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’”
Author Archives: Musicworks
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”
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’s Sky Islands and Forest Rhythms
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’s Sky Islands and Forest Rhythms”
Kalun Leung’s warped trombone
One afternoon last August, I watched performer-composer Kalun Leung wave his wrist as a shriek of clarinet notes wailed through the high-ceilinged main room at Perte de Signal, a small multimedia studio in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood where he’s an artist-in-residence this year. With another swoop of his hand, a cluster of trombone notes explodedContinue reading “Kalun Leung’s warped trombone”
The Art of Troubleshooting
Writer and musician Julia Eckhardt has noted that we tend to use the word “quality” as a way of making vague value judgments about music, without ever having to justify them. “Speaking about quality in music seems to be simply a way to divide music into the categories of ‘good’ and ‘bad,’ without ever askingContinue reading “The Art of Troubleshooting”
Koala Karnival is Deeper than the Dancefloor
Montreal is known for its exciting nightlife, teeming with live music, outdoor festivals, and sweaty dance clubs. Lately, a different kind of outing has emerged on the local scene. Instead of dancing, you sit. Instead of talking, you listen. No beat or booze, just bliss. “In my community, a lot of us meet on theContinue reading “Koala Karnival is Deeper than the Dancefloor”