Ennio A. Paola

Composer | Director of Music

Canada

Author

About

Current Works | Works-in-Progress

1. “Satie Obsessions” fb group Administrator | Moderator | Curator

https://www.facebook.com/groups/481784396569152

Current group projects include directing “Satie Obsessions 2021”, an International Composer’s Call for “Satiesque smallTALK: Five Variations on Erik Satie’s “Enfantins” children’s pieces of (1913)” Anna Sutyagina, pianist

Curator, group members ScoreVideos:“Satiesque smallTALK: After Hours”; composer, “Le Gymnopédiste”

2. “smallCuriosities:Voices from “The After” based on poetic phrasings of Italo-Argentinian writer Antonio Porchia (b. Conflenti, Italy, d. Buenos Aires, Argentina)

3. Composer, additional Dante & Music works for “LUX IN TENEBRIS: La Commedia di Dante”

Ennio A. Paola, born August 21, 1952, Conflenti (Catanzaro), Italy Biography

Accordion music studies began age 7 with Boris Borgstrom. At 14, becomes youngest member of Mr. Borgstrom's 1st place World Championship Ensemble, "International Music League" World Championship Medal winners, "Cedar Point" (Sandusky, Ohio, U.S.A.)

In 1968, percussionist with "Niagara Symphony Orchestra" in premier public performance under the direction of Matteo Glinsky.

Throughout high school years, keyboardist with rock bands "Hideous Dream" and his own group, “OPUS"

Member, “SummerSounds ’71" … Province of Ontario, Canada touring ensemble, Peter Sever, Tour Organizer, David E.Walden, Music Director, David Christiani, Assistant Director, consisted of 34 young, auditioned musicians + 6 adult supervisors and support group members sponsored by Ontario Government, Ministry of Education, Youth & Recreation Branch. In total, “SummerSounds ’71” performed 46 shows (+ select workshops) in 35 towns & cities covering approximately 5,000 miles in 37 days. An estimated 30,000 people attended shows from Manitoba border, to Quebec border, Southern Ontario to remote Northern towns. Tour highlights included performances at National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Ontario Place (Toronto) — both in their inaugural season, and the annual Canadian National Exhibition (Toronto). Additional members of “SummerSounds ’71" included Lisa Dalbello ("Dalbello"), Doug Cameron, Johanna “Yo” Vanderkley and the late Rock Music critic, author Steve Ostick.

Graduated, President's Honour Roll of Scholars, Bachelor of Music from University of Windsor, Canada where studies included conducting with James Tambourini, composition under Dr. Jens Hanson and Dr. Paul McIntyre; piano with David Palmer and Dr. Gregory Butler. Graduated, Bachelor of Education, Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada.

Awards: Roy C, Hill Award (Canadian Teachers’ Federation), Civic Award (Arts & Culture; City of Pickering, Ontario, Canada); Winner, Category 10 “Chord Sequence”: adapted from “Chorale Theme” “LUX IN TENEBRIS: La Commedia di Dante, Cantica I: Canto I (Lost In A Dark Wood)”… Improvisation Composition Competition: BBC Music Magazine with Cellist Matthew Barley & Between the Notes Ensemble (Competition Co-Partners & Judges). CD “Extraordinary Improvisation” (FMRCD234-0707), Recording Track 4:“Chord Sequence” Mathew Barley (Cellist) & Between the Notes Ensemble (UK).

Career highlights also include: Conductor (on two occasions), High School Concert Bands before Pope John Paul II, Vatican City, Rome.

Original multi-award winning Peace Education Collaborative Arts program “In Tacit Understanding: One Community Under the Same Sky” filmed by National Geographic Society, USA for series documentary “World Regions - Episode #7: Canada’s Cultural Mosaic”, directed by Chris Intagliata — National Geographic Society | McGraw-Hill Publications, filmed on location at historic Union Station, Toronto, Canada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=mRNDmDZwfyo&list=PLszRKopQvb9VliWqiEtA3CIu3XEjzhd5d&index=7

Resource Contact Person: Sharing Teaching Excellence (Canadian Teachers’ Federation), United Nations Who’s Who Reference Contact, United Nations Hague Appeal for Peace program (2001-2010) “International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World” (Geneva, Switzerland).

“LUX IN TENEBRIS: La Commedia di Dante”, Cantica I: Canto I (Lost In A Dark Wood) & Cantica III: Canto XXXIII (Dante Beholds the Universe) cited in scholarly text Dante and Music: Musical Adaptations of the “Commedia” from the Sixteenth Century to the Present (2001) by Professor Maria Ann Roglieri, St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill, N.Y., U.S.A., publisher: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, Gower House, Croft Road, Aldershot, Hampshire, GU11 3HR, United Kingdom.

The University of St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, presents “The Music of Dante’s Commedia, Can Mere Mortals Compose It?” Dr. Maria Ann Roglieri, lecturer, with music world premier of Cantica II: Canto XXX (Adieu, Virgil & the Appearance of Beatrice), Ennio A. Paola, November 1, 2018 with composer in attendance.

