Concerts 2023/2024

Cross-Cultural Connections: Ukraine | Estonia | Finland | Canada

 

Cross-Cultural Connections: Ukraine | Estonia | Finland | Canada
Pickle Undergorund
7:30 pm • March 23rd • Holy Eucharist Cathedral (501 4th Ave New Westminster)
A concert of contemporary duos for violin and piano exploring cross-cultural influences and historical parallels between distant countries with similar fates. Canadian violinist Jack Campbell and Ukrainian pianist Anna Sagalova perform delicate, powerful and illuminating works by Arvo Pärt (Estonia), Kaija Saariaho (Finland), Yevhen Stankovych (Ukraine), Jocelyn Morlock (Canada) and Anna Pidgorna (Ukraine/Canada).

Artemis Premieres: Spotlight on BC

 

Artemis Premieres: Spotlight on BC
7:00 pm • March 30th • Notional Space (1523 E Pender)
Join Artemis in the inimitable Notional Space (1523 E Pender St, Vancouver) at 19:00 (7PM) on March 30th for an evening of live world premieres as we present a collection of works written specifically for them.
Repertoire includes works by BC composers Jennifer Butler, Jocelyn Morlock, Jeffrey Ryan, Nova Pon, Anna Pidgorna, Jaelem Bhate and Anna Hostman, and Canadian composers Maria-Eduarda Mendes Martins, Mathieu Lussier and Bruce Russell. Intimate and personal, these commissions for small ensemble will feature Morgan Zentner (oboe/english horn), Renz Eulric Adame (oboe/english horn) and Artemis’ founder and musical director, Katelin Coleman (bassoon).
Free admission. Donations are optional, with all donations at the door going to the Tsleil Waututh Nation Community Society.

We respectfully acknowledge that Artemis is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
In keeping with this fact, Artemis is committed to paying rent in an amount agreeable to our host nations for our use of their land in our performances and events.
As a first step towards a reconciliation which acknowledges the historical and ongoing truth of colonization, Artemis contributes financially to the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Community Society – a registered non-profit that provides small grants directly to Tsleil-Waututh members for self-determined activities in areas such as culture, education and the environment – every time we present a concert. We are joined in this initiative by Redshift Music Society, Music on Main, and Müzewest Concerts. We encourage other arts organizations to join us in this act of economic reconciliation by contacting the Tsleil Waututh Nation Relationships team at relationships@twnation.ca .
To learn more about the Tsleil-Waututh Nation Community Society, send enquiries to twncommunitysociety@twnation.ca

Turning Point: Ballet Kelowna

 

Turning Point: Ballet Kelowna
7:30 pm • February 16 & 17th • Kelowna Community Theatre (1019 Seymour St.)

For her 10th season with Ballet Kelowna, Simone Orlando creates a new work based on the nature and deeds of Gods and Goddesses. Initially developed through a fellowship from the New York Choreographic Institute, this piece is heavily inspired by Jocelyn Morlock’s evocative music based on the poems of Sappho.

novum musica: showcase

 

novum musica: showcase

musica intima

7:30pm • Monday, February 12th • Annex 823 Seymour St, Vancouver • Tickets

Following a series of workshops in the fall, musica intima is pleased to present the world premieres of seven new works for vocal ensemble, written by seven talented emerging composers as part of the novum musica program, co-presented with CMC BC.

Who is this concert for?

  • the classical music influencer
  • the Spotify playlist curator
  • the Bandcamp supporter

What will I know and what will be new to me?

  • We promise, you’ve never heard this music before; this concert is exclusively world premieres
  • New sounds, new ideas, and new faces always make for an exciting evening!

Why is musica intima creating this event?

  • This is the sixth iteration of our emerging composers program, this year co-presented by the Canadian Music Centre.  musica intima is firmly committed to educating and championing the next generation of Canadian composers.
  • A crucial part of the education program is the final showcase – we joy in sharing the new sounds created by the composers of the future!

novum musica is co-presented with the Canadian Music Centre, and supported by the Y.P. Heung Foundation.

