Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

CMC BC has been busier this season than ever before, sponsoring concerts of music by BC composers, presenting awards and scholarships, hosting events and Artists in Residence, and engaging with our community around the province.

Performances

We have sponsored ten performances since January, including Standing Wave’s Compocon on February 24, where Sean presented the ensemble with a Barbara Pentland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Music.

 

 

We sponsored Catherine Thornsley’s Harmonies Across North America: Celebrating Women Composers on International Women’s Day on Saturday, March 8 at the Nebula Performance Space, and on Friday, March 14, we sponsored Vancouver Pro Musica’s Sonic Boom Festival.

 

CMC BC presented the JUNO’s Classical Showcase in a collaboration with CMC Canada on March 29 at the CBC’s Studio 700, featuring Deantha Edmunds, who won Composer of the Year that evening; Luminous Voices, performing works by Jessica McMann, Andrew Balfour, Walter MacDonald White Bear, and Sherryl Sewepagaham; Jonelle Sills and Steven Philcox performing works from the Canadian Art Song Project; Carmen Braden, performing original works with Eric Reed; and Katrina Gauvin performing with Alexander Weimann.

 

 

We sponsored the Sound of Dragon Society’s multimedia extravaganza The Living World on April 12, featuring works by Tim Brady, Elizabeth Knudson, Edward Top, Moshe Denburg, and Lan Tung; as well as the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra’s 95th Anniversary concert on May 18, where Sean Bickerton & Heather Molloy presented the orchestra with a Barbara Pentland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Music for all of their many commissions and premieres.

 

 

We’re also sponsoring Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra’s Sounds Global Composers’ Workshop 2025, which wraps with a final concert on Friday, May 30, 2025 And on June 11, we will sponsor Chor Leoni’s C4 Choral Composition Competition again this year, featuring performances of works by Roydon Tse, Tawnie Olson, and Benjamin Sigerson. And CMC BC will be on hand to present Barbara Pentland Awards for Outstanding Composition to the three finalists.

 

Finally, to wrap up a busy season, we are sponsoring the third annual Casse-Tete Festival of Experimental Music in Surrey, featuring a concert on on July 13 by Jose Delgado Guevara (Viola, Pedal Harp, and computer) and Soprano Cathy Fern Lewis, who will perform works by Linda Caitlin Smith, Daniel Scheidt, Anna Hostman, along with improvisations and the premiere of Cathy Fern Lewis’s Then and Now as well as a new work by Jose Delgado Guevara.

 

Composition Workshops

We co-produced two composition workshops this year, one with the B.C. Registered Music Teacher’s Association Student Composer’s Club, led by Composer-Mentor Elizabeth Knudson, culminating with a reading of works in the Murray Adaskin Salon by Tina Chang (Piano) and Jennifer Moersch (Cello) featuring new works by Nathan Syyong, Jakob Constible, Derek Lowe, Cristen Bao Sicoli, Paolo Roland Self, and Bodi Minardi.

 

 

And on Saturday, May 10, the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra read works composed by eight members of the Okanagan Youth Orchestra as the culmination of a composition workshop we supported that was led by Composer-Mentor Rodney Sharman.

 

Artists In Residence

 

 

We hosted four Artists in Residence this year — composers Glenn Sutherland, Jordan Nobles, Lucy Lambert, and Melinda Currie in collaboration with Chor Leoni; as well as two ensembles — Allegra Chamber Orchestra, and the Champagne Trio in a collaboration with Giorgio Magnanensi.

 

Engagement

 

 

What else have we done? On February 7, we presented scholarships worth $5,000 to three students at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts Music & Sound program. The Murray & Dorothea Adaskin Prize of $2500 was awarded to George Rahi; the Barbara Pentland Prize of $1500 was awarded to Aidan Edwards; and the Ann Southam Prize of $1000 awarded to Toni C. Yake. Next year’s recipients will be from UVic’s School of Music.

 

We donated scores and parts of Barbara Pentland’s Octet Side by Side Project to Turning Point Ensemble for their TPE Miniature performance on February 22 & 23. And the BC Director presented Morna Edmundson with a Barbara Pentland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Music at Elektra’s concert on Saturday, March 8. And Sean & Heather presented Allegra Chamber Orchestra with a Barbara Pentland Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Music at their FestivElle performance on March 18.

 

 

We welcomed music students from Saltspring Island Secondary to CMC BC for their fourth annual visit on April 2. And hosted a pizza party for Victoria area composers and practitioners on April 16.

 

Sean moderated a panel discussion on Women in the Arts for the Okanagan Symphony featuring composer Rita Ueda, soloist Lara St. John, conductor Kelly Lin on Thursday, May 8. And spoke at the UBC School of Music Concert Tribute to Keith Hamel on May 23, 2025.

 

 

We will be hosting the leaders of all of Vancouver’s performing arts organizations on Monday, Jun 16 for a meeting of the Concert Precinct Committee in the Murray Adaskin Salon.

 

And CMC BC will hold our online Annual Meeting on Monday, June 30 at 12pm. Please join us by RSVP’ing to bcregion at cmccanada dot org.