Twilight Hour: Collected Stories for Piano – Jennifer King Releases New Recording
Twilight Hour: Collected Stories for Piano is the latest recording from Halifax pianist Jennifer King, a collection of twelve short piano works inspired by fairy tales. The album has an accompanying video by multimedia filmmaker Katrina Westin, which can be viewed on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram via @jenniferkingpiano. The recording features illustrations and design by Andrea Ledwell and was recorded at First Baptist Church in Halifax by sound engineer Rod Sneddon.
The twelve tracks on Twilight Hour range from dreamy magical-sounding works like two Preludes by Dmitry Kabalevsky to the energetic Fox Dance by Hungarian composer Léo Weiner. Fox Dance was the inspiration for one of the video components brought to life by stop motion animator Katrina Westin, who collaborated with Jennifer to bring this project to life during the current pandemic. “When everything got disappointingly cancelled with COVID in the spring, this was a great project to work long distance on with Katrina in Toronto,” explained Jennifer. “She’s created a whole storyline and charming characters to go with the piano pieces, and since she’s a singer, she really understands the timing and flow of the music. We were going for Tim Burton meets Edward Gorey meets The Snowman, and I love the results she’s come up with.” The finished video is about eight minutes, with short excerpts being released over the month of October, and with support from the Canada Council for the Arts through their Digital Originals program.
Equally in demand as a soloist and a collaborator on the concert stage, Jennifer King has firmly established herself as a sought-after talent across Atlantic Canada. Her first album of night-inspired piano music, O Mistress Moon, was recorded at CBC Halifax’s studio, nominated for ECMA and Music Nova Scotia 2019 awards for Classical Recording of the Year and supported by FACTOR. Also in 2019, she released her EP, Doolittle Minute Etudes Excerpts on the Leaf Music label featuring works by Nova Scotian composer Emily Doolittle.
Jennifer holds a Masters of Music degree in solo piano performance from McGill University, a Bachelor of Music from Acadia University and postgraduate diplomas at the University of Reading and the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. She’s a Nova Scotia Talent Trust award winner, and works as a private piano instructor and coach. Jennifer has created theatrical performances, including a play about suffragettes, where she acted as British composer Ethel Smyth. She is musical director and pianist for Light in the Forest, a multi-media mental health awareness theatre production produced by silk artist Holly Carr (2019). She performs for Concerts in Care and is on the Atlantic Regional Council of the Canadian Music Centre. She’s currently at work on a future CD of music by Canadian composers.