François Houle and Daniel Janke

 

François Houle and Daniel Janke

8:00pm • Thursday, February 8th • Tyrant Studios, 1019 Seymour St, Vancouver • Tickets

Composers / improvisors François Houle (clarinet) and Daniel Janke (piano) pair up for this inspired evening of new music.

To see a live performance excerpt visit: Vimeo 

To hear the album visit: Bandcamp

Soft Time Presents: Companions

Soft Time presents: Companions
2:30 pm • January 28th • Church of Truth (111 Superior St. Victoria, BC)
More info: Here

Soft time is a Victoria-based ensemble of musicians and composers — Kristy Farkas, Anna Höstman, Cathy Fern Lewis and Mitch Renaud — who enjoy making things together. In their first program entitled Companions, they explore an ecology of composed works in the midst of improvisation, forming relationships between sounds and friendship. Works will include Paraphrase for voice and electronics by Mitch Renaud, a new solo piano piece by Kristy Farkas entitled A constellation of companions, selections from Le Poème Invisible for voice and piano by Anna Höstman, as well as improvisations.

Improvisation 1 – Kristy Farkas, Anna Höstman, Cathy Fern Lewis and Mitch Renaud

 

Paraphrase by Mitch Renaud is performed by Cathy Fern Lewis (voice) and Mitch Renaud (electronics). It seeks to exist within in the small space of acoustic beating. The text was found from: Méret Oppenheim, Charles Baudelaire, Monica Vitti (via Anne Carson), and Anaïs Nin.

 

A constellation of companions by Kristy Farkas is a piece for solo piano performed by Anna Höstman. A compilation of gestures and phrases, the piece explores the infinite possibilities for connection, particularly when approached from a place of harmony.

 

Selections from Le Poème Invisible by Anna Höstman are performed by Cathy Fern Lewis (voice) and Anna Höstman (piano, voice). It comprises a slight scatter of quiet miniatures on texts by E.D. Blodgett.

 

Improvisation 2 – Kristy Farkas, Anna Höstman, Cathy Fern Lewis and Mitch Renaud

 

Admission: Suggested contribution $10-$20

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Kristy Farkas is a sound and visual artist living in Victoria, Canada, on lək̓wəŋən territory. As a musician, collaboration and improvisation often play a role in her creative process, with scores entrusting the performers as collective, creative, decision-makers. Her work frequently considers the nuances of silence, vulnerability, and our relationship with place, finding inspiration in textures, forms and sounds found in nature. Her works have been performed in concert halls, galleries, atriums, tunnels, cafes, gardens, and forests.

Anna Höstman’s compositions seek out tactile encounters with nature while extending into history, memory, and landscape. Her works have been performed throughout Canada and internationally by performers such as Keiko Shichijo, Cheryl Duvall, Mira Benjamin, Quatuor Bozzini, Continuum Ensemble, Heather Roche, Wesley Shen and Thin Edge New Music Collective. Anna has held artist residencies at the Matralab (Concordia University, Montréal), Artspring (Saltspring Island) and Outvert Artspace (Ísafjörður, Iceland). Her series of interviews with Canadian composers are published in Tempo, a Quarterly Review of New Music. Recent compositions include Pebbles for solo snare drum and voice (Ryan Scott), Cells of Wind, a graphically scored opera based on an original libretto by Montreal poet and translator, Oana Avasilichioaei, and the installation piece, For Elza (Mayhew), for the Art Gallery of Victoria’s 2022 Reverberations exhibit.

