Doolittle of Seattle, Washington, for "A Short, Slow Life" for soprano and orchestra.

The judges were Kimcherie Lloyd, Director of Orchestral Studies at University of Louisville, and Roshanne Etezady, Professor of Composition at Arizona State University.

Thank you for the hard work by our judges and thank you to all who submitted their music. Pamela J. Marshall, IAWM Search for New Music Competition Committee