Described as “outstanding - no, make that astonishing!” (Ottawa Citizen) and as having a “sense of unbreakable continuity and energy” (Toronto Star), Canada’s TorQ Percussion Quartet continues to bring new vitality to percussion repertoire and performance. Richard Burrows, Adam Campbell, Jamie Drake and Daniel Morphy have given recital tours across Canada and the US and performed at Ottawa Chamberfest, Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, Indian River Festival, Stratford Summer Music, the Music Garden Toronto, the Canadian Opera Company concert series, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and many others. They have also performed as a featured soloist with the Toronto Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Orchestra Symphonique de Montréal (for which they were recently awarded the Prix Opus from the Quebec Music Council), Stuttgart Chamber Choir, University of Toronto Wind Ensemble, Ontario Honour Band and University of Saskatchewan Wind Ensemble (WASBE 2015), amongst others. 

TorQ is committed to developing and performing Canadian music: they have premiered over 80 pieces (including three concertos) by composers such as Nicole Lizée, Christos Hatzis, Michael Oesterle and Dinuk Wijeratne, and each ensemble member also contributes compositions and arrangements.  They have released four albums on their own label Bedoint Records (the most recent of which, Modulations featured TorQ commissions by Daniel Morphy, Christos Hatzis and and Peter Hatch) and their recording (with soloist Ben Reimer) of Lizée's "Katana of Choice" was nominated for a 2019 Juno for "Classical Composition of the Year." 

Strong advocates for musical education, TorQ has played school concerts for more than 130,000 students and given masterclasses and workshops at universities across North America. The TorQ Percussion Seminar, run collectively by all four TorQ members and now in its eighth year, has collaborated with Acadia University and Stratford Summer Music and this year will be returning to work with the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia. 

TorQ endorses Yamaha Percussion, Innovative Percussion, Dream Cymbals, Black Swamp Percussion and Remo Percussion. 

"...confidence, energy, and subtlety shone darkly in a powerful and theatrical performance of a work that stands outside of trends or time. They may be young men, but they have old souls." (www.MusicalToronto.org) 

March 2019

RICHARD BURROWS

Richard Burrows' extensive musical career has taken him throughout North America, Europe, Mexico, Australia, and Asia. Having earned two Master’s degrees from the University of Toronto, Richard has honed his craft to create a unique approach in both education and performance. He has also shared the stage with Nebosja Jovan Zivkovic, She-e Wu, Evelyn Glennie, and NEXUS.  Closer to home, he plays regularly with numerous orchestras and choirs, and as a freelance percussionist has performed with ScrapArtsMusic, with famed bass clarinetist Kathryn Ladano in “Stealth,” with new music projects for InterArtsMatrix, and was as a member of the Toronto Raptors drumline. An avid educator, Richard gives masterclasses on improvisation, concert percussion and drumline throughout Ontario, and across Canada. He is also the artistic director of Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, a festival dedicated to adventurous programming and transformative concerts.

 

ADAM CAMPBELL

Adam Campbell completed his Master of Music degree at the University of Toronto, studying with John Rudolph, Beverley Johnston and Russell Hartenberger, and completed his Bachelor’s degree at Acadia University with Ken Shorley and Mark Adam. He has been a member of the National Concert Band and the Scotia Festival of Music, and has performed in Haliburton, ON as part of R. Murray Schafer's production Princess of the Stars. As a contemporary and chamber percussionist, he has performed with Evelyn Glennie, Nexus, Beverley Johnston, Toronto Wind Orchestra, Peterbourough Symphony Orchestra, Mississauga Chamber Music Society, Canadian Opera Company Orchestra, Talisker Players, Array New Music Ensemble, Esprit Orchestra, and is a member of the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan and the Persian/Serbian fusion group, Ladom. As a freelance drummer and studio musician, Adam regularly performs and records throughout Toronto with folk, rock, pop, R&B and hip-hop artists of all types, plays in pits for musicals, and is the house drummer and a producer at Euphonic Sound recording studio. He is also an avid teacher and clinician, and has toured and continues to work with Soundstreams Canada to present workshops across Ontario.

 

JAMIE DRAKE

Described as "an incredibly musical and versatile percussionist" and as having an "impeccable sense of time and feel", Dr. Jamie Drake is a Toronto-based percussionist, drummer and composer. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Toronto where he studied with Dr. Russell Hartenberger and Dr. Aiyun Huang, and his MMus from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied with Jack Van Geem.  His DMA dissertation examined aspects of ritual and community in the extended-length percussion music of American composer John Luther Adams.

