Arcana

concert accordion duo
Laurie Rosewarne & Pierre-Paul Provencher



Arcana

"Arcana" is a concert accordion ("classical accordion") duo formed in 1991, after the first meeting of Pierre-Paul Provencher and Laurie Rosewarne at an accordion symposium in Amsterdam. Sensing many common interests and goals, they decided to create a classical accordion duo. Since that time, they have appeared in concert in Ottawa, Hull, Montebello, Quebec City, and Montreal. Arcana's repertoire consists of transcriptions, original pieces written for accordion duo, and tango nuevo.

Concert Accordion: The Instrument

The concert accordion (or "classical accordion" or "free bass accordion") is a relatively new instrument. It has been played in Canada since the 1960's. The most important difference between the standard accordion and the concert accordion is the left-hand keyboard, which, on the concert accordion, consists of single notes having a range of approximately five octaves, arranged chromatically in 3 rows.

Both Pierre-Paul and Laurie play the "chromatic button accordion" (as opposed to the piano accordion more frequently-seen in North America). This right-hand keyboard is arranged chromatically in 5 rows (two of which are duplicate rows).

Laurie Rosewarne

Laurie Rosewarne began piano lessons at the age of 7, and accordion at the age of 12. She holds an A.Mus. diploma (in piano pedagogy , Western Ontario Conservatory of Music), an ARCT (in accordion pedagogy, Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto) and a B.A. (Major in Music, Carleton University, Ottawa) . She teaches accordion, piano, and theoretical subjects at Camerata Music in Ottawa, of which she was co-founder in 1980. She is an active soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist. Ms. Rosewarne was awarded a grant from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec in July 2000 to transcribe the Art of Fugue by J.S. Bach for Arcana. This program will be recorded live by Arcana in February 2000 for broadcast on the French network of Radio-Canada FM

Pierre-Paul Provencher

Pierre-Paul Provencher was born in Quebec City, and began his study of the concert accordion with Christian Di-Maccio. He studied in France at the École Normale de Musique de Paris with Marie-A. Magnolini, where he obtained the degrees of Brevet d'Exécution, Diplôme d'Exécution and the Diplôme Supérieur d'Exécution. He has participated in various performance and analysis courses with musicians such as Alain Abbott. He taught at the Conservatoire de Montrouge (France), and was frequently a jury member for the departmental examinations of the Union des Conservatoires Municipaux de France. He has performed in Canada and France, and has recorded for such organizations as CBC and CAPAC. Pierre-Paul also plays the bandoneon, and collaborated with Laurie Rosewarne in the creation of the tango nuevo quintet Norteño (click here to link to Norteño's Web Page). He has been awarded numerous grants from the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec.

Selected Repertoire

Interludes (A. Abbott)
Jazz... (A. Abbott)
Huit Préludes (A. Abbott)
Badinerie (J.S. Bach)
Aria (J.S. Bach)
Fugue BWV 577 (J.S. Bach)
Art de la Fugue (J.S. Bach)
Pastourelle et Passepied (P.M. Dubois)
Danses Slaves (A. Dvorak)
Fantasy (K. Hvoslef)
Kammermusic I, II (W. Jacobi)
Ballad (T. Lundquist)
Four Fantasies (M. Murto)
How to Play in D Major Without Caring About it (P. Rovsing Olsen)
Musica Leggiera (E. Sebastian)
Conciertos (A. Soler)
Jésus, que ma joie demeure (J.S. Bach)
12 Nouveaux Préludes (P. Revel/A. Abbott)
Valse (from "Masquerade") (A. Khachaturian)
Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d'été (C. Debussy)
Air (P.P. Provencher)
Milongo (Astor Piazzolla)
Homenaje a Cordoba (Astor Piazzolla)
Novitango (Astor Piazzolla)
Undertango (Astor Piazzolla)
Libertango (Astor Piazzolla)
Tristango (Astor Piazzolla)
Violentango (Astor Piazzolla)
Amelitango (Astor Piazzolla)
Meditango (Astor Piazzolla)
Fuga 9 (Astor Piazzolla)
Soledad (Astor Piazzolla) (bandoneon and piano)
Lunfardo (Astor Piazzolla) (bandoneon and piano)
Oblivion (Astor Piazzolla) (bandoneon and piano)
Imagenes (Gustavo Beytelmann) (bandoneon and accordion)

How to reach us:

Address:

Arcana
432, bd Alexandre-Taché
Hull (Québec)
CANADA
J9A 1M7


Telephone: (819) 771-9587
Fax: (819) 771-9812
e-mail: arcana@norteno[dot]ca

 

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