Notations Winter 2015

Notations Composition and the Environment A report back from The Sound in the Land Conference A resounding Silence A conversation with Ben Grossman Have and HAVNites A new home for experimental music in Hamilton Noteworthy news, music reviews, and more!

In this issue

photo A look inside the Hamilton Audio Visual Node

20 Sound in the Land Report Back

30 Album Review:

34 Finding silence

42 HAVN a good time

“We are here because we love the Earth and her sounds. We too are part of the Earth, and it is good we love our own sounds—music, speech, motors, noises.”

A simultaneous abiding interest in the state of experimental music and art-making has placed Grossman in a unique position at this juncture of contemporary music.

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Baby Kintyre by Dean Burry “It is not every day one gets to review a work that, in so many ways, feels like it was unearthed as part of a time capsule.”

The Hamilton Audio Visual Node (HAVN) is an artist-run collective creating a space for their individual and collaborative artistic practices.

Table of Contents

4 5 8 20 30 34 42 48 56

Letter from the Editors A Message from Regional Council Ontario Project Updates Sound in the Land Report Back Album Reviews Finding SILENCE HAVN a good time New Associates Noteworthy

WINTER 2015, VOL. 22, NO. 1 The Canadian Music Centre, Ontario Region.

The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Canadian Music Centre.

Editorial Collective Matthew Fava, Jeremy Strachan, Alexa Woloshyn Design Jennifer Chan Contributors Jason Caron, Matthew Fava, Evan Pointner, Alexa Woloshyn CANADIAN MUSIC CENTRE ONTARIO REGION 20 St. Joseph Street, Toronto ON, M4Y 1J9 416.961.6601 x 207 ontario@musiccentre.ca www.musiccentre.ca

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Letter from the Editors

Welcome to the first Notations issue of 2015!

In this edition we delve into the role of common spaces when constituting an artistic community.

Artists interact and collaborate in new and exciting ways that often transcend geography. at the same time, there remains an ongoing tradition of artist-run spaces serving as breeding ground for new projects, expanded networks, and artistic growth. The space is often ephemeral, but the impacts, tangible and intangible, are profound.

In the summer of 2014, a group of artists established a new venue in Toronto: Ratio.

Beyond hosting a variety of exhibits and screenings, Ratio has also quickly become a hive of musical performances. For those of us at Notations, this served as a reminder of the challenges that experimental musical artists face in Toronto and elsewhere— namely, a shortage of welcoming spaces for weirdo music. Beyond that, we began to consider how similar spaces operate in other cities in the province: are the origins, philosophies, and functions such that we might see greater connectivity across a wider region of the province?

We explore this and other questions in our main article and our In Focus feature.

Musician, improviser, and organizer Ben Grossman discusses Silence, the Guelphbased venue and concert series that has become an epicenter for adventurous music

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in that city. We also get a glimpse of his personal history, which greatly informs his approach to running Silence. The themes discussed by Grossman extend to our interview with members of the Hamilton Audio Visual Node (havn). Similar to Grossman, the folks from HAVN recognized a gap in the musical and artistic ecosystem of Hamilton, and their collaborative approach to operating their downtown space has garnered a lot of attention (locally and beyond).

Notations journeys westward from Guelph and Hamilton, settling in Waterloo.

Notations contributor Evan Pointner spent several days in June 2014 attending the Sound in the Land conference at Conrad Grebel University College, and he reports on the unique cross-section of artists and environmentalists in various fields discussing the relationship between sound, music, and the environmental movement.

Here at the Canadian Music Centre, we have a great deal to recognize and celebrate in the pages of Notations. We highlight the success of the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium, the growth

of the Opus: Testing project with Musica Reflecta, and the launch of our Class Axe workshop with the Guitar Society of Toronto (alongside many other activities).

We are also thrilled to share noteworthy news from composers across Ontario, including a feature on six composers who joined the CMC as Associates in the Summer of 2014.

In our reviews section, we highlight the launch of Centretracks, a digital sub-label of Centrediscs. Kicking off the monthly releases from Centretracks was a collection remixes of music by CMC Associate Composer Hugh Le Caine. We also hear about CMC Associate Composer Dean Burry’s recently released Centredisc, Baby Kintyre.

We hope you enjoy the current issue! If you want to contact the editorial collective, contribute to future issues, or find out more about the CMC, contact ontario@ musiccentre.ca!

Notations Editorial Collective Matthew Fava Jeremy Strachan Alexa Woloshyn

A message from the Regional Council

A warm and spirited “Happy New Year” to you!

We’re flying on the tails of some great winter successes at the CMC: the Ontario office and council banded together with the National office to host a successful fundraiser in November, celebrating 30 years at Chalmers House.

Matthew Fava, Director of Ontario Region, continues to do an astounding amount within a tight budget, working to provide and promote opportunities for composers, performers, educators, and listeners within Ontario. In addition, he has been tireless at providing service for CMC Atlantic Region stakeholders while the organization was on the hunt for an Interim Director. On that note, I am very pleased to welcome Peggy Walt to the Atlantic Region office in this capacity!

The National Office, led by Glenn Hodgins, has come barreling into 2015 with actions to roll out the CMC National strategic plan. From an in-depth branding exercise to a newly minted Communications position (congratulations, Allegra Young!), and the appointment of a Director of Development (welcome Christopher Minnes), every decision that is made, every path that is taken, pulls the CMC together from the Atlantic to the BC regions.

The CMC needs you! Come out to a concert at Chalmers House: check out the calendar of events here. Make use of the many services of the CMC, and reach out when there’s something we can help you with. In the meantime, all the very best for 2015!

Andrea Warren Chair, Ontario Regional Council ontariochair@musiccentre.ca

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Ontario Project Updates Here are some of the activities that have taken place at the Ontario Region of the Canadian Music Centre.

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Ontario Project Updates

1. Sō Percussion @ CMC The world-renowned quartet Sō Percussion was in Toronto touring material from a recent collaboration with Kid Millions (John Colpitts). The augmented group performed in a concert presented by Burn Down the Capital in early July.

In addition, the group conducted a workshop at the Canadian Music Centre exploring the continuum between minimalist repertoire and the new territory they are exploring with Kid Millions.

photo L to R: Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Jason Treuting, Adam Sliwinski of Sō Percussion performing at the CMC credit Matthew Fava

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Ontario Project Updates

2. Music From Scratch

3. Park Songbook

Contact Contemporary Music collaborated with the Canadian Music Centre to present the most recent edition of their week-long music education project, Music From Scratch. CMC Associate Composer and resident composer Graham Flett worked with the Contact ensemble and a group of young people to explore music creation through sound walks, graphic notation, and improvisation.

In recent years, the Regent Park School of Music (rpsm) has developed an intensive and fun summer program introducing young musicians to contemporary Canadian vocal repertoire. In 2014 this projected expanded to commission new works

by Canadian composers that used poems written by young people based in Regent Park. Nine new pieces were written by composers Dean Burry, Brian Current, Juliet Palmer, Jeffrey Ryan, and Saman Shahi, and the CMC was thrilled to host the premiere performances in our space in July.

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photo Music from scratch: Group rehearsals of a graphic score credit Matthew Fava

4. Coast X Coast

5. TIES takes over Toronto

Canadian composers Brian Garbet and James O’Callaghan have been presenting Coast X Coast across the country in order to showcase contemporary electroacoustics from emerging artists. In August, Garbet and O’Callaghan collaborated with the CMC to continue the series in Toronto. The event also featured a live coding set by Toronto-based composer Adam Tindale.

The Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium took place in August. The annual symposium is organized by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and New Adventures in Sound Art, with the CMC collaborating in the presentation.