“Comets & Shadows” original score based on final days of German Dada artist Angelika Hoerle (1899-1923), the “Comet of Cologne” exhibit commemorating innovative architectural renovation and expansion “2009 Transformation AGO” (Art Gallery of Ontario) by world- renowned architect Frank Gehry … On 10th Anniversary (2019), conducted “Comets & Shadows” String Quartet version at sea with Quadrivium String Quartet (Poland) aboard Oceania Marina, Bora, Bora, South Pacific Ocean.

2020 … One of five international composers invited to provide a variation for “Satie Obsessions: Variations on a theme by Erik Satie, Gymnopédie, No. 2”, a contemporary “Hexaméron” project directed by Kris Lennox, Anna Sutyagina, pianist, Moving Classics TV

Significant Music®™ Opus Library

Sheet Music Collections available for purchase in Two Volumes “Between the Silence & the Noise” Volume 1: Classical Collection “Between the Silence & the Noise” Volume 2: Jazz | Pop Collection

Sheets

Interview

What does music mean to you personally?

Music = Life; where life is a process and music the cure.

Do you agree that music is all about fantasy?

Absolutely. Music shares interpretive interplays where music and the collaborative arts induce a mingling of fantasies between dance and music … art and music … spoken word and music … etc., … going where all words fail.

If you were not a professional musician, what would you have been?

A traveller; arts enrichment tours.

The classical music audience is getting old, are you worried about the future?

No, not worried. Next generation is coming. Over time, best classics remain everlasting as they continue to grow and gain merit towards the shaping of future audiences.

What do you envision the role of music to be in the 21st century?

In this 21st century, I see artistic “isms” evolve, shaping “audio environments” and “sound moods” to play shared spaces that increasingly represent a greater role in daily life. Do you see that there is a transformation of this role? Yes, most definitely, as new technologies come to the forefront and artistic interpretations are reimagined.

Do you think that the musician today needs to be more creative?

As in previous eras, today’s musician must seek out a “personal voice” and tap into converging avenues of creativity built on the shoulders of past masters. As trends and tools continue to develop, it all becomes part of a continuum in the evolution of human musical expression.

What is the role of creativity in the musical process for you?

Personally, I aim to craft out just the right amount of creative mix and interest designed to intermingle between elements of the familiar, the imaginative, the tested, and the true.

Do you think we as musicians can do something to attract the younger generation to music concerts? How would you do this?

Musicians have a stake, and share a noble role in attracting a younger generation towards attending music concerts. Experience shows this is best achieved through partnerships in educating youth as witnesses to live music, and via a confluence of supportive hands-on, life-long music and artistic experiences that provide additional opportunities and lasting memories.

Tell us about your creative process.

Primarily, I compose in short “tonal musical cells” with poetic, or visual art source references. At times, select cells transform to full thematic strains, where ideas ranging from musical codes, or numerology etc. may be discovered imbedded in the development of basic music elements that shape a work’s final form. In practice, I compose at the piano to better feel and map out best musical intentions of interest. As Stravinsky stated in a CBC (Canadian Broadcast Company) documentary of 1957, “A Conversation with Igor Stravinsky” … “you have to touch the music not only to hear it. Feel the vibration of the music”.

What is your favourite piece (written by you) and how did you start working on it?

Favourite work, most challenging to create has been LUX IN TENEBRIS: La Commedia di Dante It remains an on-going collection of linked, or stand alone set pieces for solo piano underscoring select Canti from Dante’s Divine Comedy. My journey with Dante began when pairing Canto I (Inferno) & Canto XXXIII (Paradiso) to serve as “bookends” framing the beginning and end of his journey in the afterlife. To represent Dante being “Lost In A Dark Wood” (lost in sin), (Cantica I: Canto I) opens with a word cypher creation, associating pitch to each letter of the alphabet. Thus … “LUX IN TENEBRIS: La Commedia di Dante” begins … LOST IN A DARK WOOD This first “serious” piece was composed to establish a transitional break; from a background in 60’s Rock, to formal music studies at university level.

Can you give some advice for young people who want to discover classical music for themselves?

1) Take every opportunity to listen with open ears, wide eyes and an inquisitive mind. 2) Invest resources and time to offered learning opportunities in music and all creative arts’ disciplines. As philosopher Goethe stated, “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

Do you think about the audience when composing?

Yes, 100% For me, audiences remain a natural starting point. Doing so helps establish links of mutual respect between composer, (as creator) and audiences (as listeners) .

What projects are coming up?

• A new Canto during 2021 in honour, and in homage, on occasion of 700th anniversary year celebrations marking the death of Dante. • New short works inspired by aphorisms by Italo-Argentinian writer Antonio Porchia. • “Between the Silence and the Noise” Complete Piano Works uniting original music composed for Dante & Music, DaDa & Music as compilation oeuvre linking Dante’s journey in the after-life to period of French composer Erik Satie’s residency as Composer-In-Residence, Salon Rose and Croix. Do you experiment in your projects? Not often enough; though samples of greater experimentation surface in areas of music notation and mixed use of musical and non-musical terms in Italian and English — better reflecting composer’s intentions. When possible, appropriate and warranted, mixed media presentation opportunities are encouraged and most welcome.