Flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor preserves late composer Jocelyn Morlock's legacy on Artemis Sleeps

Composer Jocelyn Morlock's untimely death in 2023 robbed Canada of one of its most distinctive musical voices — and, beyond that, of a particularly articulate advocate for contemporary music. As an educator and as the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's composer in residence from 2014 to 2019, Morlock presented clear arguments for the importance of the arts and backed up her beliefs with music that was as individualistic and inventive as any being written today, but also surprisingly easy to grasp for newcomers.

"Intuitive" and "sensual" are words that recur in every discussion of her output, shaped by her primary inspirations: medieval ars nova, Balinese gamelan, French Impressionist composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and birdsong. "Even though she was raised in academia and she spent a lot of time teaching at UBC, she really saw the flaws in the over-academization of classical music," explains internationally acclaimed flute virtuoso Mark Takeshi McGregor, who was her former roommate and close colleague. "There's a real tendency to make it hierarchical, and I think she wanted to be outside of that, bringing it back to what it's meant to be. How does it move people? How does it make people respond emotionally? That's really at the core of everything that she did."

McGregor has particular insights into Morlock's creative process. "She was nocturnal, basically," he reveals. "Like, she was always at her most productive at night. It was quiet, it was dark, there was less distraction. When we were roommates, there was a shared wall between my room and hers, and she had this electronic keyboard that she would compose on. She would sit at the keyboard and basically improvise melodies and harmonies and things. She would record that process as well, and would use that as a starting point for a lot of her pieces."

When they shared a small space, McGregor was constantly bringing students in to teach, but the arrangement fostered creative discourse. As both a featured soloist in many of Morlock's chamber-music compositions and a close confidant, McGregor feels a particular responsibility toward his late friend's legacy. He's embarked on an expansive campaign to keep her music alive, beginning with the recently released CD Artemis Sleeps. Produced in conjunction with Vancouver's Redshift Records, it's a collection of chamber works ranging from the pithy and occasionally startling "Velour," commissioned by McGregor and Edmonton's Chenoa Anderson for solo flute, to the sprawling and rhapsodic "Unfurl," which premiered at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival in 2021.