The symposium featured a variety of artists working in different facets of electroacoustics, from fixed media, to laptop orchestras, and beyond. Pauline Oliveros served as the keynote speaker for the symposium. Oliveros also joined Kevin Austin and CMC Associate Composers Gayle Young, Paul Pedersen, and David Jaeger during A Noisome Pestilence, a special tribute session dedicated to Hugh Le Caine.

photo James O’Callaghan performs his piece Reasons which continues his investigation of the musicalisation of everyday objects. In this case, books! credit Matthew Fava

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Ontario Project Updates

6. INTERsection

7. New Music 101

The annual marathon of new music in Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto returned this year, with additional events at the Tranzac and Music Gallery. Presented

by Contact Contemporary Music, the festival showcased some of the most exciting ensembles and artists active in contemporary chamber music, improvisation, and noise in the city. US composerclarinetist Evan Ziporyn headlined the event which invaded the senses of a massive audience – particularly the unsuspecting passers-by.

The Toronto New Music Alliance presented another installment in the education series New Music 101. This past fall, the series took place in the beautiful new Hinton Learning Theatre at the Toronto Reference Library as well as the theatre in the Palmerston Library Branch. The New Music 101 series presents various topics relating to contemporary composition and performance, and included contributions from the Toy Piano Composers, Bicycle Opera Project, Arraymusic, Music in the Barns, New Adventures in Sound Art, and pianist Christina Petrowska Quilico. The series was hosted by David Perlman, editor of the Wholenote magazine.

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photo Ziporyn performs at INTERsection credit Matthew Fava

8. Opus Testing…Testing…

9. Composing Community

The CMC continues its collaboration with Musica Reflecta, presenting two Opus Testing workshops in the fall. Each workshop invites composers to write for a particular set of instruments, and facilitates skill sharing and collaboration between performers and composers. In September, vocal quartet The Wind in the Water performed arrangements of popular songs, and in November guitarists Patrick Power and Patrick Arteaga interpreted graphic scores that explored an array of alternative approaches to notation. Opus Testing is open to any Canadian composer! Watch for the bi-monthly call for proposals!

In the past year, Jumblies Theatre has been connecting with various music organizations in Toronto, and the CMC was thrilled to collaborate on their Composing Community workshop, hosted in the CMC performance space in October. The full-day workshop invites composers to work with artists in various disciplines (story telling, choreography, visual arts, and so on), while experiencing how Jumblies practices community arts. Check out the Jumblies website for future events and workshops!

www.musicareflecta.ca photo Jumblies Theatre: Participants provided fragments of impressions, histories, memories that became the basis of miniature pieces developed in the Composing Community workshop. credit Katherine Fleitas

www.jumbliestheatre.org/jumblies

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Photos | Ontario Project Updates

Music From Scratch

left Wallace gleefully demonstrates the clacking potential of the sax to MFS students right Found object orchestra credit Matthew Fava

Park Songbook

left Student participants in the RPSM song interpretation program right Isabel Hu (piano) and Milena Oliva performing at the CMC

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TIES takes over Toronto

top left Tanya Goncalvez demonstrates live coding with a simplified language she developed for novice coders top right Robert Normandeau discusses spatialization technology bottom left Jean Francois Laporte, in residence for NAISAs Sound Travels festival, discusses his invented instruments bottom right Colin Clark discusses various coding languages employed by artists credit Matthew Fava

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Photos | Ontario Project Updates

INTERsection

top Kyle Brenders (r) leads the assembled sax players through his piece The Haphazard Hinges left Cellist Bryan Holt tearing it up at the Tranzac middle Stephanie Chua performs a piece for thumb piano and electronics at the Tranzac right The Toy Piano Composers Ensemble performs a piece for music boxes by Jason Doell credit Matthew Fava

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left photo Wallace gleefully demonstrates the clacking potential of the sax to MFS students right photo Found object orchestra credit Matthew Fava

top left The ever-theatrical Rick Sacks dons his seafarer's cap for this performance in Yonge-Dundas Square top right Anna Atkinson, violin, and Simeon Abbott, piano, perform as part of a presentation by Spectrum music bottom left Jessica Stuart, vocals and koto, performs with Spectrum bottom right A coterie of clanging percussionists spread throughout Yonge Dundas Square perform James Tenney’s Koan: Having Never Written a Note for Percussion credit Matthew Fava

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Photos | Ontario Project Updates

New Music 101

left Stephanie Tritchew (l) and Geoffrey Sirett of Bicycle Opera Project perform at the Toronto Reference Library right (Toy) Pianist Wesley Shen performs Clangor by Monica Pearce, written for three distinct bicycle bells in addition to the toy piano credit Matthew Fava

Opus Testing

left Patrick Power (left) and Patrick Arteaga performing as part of Opus Testing credit Alain Lou right Members of the Wind and the Water during Opus Testing credit Matthew Fava

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Jumblies Theatre: Composing Community

top & bottom photos Participants are pictured here assembling ideas, and developing their pieces. credit Katherine Fleitas

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Evan Pointner

photo Good Hearted Women Singers performing at the Sound in the Land photo credit Jennifer Konkle

Sound in the Land Report Back

“ We are here because we love the Earth and her sounds.

We too are part of the Earth, and it is good we love our own sounds—music, speech, motors, noises. We are here because we want to listen beyond our human expectations, our human spectrum, to the natural world lying about us, some of which may soon disappear if we only listen to our human sounds.” artistic director Carol Ann Weaver’s words resonated throughout the Great Hall at Conrad Grebel University College during her opening remarks at the Sound In The Land 2014. Running between June 5 and 8, this unique conference-festival explored the relationship between music and the environment.

–

Gathered in the room were composers, performers, writers, and researchers from Korea, South Africa, Europe, USA, and Canada, with keynote speakers— composer R. Murray Schafer and environmentalist Gus Mills—among them. Students from University of Waterloo (uw), Wilfrid Laurier University (wlu), Canadian Mennonite University, Goshen College in Indiana, and Darmstadt, Germany were also present.

As a resident of Kitchener-Waterloo, and a WLU music student, I was excited to have this gathering take place in my current home town. Following the welcoming speeches by Weaver and others, and a collage of sounds accompanied by a dancer, the conference was underway.

Soundscapes and soundwalks were the first areas covered, pulling our attention towards the importance of listening. This session provoked a greater awareness of the sounds in our surroundings:

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what are sounds that we associate with “home,” comfort, and familiarity?

What are the sounds happening on city streets? Of these, which do people like, and which do they dislike? What effects do these sounds have on our mental and emotional well-being? Raising these questions and discussing some answers was a very appropriate way to begin a festival-conference centred around listening!

Also on Thursday was the Mennofolk Concert, with music ranging from indie folk, bluegrass, and rock to gospel, blues, jazz, and world music. Some underlying themes were environmental activism and the appreciation of natural beauty. It was remarkable to see the variety of artists with a common interest that was being explored in the conference.

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Among the conference sessions on Friday, there was one titled “Antarctica, Climate Change, Proactive Responses.” One of the presenters was indie-folk singer-songwriter and graduate student in UW’s new Masters of Climate Change program, Kai Reimer-Watts. When defining a role for himself as a

photo R. Murray Schafer (L) with conference organizer Carol Ann Weaver credit Jennifer Konkle

musician and academic, Reimer-Watts said that he is “fascinated by the role music can play in shedding light on our past, present and future. At those times of societal stress and transformation, music becomes an invaluable medium in which we can all share our voices and visions of a more fulfilling path forward.

Climate change presents an unprecedented ‘stress’ on society that music can play a strong role in addressing.”

To conclude Friday’s conference sessions, R. Murray Schafer gave his keynote, “Hearing Earth As Song,” touching on profound themes such as the Earth’s natural cycles, repetition, and our awareness of our surroundings through listening.

Schafer’s presentation was a reminder of how integral his writings and thinking have been to the interdisciplinary nature of acoustic ecology. Framing the act of listening as extending well beyond the duration of a song perfectly encapsulates the often self-imposed limitations of our perception.