Catherine Fern Lewis is renowned as a highly versatile performer, sound and voice artist and collaborator. An

ambassador and active exponent of Canada’s new music and art scene since the 80’s, Lewis is a leading interpreter of contemporary performance. Lewis has premiered over one hundred and fifty pieces by prominent composers, such as Murray Adaskin, Rudolf Komorous, Linda Catlin Smith, Rodney Sharman and Anna Hostman, and most being created specifically for her. Lewis’ personal creative explorations are uniquely interdisciplinary, combining movement, sound, film and installation and pushing the boundaries of performance. Her site-specific work has been presented by art galleries and festivals in Canada and Europe. Her improvisations have shaped the work of collaborators from other disciplines.

Mitch Renaud is a sound artist, composer, and curator whose practice moves between performing live with electronics and discrete composition. His work explores the materiality of relation through (co-)composition, field recording, studio processing, and feedback systems. Mitch performs solo performance and has ongoing collaborations with artists Dave Riedstra, Emilie LeBel, and Katelyn Clark.

The Selected Chamber Music of Edward Top

 

The Selected Chamber Music of Edward Top

7:00pm • Saturday, January 27th • Murray Adaskin Salon, 837 Davie St, Vancouver • Tickets

Join us for an evening of chamber music by Dutch Canadian composer Edward Top. This in-person event will take place at the Murray Adaskin Salon at the Canadian Music Centre BC.

Edward Top is renowned for his captivating compositions that blend classical and contemporary influences. This event will also feature a new work by his student Sophia Myles.

Immerse yourself in the intimate atmosphere of the Murray Adaskin Salon. Whether you are a devoted classical music fan or simply curious about discovering new sounds, this event is not to be missed!

Squid in Chains CMC Residency Presentation
Squid in Chains CMC Residency Presentation
1 pm • January 18th • Murray Adaskin Salon (837 Davie St, Vancouver BC)
Tickets: Free

François Houle, Douglas Schmidt, and John Oliver give a mini-performance of the results of their 12-day workshop sessions, during which they explored new ideas for their hybrid instrumental and electronic trio. The performance will be followed by a Q & A to give the audience an opportunity to ask about the development process.

I Have My Mother’s Eyes: A Holocaust Memoir Across Generations

 

I Have My Mother’s Eyes: A Holocaust Memoir Across Generations Chamber Opera

7:00pm • Saturday, November 11th • Phoenix Auditorium, 240 Davis Rd Gabriola Island • Tickets

3:00pm • Sunday, November 12th • Phoenix Auditorium, 240 Davis Rd Gabriola Island • Tickets

8:00pm • Sat, Nov. 18th • Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, 950 West 41st Avenue Vancouver  • Tickets

8:00pm • Sunday, Nov. 19th • Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, 950 West 41st Avenue Vancouver  • Tickets

Celebrated Japanese-Canadian composer Rita Ueda premieres a remarkable new chamber opera, directed by Heather Pawsey, telling the compelling story of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who risked his own life to issue visas to Jewish families during the Holocaust, including Vancouver’s Bluman Family, and brought thousands to safety. Featuring international musicians from Japan, Australia, and the Netherlands, this moving true story illuminates intergenerational friendship and bravery.

In 1940, Chiune Sugihara, Japan’s vice-consul in Lithuania, issued travel visas that saved the lives of an estimated 21,000 Jewish families desperate to escape Nazi persecution. His story of quiet heroism was documented by his wife, Yukiko in her poetry collection, Visas for Life. Their son and granddaughter, Hiroki and Madoka, have worked hard to keep the memory of their deeds alive.
Zosia Bluman and her husband, Natek, were rescued by Sugihara’s visas. Beating the odds, they arrived safely in Vancouver, where they lived long and productive lives, contributing greatly to the fabric of Canadian society. Their daughter, Barbara Ruth Bluman, wrote the memoir I Have My Mother’s Eyes to honour both the heroism of Sugihara’s defiance and her parents’ courage and tenacity. Granddaughter Danielle helped keep their memory alive by completing the family memoir upon her mother’s death from cancer.
The intergenerational bond between the Bluman and Sugihara families demonstrates the invisible links forged across time and space by Chiune and Yukiko Sugihara, whose legacy of compassion still reverberates strongly around the globe.

