NMC - November Mini Festival

New musical inventions that provoke, awaken and inspire

November Mini-Festival

GENERATION 2008 – November 1

THE MONTREAL STOCKHAUSEN PROJECT – November 15

SYDNEY HODKINSON, HOPE LEE & DAVID EAGLE – November 30

Toronto, September 29, 2008: New Music Concerts launches its 38th season with a splendid trio of concerts to brighten up the month of November. Once again, NMC looks forward to a colourful variety of challenges in a quest for outstanding performances. “Presenting a convincing musical performance through interaction with the composer, realizing their every wish, is one of the most satisfying pleasures of performing music today”, ponders Robert Aitken, renowned flute virtuoso and artistic director of NMC. “Ideally, a performer should work with the composer. Imagine the excitement of playing for Bach or Mozart. A performer’s interpretation of a work should be a mirror of the composer’s mind and guide the listener along the path of his musical imagination.”

With this concept as a starting point, NMC proudly presents GENERATION 2008 on Saturday, November 1 at The Music Gallery. The touring program of l’Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (ECM+) under the direction of Véronique Lacroix has become a bi-annual feature of New Music Concerts programming. It is 100% Canadian and illustrates the fabulous compositional talent we have in the youth of this country. Four young composers are chosen by jury and invited to compose for ECM+, where the pieces are workshopped and eventually performed. These compositions will be given their world premiere performances in Toronto on November 1 including works by Fuhong Shi (a Toronto-based composer whose NMC commissioned Lightenings went on to win the 2008 Karen Kieser Prize for Canadian Music), Scott Good (Toronto), Michael Berger (BC) and Brian Harman (Montreal).

When polling NMC’s audience, the name of the composer most frequently mentioned is Karlheinz Stockhausen. So NMC is pleased to bring The MONTREAL STOCKHAUSEN PROJECT to the Enwave Theatre (Harbourfront Centre) on Saturday, November 15. This concert features Montreal’s celebrated flutist Lise Daoust and four other Montreal musicians who have worked extensively with Stockhausen, and whose performances have met with his satisfaction. “Our original idea was to commemorate his 80th birthday”, explains Robert Aitken, “but with his passing at 79 on December 7, 2007 there is even more reason to present this concert with musicians who know exactly how his music should be performed”. The program of works for flutes, basset horn and electronics includes AVE and ENTFÜHRUNG; FLAUTINA and KATHINKAS GESANG. These live performances will be preceded by a presentation of the seminal electronic composition GESANG DER JÜNGLINGE.

GENERATION 2008 and The MONTREAL STOCKHAUSEN PROJECT are part of Harbourfront Centre’s Québec Now – A celebration of contemporary Québec arts and culture in Toronto

From September to December 2008, Québec Now! showcases the best of contemporary culture from Québec in theatre, dance, music, visual arts, literature and film. Harbourfront Centre is very proud to partner with the Bureau du Québec à Toronto

and the Ministre de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine du Québec to present Québec Now!, one of the largest organized Québécois arts and cultural celebrations to take place in Toronto.

On Sunday, November 30, composers SYDNEY HODKINSON, HOPE LEE & DAVID EAGLE share the stage at The Music Gallery. Winnipeg born composer Sydney Hodkinson feels himself very much a Canadian in spite of having spent his professional career south of the border. Hodkinson taught composition and conducting at the Eastman School and now directs the Contemporary Music Ensemble at the prestigious Aspen Colorado Music Festival. His works are fascinating, highly crafted and original; they provide a marvelous contrast to the music of Calgary-based composers Hope Lee and David Eagle who decided to celebrate 25 years of marriage by producing a CD of their chamber works for the Centrediscs label. The disc includes a New Music Concerts broadcast recording of Lee’s Voices in Time (commissioned by NMC) and new recordings of her Fei Yang for string quartet and accordion (also an NMC commission) and David Eagle’s Breath for string quartet and electronics. Both of these works feature NMC core string players Accordes, with Joseph Macerollo the accordionist on Fei Yang. NMC is happy to mark the launch of the CD by including these two pieces on the November 30 concert.

Saturday November 1, 2008 at The Music Gallery (197 John Street, Toronto)

GENERATION 2008: ECM+; Véronique Lacroix;

Tim Brady, electric guitar; Scott Good, trombone;

Michael Berger (Canada, b.1980) – Skeleton (2008)

Scott Good (Canada, b.1972) – Shock Therapy Variations (2008)

Fuhong Shi (China/Canada, b.1976) – Kaleidoscope (2008)

Brian Harman (Canada, b.1981) – Gregarious Machines (2008)

7:15 Illuminating Introduction with the composers / 8PM Concert

Tickets: 416-204-1080 - $33 (reg)/$20 (seniors/arts workers)/$10 (students)

Saturday, November 15 at the Enwave Theatre (Harbourfront Centre, 231 Queen’s Quay)

The MONTREAL STOCKHAUSEN PROJECT

Lise Daoust; Geneviève Déraspe; Chloé Labbé; François Duval; Marie-Hélène Breault

Karlheinz Stockhausen (Germany 1928 – 2007):

FLAUTINA (1989) (flutes)

AVE from MONTAG AUS LICHT (1984/85) (G flute and basset horn)

ENTFÜHRUNG from MONTAG AUS LICHT (1986) (piccolo and electronics)

KATHINKAS GESANG from SAMSTAG AUS LICHT (1983) (flute and electronic music)

7:15 Illuminating Introduction includes GESANG DER JÜNGLINGE (1955-56) / 8PM Concert

Tickets: 416-973-4000 - $33 (reg)/$20 (seniors/arts workers)/$10 (students)

Sunday, November 30 at The Music Gallery (197 John St., Toronto)

SYDNEY HODKINSON, HOPE LEE & DAVID EAGLE

Accordes; Joseph Macerollo; Fujiko Imajishi, NMC Ensemble conducted by Sydney Hodkinson

David Eagle (Canada, b.1955) – Breath (1998)

Sydney Hodkinson (Canada, b.1934) Rogatio Gravis (2003)

Hope Lee (Taiwan/Canada, b.1953) – Fei Yang (2001)

Sydney Hodkinson – Bricks: Concerto fantasia for solo violin and chamber sextet (2005)

Sydney Hodkinson – Requiescant: Elegy for chamber sextet (2001)

7:15 Illuminating Introduction with the composers / 8PM Concert followed by CD release party.

Tickets: 416-204-1080 - $33 (reg)/$20 (seniors/arts workers)/$10 (students)

Subscriptions (6 events): $135 | $80 | $30

Pick 3 (or more): each $25 reg | $15 snr | $7.50 student

New Music Concerts

157 Carlton Street, Suite 203 Toronto ON M5A 2K3

416.961.9594 / fax 416.961.9508

nmc@interlog.com / www.NewMusicConcerts.com

New Music Concerts gratefully acknowledges the support of The Canada Council for the Arts; Toronto Arts Council; The Department of Heritage through Arts Presentation Canada; The Province of Ontario through the Ontario Arts Council & the Ontario Arts Foundation Endowment Fund; The Goethe Institut; The Julie-Jiggs Foundation; The Koerner Foundation; The McLean Foundation; Roger D. Moore; The SOCAN Foundation; The Imperial Tobacco Canada Foundation; The Amphion Foundation Inc.; The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.; Edward Epstein and Gallery 345