Concerts 2025

FestivELLE

 June 29th – 30th • Vancouver Playhouse
Website: Here
festivELLE 2023 is a celebration of emerging, female-identifying composers from across Canada by one of the only all-female orchestras in the world. With this two-day festival, the Allegra Chamber Orchestra aims to uplift and inspire women in an industry where historically, we’ve been underrepresented. We commission, feature and champion their works and have a clear goal of diversity and equality on the concert stage.

A Beautiful Mind: A Tribute to Jocelyn Morlock

7:30 pm • June 29th • Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton St)
Tickets: Here

This evening pays tribute to our late friend, colleague, mentor, and supporter – composer Jocelyn Morlock. This performance will feature some of her most intimate and thought-provoking works  – from Jack Pine for solo piano performed by  Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, and art songs performed by Melanie Addams, to the Vancouver debut of Allegra SQ performing Morlock’s Vermillion for string quartet, and culminating in some of her most inspired works: Solace for violin and cello solo and strings, the transcendent Exhaudi performed by musica intima featuring Rebecca Wenham on cello, and Morlock’s Juno award-winning and haunting work for orchestra, My Name is Amanda Todd.

Workshop 1: From Overwhelm to Inner Peace and Self-Compassion

6:00- 7:15 pm • June 29th • Recital Hall, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton St)
Information on Registration: Here

Concert 2: Hearing Voices

7:30 pm • June 30th • Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton St)
Tickets: Here
presented by the Allegra Chamber Orchestra in partnership with Astrolabe Musik Theatre

The program features the North American premier of the evocative song cycle Hearing Voices for soprano, tape, and orchestra by UK-based composer Jocelyn Pook. Hearing Voices looks at the individual experiences of mental illness of a series of women from different generations, each portrayed in turn by the solo singer and with the musical potential of the human voice deeply embedded in the score.

The first half includes works from three female composers from all across Canada, who are all past participants in Allegra’s Composer Incubator.

Also featured on this program is a short preview of two arias from Alice Ping Yee Ho’s latest opera Labyrinth of Tears, detailing the journey of a teenage girl as she navigates the complexity of teenage identity and eating disorders. Performed by rising star Yenny Lee, with a libretto by Tong Wang and conducted by Janna Sailor. This production is set to premiere in the fall of 2025.

Redshift also realizes its mission through Redshift Records, an independent record label which showcases some of the most important new voices in classical contemporary music. Over the past decade, Redshift Records has grown steadily to include a catalogue of over thirty artists, taking home multiple WCMA awards, one Juno, and over twenty nominations from prominent awards organizations.

Workshop 2: Writing for Self -Expression and Healing

6:00- 7:15 pm • June 30th • Recital Hall, Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton St)
Information on Registration: Here

VICO & Friends: Music for intercultural chamber orchestra

8:00 pm • July 8th • Orpheum Annex (829 Seymour St)
Tickets: Here

 

In the triumphant finale of our summer concert series, the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, conducted by Janna Sailor, performs a new arrangement of Nomaden by visiting composer Joël Bons (The Netherlands). Bons is a long-time VICO friend and collaborator, and founder of our “sister orchestra” in Amsterdam, the Atlas Ensemble, which brings together musicians from China, Japan, Iran, India, Syria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Europe. Nomaden, originally written for cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and the Atlas Ensemble, won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, often described as the ‘Nobel Prize of music’.

 

This concert also features the world premiere of Ripple, Pitch, Rise, Ritual by Robyn Jacob, a rising star in Canada’s new music scene who has been commissioned by Re:Naissance Opera, Chor Leoni, Architek Percussion, Little Chamber Music, and many more.

 

Also on the bill: Suite concertante: à cette époque-là by VICO Composer-in-Residence Farshid Samandari, which was recorded and released by the VICO on our 2020 album In the Key of the World.