The Sonic Convergences concert on Friday night, which was also part of the ongoing East-West Concert Series at UW, featured both contemporary orchestral music and a Korean multimedia theatre piece by Cecilia Heejong-Kim called Earth Songs. With both traditional Korean players and captivating visuals on

a screen behind them, Earth Songs created a sonic environment that was simultaneously stimulating and meditative. The orchestral music represented different environmental sounds and sound sources, such as Kalahari Calls by Carol Ann Weaver which “evokes natural sounds from the Kalahari, including the Cape Turtle Dove’s hypnotic and rhythmically repetitive call, Monotonous Lark’s triadic chirp, the Tit Babblers’ 32nd-note virtuosic song, and the most bewitching of all—the nocturnal, repeated-note, percussive calls of the Barking Gecko.” Relating to Schafer’s presentation, the piece condenses the natural sounds that occur between dawn and dusk.

– On Saturday morning at dawn, we went for a wordless soundwalk in a local forest led by nature interpreter Lyle Friesen. We heard various wildlife, including the magnificent wood thrush. This was an opportunity for delegates to put our discussions into practice. The activities that followed on Saturday helped to illustrate the various disciplines represented at the conference: for example the quadrophonic electroacoustic soundscape concert, and the traditional Balinese Gamelan concert.

top photo Soundscapes concert featuring CMC Associate Composers Wende Bartley and James Harley

Saturday night was the Kalahari Journey, a special presentation that took place after conference goers

credit Jennifer Konkle

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Sound in the Land Report Back

bonded over a special entirely “locavore” dinner.

The Journey included Gus Mills’s keynote, “Hearing Songs from the Earth - Carnivore Soundscapes and Images in the Kalahari Landscape.” Mills’s presentation was informative and compelling, documenting the images, sounds, and habits of the large carnivores of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa—spotted and brown hyenas, lions, and cheetahs. Performances of South African music bookended the Kalahari Journey.

– On Sunday morning at around 6:30, a school bus took us to Columbia Lake, which is part of the UW environmental reserve. The lake served as the venue for the Dawn Concert, which included works by a trio of stellar Canadian composers: R. Murray Schafer, Jennifer Butler, and Emily Doolittle. We wordlessly walked to an open area and sat on the grass facing the water, listening to our surroundings, waiting for Schafer’s piece to begin. When the distant sound of a clarinet became audible, it blended so well with the bird-sounds that it took some time before I realized what I was hearing. The human-made instrument sounds and singing continued to blend with the environmental sounds for the duration of the concert, coming from various directions to and distances from the audience. The fact that the musicians were visually concealed made this blending effect more powerful. The concert was coloured by a marvelous visual spectacle: far in the distance in canoes on the lake appeared dancers wearing bird costumes, gracefully moving their huge wings. Some

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time after the canoes were out of sight again, one of the bird-dancers appeared out of the bushes and guided us away from the lake to another grassy area where we continued to hear the sounds of musical instruments. Never before had I attended a concert that was so integrated into its environment.

For me, the common thread of Sound In The Land 2014 was experiencing sound as part of a holistic experience, as opposed to isolating it from an environmental context. Thus, while there was a focus on sound, the festival provided stimulation for all the senses. Similarly, individuals who specialize in sound (such as composers and performers), in my understanding, became indispensable to the discussion and dissemination of vitally important information relating to the current environmental movement. People from various disciplines and backgrounds were united to discuss and, most importantly, to experience sound and the land through which it resonates. Considering the implications of modern human civilization on our environment, this is a critical time for us to make progress together.

photo The audience's view during the Dawn Concert. credit Matthew Griffin

to an open area and sat on the grass facing the water, listening to our surroundings, waiting for Schafer’s piece to begin. When the distant sound of a clarinet became audible, it blended so well with the bird-sounds that it took some time before I realized what I was hearing. The human-made instrument sounds and singing continued to blend with the environmental sounds for the duration of the concert, coming from various directions to and distances from the audience.

PHOTO Dancers in bird costumes on Columbia Lake during the Dawn Concert

Photos | Sound in the Land Report Back

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1 A gamelan performance at the Sound in the Land Conference credit Jennifer Konkle 2 Inter-Mennonite Children's Choir credit Jennifer Konkle 3 Dancer and musicians migrating towards the audience during the Dawn Concert credit Alan Morgan 4 An image from Earth Songs credit Jennifer Konkle 5 The Waterloo Chamber Players Orchestra credit Jennifer Konkle 6 The scene during a conference workshop credit Matthew Griffin 7 Folk band, Rescue Junction, performing at the Sound in the Land credit Jennifer Konkle

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1 baby kintyre dean burry 2 remixes hugh le caine time eternal rose bolton

Album Review | Baby Kintyre Dean Burry

it is not every day one gets to review a work that, in so many ways, feels like it was unearthed as part of a time capsule. baby kintyre is part opera and part serial radio drama about a chilling, macabre curiosity come to life from old Hogtown. in 2007, a contractor doing repairs in an East Toronto home on Kintyre Avenue found a mummified baby in the floorboards.

A CBC documentary investigating the origins of the child, now known as Baby Kintyre, was broadcast that summer and made a strong impression on veteran Canadian opera composer Dean Burry.

Burry, a fan of radio drama from a young age, fused this form with opera to great effect in order to tell the story; Baby Kintyre is firmly placed within both worlds as it is an opera commissioned by the CBC to be aired in five installments on CBC Radio in 2009. While I am reviewing it as a continuous work, Burry links the five episodes together very effectively, with consistency in style and technique, and with plenty of repeated thematic material for listeners to refer to the last episode.

Time didn’t permit me to really test this theory, but I think musically, it would all lock together even with large periods of time between listening to episodes.

And, not to mention, a lot of musical and narrative content is divulged in such short episodes—a largely lost art, perhaps?

Technically, Burry has produced, as usual, a mature, competent score. The orchestration is crystal clear and full of variety, despite

what sounds like a fairly small ensemble.

The same can be said of the harmonic content: appropriately accessible for radio broadcast, but never stale, and full of variety.

Burry’s writing exhibits his thoughtfulness and experience in treating the English language; the text setting is perfectly clear and intelligible, despite the language tending to be tricky to set well. This is also aided by the singers not generally getting in each other’s way. Burry must have been mindful of the fact that people tuning in to CBC Radio wouldn’t have had the libretto on hand. A wise decision.

Lastly to speak on technique, Burry’s use of sound effects, layering of sounds and especially news broadcasts, was very well done and evocative. This is, after all, based on a true story, and these sections really bring the story to life (another trick, I reckon, taken from radio dramas).

I also appreciate a few sections which further the anachronistic feeling: two characters, George and Rita, singing a corny Tin Pan Alley popular tune from the 20s back and forth (overlaying a tense argument somewhat muffled in the other room) is a particularly well executed moment, as

well as the sultry sounds of Alla Mae (in a dramatic moment I will definitely not spoil here). I actually would have appreciated more of the anachronistic techniques to really put the listener in the era the story is set in, but at the same time, I can see it being overdone easily, too. I will trust that Burry put in as much as he thought was appropriate.

I don’t know any of the singers well, but particular kudos goes to Eileen Nash as Rita for her agile voice, with a richness and maturity well beyond her years (at the time of recording). We may see Nash on the opera stage again some day. And, also, to bass-baritone Giles Tomkins as Uncle Wesley; his low register is simply incredible and his voice is full of character and depth.

Click here to purchase the CD ontario notations – winter 2015 | 31

Album Review | Hugh Le - Caine Remixes; Time Eternal - Rose Bolton

Hugh Le Caine’s most famous work Dripsody offers a brief but exciting glimpse into the composer's technological and musical imagination, and it highlights many of the then new potentials in electroacoustic music, which were, in this case, achieved by his Multi-Track Tape Recorder. each remix offers a different negotiation of the original pentatonic glissandi water drops within new beats and synthesizers, and demonstrates the varied approaches to electronic technology within the art and popular music worlds.

My favourite remix opens the collection, with its gentle ease in and out of the piece and overall understated effect. Boundary’s remix references an age of mechanical reproduction with hiss and a steady mechanical rhythm. He pairs this with a subtle electronic pulse, and warm, sustained synthesizer chords. The original piece is less transparent, as Boundary uses short looped fragments of some of Le Caine’s transformed water droplets, but not the more distinctive pentatonic iterations or glissandi.

