Tag: banff

Professional Experience
24 October 2009, 4:29 amTags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Apr 2011
Quatuor Bozzini Composers Kitchen
Montréal, Canada
Workshop and residency with the string quartet. Development and performance of new work.
Jan–Mar 2010
Judge
JUNO Awards, Classical Composition of the Year Category
Sep 2009–present
Consultant and Web Writer
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players
Developing and implementing strategies for audience building. Involving graduate students from San Francisco–area music departments in volunteer publicity activities for the ensemble. Writing interviews.
Jul 2009
Composition Fellow
Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East
Bennington VT, USA
By invitation. Duties include composing a work for amateur musicians and coaching the ensemble.
Feb 2009
orkest de ereprijs Young Composers Meeting
Apeldoorn, the Netherlands
Winner of the 2009 competition. Wrote a piece for the ensemble, participated in masterclasses.
2008
Artistic Director
Recycled 80s Live
Canada
Conceived and organized the creation of a concert-length, amplified piece for nightclubs based on quotations of ‘80s pop songs, including composition of the score, hiring of musicians, arranging for performances, and creating audio–video support materials.
Nov–Dec 2009
Banff Centre Fall Creative Music Residency
Banff, Canada
Sep–Dec 2007
Koninklijk Conservatorium Residency
the Hague, the Netherlands
Professional development residency and composition masterclasses with Martijn Padding.
Aug 2007
Domaine Forget Academy New Music Seminar
St-Irénée QC, Canada
Participated in masterclasses. Rehearsals and performance with the Nouvel ensemble moderne.
Feb 2007
Arditti Quartet Residency, UC San Diego Visiting Artist Program
San Diego, USA
Composed a piece for the Arditti Quartet. Rehearsals, recording, and masterclasses with the quartet.
2005–2007
Teaching Assistant
University of California, San Diego
Preparation: Three-month, intensive pedagogy seminar on teaching critical reading and writing to undergraduates.
Duties: Attending lectures and meetings with professors, creating lesson plans based on course reading, teaching classes, holding office hours, helping students develop research papers, and grading written assignments and exams.
Classes Taught: (Music) MUS1B Music Theory, MUS12 Intro to Opera, MUS4 Introduction to Western Music History, LTEN159 Popular Music of the ‘60s; (World Literature) MMW2 The Great Classical Traditions, MMW3 The Medieval Heritage.
2005–2006
Composer in Residence
Ensemble contemporain de Montréal Génération 2006
Montréal, Canada
Wrote a piece for the ensemble, gave a masterclass on my music at the École de musique Vincent d’Indy, rehearsals with student musicians, workshop and rehearsals with the ensemble, cross-Canada tour.
Aug 2005
Tapestry New Opera Works Composer–Librettist Laboratory
Toronto, Canada
Composition of four short opera scenes with four librettists, daily masterclasses and discussions, rehearsals with performers, performances.
Sep 2004–Jan 2005
University of Toronto Contemporary Opera Showcase Programme
Toronto, Canada
Only undergraduate student invited to participate. Wrote a chamber opera for U of T students, rehearsed with the singers and ensemble, held meetings with the music director.
Spring 2004
Artistic Director, Organizer
University of Toronto – Harvard Composition Exchange
Organized a student-run exchange between composition students at both universities. Curated a concert of student works.
Spring 2004
Artistic Director, Organizer
Curated a concert of new music for saxophone in Toronto. Responsible for finding performers, composing a new piece, making programming decisions for other repertoire, and publicizing the concert.
Summer 2002
Artistic Director, Organizer
Curated a concert of new music for student composers at the University of Alberta. Responsible for finding performers, composing a new piece, making programming decisions for other repertoire, and publicizing the concert.
1995–2007
Private music instructor in percussion, composition, music theory, and history.
15 Aug 2009
Oksana G. Workshop
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Workshop of the opera I am developing, Oksana G., at the Banff Centre, in collaboration with Colleen Murphy, Tapestry New Opera, and Opera.ca.

8:00pm, Banff Centre Club
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive (map)
Banff, Canada
Contact the Banff Centre for details.
www.banffcentre.ca/music    
12 Mar 2009
Shit Around the World
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Flautist Solomiya Moroz and percussionist Nicholas Jacques première my piece, Shit Around The World, with a text consisting of the word shit in 12 languages.

7:30pm, Bentley Music Studio
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive (map)
Banff, Canada
Admission: Free
www.banffcentre.ca/music    
Tapestry New Opera Works — Opera.ca
4 March 2009, 10:33 pmTags: , , , , ,

A long-term pro­ject of mine is moving for­ward this year. Tapes­try New Opera applied for and received fund­ing from Opera.ca to pro­duce the first act of the opera I have been devel­op­ing with libret­tist, Colleen Murphy. We’ll be involved in round­table dis­cus­sions on the opera in Toronto this spring, and I will be com­pos­ing the music for one act of the opera, to be work­shopped at the Banff Centre in August of this year. The act will then be fully pro­duced in the first part of 2010. More details to fol­low as they become avail­able.

