Reg­u­lar read­ers will recall the ‘80s col­lage piece I was work­ing on in 2008. I’ve since put together a pro­mo­tional web­site for the pro­ject, and have started plan­ning a West Coast tour of North Amer­ica, ten­ta­tively slot­ted for late 2010. More infor­ma­tion as it be­comes avail­able, posted here and at recycled80slive.com.

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.

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.

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.

Some excit­ing news. I’ve received fund­ing to develop a musi­cal project that I have been plan­ning for sev­eral years. It involves writ­ing an evening-length piece for ampli­fied instru­ments, to be per­formed in non-traditional venues such as night­clubs. This is a large-scale project that I will be work­ing on over the remain­der of the year. More infor­ma­tion to be posted as the work progresses.