The
Quatuor Molinari,
Pro Coro Canada,
Strathcona String Quartet,
WindRose Trio,
and the Violet Collective are some of the headlining Artists performing
at the third annual festival of New Music Edmonton, Now Hear This. The
prospect of New Music may be daunting for unfamiliar audience members;
however, NME resolves to reverse such perceptions by programming a diverse
array of New Music offerings that allows audience members to sample a
full spectrum. The festival focuses on the works of R. Murray Schafer, a
Canadian composer considered to have coined the term “soundscape.”
Juno award-winning,
Quatuor Molinari, travels to Edmonton to perform Schafer’s quartets, which won them the 2014 Opus Prize for Concert of the Year.
Many professional Edmonton musicians are on the festival roster, such as the
Strathcona String Quartet and
Windrose Trio. This NME festival will also be the debut of the Violet Collective, named after the founder of NME,
Violet Archer.
Archer was a formative figure in Canadian music history as a composer,
pedagogue, organist and pianist which led her receiving the Order of
Canada in 1984. She had strong ties to our Edmonton music community
since she held a Faculty position at the University of Alberta in the
Department of Theory and Composition until her retirement.
In addition,
Pro Coro Canada,
performs the works of R. Murray Schafer. Schafer's
Hear the Sounds
Go Round had its Canadian premiere at the Soundstreams Choral
Celebration concert back in February 2, 2014. Pro Coro Canada joined the
Vancouver Chamber Choir and Elmer Iseler Singers in Toronto to
celebrate over 60 years of professional choral singing in Canada. Pro
Coro Canada brings Schafer's newest piece to NME to share the whimsical
text and twisting melodies of Schafer. Pro Coro will also sing Missa
Brevis selections by
Mathew Emery, an undergraduate composition student at the University of British Columbia. Emery already has numerous compositional accolades and is a name that has the world of Canadian choral music buzzing.
Q&A with festival organizer,
Roger Admiral:
The
New Music Festival is now celebrating it's third anniversary, what do
you feel is the current state of new music in Edmonton and what hopes do
you have for the festival to increase new music awareness in our
community?
There has been some level of new music activity in
Edmonton since the 1970s, mostly organized by composers. Only in the
last 10 years or so has it been consistently performer-driven. A
festival allows one to be immersed for a prolonged period.
Audiences
often are looking for musical accessibility and new music may have the
reputation to be more abstract for mainstream audiences, what thoughts
could you provide in order to encourage unfamiliar new music audience
members?
New music has a different approach to familiar
concepts of melody, harmony and rhythm. Even though many new pieces do
not follow a narrative kind of structure, one can still have a sense of
drama (you never know what will happen next and you must give yourself
entirely to being in the moment.) In addition to those underlying
features there are surface attractions of new sounds and textural
combinations of different instruments.
New music artists and
composers all fall within a diverse range of styles and works. What does
NME look for when they are designing and programming the festival?
We
have a jury made up of diverse personalities, but all are looking for
quality. Having some theme (i.e. Murray Schafer ) is also good for
focus.
What inspired the festival to focus on works by R. Murray Schafer?
A concert proposal for Molinari Quartet to play four recent quartets by him.
New
Music Edmonton invites professional level musicians to perform new
music works, what motivated the NME to invite Pro Coro Canada, The
Strathcona String Quartet and WindRose Trio this time for the festival?
We want New Music Edmonton to be a hub and a community member.
What performances are you personally looking forward to and why?
I am looking forward to the Violet Collective, because this will be their first performance, and I have good feeling about it.
What would be some of your future hopes for the Society of New Music or the New Music Festival in general?
More
concerts, more listeners, working with more interesting composers.
Unfortunately life is too short to hear everything, but let's try.
This post is cross-posted on The Sound + Noise
All tickets are available at Tix on the Square or at the door
Festival passes General Admission $50 / $40 students / $30 NME members available at Tix or at the door
More information:
Friday March 21, 2014
5:30pm – Contempo Ensemble concert at Convocation Hall, University of Alberta*
7:30pm – Molinari Quartet performs works by R. Murray Schafer
$20 General / $15 Students / $10 NME members
program:
String Quartets Nos. 9-12
9:30pm – Semi/Conductor - a concert of electronic works
$15 General / $10 Students / $5 NME members
program:
Would You Like Fries With That? – Brian Garbet
Untangle My Tongue – Robert McClure
Luna – Mike Lukaszuk
De la Fenêtre – Roxanne Turcotte
Post Concert: Opening Night Reception featuring John Huck (aka DJ Wijit)
Saturday March 22, 2014
1:00pm – Soundwalk*, exploring the soundscape of our city
2:00pm – WindRose Trio concert
$20 General / $15 Students / $10 NME members
program:
Leviathan – Thom Golub
It’s a Crowd – George Andrix
Reeds – Emily Doolittle, with dancer Gerry Morita
3:30pm – Violet Collective debut, performing electro-acoustic works
$15 General / $10 Students / $5 NME members
program:
The Sorrowful Mysteries – André Mestre
Strata –
Colin Labadie
Jeu de Téléphone – Paul Steenhuisen
Ghost - Raimundo Gonzalez
4:45pm
– The Canadian League of Composers round table discussion with Ian
Crutchley, Heather Hindman, John Estacio, Gary James Joynes, and Michael
Frishkopf*
7:00pm – Violet Collective, the unplugged concert
program:
Rebirth - Bob Pritchard
À propos du concert de la semaine dernière - Samuel Andreyev
Year Without Summer (Daumernkino) - Jacob Gotlib
Twelve Ball-bearings - Kerrith Livengood
Follow Me – John Beckwith
Refraction – Keith Hamel
8:30pm – Pro Coro Canada, conducted by Michael Zaugg
program
Here the Sounds Go Round – R. Murray Schafer
Magic Songs – R. Murray Schafer
Missa Brevis (selections) – Mathew Emery
9:30pm – Astral Ghosts – a concert of electro-acoustic works
All three evening concerts for one price! $20 General / $15 Students / $10 NME members
program:
Improvisation by Thom Golub (bass) and Kate Stashko (dance)
The Ghosts that Guard the Gateway – Gene Kosowan and Marion Garver Fredrickson
Weld – Tony Marasco
Astral Migration –
Pigeon Breeders featuring visuals by Lindsay McIntyre
Meshes of the Afternoon – Greg Samek
Sunday March 23, 2014
11:00am – Deep Listening Workshop*
2:00pm – Strathcona String Quartet
program:
String Quartet No. 2 - George Andrix
String Quartet No. 1 - Jan Jarvlepp
String Quartet No. 2 (Looking Back) – Alfred Kunz
Elusions – Colin Labadie
Mobius Train – Ken Read
Affinity – Matthew Tozer
Lake Manitoulin – Kent Williams
5:30pm – Violet Collective
Two afternoon concerts for one price! $20 General / $15 Students / $10 Students
program:
Matemalista - Nico Arnáez
Epanoui – James Harely
LYS – Ron Hannah
Elea - Gordon Fitzell
*all concerts marked with an asterisk are free admission
All events are at Holy Trinity Anglican Church (10037 84th ave.) unless otherwise noted
