Percussionist Zac Pulak and pianist Edana Higham are the two members of SHHH!! Ensemble, a duo carving a space for themselves as electrifying performers of new music. With a keen ear for experimentation and exploration, SHHH!! has been deemed “truly virtuosic and intense” by Toronto’s Confluence Concerts and called “a beautiful discovery” following their debut with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.
Formed in 2017, SHHH!! Ensemble began to develop and hone their signature “avant-accessible” style through residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Banff, AB), Canadian Music Centre (Toronto, ON), Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance (Lunenburg, NS), and Avaloch Farm Music Institute (Boscawen, NH). With an almost insatiable appetite for experimentation, the duo has commissioned over two dozen new works for piano-percussion duo, beginning with Meanwhile by John Beckwith in 2018. Following that initial experiment, SHHH!! continues to build a repertoire of unique music for their ensemble with compositions by some of the world’s most creative voices including Kelly-Marie Murphy, Jocelyn Morlock, Monica Pearce, Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis, Frank Horvat, Carmen Braden, and many others.
SHHH!! Ensemble’s provocative Spirits program, premiered in January 2020 at the Canadian Music Centre, has since toured at concert series and festivals across Canada, including the Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, LUMINA, Ottawa Chamberfest, and the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec’s Montreal New Music Festival. Featuring music by J.S. Bach, Andy Akiho, Jocelyn Morlock, Monica Pearce, Micheline Roi, and others, Spirits is a journey through composers’ reflections on the nature of creativity, meditation, Scotch whisky, and The Beyond.
SHHH!! Ensemble’s creativity and vitality were especially notable through the pandemic, with one critic commenting, “This virtuoso duo are so agile and inventive… I doubt anything short of a geological cataclysm will shut them down” (The WholeNote). Major highlights in 2020–2022 include the duo’s acceptance into the prestigious Evolution: Classical career development residency at the Banff Centre, a National Arts Centre #CanadaPerforms concert, the world premiere of JUNO-winning composer Jocelyn Morlock’s Spirit Gradient with the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival in Newfoundland, a The WholeNote magazine cover story, and a nationally broadcast recital on the CBC Music program In Concert.
In February 2023, SHHH!! Ensemble “enthralled” (Winnipeg Free Press) in their debut as soloists in the world premiere of Kelly-Marie Murphy’s concerto Machines, Mannequins, and Monsters with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, a work commissioned especially for SHHH!! by the orchestra. Repeat performances of the concerto with the Symphony Orchestras of Ottawa and Thunder Bay were met with a standing ovations.
As co-Artistic Directors of the Ottawa New Music Creators since 2021, Zac and Edana take pride in their role as presenters of weird and wonderful new sounds in the National Capital Region, curating programs known for cutting-edge invention drawing from local and international artists.
SHHH!! Ensemble’s debut album Meanwhile (Analekta) was released in October 2022 to critical acclaim, reaching top positions on Apple Music and Spotify playlists, as well as being nominated for Classical Recording of the Year at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards. The duo’s sophomore album, a large-scale commissioned work by Frank Horvat entitled An Auditory Survey of the Last Days of the Holocene (Leaf Music), released on October 20, 2023. La Scena Musicale gave the recording 5 stars, calling it a “masterpiece” and “a much needed reminder of the healthy world we are all working toward”.
SHHH!! Ensemble’s latest touring program, Starry Night, features music written for the Edana and Zac by composers Harry Stafylakis, Monica Pearce, Mari Alice Conrad, and Paolo Griffin, alongside previously existing works by Vincent Ho and Jocelyn Morlock. The lush and impressionistic soundscape reflects on the night sky and our shared place in the universe. Starry Night has been performed at major festivals and concert series such as Music Toronto, Groundswell, New Works Calgary, Ottawa Chamberfest, Under the Spire, Scotia Festival of Music, and many more. Starry Night releases as SHHH!!’s third album in November 2026.
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