Elaquent’s remix opens with an organ before shifting suddenly to intricate synthesized drum kit beats and noticeable pitched water drops above. He soon combines these sonic elements and adds a pan flute melody above. This remix brings a smooth groove to the original and remains much more consonant than Perri’s remix.

Perri’s remix layers glissandi from the original piece and dissonant, aggressive synthesizer chords and fast passages over a simple waltz ostinato, creating an almost unsettling incongruity in the sonic elements. The playful consonance of Dripsody is satisfyingly twisted into a dark electronic folk dance.

With a total time of less than twelve minutes, these remixes are essential listening for anyone familiar with Dripsody and eager to hear some of Canada’s best current talent. These remixes are not only an updating of the 1955 original but also a creative collaboration that demonstrates how far we have come in the technological exploration of sound.

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another recent release on Centretracks is Rose Bolton’s Time Eternal, an ethereal mixed media work that blends violin, electronics, and a guitar ostinato. The first half of the piece is balanced, delicate, and subtle, expressing what Bolton describes as a “magical feeling” and a “feeling of ancientness.” Initially Bolton blends the guitar ostinato with only electronics, but soon simple two-note violin motives appear. She later expands these motives into longer step-wise melodies as the sound world surrounding them increases in density.

This section reminds me of some of the best aspects of Björk’s Vespertine electronics and Jesse Zubot on Tagaq’s Auk/Blood.

Bolton slowly builds the density, and soon the ostinato is essentially lost. But its exposed return is reassuring, and seems to signal the possible end of the piece; instead it is the beginning of a new section that is more dissonant, abrasive, and dense. I hear this section as the “changes and upheaval [that] is happening in the world” against which the constant ostinato provides reassurance and suggests the indifference of passing time. Even though this final section contrasts the first, it never becomes too aggressive, and the steady ostinato remains as all other sounds fade away until a final delicate electronic gesture. Listen to this track with quality headphones or stereo system to allow the sonorous subtleties and spaciousness of Time Eternal to envelop you. Bolton is currently one of the strongest voices in Canadian electroacoustic music, and her sensitivity to time, space, texture, and timbre is clearly evident in Time Eternal.

Robert Aitken artistic director

NEW MUSIC CONCERTS • Sunday March 1, 2015 • An Evening with Paul Griffiths

Benefit Event | Call 416.961.9594 Griffiths discusses his collaboration with Elliott Carter Gallery 345, 345 Sorauren Ave. @ 7:00

• Saturday March 14, 2015 • Duo Szathmáry/Tzschoppe

Zsigmond Szathmáry organ | Olaf Tzschoppe percussion An evening of North American premieres Co-presented with Organix Holy Trinity Church, 10 Trinity Square

• Saturday April 4, 2015 • The Ukrainian-Canadian Connection click here to purchase the tracks on iTunes

NMC Ensemble | Robert Aitken direction Kulesha, Pauk, Pidgorna, Tsepkolenko, Silvestrov Betty Oliphant Theatre, 404 Jarvis St.

• Sunday May 17, 2015 • Michel Gonneville and the Belgian Connection

NMC Ensemble | Robert Aitken direction Gonneville, Pousseur, Bartholomée, Goeyvaerts, Fafchamps Trinity-St. Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor St. W. click here to purchase the tracks on iTunes

www.NewMusicConcerts.com Tickets $35 | $25 snr/arts | $10 student Introductions @ 7:15 | Concerts @ 8:00

Reservations: 416.961.9594

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Finding

SILE

NCE

On experimentalism, community, and houses of bewildering sounds Matthew Fava

“ I am a freelance musician and the hardest word to say is no.�

Early in our conversation, Ben Grossman’s default towards action is clear. His career necessitates an artful balance of paid work, self-directed study, and creation; a simultaneous abiding interest in the state of experimental music and art-making has placed Grossman in a unique position at this juncture of contemporary music.

Finding SILENCE

in 2012, ben grossman established silence, a venue and roving series of events that serve as Guelph’s portal for adventurous new sound. A short walk from the famed farmers’ market, near the Church of Our Lady Immaculate that defines Guelph’s downtown skyline, you will find Silence tucked into 46 Essex Street. As with many other activities in Guelph, Silence is a product of DIY approaches to the apparent needs of the arts community. In regards to Guelph, Grossman asserts, “it is a vibrant art city, despite its almost complete lack of municipal support for the arts.”

Within three years, Silence has become a beacon not only within Guelph, but also for artists across Ontario. When recalling some favourite moments from the series, Grossman is overcome with fond memories. Silence alumni include Gordon Monahan, the Nihilist Spasm Band, Ken Aldcroft’s Convergence Ensemble, and varying configurations of improvisers and artists such as Theresa Wong, Anne Bourne, Allison Cameron, Matt Brubeck, Germain Liu, Kyle

Brenders, John Oswald, and others. Silence also serves as a space for improvisation and instrumentbuilding workshops, and other activities, such as a realization of Pauline Oliveros’s world wide tuning meditation.

Through his ongoing work, Grossman has become something like a folk hero among artists, but he confesses that Silence “sort of snuck into existence a little bit.” The story begins with recounting the work of IICSI (International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation, formerly ICASP), a post-doctoral institute for research into improvisation, social practice, culture, community, and different forms of communication, which is based at the University of Guelph. Along with the Musagetes foundation, IICSI established an improviser-in-residence program that sponsors artists moving to Guelph for periods of 6 months during which time they become a component of the local scene. In 2012, the resident improvisers were trombonist Scott Thomson and vocalist-dancer Susanna Hood.

above photo The legendary Nihilist Spasm Band at Silence.

Presented by Kazoo! Fest, Ed Video and Silence.

April 2014 credit Ben Grossman

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Finding SILENCE

“ We are both building audience and we are empowering people to experiment, to take these ideas that they have that they may be feeling weird about or unsure about, or where does it fit in, and giving it a place for the odd ball and the hard to classify.”

Thomson had been the instigator of Toronto’s Somewhere There, and during his residency in Guelph he turned to Grossman to help transplant that venue’s morning music sessions to Guelph— essentially inviting audiences to an early set of improvised music, where admission was usually a contribution to a communal breakfast. Beginning in mid-2012, the transplanted morning music became a regular activity, and Grossman began to imagine other programs that would complement it. As Grossman explains, shortly thereafter, “I started thinking about getting this series happening.

I have been very weary of bureaucracy and committees and boards and things like that up to that point, and so rather than trying to form consensus and create a committee and have meetings I thought, well, I’m just going to do this. And I started doing it.”

of high school students that had been experimenting with instruments, soundscapes, and electronics; Silence continues to have a strong youth component in its programming today.

Intermedia projects were also represented in the first concert through a collaboration of double bassist David Lee and authorperformer Gary Barwin. The evening closed with an improvised set by DJ Techné (Paul Watkins). This initial concert was held at the MacDonald Stewart Arts Centre on October 25, 2012. By all accounts, the first Silence concert was a success and in many ways it set the pace for what would follow.

With limited resources to book artists, Grossman felt reluctant to approach possible performers. The relatively small amount of revenue that would be guaranteed from the door also felt like an impediment; however, within a short span of time, Silence became From the start, Grossman and Silence received a great deal of a destination for artists. “I kinda programmed the first five or six support from Daniel Fischlin, who helped to organize the first concerts,” Grossman says, “and then people just started writing concert. The first concert featured The Moon Phaces, an ensemble to me and talking to me and phoning me and saying ‘hey, I want to come and play’, and so my job then became…more of a gatekeeper-andorganizer and less an organizer-and-curator.”

My own interest in Silence came as a result of hearing from Toronto artists who had made the trip west on the 401. A growing interest among composers, improvisers, and other artists in the series suggested a greater potential for touring—a less common practice in contemporary classical music, improvisation, and other experimental forms than popular music. “I almost hate to use the term,” Grossman begins in response to my observation, “but it is capacity building. We are both building photo Toronto's Matt Miller getting set up for a performance at Silence. April 2013. credit Ben Grossman

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audience and we are empowering people to experiment, to take these ideas that they have that they may be feeling weird about or unsure about, or where does it fit in, and giving it a place for the odd ball and the hard to classify.” Grossman alludes to the various efforts to foster touring networks for improvisers that have had limited uptake— clearly, Silence is part of a growing network that is contributing to the momentum of experimental music in this province, and the spirit of exchange and reciprocity that nurtures a community.