Composed & produced: Rita Ueda

librettist: Rodney Robertson

Barbara Ebbeson, mezzo soprano (Canada): Zosia/Barbara/Danielle Bluman
Teiya Kasahara, soprano (Canada): Chiune/Yukiko/Hiroki/Madoka Sugihara
Naomi Sato, shō (Netherlands, Japan): spirit of Yukiko Sugihara
Reison Kuroda, shakuhachi (Japan): spirit of Chiune Sugihara
Megumi Masaki, piano/narrator (Canada)
Miyama McQueen-Tokita, koto (Australia, Japan)
Marc Destrubé, violin (Canada)
Sungyong Lim, cello (Canada)

Creative team
Rita Ueda: composer & producer
Rodney Robertson: librettist
Megumi Masaki: curator
Heather Pawsey: director
Jennifer Tham: conductor
Victoria Bell: art & lighting director
Allyson McGrane: production manager
George Bluman: story consultant
Thanks to: Madoka Sugihara
Duration: 75 minutes (no intermission)

Funders: Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Canadian Music Centre (BC)
Partner Organizations: Chutzpah! Festival (lead presenter), Powell Street Festival Society (co-presenter), Wallenberg-Sugihara Civil Courage Society (Collaborating Partner), Canadian Music Centre (BC), Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre, Lulu Performing Arts Society

Jessica MaMann: Prairie Dusk

Prairie Dusk: Album Release
7:00 pm • November 2nd • Nelson, BC
7:00 pm • November 4th • Revelstoke, BC
7:00 pm • November 5th • Trail, BC
7:00 pm • November 22nd • Vancouver, BC
More info: Here

Alberta Cree artist Jessica McMann celebrates the release of her second contemporary Classical album Prairie Dusk. This is a beautiful and important collection of compositions deeply rooted in the narratives of home, family and land, evoking the expansive landscapes of the prairie, foothills and Rocky Mountains.

Jessica will be re-joined by original album collaborators Navajo pianist Connor Chee (Arizona, USA), violist Holly Bhattacharya

(Revelstoke, BC) and Cree Métis baritone Jonathon Adams (Calgary, AB).

Jessica is an Alberta -based Cree (Cowessess, SK), multi-disciplinary artist. She interweaves land, Indigenous identity, history, and language throughout her dance and music creation/performance practice. A classically trained flutist, she holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary and an MFA in Contemporary Arts from Simon Fraser University. Her work fuses together traditional language and dance with her own contemporary experiences as an Indigenous woman and Two-Spirit person.

Her upcoming album release is on October 29th. Her new album evokes the sounds and stories of the prairies and includes commissioned work as well as new originals. “Prairie Dusk” will be available on all platforms. This is a follow-up album to her award winning first album Incandescent Tales which was released in June of 2021. This Indigenous classical album won the 2022 YYC Music Classical Album of the Year and Gold Medals in the Global Music Awards. A 2022 and 2023 Western Canadian Music Awards Nominee, she is working on a new alt-pop recording to be released summer of 2024. Her musical, composition, and soundscape work focuses on land-based creation and ideas of connection, disconnection, and home. “Too Good; That MAY Be”, an immersive soundscape performance was shown at the Urban Shaman Gallery in Winnipeg as part of “The 60’s Scoop; A Place Between” in 2017. Her compositions include Muskwa’s Mountain Home (2021), Inni (2018) and soundscapes including beguiling (the)the land (2020). Jessica currently resides in Cochrane, Alberta, where she works for the City of Calgary as Curator of Indigenous Art. She is also co- founder and co-director Wild Mint Arts, an Indigenous arts company and is a Laureate of the Hnatyshyn Foundation REVEAL Indigenous Art Awards (2017).