 

 

Featuring

Janna Sailor, conductor

Mark Ferris, violin | Yuel Yawney, violin | Jun Rong, erhu | Lan Tung, erhu | Yun Song, erhu | Sarah Kwok, viola | Sungyong Lim, cello | Laine Longton, cello | Ali Razmi, setar | Douglas Hensley, tar | Dai-Lin Hsieh, zheng | Mark Haney, contrabass | Geronimo Mendoza, oboe | Liam Hockley, clarinet | Mike Brown, bass clarinet| Paul Hung, flute | Tim Chan, sheng | Bijan Rahmani, percussion | Brian Nesselroad, percussion | Gregory Samek, percussion

ABOUT THE VANCOUVER INTER-CULTURAL ORCHESTRA (VICO)

The Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, founded in 2001, was one of the first professional concert orchestras devoted specifically to performing new intercultural music on a grand scale. It is currently the only ensemble of its kind in Canada, and one of only a handful that exist in the world. The VICO brings together musicians and composers from many cultural and artistic communities in the Greater Vancouver area, including Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Indian, Persian (Iranian), Latin and South American, Vietnamese, African, North American and European. The ensemble includes Western strings and winds (violin, viola, cello, contrabass, oboe, flute, clarinet) alongside Chinese erhu, sanxian, zheng, and sheng/suona; Persian kamanche, tar/setar, and tombak; Vietnamese dan bau; percussion from many world music traditions; and a variety of other instruments as required.

Since repertoire for the VICO’s unusual and diverse instrumentation does not already exist, creating new work is an integral component of their programming. Developing new commissions (over 50 new Canadian works since 2001, and counting!) provides a necessary framework for bringing musicians and composers together to learn from each other, in a uniquely collaborative process. “We build bridges of imagination. We approach diversity as a fascinating challenge and a creative call to action. We create and perform music that transcends borders and breaks down barriers, modeling pathways for integrating non-Western traditional instruments, sounds and techniques into contemporary Canadian classical music.”

http://www.vi-co.org

Open House

5:00 pm – 7:00 pm • June 8th • Murra Adaskin Salon (837 Davie St)
Tickets: free
Join us on June 8th. Friends, both old and new are invited to come and say hi and help us celebrate our newest digital release. To help celebrate we will be having live performance from Katie Rife and Saina Khaledi. There will also be an installation from Redshift Music and those in attendance will also receive a link to our newest release! Curious? Come on by! We would love to see you.
So come join us for some light refreshments and good company.

Vancouver percussionist Katie Rife works in a variety of styles from new music to symphonic, and has a deep fascination with the many different sounds percussion instruments can make.
Dedicated to the fostering of new works, Katie has worked closely with composers for concerts with Vancouver New Music, Redshift Music Society, the Canadian Music Centre, Music on Main, Allegra Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Pro Musica, and during the ISCM World New Music Days in Vancouver. Previously she founded and directed the new music improv sextet the Ethos Collective, and more recently she’s been producing for and playing in Redshift’s house ensemble Driftwood Percussion, premiering dozens of works with those two ensembles. Since 2020 she has been commissioning new short solo works for vibraphone and marimba by Canadian composers, with the support of the BC Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts.
Katie holds a Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a Bachelors of Music from the University of British Columbia, and has had several residences at Banff Centre.

Saina Khaledi was the winner of the Iranian Santour Festival in 2003. She graduated in Music (Bachelors of Arts) from the Tehran Music University in 2007.

Saina has performed in Iran, Austria, Japan, Netherlands, USA and Canada often as a composer, soloist or with groups such as Vashaan Ensemble, Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra (VICO), BC Chinese Music Ensemble (BCCME), Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO), etc. She also took part in different music productions and recordings.

She currently teaches Santour at Capilano University, Persian Culture and art institute (Percai) as well as private lessons.

