Today is our first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, created, in the words of the website set up to commemorate the occasion, to "honour the lost children and Survivors of residential schools, their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of [...]

The Canadian Music Centre in BC and Redshift Music Society are pleased to announce the first-ever R. Murray Schafer Spatial Music Workshop, a free online seminar offered to composers across the country with the goal of exploring spatial (or ‘socially-distanced’) acoustic music. Building on the success of CMC BC’s Jean Coulthard String Quartet Readings and [...]

Written by Jennifer Butler (Published with permission by composer Jennifer Butler. Previously published by CBC) R. Murray Schafer's annual Wolf Project is a participants-only collaborative, experiential week of chant, music, theatre and camping in the wilderness of Haliburton Forest. Composer Jennifer Butler has been a participant in Schafer's Wolf Project since 2000 and recalls the [...]

Remembering R. Murray Schafer (Published with permission of Jon Washburn and Vancouver Chamber Choir) In my 48 years as conductor of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, my greatest privilege was to be a colleague, friend and champion of the great and genius Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer. "Our Murray Schafer", as we often thought of him, [...]

Renewal is very much in the air. We can see it all around us as the natural world gives birth again to abundance and plenty, ushering in entire new generations of insects and birds and animal life and the plants that sustain us all.  I’ve been working up on the Sunshine Coast for personal business [...]