Find Jessica McMann’s music online @ Spotify and Apple Music

Max Wyman: The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts are Central to Democracy

Max Wyman: The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts are Central to Democr
5:30 pm • November 1st • Murray Adaskin Salon (837 Davie)
More info: Here
Seating is limited: RSVP to bcregion@cmccanada.org

Max Wyman is one of Canada’s foremost cultural commentators. He was the arts columnist and critic for The Vancouver Sun, The Province, and CBC Radio for over thirty years, and launched and edited the Vancouver Sun Review of Books. The Compassionate Imagination is his seventh book on the arts in Canada.

A Falcon, A Storm or A Great Song

September 16th • Kamloops United Church (423 St. Paul Street)
A concert featuring music by Imant Raminsh performed in celebration of his 80th birthday
Website: Here

The Chamber Musicians of Kamloops is pleased to be presenting a program that recognizes the remarkable achievements of Canadian composer and BC resident, Imant Raminsh. The concert begins with his string quartet #1 composed in 2003 as a memorial to a colleague who died in Kamloops in a tragic workplace accident. It was premiered in Kelowna by the Borealis String Quartet. Its performance In Kamloops on 16 September is by the Sycamore String Quartet composed of Cvetozar Vutev and Sandra Wilmot, violins; Ashley Kroecher, viola; and Martin Kratky, cello. All members have close connections with Mr. Raminish, either as former students or colleagues in orchestras and have premiered other works of his, notably at the Vernon Proms.

Also on the program, is another Raminsh work – a quintet for clarinet and string quartet composed in 2022 featuring Kamloops Symphony Orchestra principal clarinetist, Sally Arai.

This concert promises to be a fine start to the upcoming season. In view of expected popularity, it will be live streamed and made available for two weeks. Further information and tickets can be found at chambermusiciansofkamloops.org.

The Chamber Musicians of Kamloops has been in existence since 2008. Its purpose is “to advance the public’s appreciation of the arts by providing high-quality chamber music performances in public places, and other venues in the Kamloops region, and by providing a forum for qualified musicians to perform their artistic works through participation in such events”. Inspiration is mainly from area musicians with the occasional addition of visiting groups.

Metamorphosis: Album Release

Metamorphasis: Saxophilia CD Release
7:30 pm • September 15th • Pyatt Hall (843 Seymour St)
Tickets: Here

Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet is celebrating the release of their second studio recording, Metamorphosis, with an album launch concert on Friday, September 15 at 7:30 pm in the VSO School of Music’s Pyatt Hall. This collection of original saxophone quartet works by Canadian composers highlights the fluid creativity of our friends and colleagues, including BC CMC Associate Composers Fred Stride and Rodney Sharman, as well as Violet Archer, Beatrice Ferreira, and Saxophilia’s own David Branter. The five pieces on this album are characterized by dense counterpoint, rich harmonies, kaleidoscopic rhythms, delicate timbres, and soul-stirring melodies. We are grateful for the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council, the SOCAN Foundation, and the BC Region CMC in bringing this project to life. Tickets will be available from www.saxophilia.com.

Formed in 1996, the Vancouver-based saxophone quartet Saxophilia has been committed to giving the highest quality performances of classical saxophone repertoire. Its members include Julia Nolan on soprano saxophone, Kris Covlin on alto saxophone, David Branter on tenor saxophone, and Colin MacDonald on baritone saxophone. All of the quartet members are active performers in Vancouver’s music community, as soloists and as band members in a wide variety of styles from classical to jazz to popular music. This appreciation of a diversity of music informs the group’s choice of repertoire, which ranges from the standard repertoire of classical saxophone quartet, to contemporary music, to jazz arrangements and lighter fare.

The New Canon

7:30 pm – 9:00 pm • September 11th • Heritage Hall (3102 Main St)
Tickets: free
After 30 years of commissioning new works and bringing groundbreaking music to Vancouver audiences, musica intima has curated a new body of repertoire – our new canon. Experience the backbone of musica intima’s repertoire, and join us for a glass of wine at an informal evening exploring some of our favourites!