Redshift Music Society is a Vancouver-based organization dedicated to bringing the music of living composers to the general public through innovative production, site-specific performance, and new media. Since its founding in 2001 by Artistic Directors Jordan Nobles and Mark Takeshi McGregor, Redshift has premiered hundreds of new works by Canadian and international composers in collaboration with some of the world’s boldest and most inventive performers, ensembles, and collectives. Described as “chaotic and mesmerizing” (The WholeNote), a “seasonal benchmark” (The Vancouver Observer), and “groundbreaking” (The Georgia Straight), our concerts aim to activate alternative public spaces such as libraries, parks, swimming pools, and graveyards with music tailored to timely themes.

Redshift also realizes its mission through Redshift Records, an independent record label which showcases some of the most important new voices in classical contemporary music. Over the past decade, Redshift Records has grown steadily to include a catalogue of over thirty artists, taking home multiple WCMA awards, one Juno, and over twenty nominations from prominent awards organizations.

Northern Lights

7:30pm • May 12th • Kelowna Community Theatre
7:30pm • May 24th • Penticton’s Cleveland Community Theatre
7:00pm • May 24th • Vernon & District Performing Arts Centre

 

Drawing inspiration from their surroundings, Scandinavian and Canadian composers bring a breathless sense of grandeur and space to this program. Ariel Barnes returns to our stages with two concertos written especially for him. Our OSO Chorus joins us to honour Imant Raminsh in his 80th year as we close our season with his uplifting Gloria!

 

Program

SIBELIUS | Symphony No. 7, Op. 105 in C major
MARCUS GODDARD | Cello Concerto
JOCELYN MORLOCK | Lucid Dreams
IMANT RAMINSH | Gloria

 

Remembering Jocelyn Morlock

7pm • May 24th • Vanvouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton St)
Tickets: Free Admission

 

On May 24 Vancouver pays tribute to the life and music of Jocelyn Morlock (1969 – 2023). One of Canada’s most beloved composers, Jocelyn became a staple of Canadian classical music through her associations with Music on Main, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. To arts lovers across Canada and beyond she was known as a composer whose music revelled in lyricism, birdsong, and equal measures of profundity and humour; to those closest to her she was a quirky goofball, an avid knitter, and an unfailingly supportive friend.
Remembering Jocelyn Morlock is a free public event. Hosted by Walter Quan, the evening will include guest speakers and performances by:
musica intima and Jonathan Lo
Standing Wave
Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa
Melanie Adams and Erika Switzer
Sarah Jo Kirsch, Mark Takeshi McGregor, and Adrian Verdejo
Driftwood Percussion
Remembering Jocelyn Morlock
Wednesday, May 24 2023 at 7 pm
Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton St.)
Free, no advance tickets
Presented in partnership by Canadian Music Centre BC Region, Hard Rubber Orchestra, Little Chamber Music, Music on Main, musica intima, Queer Arts Festival+SUM gallery, Redshift Music, Standing Wave, and Vancouver New Music.

An Evening With Colin Miles

5pm – 7pm • April 25th • Murray Adaskin Salon (837 Davie St)
Tickets: Free Admission

 

The Canadian Music Centre in BC is pleased to present a special Evening with Colin Miles, a beloved musician and former BC Director of the Canadian Music Centre.

 

Please join us for a glass of wine in celebration of Colin’s remarkable life and musical legacy. Colin will be interviewed about highlights from his career composer, and violinist Jack Campbell, who has recently completed documenting a series of interviews he conducted with Colin over the past year into a 50-page Memoir of Colin’s life in music.

 

That memoir, which explores Colin’s unique involvement in and contribution to the musical life of our city, will be officially entered into our Digital Archive that day and be available for online perusal.

 

Colin’s musical role is as varied as assisting R. Murray Schafer in the first year of the World Soundscape Project and serving as spokesman for the committee that saved the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.

 

Colin was close to Barbara Pentland, Jean Coulthard, Murray Adaskin, and many of this country’s leading composers during the more than twenty years he served as the CMC Director in BC. And was instrumental in bringing CMC BC downtown to its new space on Davie St, as well as the subsequent purchase of Murray Adaskin’s 1960 Heintzman Salon Grand Piano.