As much as Ben Grossman has contributed to music (particularly in this province), his philosophy and musicianship is also a product of the unique spaces and people he has encountered here and abroad; considering his artistic upbringing, the essence of Silence is not surprising. In our conversation, he explains one of the earliest turning points in his artistic life: being a young student in music class with celebrated artist Barry Prophet. “I was coming at it from tape loops, electric guitars, homemade little synths and my own self-directed listening to Stockhausen, and all kinds of early electronic stuff. I think just the year before I had started reading about Harry Partch.” Prophet became a fully formed extension of Grossman’s self-directed studies. “There was this guy making all these crazy instruments and building these ad hoc ensembles, so he was a huge influence and I ended up working with him and playing with him over the years as well.” Grossman benefited from various teachers and mentors who aided his exploration of composition, orchestration, and performance technique (he has studied double bass, percussion, and the vielle à roue or hurdy gurdy). His pursuit of the Vielle led him to Europe where he studied with the likes of Valentin Clastrier and Matthias Loibner. He also spent time in Turkey studying percussion. In each case Grossman was treated to artists pushing the limits of their instruments, while expanding his awareness of non-Western modalities.

Grossman also reflected on memories of Noble House, a defunct artist-run collective space in Toronto. Originally located at 24 Noble Street, the artists relocated to 510 Front Street West in 1984 and retained the name of their previous home – although, to add a layer of mystery, visitors were instructed to go to 31 Portland Street in order to access the space. Noble House had individual studios and living spaces, and a large shared space. The number of disciplines and the high level of interaction was inspiring to Ben and others at the time. “That has driven a lot of my thinking in some ways— reading Cage, some of his ideas about theatre and simultaneity,” Grossman tells me. “Putting things together, just by the fact that they are coexisting in time and space creates an opportunity to make connections and see relationships between things and they don’t have to be intentional.” He concludes his reflection by commenting that in Toronto, “people only really dream about [a space like Noble House] today because those spaces have been taken down or converted into expensive condos and so forth.”

photo Hamilton duo (and members of the Hamilton Audio Visual Node) Eschaton at Silence. February 2014. credit Ben Grossman

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Finding SILENCE

When summarizing his ongoing interest in experimental art, and spaces for experimental art-making, Grossman comments that “there is a pleasure in solving something that seems intractable, or there is an aesthetic pleasure in dealing with complexity or dissonance in the visual, auditory, or whatever realm.”

When he moved to Guelph seven years ago, Grossman recognized a need for a space like Silence that could serve as an entry point for audiences and artists to explore new, and seemingly intractable music; having spent most of his life in Toronto, Grossman longed for the quick bike trip to a venue like Somewhere There, the Tranzac, or Arraymusic. He recalls the opportunities to “play some little gig that doesn’t really pay anything but is really interesting and really feeds my soul and gives me new ideas and lets me connect with colleagues in different ways.”

“Having a relatively stable consistent space for creativity is a really powerful thing,” Grossman concludes, and he was pleased to find exciting spaces and activities going on in Guelph: Ed Video Media Arts Centre, an artist-run centre that has been operating since 1976, and The MacDonald Stewart Arts Centre, which emphasizes contemporary art exhibitions including installations, paintings, and sculpture. Guelph also hosts the Hillside festival, and a younger, but highly influential festival in Kazoo! Fest; the latter features primarily rock music, but pushes musical boundaries, while also featuring an arts component in their print expo. Silence found a ready source of partnerships, and a welcoming climate for music programming.

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Silence also seeks to address some of the barriers that limit people participating as audience members or artists. “Concert series are great—itinerant concert series and workshops that move around and so forth—but when there is a space and the venue is accessible and easy to get to and concerts aren’t expensive, people just show up and new collaborations are formed; ideas are tossed around, and people take chances on shows because they are cheap.” Grossman has observed the powerful effect when these conditions are satisfied as audience members who attend a show often become regulars.

In our conversation, Grossman also spoke about a common challenge, and occasional source of frustration, for experimental music venues and promoters, which is low audience turn out.

While recounting some of his favourite performances from Silence’s first two years, Grossman recalls the disappointment at having renowned artists perform an exceptional set to a group of four

Click here to check out upcoming activities at Silence

photo A small break during Morning Music at Silence.

credit Ben Grossman

people. In these moments, Grossman has received encouragement and reminders that strengthen his resolve. He shared one moment with me. Grossman was speaking with his friend Jenny Mitchell (professionally known as Jenny Omnichord) following a concert. She pointed to the audience members and reminded Grossman, “‘there may only be four people here, but those four people belong here, and they know it and they feel like they belong and they feel welcome here and they are getting something from these shows that they can’t get anywhere else.’”

As we wrap up our conversation, Ben talks with me about his own music—quickly, before leaving to make it to a gig! Between Silence and the paid gigs that he commits to, there is little time left over for pursuing his individual agenda. Despite this, he displays a sincere appreciation for every opportunity he has to collaborate, or host an event as part of Silence. In many ways, Silence as a venue and

series has developed in Grossman’s likeness—exhibiting a selfless curiosity, an altruism that values the growth of a community as part of its own development. At a time when the boundaries of experimental music are so permeable, these seemingly extramusical values become vital.

That the impact of Silence resounds outside of Guelph indicates the importance of these values to artists across the province as well.

Addendum: Shortly before the publication of this issue of Notations, we heard from Ben Grossman who informed us that he has left Silence as director, while also moving his studio from the space. He is planning to dedicate more time to his life and work, and is pleased to report that a group of capable, intelligent, and caring people have come forward to support and continue the project. You can contact Ben at ben@macrophone.org.

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photo Colin Fisher performs at HAVN as part of Not the Wind, Not the Flag

Havnn a ggoooodd e e m i ttim

@ The Hamilton Audio Visual Node

in in focus focus Several students met while studying at McMaster University in Hamilton through their mutual interest in the arts. After putting on shows at school, at house parties, and in the community (of a musical and visual nature), they recognized a common interest and need for creating a space to continue their individual and collaborative artistic practices. The Hamilton Audio Visual Node (havn) was established as an artist-run collective to serve this purpose.

in focus | havn a good time @ the hamilton audio visual node

The core members share the cost of rent, and these self-proclaimed HAVNites take on all promotional duties, bookings, live sound, installations, and workshop

and can be all of those things within the span of a week. It is a space in constant flux. Our newest addition is a darkroom, led by Ariel Bader-Shamai and Emma Waterfield.

Because each HAVN member brings unique artistic and personal backgrounds and expertise, many different creative combinations and permutations are possible. We are always collaborating and combining our strengths in order to generate new and exciting works that we would not be able to realize as individuals.

administration. Notations caught up with two members, Connor Bennett and Aaron Hutchinson, to find out more about this multi-modal node in downtown Hamilton. photo Set up for the Emergency Show, February 2013

What is your mandate?

Connor The mandate we have in regards to the music we present is to provide an open space for experimental music (electroacoustic, noise, ambient, improvisational, jazz, live-code, and so on). We want to host concerts that would not otherwise be presented in Hamilton on a regular basis. Our approach to booking shows does involve a curatorial process in order to stay true to our music presentation mandate, so in that way it definitely influences the style of music we present.

We have also started our own DIY record label, HAVN records.

We started releasing cassettes in late October 2013 and have released nine albums to date. HAVN records enables us to present the music that we play and love in a different context.

HAVN isn’t just a space for presenting music or art: it is also a studio and rehearsal space where musicians and visual artists develop and realize their ideas. It is a space for the entire artistic process to take place. HAVN is used as a recording studio, an art studio, a band rehearsal space, a meeting space, and a performance venue,

What is the link to McMaster University?

