McGregor-Verdejo Duo – Notions & Notations

Notions & Notations brings together flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor and guitarist Adrian Verdejo as the McGregor-Verdejo Duo, in eight works by Alfredo Santa Ana, Gabriela Ortiz, Toru Takemitsu, Hiroki Tsurumoto, Ignacio Baca-Lobera, Kara Gibbs, Anthony Genge and Diego Lozano. Soprano Dory Hayley joins them for Gibbs’s Tegami.

Formed in 2016 by guitarist Adrian Verdejo and flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor, the McGregor-Verdejo Duo takes a deeply personal approach to their debut album, Notions & Notations, exploring each musician’s heritage through the music of Japanese, Mexican, and Canadian composers.

The project began in 2019, when Verdejo, a Regina-born Canadian of Mexican heritage, obtained his Mexican citizenship, sparking a conversation with McGregor, who is Japanese Canadian, about their respective heritages and how these might inform their work as performers and curators of new music. What unfolded over the next seven years was a series of discoveries and rediscoveries: a multi-movement work by Gabriela Ortiz rooted in Latin dance rhythms; a formidable “new complexity” warhorse by Ignacio Baca-Lobera; Anthony Genge’s Night Rain, inspired by an 18th-century Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print by Ippitsusai Bunchō; and a renewed connection with one of the most important works in the flute and guitar repertoire, Toru Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea.

The program is rounded out by a series of commissions. In Tegami, Kara Gibbs explores the complexities of identity through a setting of a poem by fellow Japanese Canadian Carolyn Nakagawa, performed here with soprano Dory Hayley. Alfredo Santa Ana’s Wave Remote pays tribute to his youth as a rock musician growing up in Mexico City, expanding the flute and guitar sound world with electronics and pedal effects. Hiroki Tsurumoto combines bass flute and guitar with prerecorded sounds of his “barkless” Basenji dogs, creating a sound palette that is at once eerie, humorous, and affectionate. Finally, Mexican composer Diego Lozano closes the album with Notions and Notations, a work that examines the friction between a musical idea (notion) and its representation in a score (notation). The result is four movements of dreamlike sequences, their strangeness heightened by the use of electronics.

TRACKS
1. Alfredo Santa Ana: Wave Remote 10:47
2. Gabriela Ortiz: 5 pa’2, I. Rítmico 1:43
3. Gabriela Ortiz: 5 pa’2, II. Dialogando 2:23
4. Gabriela Ortiz: 5 pa’2, III. Suave 3:20
5. Gabriela Ortiz: 5 pa’2, IV. Jicamo 1:57
6. Gabriela Ortiz: 5 pa’2, V. Rápido 2:20
7. Toru Takemitsu: Toward the Sea, I. The Night 3:29
8. Toru Takemitsu: Toward the Sea, II. Moby Dick 3:52
9. Toru Takemitsu: Toward the Sea, III. Cape Cod 3:46
10. Hiroki Tsurumoto: voice box v 10:12
11. Ignacio Baca-Lobera: Dúo 8:48
12. Kara Gibbs: Tegami 8:30
13. Anthony Genge: Night Rain, I 2:39
14. Anthony Genge: Night Rain, II 2:38
15. Anthony Genge: Night Rain, III 2:10
16. Diego Lozano: Notions and Notations, I. Illusion Dissolution 2:45
17. Diego Lozano: Notions and Notations, II. Out of Phase Love 3:59
18. Diego Lozano: Notions and Notations, III. Torsion (in) Tension 2:21
19. Diego Lozano: Notions and Notations, IV. Back and Forth 2:16

CREDITS
Mark Takeshi McGregor, flute
Adrian Verdejo, guitar
with Dory Hayley, soprano (track 12)

Producers: Mark Takeshi McGregor, Adrian Verdejo, Kara Gibbs (track 12)
Recording engineers: Don Harder (tracks 2 – 15), Adrian Verdejo (tracks 1, 16 – 19)
Editing and mixing: Don Harder (tracks 2 – 15), Adrian Verdejo (tracks 1, 16 – 19)
Additional mixing: Alfredo Santa Ana (track 1)
Mastering: Don Harder
Recording dates: 26 July and 7 August 2022 (track 1); 2 October 2023 and 13 July 2025 (tracks 16 – 19); 14 – 15 March 2025 (tracks 2 – 9, 12); 14 – 15 August 2025 (tracks 10, 11, 13 – 15)
Recording venues: Pacific Spirit United Church, Vancouver BC; Bubble Nest Studios, Vancouver BC (tracks 1, 16 – 19)

Cover art by Mark Takeshi McGregor
Graphic design by Benjamin Siegl

Notions & Notations is available for pre-order from