Like most com­posers, I absorbed cer­tain widely accepted musi­cal axioms from my uni­ver­sity stud­ies, but they’ve never been entirely sat­is­fy­ing. As a con­se­quence, I con­stantly search for bet­ter expla­na­tions, in the process hope­fully becom­ing a bet­ter artist. One of the issues I’m increas­ingly focus­ing on is how music his­tory is inter­preted. Although I have pre­vi­ously argued for an enhanced role for music his­tory in com­poser edu­ca­tion, I also think we need to re-examine how we use (and abuse) that his­tory. In my own prac­tice, let­ting go of false history-based causative asso­ci­a­tions, what I see as a kind of com­po­si­tional his­tori­cism, has paid cre­ative div­i­dends. Con­tinue read­ing “Let­ting Go of 20th-Century Historicism” »

This is a reprint of the first edi­tion of my e-mail newslet­ter.

For some time I’ve had a newslet­ter signup form on my web­site but this is the first time I’m actu­ally send­ing a newslet­ter out!

I plan on doing this 2–3 times per year. For more fre­quent info, see my web­site or Twit­ter. Unsub­scribe link at the bottom.

Con­tents

• Upcom­ing Con­cert: Halo Bal­let Pre­mière – 24 Oct 2010 – Toronto
• Upcom­ing Con­cert: Hockey Story – 20 Jan 2011 – San Diego
• Oksana G. Opera Devel­op­ment Workshop
• Results of Exper­i­ment: Can I Avoid Choos­ing the Music I Lis­ten to?
• Help Me Help You: Col­lab­o­ra­tive Audi­ence Building

Con­tinue read­ing “Newslet­ter: News, Con­certs, Events, <span class=“amp”>&</span> Crit­i­cal Thought” »

The New Year is off to a busy start, with sev­eral pre­mières com­ing up and a vari­ety of new projects in the works.

• On 25 Jan 2010, Brazilian-Canadian pianist Luciane Car­dassi pre­mières my new piece, Hockey Story, on the Hap­pen­ing 2010 New Music Fes­ti­val in Cal­gary. This piece, on the theme of hockey, is for speak­ing pianist and electronics.
• Shortly there­after, on 19 Feb 2010, I’m off to Hol­land for the pre­mière of a piece com­mis­sioned by ork­est de erepris. This piece, Elegy of Oth­ers, is a col­lage, with quo­ta­tions rang­ing from Vivaldi to R.E.M. and Anto­nio Car­los Jobim.
• Finally, Feb­ru­ary wraps up with the orches­tral read­ing (28 Feb 2010) of a sec­tion from the opera, Oksana G., that libret­tist Colleen Mur­phy and I have been devel­op­ing for sev­eral years. We con­ducted a suc­cess­ful piano-vocal work­shop with Tapes­try New Opera at the Banff Cen­tre in August and now the Cana­dian Opera Com­pany is doing a read­ing, as part of the long-term devel­op­ment process for this piece.

These events mark the cul­mi­na­tion of sev­eral projects from 2009. Sev­eral other projects, includ­ing some uncon­ven­tional ensem­bles and the use of unusual media, are under devel­op­ment for 2010. Addi­tional details will be posted when available.

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.