Aaron McMaster is where most current HAVNites studied for some time. The collective came about by a convergence of social/ creative groups around shows downtown and the Cybernetic Orchestra at the school. The Orchestra, established by David Ogborn, is an ideal environment for germinating something like HAVN with its intense focus on experimentation and collaboration, both inside and outside of the ensemble. Being a low-entry fee ensemble, the Cybernetic Orchestra encourages people from diverse backgrounds (and faculties) to join, regardless of their level of musical or programming experience. This proved an ecosystem suitable to support the emergence of the idea of HAVN. What are the conditions for presenting experimental music/ art in Hamilton?

Aaron There is one very reputable venue, the Brain, that was kind of doing the sort of music thing that HAVN does now. They booked many weirdo noise and experimental bands. The venue has a bar and is small enough for that sort of thing. There aren’t too

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in focus | havn a good time @ the hamilton audio visual node

photo Projections by Tanya Goncalves as part of Diffused, a presentation of acousmatic and electroacoustic diffusions by multimedia students from McMaster, December 2013.

many mid-size venues that present this kind of music regularly in Hamilton, with a notable exception being the Baltimore House.

We started booking bands around the time the Brain stopped presenting live music (a new business direction for them), and I think that’s part of the reason that HAVN has become a go-to spot for the styles of music that aren’t complemented well in a bar environment. I mentioned the Baltimore House, and they do some really great shows there, but it’s a sizeable full-throttle bar with a stage contrasted to HAVN’s very intimate, gallery vibe. Thus, the experimental music they present usually has a popular filter on it, referencing rock or R n’ B styles.

The New Harbours music series that is hosted at Christ’s Church Cathedral was for a long time the main source of experimental

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music in the city. Hosting events on Art Crawls, New Harbours presented some seriously inspiring music, and it made me realize that there is an audience in Hamilton for such music and, as a musician playing experimental music, that there is an avenue for performing weird stuff. Their events occur bi-monthly or so, and we wanted to fill in some of the gaps at HAVN. Matt Thompson of New Harbours has been very supportive of what Aaron and I do as a band (Eschaton) and was a source of inspiration for us to start presenting shows at HAVN. Connor Perdu is a local record label that puts out cassettes, lathes, and vinyl. They also organize concerts of great bands from across the country. The core of Perdu is Jag and Matt from WTCHS and they bring some great acts through Hamilton.

Aaron Cem Zafir (Zula Presents) supports our shows enthusiastically and organized the inaugural Something Else!

Festival in Hamilton this past June, a festival of ‘creative music’.

We (Eschaton) were fortunate to be on a bill with Boneshaker (Mars Williams, Kent Kessler, Paal Nilssen-Love), and the festival also presented Sun Rooms, Interstellar Orchestra, Mary Margaret O’Hara, and Ronley Teper.

What kind of interdisciplinary projects have you presented?

Connor Some great interdisciplinary acts that have played our space include collaborations with local film maker Lee Skinner and beat maker/producer Sup∆83, ‘and all was bright’ and the Cybernetic Orchestra, to name a few. Most of the concerts we have put on involve projection art by a HAVNite, and sometimes live and reactive projections with video feedback/ vjaying are implemented.

Other interdisciplinary aspects of HAVN shows in the past include interactive art pieces that involve music. One such piece by Aaron and me was exhibited at the last Supercrawl, entitled Encountering a glowing white box. This was an interactive cube that would generate sonic responses when touched.

The ratio of Hamilton artists to out-of-town artists is about 2:1. How have you developed contacts beyond Hamilton?

Connor Aaron and I play in a noise/improvised/experimental band called Eschaton. We have toured a couple times in the past year or so and have connected with many other individuals doing similar things in other cities in the province and beyond. People like Ben Grossman at Silence in Guelph and the collective of artists at The Artel in Kingston. It’s always great making connections with these sorts of folk. It builds the community and expands the scope of possibility (e.g., trading shows, booking touring bands in the DIY venue circuit).

photo Pathfinding installation at HAVN, September 2013

A good example of a connection we made was in Buffalo: we played at a spot called the WASH project and cellist TJ Borden was in the crowd. We ended up having a beer with him after, chatting about noise music and touring and our musical philosophies. A few months later TJ came through and played an amazing solo cello set at HAVN alongside the local noise band Fossils. Another example is meeting the incredible bassist Aaron Lumley in Montreal. We played a gig with him at Casa Del Popolo, which was amazing. Next tour, we played a gig together again, this time at Silence as a trio. Lumley has also played at HAVN with Mike Gennaro and Nigel Taylor as a trio, which was a real highlight for us. We are now planning to release material involving Lumley under HAVN records. These kinds of connections happen a lot on the road.

To find out about upcoming events click here

To check out HAVN records’ catalogue, click here!

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New Associate Compose

e ers In this section we learn more about composers who have joined the CMC in Ontario Region.

You can learn more about each composer by visiting the CMC Website.

new associate composers

Francis Brickle What got you excited about music at a young age?

I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t immersed in and surrounded by music. My mother played records constantly, all sorts of things. She and my father also went to Broadway musicals fairly often and after each one they would buy the LPs. So I guess the first real seismic musical event in my childhood was the appearance of the cast album of My Fair Lady soon after the premiere.

Music was so much in the environment I was puzzled to find I couldn’t play the piano when I first sat down at it at age 3. After all, it seemed everybody else could.

I subsequently started keyboard studies when I was 6, somewhat haphazardly being taught everything from Bach to improvising from lead sheets.

Even with that background, it didn’t occur to me to make music the centre of my life until my early teens when a chamber group, a student piano trio, came to my high school and played a couple of pieces that really changed everything: the Scherzo from the Schubert Bb Trio, and a Webern-esque piece by a friend of the performers, a young Philip Glass, both of which simply blew me away. The focus of my life became clear in what felt like an instant, that afternoon.

What was the most important music concert/ event you attended?

Well, hands down, the most memorable concert I’ve ever been to was La Bottine Souriante at the Flynn Centre in Burlington, Vermont about 10 years ago.

Another standout was Richard Goode and members of the Guarneri Quartet playing the Mozart Eb Piano Quartet, in 1971 or 72. Maurizio Pollini playing the

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Berg Sonata and the Waldstein. There were a couple of ISCM concerts in the 70s and 80s—Stravinsky Concerto for 2 Solo Pianos, for which I turned pages through all the rehearsals and lapped up every bit of the piece; and Beveridge Webster, playing exactly the same program as he’d played in exactly the same hall 50 years almost to the day earlier, except the pieces were all premieres on the earlier concert.

What is on your personal playlist?

I seem to have been spending a lot of time on airplanes lately and so have been getting a lot of use out of the iPod. Some of the recent plays: Korngold, Die Tote Stadt; Beethoven, String Quartet Op. 95 and the Sixth and Eighth Symphonies; Steve Reich, Double Sextet; Philip Glass, 5th String Quartet; Orff, Carmina Burana in the 2-piano version; Paul Lansky, Smalltalk and Conversation Pieces; Milton Babbitt, String Quartet No. 6 and Four Cavalier Settings; McCoy Tyner, Soliloquy; Bajourou, Big String Theory; Joni Mitchell, Shine; Teresa Stratas, The Unknown Kurt Weill.

How is the field of composition changing, and how do you fit in?

Despite appearances, this is a flourishing time for music. Many more things are possible now, compared to when I was a student. Contemporary music is increasingly a pluralistic universe. A lot of really delightful music is being created in it. The performers are head-spinningly good, too. My place in it? I benefit from it all and try to give back where I can.

Somebody characterized my work as “Neo-Medieval Psychedelia," and I’m surprised to find that offhand description a pretty good match with the zeitgeist, and maybe even a little true.

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Find out more about this composer here

Maziar Heidari What got you excited about music at a young age?

I started taking piano lessons at the age of five and since then every time I began to learn a new piece I got excited. I can name some of them which were very interesting to me at those early ages.

Pieces like Beethoven’s Moonlight and Pathétique Sonatas, Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G minor, and Toccata and Fugue in D minor by J.S Bach.

What was the most important music concert/event you attended?

In this case I would prefer not to go far and just say two concerts which I attended recently: the LA Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel, and Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra.

