On The Way Appears, cellists India Gailey and Leah Plave offer a collection of uniquely collaborative new music for two celli. The album marks a decade of friendship between the pair, who share a rebellious streak against the rigidity of their formal training, a dedication to inclusive representation, and a passion for evolving the tradition of classical music. From the synchronicity of flocking birds and the fractal symmetry of snowflakes, to the self-organized structures of political movements, the music illustrates emergence, a phenomenon seen widely in nature where the individual parts of a system work together to exhibit complex behaviour they could not accomplish on their own.
The program features commissions mostly born from the Canadian contemporary classical music community, with works by Adam Vincent Clarke, Cris Derksen, Emily Kennedy, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Matthias McIntire, Kelly-Marie Murphy, and Jeff Reilly. Abandoning the standard template of soloist plus continuo, the album highlights the strong individual voices of both players, vividly celebrating the visceral joy, creative power, and social necessity of cooperation.
TRACKS
1. Emily Kennedy: Triptych 5:19
2. Adam Vincent Clarke: Voix Lointaines 3:56
3. Kelly-Marie Murphy: The Way Appears 7:14
4. Leilehua Lanzilotti: silhouette, mirror 5:31
5. Matthias McIntire: Islands 4:33
6. Jeff Reilly: Surfacing 6:48
7. Cris Derksen: The Bee and Her Wildflower 6:41
CREDITS
All works performed by Leah Plave and India Gailey, celli
Recorded at Trinity-St. Stephen’s United Church, Nemcheboogwek, Mi’kma’ki / Amherst, Nova Scotia, April 2026
Recorded, mixed, and mastered by John D.S. Adams, Stonehouse Sound
Immersive Mixing Engineer: John D.S. Adams
Produced by Jeff Reilly
Photo by Joey Chapman
Graphic design by Jamie Kronick
Publicity by Riparian Media
Released in stereo and in Dolby Atmos spatial audio.
With the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Music Nova Scotia.
The Way Appears is available for pre-order from
TK595 © ℗ 2026 India Gailey and Leah Plave
All rights reserved / Tous droits réservés
Release date: October 30, 2026
LINER NOTES
This project grew out of a decade-long friendship that began in Montréal and continued with a whole Atlantic Ocean in between. We aspired to give rise to a body of work in which two cellists could play as equal voices forming a cohesive whole, portraying images spanning from a flock of birds to the voices of our ancestors. In commissioning this new music, we invited creative minds who would both honour and challenge the origins of two celli in tandem. Each new work captures a few minutes of their expressive power which we can proudly, lovingly present to both the composers and the public.
Just weeks after recording this album, we lost one of our young composers, Cris Derksen. Her sudden, untimely departure from this world robbed us all of her future artistic output and beloved personal presence. This news rattled us to the core. Cris was only days away from receiving and hearing our recording of her cello duo for the first time. We are honoured to present her piece in this album as one of her final gifts. We will always remember her.
We are grateful to each and every composer who contributed to this album: Cris Derksen, Jeff Reilly, Adam Vincent Clarke, Emily Kennedy, Kelly-Marie Murphy, Matthias McIntire, and Leilehua Lanzilotti. Thank you again to Jeff Reilly, who also served as a skillful, patient producer and editor; and to our sound engineer, John D.S. Adams, a true wizard. We appreciate the generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts and Music Nova Scotia. And for listening, we thank you.
India Gailey and Leah Plave
THE COMMISSION
The prompt given to each composer:
Our concept is to remedy the deficit of contemporary classical cello chamber music by asking the composers to write music for two cellos in which both players have an equally present voice. The theme for these commissions is the word “emergence,” a term which can describe the interaction between parts of a complex entity which only react when acting together, rather than alone. This concept can be approached from so many angles, mathematical, spiritual, political, biological, like a flock of birds that flies in mysterious synchronicity, a snowflake that forms in symmetrical fractal patterns, or a group of humans attempting to evoke change without domination.
