SHHH!! Ensemble

SHHH!!… A POWERFUL UTTERANCE DESIGNED TO DRAW ATTENTION FORWARD… CREATING SPACE AND AWARENESS… OPENING EARS TO SOMETHING IMPORTANT.

Percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham are the two members of SHHH!! Ensemble, a duo carving a space for themselves as compelling performers, collaborators, and commissioners of electrifying new music. A keen taste for experimentation and discovery has guided their “avant-accessible” projects, which they have workshopped at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, and the Canadian Music Centre, resulting in feature performances at the Tuckamore Festival, Ottawa Chamberfest, Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, and the National Arts Centre #CanadaPerforms series.

They have toured broadly across Canada, celebrating and performing new works by both leading and emerging composers, including Jocelyn Morlock, Kelly-Marie Murphy, John Beckwith, Monica Pearce, Daniel Mehdizadeh, and Mari Alice Conrad. Their 2020 Toronto debut for the Music Mondays series was broadcast nationally on the CBC Radio 2 program “In Concert”.

In 2023, SHHH!! Ensemble will present the world premiere of Kelly-Marie Murphy’s double concerto Machines, Mannequins, and Monsters with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, followed by an appearance at the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec’s Montreal New Music Biennial. Additionally, as co-Artistic Directors of the Ottawa New Music Creators, Zac and Edana enjoy curating performances by leading Canadian and international artists in their home base of Ottawa, Ontario. Their debut album, Meanwhile, recorded for the Analekta label, was released in October 2022 to critical acclaim.

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