What is on your personal playlist?

It depends on my schedule and involvement in different orchestras as a conductor or assistant conductor. I need to prepare myself all the time and I need to study different scores all the time, so there are many pieces that I need to listen to.

How is the field of composition changing, and how do you fit in?

I usually try my best to adapt myself to different styles as much as I can. I do not limit myself to any specific style or genre. ↘

Find out more about this composer here

Pouya Hamidi What got you excited about music at a young age?

What got me excited was the neverending discovery of the pleasurable and transcendental stimulation of experiencing other people’s creativity. I used to sit beside my older brother on the piano bench as he learned to play. I started composing after my first piano lesson. I never really enjoyed practicing the strict piano studies my teacher would assign to me every week, so I would fool around on the piano. My mother, who was worried about my practicing, told my piano teacher. After hearing an example of my “fooling around,” my piano teacher encouraged me to continue as he was impressed by it. I enjoyed finding patterns on the piano and all the different moods one can create through different combinations of keys. It was a journey of discovery by trial and error.

What was the most important music concert/event you attended?

I have been to so many great, quality concerts. One that stands out off the top of my head was the Murcuff and Antivj concert I attended at Montreal’s Mutek Festival in 2011, which featured a multimedia work that had live visuals provided by Antivj that reacted to the live music that Mexican composer-performer Murcuff was producing at the concert. The endless possibilities of both visual and sonic collaborations and their powerful impact on the audience inspired me.

What is on your personal playlist?

My personal playlist is always shifting. Looking at it right now I see Staff Benda Bilili, a group of street musicians in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who are paraplegic but make me jump up and move. I see Moderat, which is electronic music from Berlin with a really interesting use of rhythm and sonic textures. Penguin Cafe Orchestra is a minimalist Australian acoustic band that puts you in a great mood no matter when you listen to them. The album Ligeti: Etudes Musica Ricercata performed by pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is incredible. I really like

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new associate composers

Dan Morphy Musica Ricercata’s 7th movement (Cantabile, molto → legato) where the left hand is playing in completely different time than the free time in the right. It is as if these two completely different sounding lines are coupled in their own time and space.

How is the field of composition changing, and how do you fit in?

There are many aspects of this field that are changing but two main ones come to mind: 1) Our daily lives are affecting how we perceive music. Many people live a fast paced lifestyle where attention spans are becoming shorter. When you compare two mainstream films, one from the present and one from 30 years ago, you really see the difference in pacing.

There is an expectation for instant gratification.

Some music, including many great pieces, require time and focus for them to have a successful connection with its listener. The second movement of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Piano Sonata can be as long as 25 minutes. This shift in the pacing of how we perceive music is an important consideration for my compositions. I play around with time to manipulate what I want the listener to feel. 2) Technology is advancing at an incredible rate. I am interested in using it in ways that blur the line between human and machine. For example there are various controllers that rely on physical modeling of things in nature. I use an iPad app that controls sonic parameters such as filters with the physical movements of a fallen ball bouncing up and down with the same physics as it would in real life.

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Find out more about this composer here

What got you excited about music at a young age?

Music was always around me at an early age, mostly due to my father, Frank Morphy (recently retired 2nd oboist with the Toronto Symphony) taking me to rehearsals as a form of supervision if I was home sick from school, or I was too young to be left alone.

I’m not really sure I necessarily understood what everyone was doing on stage, all making noise at the same time, but I do remember being drawn in and focused on the different sections—in particular, the percussion section. During my teens my interest in music expanded when I became obsessed with fooling around on my Casio keyboard. I would sit for hours fiddling with the various weird sounds, writing interesting lyrics, and recording everything directly onto cassette.

What was the most important music concert/ event you attended?

I’m not sure this counts as a singular event per se, but when I was 17, I attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute for the entire summer. I was able to listen to the Boston Symphony and other guest artists play a new program almost every night; I was playing works by Charles Ives and John Williams, and it was my first experience playing “contemporary” percussion ensemble literature. I was also away from home for the first time and performing constantly with students from all over North America. There was a great support system and a camaraderie that grew out of that. I never realized at the time how much all those experiences shaped the way I learn and interact with my colleagues today and how it prepared me for my career.

What is on your personal playlist?

Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, The Bad Plus, Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares, Per Nørgård, Bon Iver, Patrick Watson, John Cage’s Sonatas and Preludes for Prepared Piano, Radiohead, and the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan.

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David Nichols How is the field of composition changing, and how do you fit in?

I feel that the speed with which we can send and receive information has had a huge impact on composition (let alone many other aspects of our lives). Previously, it took someone actually travelling to a foreign country to either bring back an unfamiliar instrument and a few examples on how it would have been played. Now, we can see instantly what someone on the other side of the world is doing and either take inspiration from it or imitate it to our own needs. This rings especially true for percussionists.

Composers like John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Iannis Xenakis were experimenting with instruments and music traditions that Western composers had only recently become aware of, or building their own. This started the groundwork for a long line of composers who were inspired by these directions, and imitated their style or genre. Most recently, I feel composers, especially those with some background in percussion, are heading into that experimental phase; this includes finding everyday objects and repurposing them in their music, or actually inventing and developing completely new instruments altogether.

This movement fascinates me and inspires me to push my own creative boundaries.

What got you excited about music at a young age?

When I was a child, hearing music got me excited, and then performing and composing, and reading composers’ biographies increased my interest. My piano teachers, Gladys Carswell, Wilfred Powell, and Clifford Poole, were inspirational, as were my composition teachers, John Beckwith, Gustav Ciamaga, and John Weinzweig. I also remember the North York Board of Education summer music programs, which, along with performance studies, included soundscape improvisations under Murray Schafer’s direction. In my high school days, I heard many wonderful concerts by the TSO thanks to their generous student tickets.

credit N. Leonard Segall

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Find out more about this composer here

What was the most important music concert/ event you attended?

There are many concerts that I would consider very important and inspiring. I heard Zoltan Kodály’s Variations on a Hungarian Folksong (The Peacock) at the National Music Camp/Interlochen Center for the Arts in July, 1966. Kodály was at Interlochen as a participant in the International Society of Music Educators and was in the audience. At the end of the performance, the frail composer was recognized with a standing ovation.

I also recall the performance of Stockhausen’s Stimmung in 1970 at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. Despite Stockhausen’s comment to Gustav Ciamaga that Stimmung was the greatest musical composition ever written, I was strongly influenced by its musical precision.

Aloys Kontarsky, Siegfried Palm, Saschko Gawriloff, and Hans Deinzer performed my Drawing No. 1 in Darmstadt in 1974 during the summer music course I attended that year. They treated my music with such respect and intensity as if I were a famous composer and friend. →

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new associate composers

Katarina Curcin In 2009, in Montreal, Bruce Mather performed my Three Poems, written for his sixteenth-tone piano. It was a moving and masterful interpretation.

These concerts were heartwarming and enlightening experiences that I will never forget.

What is on your personal playlist?

I listen to a wide variety of music. Lately, I have been listening to the beautifully brilliant songs of Montreal composer Kevin Tighe. I have also been listening to the music of China’s most celebrated erhu soloist, Deng Jiandong, whom I heard at the National Performing Arts Centre in Beijing during one of our teaching semesters in China. Shoshana Telner’s new recording of the Six Partitas by J. S. Bach has also caught my attention. This is a warm and mindclearing interpretation of Bach’s music.

How is the field of composition changing, and how do you fit in?

I used to think that everything I composed had to be in a “modern” style, and I often thought that I was born too late for the kind of music I wanted to compose. I made this comment to Bill Albright and, later, to Stephen Rush, when I was studying with them in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan. I expressed this longing for music of the past in my Symphony No. 1. It longs for a return to the Romantic era and begins with romantic themes which are all eventually taken over by “contemporary” harmonies and rhythms. All styles can be used, not just modern technical materials, was the advice I received, and it was great advice to help free my compositional ideas.

My music reflects the knowledge of my world and creates a wider comprehension of that knowledge.

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Find out more about this composer here

What got you excited about music at a young age?

