RAGA SAAT for 4 C Flutes
RAGA SAAT is the second in a series of flute ensemble
works by Canadian composer-flutist Derek Charke creating
a uniquely mesmerizing soundworld. Using post-minimal
ostinatos in 7 with criss-crossing syncopations, RAGA
SAAT explores percussive and unfamiliar textures from
beatboxing and other expanded techniques to create a
dazzling sound environment. Be sure to hear Charke’s own
performance on YouTube!

 

Derek Charke (b. 1974) is a Canadian composer, flutist, and professor at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. Charke has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, Toronto Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, St. Lawrence String Quartet, and Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq Gillis, as well as an impressive list of other performers and organizations. His music has been performed in Carnegie Hall, the Guggenheim Museum, and Disney Hall. He is the president of the Acadia New Music Society which runs the Shattering the Silence New Music Festival, and he appears regularly as a new music performer and improviser on the flute. His music has been described as post-minimal, inventive, rich-textured, full of color, and imbued with drama and rhythmic vitality. His music encompasses tonal and modal harmonies and melodies, sometimes with a strong rhythmic pulse in conjunction with extended instrumental techniques, often paired with soundscapes created from original field recordings of nature and the Canadian environment.

Derek has a long-standing collaboration with the Kronos Quartet. Works for them include his Concerto for String Quartet (commissioned by the Toronto Symphony); Cercle du Nord III for
string quartet with a soundscape from the Arctic; a series of 13 Inuit Throat Song Games; and Tundra Songs, a 30-minute work commissioned for the Kronos Quartet and Inuk throat singer
Tanya Tagaq by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Premiered at Disney Hall in Los Angeles, David Harrington of the Kronos Quartet said of Tundra Songs: “It’s really one of the major, spectacular pieces that has ever been written for Kronos,” and Stanley Fefferman of Opus One Review wrote of the Concerto for String Quartet: “Charke’s music is eclectic, hectic, and sometimes electric. Charke’s music is about the freedom to be an individual.”

Derek’s studies with David Felder, Louis Andriessen, Steve Martland, Paul Patterson, Cindy McTee, and Martin Mailman included a prestigious four-year Presidential Fellowship at SUNY
Buffalo, as well as a grant from the Dutch government to study with Andriessen. He attended the University of North Texas (receiving the Outstanding Student in Composition Award, and
the David M. Schimmel Memorial Composition Scholarship), the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, and SUNY Buffalo where he received a Ph.D. in composition.

As a professional flutist, Derek is a member of subText and performs as a duo with percussionist Mark Adam. He earned a Master’s degree in flute performance from SUNY Buffalo where he
studied with the late Cheryl Gobbetti Hoffman. As an undergraduate at the University of North Texas he studied trumpet with Dr. Leonard Candelaria, while also pursuing the flute.