The twenty-ninth edition of the annual Winnipeg New Music Festival (WNMF) loosely explored the concept of home and, conversely, what it means to be an outsider—or even an exile—in one’s own land. Seven nightly programs, spearheaded by the WNMF’s cocurators Daniel Raiskin and Harry Stafylakis, whipsawed between works born of bleakest despair and ones thatContinue reading “2020 Winnipeg New Music Festival.”
Genre Archives
Zosha di Castri. Tachitipo.
New York–based Canadian composer Zosha di Castri’s Tachitipo is a striking, rigorous debut album of solo and chamber works. Comprising interpretations by a veritable who’s who of contemporary performers—International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, and the Jack Quartet, to name a few—this album follows the composer’s explorations of timbral intersections and juxtapositions. Di Castri draws inspiration fromContinue reading “Zosha di Castri. Tachitipo.”
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is just scratching the surface
“My relationship to sound is [an] obsession with texture and how sounds affect each other, and also [with] playing with the human psyche.” Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi then bursts out laughing, saying, “That’s a lot in one sentence.” Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is very funny, and she’s also very focused. The Iranian-Canadian Simon Fraser University student is just twenty-one yearsContinue reading “Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi is just scratching the surface”
Baroque to the Future
Few musical relationships are as difficult to parse as those between musicians and the instruments they play. It’s a type of interaction that feels like it should be simple—something transactional, between human subject and sounding object—but in practice, objects, especially culturally situated ones, can come with as much baggage as their owners. Often they haveContinue reading “Baroque to the Future”
Emilie LeBel’s Field Notes
For many composers, a work in progress comes with strings attached—no pun intended. There are arts councils and concert presenters to satisfy, musicians to liaise with, premiere dates that draw ever closer. Deadlines, of course, can get the juices flowing, and creative constraints (such as writing for a specific ensemble) can certainly focus the mind.Continue reading “Emilie LeBel’s Field Notes”
Tomeka Reid Quartet. Old New
Having played with a who’s who of the Chicago jazz scene young and old—Nicole Mitchell, Joshua Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, Jaimie Branch—for well over a decade, cellist Tomeka Reid isn’t lacking in avant-garde bona fides. Yet her work under her own name, in an updated string band with guitarist extraordinaire Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke, andContinue reading “Tomeka Reid Quartet. Old New”
James O’Callaghan & Ensemble Paramirabo. Alone & Unalone.
Montreal’s James O’Callaghan exemplifies a wave of younger composers whose unique remedies have successfully healed some of the major ideological rifts that characterized twentieth-century music. This new disc, immaculately performed by the brilliant and agile Ensemble Paramirabo, plucks four of his chamber works from their onstage home (most include performative elements) and renders them asContinue reading “James O’Callaghan & Ensemble Paramirabo. Alone & Unalone.”
NakedEye Ensemble. Toy.
The electroacoustic chamber group NakedEye Ensemble, based in Lancaster, Pennsylvannia, includes electric guitar, saxophone, flute, cello, electric bass, percussion, piano, and often toy piano. The ensemble walks a line between experimental classical music, avant jazz, and classic rock. On Toy, NakedEye’s sophomore album, artistic director Ju-Ping Song brings her position as toy pianist to theContinue reading “NakedEye Ensemble. Toy.”
Fourth Calgary New Music Festival.
You may imagine Calgary as a repository of rednecks, oil executives, and a rabidly vocal reactionary element. You wouldn’t be totally wrong. You might imagine a city that splits the difference between Dallas and Anchorage. Who could blame you? The thing is: you live long enough, you come to realize that everywhere is Squaresville, eachContinue reading “Fourth Calgary New Music Festival.”
Amy Brandon is Capturing Intimate Chaos
The first time I met guitarist-composer Amy Brandon, we talked about the lineage of a particular sound. Her 2019 composition Mimic—written while she participated in the Canadian League of Composers’ Pivot mentorship progam (presented in partnership with the Canadian Music Centre and Continuum Contemporary Music)—contains a percussion technique in which a woodblock set on topContinue reading “Amy Brandon is Capturing Intimate Chaos”