His diverse career has included performances in Denali National Park (Alaska), the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, cafes in Shanghai, the Lincoln Centre, a hardware store in the middle of Michigan, on the beach in the Bahamas, and in (and also in front of) Koerner Hall in Toronto.  His solo and chamber performances have included premieres by Christos Hatzis, Elinor Armer and John Luther Adams. A busy freelance percussionist, he has performed with Evelyn Glennie, NEXUS, Soundstreams, Amici, Kingston Symphony, Niagara Symphony, Aradia Ensemble, and is percussionist and on the artistic staff for the Hamilton Children’s Choir. He recently he served as interim percussion instructor at Acadia University, and as a composer, percussion consultant, and performer for the second season of the CBC television show “Canada’s Smartest Person”. He released his first solo album, Night, in July 2014, and his discography includes recordings for Centrediscs, Redshift, Standard Form, Bedoint Records.

Equally at home playing drumset, Jamie is fluent in a huge variety of styles, and is a frequent collaborator with cabaret artist Sharron Matthews and is the percussionist/drummer and assistant arranger for The Musical Stage Company’s “UnCovered” Concert series. He has had the great pleasure of working with a number of fantastic singers, including Jackie Richardson, Jully Black, Divine Brown, Heather Bambrick, Julie Michels, Thom Allison, Robert Markus, and many others. An active theatre musician, Jamie has played for more than 50 musicals, including Dora-winning productions of London Road, Life After, Next to Normal and Assassins, and has recorded theatre music for the Shaw Festival, composer Andrew Lippa and others.

Jamie's compositions and arrangements have been commissioned and performed by TorQ Percussion Quartet, Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, Hamilton Children's Choir, Hillfield Strathallan College, and OnnanoKo Taiko, amongst others.  Upcoming projects include a work for solo vibraphone and a composition for SSAA choir and percussion.

 

DANIEL MORPHY

Daniel Morphy's virtuosity and versatility are his core strengths as a performer and collaborator in the Toronto music scene. Equally comfortable as a solo and chamber musician in variety of genres, he performs regularly with the Toy Piano Composers, the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, the Ken Shorley Trio, the Arkora New Music Collective (Vancouver) and Haus Musik (San Fransisco). He also works occasionally with the Esprit Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony and has also worked closely with Architek Percussion (Montreal), and composers Christos Hatzis, Peter Hatch, Nicole Lizée and many others.

Dan was awarded the “prix Domaine Forget” for his participation in the 2014 OSM solo competition, and in August 2017 performed Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring to 10 thousand people at Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nevada. He has also performed as a chamber soloist with the Toronto Symphony and marimba soloist with the Toronto Wind Ensemble, and has been featured on the Music Gallery’s Emergence Series. Other performances have been presented by Soundstreams Canada, Stratford Summer Music and the Banff centre.  While attending the Roots and Rhizomes Percussion residency, taught and curated by percussionist Steve Schick, Dan worked along side John Luther Adams and performed in the world premiere of his seminal work Inuksuit in 2009.

An active composer, arranger and music creator, Daniel has written extensively for percussion, including his mallet quartet Thrown From A Loop (2011), his marimba duo The Aim was Song (2013), Like Crystal (2013) for 3 or more glockenspiels, his percussion quartet Dream Cycle #1(2013), and Runaway (2015) for small ensemble and percussion quartet. Walk…THIS way (2017) is his first work for solo percussion and was written in memory of his friend and teacher Robin Engelman (Nexus). Dan has also lately been more involved in composing for short film. Recent projects include The Pits by Shetu Modi and El Nazareno by Brandon Mills. His piece Your voice in the Windchimes (2018) for mens chorus with solo percussion was premiered by percussionist Rob Power and the Newman Sounds Men’s Chorus, directed by Jean Hart.  Dan can be heard both as a composer and performer on CBC, NAXOS, Centrediscs, TSO live, MTV and Bedoint Records. He became an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre in 2014.

Dan received his Bachelors of Music from the University of Toronto and an Artist diploma from the Glenn Gould School of Music. He also has spent summers at the Tanglewood Institute and the Aspen School of Music. He continues to be guided and inspired by his mentor, Ray Dillard.