Michael Lukaszuk’s composition Impossible Dust earned an honourable mention in the 2025 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest. Lukaszuk is a Canadian composer and researcher with interests in electronic music and sound art and exploring the cultural dimensions of technology in music. His work often explores themes such as digital liveness and seeks to find meaningContinue reading “Michael Lukaszuk’s Impossible Dust”
Author Archives: Musicworks
Julia Kent Moves Through Emotional Spaces
Vancouver-born, New York–based cellist and composer Julia Kent has built an impressive career as both a solo artist and in-demand collaborator and session musician—beginning in the late 1990s as an original member (with Melora Creager and Agnieszka Rybska) of the cello-driven goth-pop outfit Rasputina, through her work in the early 2000s with the baroque-pop groupContinue reading “Julia Kent Moves Through Emotional Spaces”
Otto Iivari’s ‘Dynamo’
Otto Iivari’s composition Dynamo won third place in the 2025 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest. Iivari is a Finnish electroacoustic composer and a doctoral candidate at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. His artistic practice centers on acousmatic and electroacoustic music, composed specifically for multichannel configurations and ambisonic systems. His work explores the expressiveContinue reading “Otto Iivari’s ‘Dynamo’”
Liann J. Kang’s ‘L’amour pur’
Composer and vocalist Liann J. Kang’s composition L’amour pur won the Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronics Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la Musique Électronique in the 2025 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition (EMC) Contest. This donor-supported annual prize awards $300 to a self-identified female or non-binary composer with an entry in the annual contest. Kang’sContinue reading “Liann J. Kang’s ‘L’amour pur’”
Panayiotis Kokoras’s ‘Viper Snake’
Electronic music composers and pit viper snakes both create dramatic sounds that remind the listener of something that is not actually there. The Western Diamondback, the most common rattlesnake in Texas, can sound like a swarm of insects—or car radio static or steam escaping from a stovetop teakettle, depending on your imagination. The electronic musicContinue reading “Panayiotis Kokoras’s ‘Viper Snake’”
Jordan Dykstra’s Special Effects
On March 29, 2022, a fifty-three-minute episode of the Public Broadcasting Service series Frontline took on one of the biggest political stories the United States has seen in decades. “Plot to Overturn the Election,” produced in partnership with ProPublica, exposes the forces behind the January 6, 2021, attack on the United States Capitol and includesContinue reading “Jordan Dykstra’s Special Effects”
Musicworks’ Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique
Please share this news with your friends, collaborators, and community. Now in its seventh year, the Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique is part of the annual Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest. All composer entrants to the 2026 edition of the EMC Contest who self-identify as female or non-binaryContinue reading “Musicworks’ Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique”
2025 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest Winners Announced!
Musicworks is pleased to announce that Panayiotis Kokoras has won first prize in the 2025 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest for Viper Snake. “I have been following Musicworks for more than 15 years, so this recognition is especially meaningful to me,” said Kokoras upon receiving the news. “Viper Snake explores the physicality, friction, and volatileContinue reading “2025 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest Winners Announced!”
Leah Reid’s Reverie
Leah Reid’s electronic music compositions explore and reveal the possibilities that exist between the abstract spaces in which she structures her compositions and the everyday timbres outside her window. Reid attended high school at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Massachusetts—majoring in composition and vocal performance—before heading north in the mid-2000s to completeContinue reading “Leah Reid’s Reverie”
Susie Ibarra is Opening Ears and Minds to the Rhythms of Forests, Water, and Landscapes
Natural environments mold ecosystems and identities. Myths, histories, and the knowledge of local populations move to their natural rhythms. Today’s exploitation of resources poses dangers to life as we know it. Mining, quarrying, deforestation, and fossil fuel extraction threaten vulnerable environments and Indigenous communities living in their ancestral lands. Rising global temperatures accelerate glacier melting.Continue reading “Susie Ibarra is Opening Ears and Minds to the Rhythms of Forests, Water, and Landscapes”