Summer 2023 Newsletter
Composition residencies, Good Story Opera, Concert with ProArts and project announcement for Spring 2024
I am thrilled to say that I have a busy summer of festival workshops, concert preparation and performances that involve travel and meeting lots of new, wonderful people.
Composition Residencies
Domaine Forget de Charlevoix
I am very lucky to have been one of the selected applicants for Domaine Forget’s 2023 New Music Session. The program takes place May 28 to June 10 and will allow me the opportunity to work alongside professionals as well as build relationships with other young musicians in the field. I will be working with Julian Anderson (UK), Laurie Radford (Calgary) and the members of the Ensemble Paramirabo in the development of a new piece of mine, which will be workshopped during the two-week festival and performed at the Domaine Forget concert hall.
This two-week program is designed for advanced level composers and performers (end of Bachelor’s, Masters, Doctorate or equivalent). This session offers a personal pedagogical approach in a context of collaboration with professional ensembles.
Continuum Contemporary Music: HATCH
Continuum Contemporary Music has generously offered me a place in their programming for HATCH - a program for young artists with a focus on contemporary chamber music. On July 12th, rehearsals begin at the Canadian Music Centre in Toronto, after which we will take our music on a small tour. We have already begun our private lessons with Jason Doell and Carolyn Chen and I am very excited to work with them and the other participant composers and players in person.
HATCH returns in-person, bringing together early-career performers and composers for artistic and professional development with a focus on contemporary chamber music. This summer, performer participants will work with the Continuum core ensemble, and composers with mentors Carolyn Chen and Jason Doell. Rehearsals at the Canadian Music Centre in Toronto will be followed by a tour of Toronto, Prince Edward County, and Ottawa.Â
Good Story at ProArts
On June 21st - National Indigenous Peoples Day - Lauren Woods, Jeanine Williams, Adam Brousseau and I will be presenting selections from Rob Hunter’s Good Story in ProArts’ noon-hour concert series at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer. In the fall of 2022, we premiered this opera at The Grand in Calgary. We also recently performed the work at the Belfry Theatre in Victoria, BC. It has been a pleasure and an honour to work alongside these musicians and I am looking forward to sharing the story of Rob’s family again.
Robert Hunter, composer and librettist, presents songs from his first opera, explaining who he is while starting to unravel the workings of his family’s origin around the experimental File Hills Indigenous farming colony. He is now co-writing a follow-up with Caroline Russell-King.
Wednesday, June 21st at 12pm
Admission free to the public
Cathedral Church of the Redeemer
Concert: New Music for an Old Instrument
On September 6th, I will be featured in a solo noon-hour concert with ProArts Society. For this concert, I announced a call for scores for new compositions for the organ and have already received lots of interest. For the concert, I will have a complete set of new, unique pieces for an old instrument, written by living composers. The overwhelming interest in this initiative has inspired me to take on similar projects in the future.
*three-manual and pedal organ by Casavant Frères or a single-manual continuo organ by Bennett and Giuttari. Specifications can be found here.
performance on Wednesday September 6th 2023 at 12pm
Cathedral Church of the Redeemer
admission free to the public and livestream will be arranged
In the Works: Spring 2024 Project
I am thrilled to announce that a project I had pitched to the Canada Council for the Arts has been approved for funding. This means that I will have the resources needed to realize a personal project with very little compromise.
Although subject to small changes, the presentation will consist of a series of my own compositions coupled with a video exploring our relationship with sound and music. I will be able to hire musicians, a sound engineer, a lighting technician, rent an ideal venue and more. I am very grateful to the Canada Council and excited to develop this project.