PROGRAM NOTES
2. Voix Lointaines — Adam Vincent Clarke
Voix Lointaines was composed in August 2025 for cellists Leah Plave and India Gailey. The piece traces its roots back to 2015, the year of my graduation recital at Acadia University. That evening carried a double weight: it marked both the completion of my studies and an unspoken tribute to my mother, who had passed away just two months earlier.
As I left the stage, I felt an immense release, grief, exhaustion, and gratitude all at once. In the wings I embraced the only person standing there, and in that embrace the year’s emotion poured out while the applause echoed out behind me. That person was India. It was a moment of rare openness in absolute vulnerability, and I have never forgotten it.
To now compose this work for Leah and India is deeply meaningful. My mother always loved melody, something lyrical. In writing Voix Lointaines, I found myself returning to her voice around the house, to those memories, and though I am often averse to the esoteric, to the thought that perhaps she might still be listening.
4. silhouette, mirror — Leilehua Lanzilotti
The musical material for silhouette, mirror comes from Lanzilotti’s string orchestra work with eyes the color of time, a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music. The title of this piece refers to works of art that were featured in The Contemporary Museum (Spalding House) in Honolulu when it first opened: the bronze doors at the entrance of the museum by Robert Graham, which had silhouettes of women in them, and James Seawright’s Mirror XV (1987).
6. Surfacing — Jeff Reilly
In early 2024 the brilliant cellists India Gailey and Leah Plave commissioned me to compose a work for them exploring the idea of “emergence”. This describes how complex, interactive systems like birds flocking, or bees gathering can emerge into patterns, some of them displaying great beauty and mystery. I was particularly intrigued by the idea of “surfacing” in emergence theory, which refers to the process by which these new patterns appear or “rise up” out of the multiple micro interactions within the system.
“Rising up” doesn’t just happen in the natural world, it appears in human interactions as well. Protest movements, internet trends, even AI interactions display emergence and surfacing behaviours.
I created this piece to chronicle the surfacing of an emergent pattern that slowly appears out of a series of small and intense interactions. A collection of 2-note themes gradually finds their way through the chaos and finally surface in a triumphant, unison melody. The closing austere, beautiful harmonics represent the fading away of this unique moment, like a flock of starlings flying away into the twilight.
I wish to thank India and Leah for their hard work in bringing this piece to life, and for their confidence in my ability as a composer. I dedicate this piece to the millions and millions of humans in these dark times who are working in multiple and complex ways to “rise up” and turn the tide of humanity towards sanity.
ABOUT INDIA GAILEY
India Gailey is a cellist, composer, vocalist, and improviser who appears most often in the realms of classical and experimental music. Named by CBC as one of “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30,” India moves fluidly as a soloist, chamber musician, and interdisciplinary collaborator, performing across the western hemisphere. India’s music imaginatively combines themes from the natural world with ethereal textures and poetic storytelling. She has written music for concert, film, dance, and theatre, often exploring environmentalism and magical realism in her work. In 2022 she composed music for Symphony Nova Scotia to illustrate Mi’kmaw poet Rebecca Thomas’s children’s book I’m Finding My Talk, followed by her own cello concerto Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth (Redshift Records), the recording of which received an East Coast Music Award for Composer of the Year and a 2025 JUNO nomination for Classical Album of the Year. India is the recipient of numerous honours, including awards from Arts Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, the Canada Council for the Arts, Upstream Music, and Acadia and McGill Universities.
ABOUT LEAH PLAVE
Genre-bent artist Leah Plave embraces not only classical but contemporary, electronic, non-western, and experimental music. She frequently collaborates with living composers and is drawn towards interdisciplinary, cross-cultural projects. A four-time immigrant by the age of 24, Leah has lived and toured extensively across North America, China, and Europe. Based in the Netherlands, she performs with ensembles such as B.O.X Ensemble, Pi Quartet, Spaceship Ensemble, London Film Orchestra, Lincoln Center Stage, and the Orchestra of the 18th Century. She makes frequent appearances in European new music festivals such as Rewire, November Music, and Haarlem Vinyl Festival.
Redshift Records 