 

Colin Miles also spearheaded the campaign to save the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, and although that effort ultimately proved unsuccessful, unable to overcome decisions made far away by CBC executives in Toronto, he was given the Mayor of Vancouver’s Arts Award for Music in 2009 for that work, his help in saving the opera orchestra, and his passion as a champion of Canadian composers.

Colin Miles has been fortunate to discover his vocation in music. In high school he played viola in the Edmonton Symphony, acted and served in model parliaments.  He graduated in History. After playing in the National Youth Orchestra he transferred into music studying musicology. In Vancouver at the beginning of the early music revival he fell in love with the viola da gamba and performing renaissance and mediaeval repertoire.  A personal and academic crisis was a blessing as he assisted R. Murray Schafer in the first year of the World Soundscape Project.  He was transformed by the experience.   The turning point was his appointment as Regional Director of the Canadian Music Centre in 1978 where he developed his gifts to be a champion of composers and advocate for creativity and the arts.  As a practising musician and avid concert-goer, he attracted committed people to the cause.  He was spokesman for the committee which campaigned to save the Vancouver Opera Orchestra successfully.  He spearheaded the campaign to save the CBC Vancouver Orchestra from the axe.  Despite excellent work and public support, the effort failed.  Largely because of that work and his role in the Canadian Music Centre he was given the Mayor’s Arts Award for Music in 2009.  He continues to have a child-like sense of awe and wonder in musical creativity.  He believes the Canadian Music Centre is the nation’s most important musical organization.  The flourishing of the creative musical community thrills and inspires him.

The Wind: With Goodchild Grady Duo

1:30pm • March 26th • Wood Hall at the Victoria Conservatory of Music
Tickets: Free Admission

CMC BC is excited to announce an afternoon of solo and duo instrumental music with the Goodchild Grady Duo. This Duo consists of Melissa Goodchild, Clarinet and Bass Clarinet, and Kevin Grady, percussion. The program will feature a host of Canadian Composers including the world premiere of The Wind by Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer Patrick McGraw. Also included will be: Phases by Barbara Pentland (BC); Windwalker by Elma Miller (ON); as well as Vocalise no. 1 and Vocalise no. 2 by Murray Adaskin (BC).

Co-presented by the Canadian Music Center in BC, The Victoria Conservatory of Music and the Toronto Arts Council

Goodchild Grady Duo is a clarinet and percussion duo formed in 2014. Through live music performances they strive to evoke emotion and share their passion for music. With their unusual instrumentation they enjoy new and exciting sounds and would like to take the audience on an exploration of sonorities. Their repertoire includes music from around the world, with a special interest in promoting the works of Canadian composers by performing them widely in Canada and internationally.

The duo has performed in various venues in Saskatchewan including the Strata New Music Festival, recitals and in 2016 were artists in residence at the Prairie Wind & Silver Sage Artist Residency. In May 2017 they premiered Dialogues by Toronto-based composer Shelley Marwood.

In 2018 they participated in the Winter Music Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts, concerts in and outside of Saskatchewan, and a commissioned a new work by Saskatoon composer Kendra Harder. In July they performed at ClarinetFest 2018 in Ostend, Belgium.

The duo is now residing in Victoria, British Columbia and is planning exciting and new concerts and collaborations.