There were many music educators around me when I was a child. I was attending music school since the age of seven, where I had piano as well as solfeggio lessons. Also, throughout my elementary and middle school I played percussion instruments in the school orchestra. I sang as well in a local choir for many years ‘wrapping up’ almost every day with the choral rehearsal. All of the above got me excited about music and made music a huge part of my identity. I began to think, feel and breathe music every day.

What was the most important music concert/ event you attended?

For five consecutive years I was a part of the International World Youth Choir. This choir consisted of one hundred young singers from all over the world, between ages 17 and 24. Each summer the choir gathered in a host country for a two-week rehearsal session and after a very intense session the choir would go on tour in surrounding countries, visiting numerous cities and performing in the most prestigious concert halls. I got the privilege to present my country (Yugoslavia at the time) performing at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Opera Liceu in Barcelona and many other places in Europe. The most renowned conductors would lead the choir such as Eric Erickson, Frieder Bernius, Ward Swingle, Fred Sjöberg and Tonu Kaljuste. The A cappella programme was the most important part of the choir’s work but what really interested me was that half of the repertoire was devoted to music of our century, with a subtle mixture of lesser known pieces and master works by contemporary composers.

Across Canada What is on your personal playlist?

These days I enjoy listening to jazz music almost exclusively.

How is the field of composition changing, and how do you fit in?

The 20th and 21st century classical music is without a dominant style and it’s highly diverse. There are all different forms or techniques of writing: Postmodern music, computer music, spectral, postminimalism, polystylism, sound-art, eclecticism in music...I never tried to fit myself exclusively in any of the above compositional forms or techniques.

Still, I could not escape from who I am and where I am coming from. My roots are present in almost all of my music but my next piece may be more influenced by my current surroundings since I am becoming more at home here in Toronto.

Here are other new Associate Composers from across Canada Quebec: Julien-Robert Legault-Salvail Alexander Pozdyakov BC: Jill Townsend Scott Andrew Taylor

Note worthy Updates and achievements from Associate Composers of the CMC.

noteworthy

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2.

Stroobach in Europe

irota and Lemay, Northern H Voices in North Ontario and Abroad

CMC Associate Composer Evelyn Stroobach's composition for string orchestra, Aria for Strings, was performed in Bern and Uster, Switzerland on November 4 and 6, 2014 respectively. The work was performed by a recently established independent orchestra composed of top players drawn from several orchestras based in Italy and Romania, led by Maestro Salvatore Cicero.

Earlier in 2014, concert violinist Ralitsa Tcholakova performed the third movement of Stroobach's Into the Wind, for solo violin. The performance took place at Sofia Music Week’s International Festival at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria on June 24, 2014.

Over the summer, CMC Associate Composer Robert Lemay and Pianist Yoko Hirota participated in a residency at Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris. IRCAM explores science and music with an emphasis on contemporary composition.

Hirota also performed her Voces Boreales (Northern Voices) recital in Vancouver and Thunder Bay. The program includes solo piano works by six Canadian composers including Robert Lemay, Brian Current, Laurie Radford, Brian Cherney, and François Morel.

3.

PHOTO Yoko Hirota (L) pictured with Peter Eötvös at IRCAM.

Williamson wins the C4 Competition CMC Associate Composer Gordon Williamson has been awarded first prize in the C4 Commissioning Competition. Williamson’s work Tape Recorder will be premiered by the C4 Ensemble on March 5 and 7 in New York City.

Williamson has other recent activity including a portrait concert on November 22 in Hannover, Germany, and the premiere of a new orchestral work with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and Rupert Huber on February 8 as part of the 2015 ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart. ontario notations – winter 2015 | 57

noteworthy

4.

5.

Michael Purves Smith celebrated in Waterloo

Elizabeth Raum’s new album and current project

CMC Associate Composer Michael Purves Smith was recognized by the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund through their arts award for his Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra, which was premiered in November by the Waterloo Chamber Players. Purves Smith was surprised to receive the award, having been nominated by colleagues, and was equally surprised to learn that the award came with a cash prize of $5,000.

CMC Associate Composer Elizabeth Raum celebrated the release of a new album on the Centrediscs record label. The album Myth, Legend, Romance features her Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, performed by Erika Raum, violin, and the Sneak Peek Orchestra conducted

by Victor Cheng. The album also features Raum's concerto for horn, Sherwood Legend, recorded in 1997 with Kurt Kellan on horn and the Calgary Philharmonic conducted by Victor Sawa, and Persephone and Demeter for violin, viola, and orchestra with Erika Raum on violin, Rivka Golani on viola, and the Regina Symphony Orchestra conducted by Victor Sawa. Raum’s music will be included on another recording project: Achilles Liarmakopoulos, trombonist with Canadian Brass, will be recording Raum's Fantasy for Trombone.

In other news, Raum is presently working with librettist Rex Deverell on an opera for the Maritime Concert Opera in Halifax. The opera centres on the nuns who founded Mt. St. Vincent University and the power struggle with the Archbishop to control the school.

6.

Samuel Andreyev in portrait CMC Associate Composer Samuel Andreyev was featured in a portrait concert in Strasbourg in October, which included several pieces performed by ensemble HANATSU miroir. In addition, Andreyev has been nominated for the composition prize of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco.

photo Hanatsu Miroir rehearsing Samuel Andreyev’s Vérifications (2012) in Strasbourg, France, 18 September 2014. photo credit © 2014 Maya Rasmussen

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9.

Cecilia Livingston premieres at the MASS MoCA CMC Associate Composer Cecilia Livingston was a composition Fellow at Bang On a Can's 2014 Summer Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Livingston received a travel grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to support her participation in the festival. During her three week residency Livingston enjoyed the premieres of noyade (for chamber orchestra), Troy (for vibraphone quartet), Light (for violin, vibraphone, and piano), and the American premiere of her Three Memories for Piano by pianist Karl Larson.

8.

Adam Scime in China CMC Associate Composer Adam Scime had a busy fall, which included a premiere by Esprit Orchestra on November 23; Scime is one of the youngest composer on the Esprit season this year. Also, in October, Scime toured his piece Broken Images throughout China with a chamber ensemble of acclaimed Toronto musicians. The tour made stops at several new music festivals throughout China and included a selection of Canadian and Chinese pieces. Other Canadian composers on the tour included CMC Associate Composers Christos Hatzis, Dean Burry, Chan Ka Nin, and Norbert Palej.

Alice Ho wins in PEI CMC Associate Composer Alice Ping Yee Ho was one of the winners in the Prince Edward Island Symphony Composers Competition. Ho will receive a $10,000 prize, and her piece Ocean Child was premiered on November 23 as part of a concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference.

Ocean Child was inspired by true stories of beached whales on Canada’s West Coast, and includes lyrics written by Marjorie Chan, which were adapted from Chan’s play, M’Whell of the Sands.

Ho’s piece Heart to Heart for two pianos, was also recently performed in Bogota, Colombia, by the Dranoff Two Pianos Foundation Grand prize winner Duo Yamamoto. The work was selected by the Duo and the Foundation for their Latin American Tour.

While in Bogota, Ho gave a pre-concert talk inside the concert hall Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango

top photo Ho (centre) speaking with audience members bottom photo Alice Ho (right, front) pictured with Duo Yamamoto, Mauicio Pena (director Of Bogota Music Festival), and Erik Oshner (director of Dranoff Two Pianos Foundation)

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noteworthy

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Afarin Mansouri’s music for children CMC Associate Composer Afarin Mansouri officially began her singing career performing a song from her recent children's musical Little Heart, which took place at the opening launch event at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. The performance included vocalist Vania Chan and pianist Maziar Heidari.

Music for children is an area of interest for Mansouri in her academic research as well. In November, she presented a paper at the MAPACA conference in Baltimore in November regarding the history of children's opera.

Mansouri also had her bilingual piece (Latin and Farsi) for soprano and small orchestra performed as part of the Iranian Canadian Composers of Toronto December concert; the event celebrated the links between Iranian Yalda night traditions and Christmas.

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