Recent Activity by Western Music Composition Faculty
Western Music composers Omar Daniel and Paul Frehner are both busy with exciting events this month.
Paul Frehner was in Hannover, Germany for a performance of his new work Nyx by the Flex Ensemble on October 19, 2025.
This piano quartet concert also featured an on-stage conversation with Frehner, the featured composer at the event.
Nyx evokes nocturnal imagery, including the stars, the planets, and the moon, to suggest the various moods of night, from contemplative to terrifying. The title of the work refers to the Greek goddess of the night.
Omar Daniel, meanwhile, has a new recording out, available on all streaming platforms. Featuring both chamber music and song, it is titled Game of Couples. It features performances from a number of musicians who inspired the album's works, including Western faculty members Tom Wiebe (‘cello) and Sharon Wei (viola).
Daniel says of the recording: “The term chamber music is so flexible, so agile, that it adapts quickly to the prevailing aesthetic, and is at the forefront of innovation. But chamber music also carries the importance of history with it. The compositions presented here are works of contemporary expression, but also show reverence for the great works of the past. Chamber music as a social event is a theme throughout, and Game of Couples is not only the title of one of the compositions, but is applicable to all four pieces: chamber music as a form of social music-drama.”
Like many of Daniel’s previous works, two of the works on the recording have a connection to the music and culture of ancient Estonia and the unique folk songs that remain a part of Estonian life.
Both composers’ projects received funding from the Don Wright Faculty of Music and/or Western University.
