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CONTACT
 
Email: info@robertrival.com
 
NEWSLETTER

An occasional newsletter announcing concerts, recordings, & projects.
 

CURRENT PROJECTS
 
Winter Songs, a song cycle for mezzo-soprano Allyson McHardy & pianist Carson Becke
 
book on music, gesture & rhetoric
 
STREAMING
 
Listen to selected orchestral, chamber & choral works.
 
Robert Rival YouTube View some of these on YouTube.
 
Find a small selection on music streaming platforms.
 
CD RELEASES
 
Dialogues
 
Semitragic Waltz for 2 violins & viola. Fabiola Amorim, Frank Ho, Vladimir Rufino: "Dialogues" (2025). Purchase.

 
Global tapestry - Ananta duo
 
Sonata "Muskoka" for clarinet & piano (Lake movement). Ananta Duo: "Global Tapestry" (2018). Purchase.

 
Windermere String Quartet: Inner Landscapes
 
Traces of a Silent Landscape. Windermere String Quartet: "Inner Landscapes" (2016). Purchase.

 

 
Lullaby. Edmonton Symphony Orchestra: "A Concert for New York" (2013). 2014 Western Canadian Music Awards nominee for Classical Recording of the Year. Purchase.
"...gentle textures and flowing themes occasionally yield surprising harmonic turns and briskly changing meters."
     —Allan Kozinn, New York Times, on Lullaby
"...a work of quiet rapture and refined sensibility...elegant concision..."
     —Jack Sullivan, American Record Guide, on Lullaby
"...a beautifully crafted work that will appeal to those who enjoy musical construction as much as it will to those who want their ears to be charmed."
     —Mark Morris, Edmonton Scene, on Sunshine Variations
"atmospheric dream world" (Birmingham News), "subtle and poignant" (What's On in London), "engaging" (Globe and Mail), "spectaculaire" (Le Devoir), "positive, upfront writing" (Montreal Gazette), "clever and evocative" (Ottawa Citizen), "rhythmically rich" (Edmonton Journal), "sophisticated" (Ottawa Citizen), "paints moods" (Edmonton Journal), "an unequivocal hit" (Vancouver Sun), "immediately appealing" (Ottawa Citizen), "brisk and bounding" (Toronto Star), "well crafted" (Ottawa Citizen) [reviews]
   
PERFORMANCES / EVENTS
Date Location Work Details
2025
Apr 6 Ottawa, ON Sunshine Variations Sheva Schwartz (cello) & Frédéric Lacroix (piano). Freiman Hall, U of Ottawa.
May 4 Edmonton, AB Semitragic Waltz Frank Ho & Vladimir Rufino (violins), Fabiola Amorim (viola). St. Albert Chamber Music Society. St. Albert United Church. CD launch!
Jul 20 Ottawa, ON Schubert Fantasy Jeff Dyrda (violin) & Katherine Dowling (piano). Ottawa Chamberfest. Tabaret Hall, uO. Wind quintets by 2 of my students: uO / Chamberfest workshop winners Helena Cheu & Zachary Greer. 3 birthday concerts same day & place: Vince Ho @ 50, colleague Kelly-Marie Murphy @ 60 & former teacher Steven Gellman @ 75!
Aug 1 Toronto, ON String Quartet No. 2
(world premiere)
Rosebud Quartet. Toronto Summer Music. Walter Hall, U of Toronto.
   
WHAT'S NEW
Dialogues JUN 2025—My Semitragic Waltz for two violins & viola, commissioned by three Edmonton musicians, Fabiola Amorim, Frank Ho & Vladimir Rufino, for their album Dialogues is now available for purchase. Stay tuned for its commercial streaming release. In the meantime, the trio has kindly allowed me to share my track here.
Crème brûlée DEC 2024—Here's a musical bonbon for the holiday season: a complete recording of my Scherzo "Crème brûlée", deftly performed this past October by the students in the uOttawa Orchestra led by Dinuk Wijeratne. Hard and crunchy on the outside, soft and creamy on the inside.

I've also overhauled the Listen page where you can listen to complete recordings of selected orchestral, chamber & choral works.
JUL 2024—Released from the vaults comes this fine video recording of the instrumental fugue for sextet from The Grass Is Full of Stars. Recorded at CAMMAC (Harrington, QC) by Marc Djokic & friends back in Oct 2021, this movement sits between two songs for children's choir. Yet the fugue stands on its own and can be performed independently, much like Bach's six-part fugue from The Musical Offering, the score of which I had open on my desk while composing.
Cypress Choral Music JUL 2024—I'm excited to announce that Midnight Sea, for men's choir (TTBB), has been published by Cypress Choral Music, as part of Mark Sirett's Profondo series (music for lower voices). The work was a finalist in Vancouver's Chor Leoni's C/4 Canadian Choral Composition Competition (2020). Check out complete video or audio.