New studio recording of Song of the Tides has been posted. Click here to listen. Mark Hopkins, conductor with the Acadia University Wind Ensemble. Rod Sneddon was the recording engineer. This work will be on an upcoming CD featuring the Acadia Wind Ensemble. More news will be posted when this CD is available.

A low brass recital featuring the world premiere performance of a new work by Nova Scotia composer Derek Charke will take place July 18, 2:30 pm at the Steel Recital Hall, UPEI, Charlottetown. It will feature Eric Mathis, Dale Sorensen, trombones; Bob Nicholson, bass trombone/tuba; Gregory Irvine, tuba; and Frances McBurnie, piano Read More...

Charke.com has been completely overhauled. The old site was becoming unwieldy and hard to manage. Ultimately it was taking more time to maintain than I wanted it to, and mostly because the format was a bit outdated and less flexible than I would have liked. This new site has been created using RapidWeaver, which I find rather intuitive to work with. You can sign-up to the new RSS feed for the news. I don't post material that often, so there is no worry of inundating your inbox with loads of material.

Because the website has been reworked, most of the old URL addresses have changed. Please take a moment to update any links that you might have had to this site. I've redirected some of the old links, and others should simply direct you to the home page.

A demo recording of Oikos / Ecos, a new work that was premiered by soprano Janice Jackson at Shattering the Silence 2010, has been posted. Oikos refers to the Greek word for our home. The text is personal responses to various news articles.

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Aurora Dances has been completely revised and updated as of May, 2010. This new version is (1) for a smaller and more practical orchestra and (2) has been reworked slightly, both harmonically and more important, structurally. Overall the work flows better. Three minutes of music were ultimately removed, and several ideas were completely reworked. The work is essentially the same, but hopefully flows better and is structurally more consistent. Both the score and parts will be available from the Canadian Music Centre by the end of May, 2010.

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