I first encountered Alanna Stuart on a mid-November evening in 2018. After an exhilarating trudge through the snow-muted streets of Toronto’s Stanley Park neighbourhood, I made what felt like a heroic landing at Array Space, where a few dozen or so hearty souls were gathering for a social event—punctuated with short sets of music—celebrating theContinue reading “Resonant Frequencies”
Author Archives: Musicworks
Beny Esguerra Unifies the Equation
The potential for music to unite people across divides—geographical, temporal, cultural, or philosophical—is a constant inspiration for Ruben “Beny” Esguerra. Through his myriad projects, the Toronto songwriter, producer, educator, community activist, and multi-instrumentalist is building bridges: between North and South, between ancient flutes and modern turntables, between Indigenous peoples and settlers, between cumbia and hip-hop—andContinue reading “Beny Esguerra Unifies the Equation”
Jessica McMann Brings the Music Home
While some creative people have been struggling to fill their time over the course of the pandemic, Cree dancer and musician Jessica McMann, who is a member of Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan—has been busy. But with powwows and in-person contemporary dance performances on pause for most of 2020 and 2021, McMann, who is basedContinue reading “Jessica McMann Brings the Music Home”
The Spatial Sonic Designs of Juro Kim Feliz
Genres can be compared to landscapes: they are places where people gawk like tourists, set up camp on Spotify playlists, and explore musical structures. Juro Kim Feliz sat down with me in November 2021 to talk about the challenges of creating in both the Filipino and the Canadian contemporary classical-music landscapes, and also about aContinue reading “The Spatial Sonic Designs of Juro Kim Feliz”
What’s Inside Musicworks 141?
The Winter 2021/22 issue explores the creative ideas of seven artists who are engaged in beautiful, daring musical acts of innovation, celebration, and resistance . . . artists that audiences and listeners like YOU will be discovering in 2022. Flute enthusiasts, please note that the Musicworks 141 CD opens with a three tracks of flute-forwardContinue reading “What’s Inside Musicworks 141?”
Frank Denyer Probes the Unconscious
In composer Frank Denyer’s dream, he is watching a small monkey that is inexplicably nestled in the flames inside a stove that closely resembles the one in Denyer’s kitchen. The scenario elicits many questions: How did the monkey manage to get in there in the first place, and then remain unnoticed? How is he evenContinue reading “Frank Denyer Probes the Unconscious”
Roxanne Nesbitt’s Soft Storms Welcomed and Jason Doell’s Leaning Into Softness
Two honourable mentions were given at Musicworks‘ 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest: the first to Roxanne Nesbitt’s Soft Storms Welcomed, and the second to Jason Doell’s Leaning into Softness. Roxanne Nesbitt is an interdisciplinary artist who explores the space between sound and design. She is trained as an architect and orchestral bassist. Her research includes experimental instrumentContinue reading “Roxanne Nesbitt’s Soft Storms Welcomed and Jason Doell’s Leaning Into Softness”
Understory’s Sonic Ecosystem
Like many performing musicians, I considered leaving the music business in 2020. The confluence of loss of work due to the pandemic, exhaustion from years of gig-hustling, and the intensity of social, political, and environmental crises left me wanting to help directly (on good days) or hide completely (on other days). I needed to seeContinue reading “Understory’s Sonic Ecosystem”
João Pedro Oliveira’s “La Mer Émeraude”
Third place in Musicworks’ 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest was awarded to João Pedro Oliveira’s La Mer Émeraude (The Emerald Sea). The composition has also received awards at SIME Competition, Città di Udine Competition, the Destellos Competition and the Chicago Composers Consortium Competition. “Let us imagine a small invented world, a micro universe where everythingContinue reading “João Pedro Oliveira’s “La Mer Émeraude””
June Young (Will) Kim’s “Black, Emerald”
June Young (Will) Kim won second place in Musicworks’ 2020 Electronic Music Composition Contest for Black, Emerald, the third piece in his series of works for amplified canvas. A commission by München Landeshauptstadt Musikstipendium, Kim completed the piece in September 2020 and premiered it in Munich on October 12, 2020 with Sakhile Humbane (flute), AdrianContinue reading “June Young (Will) Kim’s “Black, Emerald””