Melissa Goodchild is originally from Windsor, Ontario and received her Bachelor of Music at the University of Windsor. In 2006 she received her Artist Diploma from the University of Western Ontario and continued to study there for her Master of Music in Performance and Literature. While in London in addition to University ensembles she performed in the Stratford Civic Orchestra and various other chamber music ensembles. After completing her studies in London, Ontario in 2008 she moved to Edmonton, Alberta where she taught at the Alberta College Conservatory of Music. In addition to teaching she performed in and around the city in groups such as the New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia, Opera Nuova and performances at the Citadel Theatre as well as solo performances at recitals. Melissa was the Second Clarinet with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra from 2012 through 2018 and performed in various venues throughout the city. In Saskatoon she performed in the Strata New Music Festival, been a featured soloist with the Saskatoon Serenade, the Saskatoon Concert Band, the clarinet choir Reedy, Set, Go! In the spring of 2019 she was thrilled to adjudicate winds and brass at the Brandon Festival of the Arts as well as the Kootenay Festival of the Arts.

In Victoria she enjoys teaching students of all ages in private as well as group settings including clinics for schools and at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where she teaches private lessons, chamber music, masterclasses as well as Clarinet Choir. She was happy to be part of the faculty at the University of Victoria as a term clarinet instructor for private instruction, chamber music coaching, and masterclasses for the 2021-2022 term.

Kevin Grady received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from the University of Victoria where he studied with William Linwood. He has performed with many ensembles including the Victoria Symphony, Vancouver Island Symphony and was Second Percussion with Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. Kevin enjoys performing all kinds of percussion repertoire and has taken part in festivals such as The Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Northwestern Percussion Symposium, and Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar. In Saskatoon he has taken part in the Prairie Music Residency and performs regularly with the Bridge City Brass Band and the Saskatoon Brass Band. As a soloist he has performed in the Strata New Music Festival as well as other venues in the city.

Kevin performs with several ensembles in Victoria and will often assist the percussion section of the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra.

New Music at the Gallery

5:00pm • March 24th • Vancouver Art Gallery (Room 4 East)
Tickets: $15

Presented in partnership with the Canadian Music Centre BC, New Music at the Gallery is a live concert series hosted by the Vancouver Art Gallery that features an array of musicians and composers who draw on contemporary art themes.

Join us for the fourth and final concert of New Music at the Gallery’s inaugural season, featuring Dai-Lin Hsieh, one of the most talented zheng performers of her generation. This concert provides an opportunity to celebrate the relationship between Chinese traditional music and global new music traditions.

Dai-Lin Hsieh will perform a program featuring contemporary Chinese compositions and pieces she has commissioned by contemporary Canadian composers. A celebration of the cultural connection between Canada and China, Dai-Lin invites us to celebrate the richness of creative production and the continuing musical traditions of both cultures. We will hear the new music possibilities of a non-Western instrument, explore global music heritage, and embrace a diverse and unique program celebrating cross-cultural, cross-genre and cross-medium musical discovery. 

Please note: The concert begins at 5 PM and is one hour in duration. Doors open at 4:30 PM.

Bi-Guang Tang, Liuyang River《瀏陽河》(China, 1959)

Zhong-Shan Wang, Ming Mountain《溟山》(China, 1991)

Wei-Tsu Fan, Savour Reverie Chaos《趣夢亂》 (Taiwan, 2003)

Dorothy Chang, Breath/Balance (Canada, 2020)

Glenn Sutherland, Approaching the Densho (Canada, 2022)

New Music at the Gallery

5:00pm • December 16th • Vancouver Art Gallery (Room 4 East)
Tickets: $15

Announcing the next concert for New Music at the Gallery, a new series from the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Canadian Music Centre in BC, curated by composer Jack Campbell. 

This third concert in the series, on Friday, December 16 at 5pm, is a celebration of the work of Canadian women composers performed by Jane Hayes, one of BC’s greatest contemporary music interpreters. This program — inspired by Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment — celebrates both musical and human diversity within a cultural narrative of celebration and reflection.

For Tickets

A Queer Recital

A Queer Recital

7:00pm • September 23rd • Sum Gallery
Tickets: Here 

Featuring Rachel Iwaasa, piano
Includes World Premiere by Cris Derksen (Co-commission by CMC BC & ISCM)

Co-Presentation w/ Queer Arts Festival