Aaron Ger­vais is com­poser of new classical/avant-garde music, born in Edmon­ton, Canada, and rep­re­sented by Art Music Pro­mo­tion. He received a Bach­e­lor of Music with Hon­ours from the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto, and a Master’s degree from the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia at San Diego. He has also pur­sued stud­ies at the Konin­klijk Con­ser­va­to­rium in the Hague, Nether­lands. Aaron’s teach­ers have included Chan Ka Nin (CA), Chi­nary Ung (US), Philippe Manoury (FR), and Mar­tijn Padding (NL), and he has also par­tic­i­pated in mas­ter­classes with renowned com­posers from around the world. Prior to study­ing com­po­si­tion, Aaron stud­ied jazz drum­ming and Cuban folk­loric per­cus­sion, includ­ing a sum­mer of pri­vate study in Havana in 2002.

Aaron’s music has been per­formed by major ensem­bles in sev­eral coun­tries, includ­ing the Nieuw Ensem­ble (NL), ork­est de ereprijs (NL), the Ensem­ble con­tem­po­rain de Mon­treal (CA), the Nou­vel ensem­ble mod­erne (CA), Tapes­try New Opera Works (CA), Toca Loca (CA), Con­tin­uum (CA), the Knights Orches­tra (US), the Lon­don Sin­foni­etta (UK), and the Arditti Quar­tet (UK). His music has been broad­cast on CBC Radio/Radio-Canada.

Promi­nent fes­ti­vals have pre­sented Aaron’s work, includ­ing Amsterdam’s pres­ti­gious Gaudea­mus Music Week; Toronto’s New Wave, soundaXis, and SHIFT fes­ti­vals; Aberdeen’s Sound Fes­ti­val; and New York’s MATA Fes­ti­val. He was addi­tion­ally selected as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Canada in the 2008 World Music Days in Lithua­nia. One of his solo pieces, Flüsse-Einflüsse, was cho­sen as a required exam piece for the grad­u­at­ing accor­dion stu­dents at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik – Trossin­gen in 2006.

Aaron was selected as the win­ner of the ork­est de ereprijs’s Inter­na­tional Young Com­posers Com­pe­ti­tion in the Nether­lands in 2009. He has also received var­i­ous other awards and grants, includ­ing an ASCAP Gould Award (2010), six prizes in Canada’s SOCAN Awards for Young Com­posers (2010, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2004), a Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor of Alberta Emerg­ing Artist Award (2008), a SOCAN res­i­dency grant (2006), and numer­ous com­mis­sion­ing, travel, project, and study grants.

Long-term musi­cal direc­tions in Aaron’s com­pos­ing include a focus on rhythm and time, a pre­oc­cu­pa­tion with the social and cul­tural fac­tors that influ­ence lis­ten­ing and taste, an inter­est in found mate­ri­als, an explo­ration of what in fact con­sti­tutes cre­ativ­ity, and a fas­ci­na­tion with the ways that social tech­nolo­gies are chang­ing lis­ten­ing habits, to name a few. His music incor­po­rates a wide range of palettes, from rich micro­tonal tex­tures and shim­mer­ing tim­bres to bright chip­per coun­ter­point, upbeat rhyth­mic drive, blunt musi­cal ges­tures, and light-hearted humour.

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” »

I’m please to announce that I was awarded hon­or­able men­tion in this year’s Mor­ton Gould Awards. Founded in 1979, the awards are open to com­posers under 30 who are Amer­i­can cit­i­zens, per­ma­nent res­i­dents, or for­eign stu­dents in the US. This year, there were 730 entries, mak­ing the Mor­ton Gould Awards extremely competitive.

The piece I sub­mit­ted was Kiss Around the World, com­mis­sioned by New Works Cal­gary for Ensem­ble Res­o­nance in 2009.

The press release for the awards lists the judges and other recip­i­ents. Com­poser Car­olyn Chen, who stud­ied at UCSD with me, was also awarded hon­or­able mention.

I’ve now offi­cially com­pleted my Master’s degree at UC San Diego. The last two years have been a lot of fun, edu­ca­tional, event­ful… also really busy! I’m look­ing for­ward to see­ing what the future holds. I’ve taken a major pro­fes­sional chal­lenge for the short term by decid­ing against purs­ing a doc­toral degree, at least imme­di­ately. Sev­eral plans are in the works, as well as projects stretch­ing into 2008 and beyond. One of these is that I will be par­tic­i­pat­ing in the Domaine For­get Academy’s pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment ses­sion in Que­bec this sum­mer, from 12–25 August. More details on other projects as they become available.