New Performances and Projects
10 January 2009, 10:41 pmTags: , , , , , ,

This year is off to a busy start, with two pre­mières in Feb. One is a col­lage piece based on love songs, for the orkest de ereprijs in Hol­land. The other piece, for soprano and speak­ing pianist, is based on spam email texts and is being pre­mièred in Toronto’s SHIFT Fes­ti­val by pianist Greg Oh and soprano Xin Wang.

In addi­tion, I’m work­ing on a piece for Brazilian-Canadian pianist, Luciane Car­dassi, which will involve elec­tron­ics and her voice (in addi­tion to her piano play­ing). I’m also work­ing on a col­lab­o­ra­tive mul­ti­me­dia piece with Amsterdam-based flautist/composer Anne La Berge.

Lastly, after a suc­cess­ful pre­mière in Banff last month, I’m putting together mate­ri­als based on Recy­cled 80s Live, which will be acces­si­ble here once they’re ready. I’m cur­rently in the plan­ning phases for an even­tual tour of the piece; details TBA as they become avail­able.

Recycled 80s Live première
17 November 2008, 10:44 pmTags: , ,

If you’re in the Banff or Cal­gary area, come out to the pre­mière of my new pro­ject. Also pass this along to your friends.

For those liv­ing too far away to attend, a pro­ject web­site is in the works, with video and audio clips, slated for early 2009.

handbill for Recycled 80s Live pre­mière
9 Dec 2008
Recycled 80s Live
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Première of Recycled 80s Live at the Banff Centre for the Arts, a mash-up of ‘80s tunes performed live.

4:30pm, Bentley Music Studio
107 Tunnel Mountain Drive (map)
Banff, Canada
Admission: Free
www.banffcentre.ca/events    
Recycled 80s Live (2008)
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Instru­men­ta­tion: sop, pno, keys, drums (all amplified)
Dura­tion: 90’00
Made possible through the financial support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Banff Centre
mp3 listen to Soft Cell–Cindy Lauper–Tears for Fears mash-up
mp3 listen to "I want my MTV" & "You spin me"
mp3 listen to Lipps Inc. and Technotronic— the first and last '80s hits combined
mp3 listen to Madonna, Eurhythmics, & more
mp3 listen to New Order vs. Human League
mp3 listen to NWA–Beastie Boys mash-up
mp3 listen to Blondie "Heart of Glass" transcription
mp3 listen to Rick Astley–Erasure mash-up
Pro­gramme Note

Recy­cled 80s Live is a col­lage of small frag­ments of ‘80s pop songs, recom­posed and recon­tex­tu­al­ized into a new, larger work. I chose this approach because artists have always bor­rowed mate­r­ial from one another, but copy­right is increas­ingly being abused to pre­vent bor­row­ing. This sit­u­a­tion is a threat to cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity in gen­eral and it deserves to receive atten­tion.

Copy­right has always had two roles, to pro­tect the rights of the cre­ator, but more broadly, to encour­age cre­ativ­ity. With­out copy­right, artists would never be prop­erly rewarded for their work and art would not get made. But with­out fair deal­ing pro­vi­sions (or fair use in the U.S.), copy­right law stran­gles cre­ativ­ity by making art­works inaccessible.

Over the past 100 years, cor­po­rate inter­ests have increas­ingly tried to restrict or remove fair deal­ing from copy­right. Copy­right in 1900 was only 14 years long and had to be offi­cially requested. This meant that artists at the time could draw on a huge store of rel­a­tively fresh mate­r­ial in their work, lead­ing to the explo­sion of cre­ativ­ity that marked the birth of Hol­ly­wood, the avant-garde, jazz, and more. Now copy­right is auto­matic, can last over 150 years, and legit­i­mate works that use fair deal­ing are fre­quently attacked in court by cor­po­rate inter­ests. This trend has only accel­er­ated with the rise of dig­i­tal music tech­nol­ogy and file sharing.

For this reason, Recy­cled 80s Live draws entirely from mate­r­ial still under copy­right, with­out per­mis­sion. This can be done under fair deal­ing as long as the new work cre­ates new artis­tic value and does not take away from the market for the orig­i­nals. I designed Recy­cled 80s Live to respect these bound­aries, work­ing within the tra­di­tion of mash-up artists such as John Oswald or Girl Talk, but with live musi­cians. My mes­sage, to adapt an old adage, is that your right to swing your copy­right ends where my music begins.

Promo Video
SOCAN Awards 2008 and Update
11 September 2008, 10:47 pmTags: , , ,

I’m happy to say I was awarded another SOCAN Award this year, for Cul­ture no.3.

Also, in other news, work on the night­club project, now titled Recy­cled 80s Live, is pro­gress­ing well. The first per­for­mance will take place at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Dec, and a project web­site and media clips should be avail­able shortly there­after. Fur­ther per­for­mances in 2009 are in the plan­ning stages.

Lastly, be sure to check the Per­for­mances sec­tion for upcom­ing concerts.

CC-by-sa 2012, . Some rights reserved. Some ele­ments adapted from var­i­ous freely avail­able sour­ces. Design by San­ti­ago Medina and Aaron Gervais.