MNM & Mcgill University

Third edition February 24 – March 8, 2007 Walter Boudreau and Denys Bouliane, Artistic directors

MNM & McGill University

Montreal, Thursday 15 February 2007 - for immediate distribution. The Montreal International Festival of New Music is proud to have been associated, since its foundation, with the Schulich School of Music at the McGill University as its "great partner". With its international orientation and the priority that it accords to the integration of new technology, the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, under the dynamic direction of its dean, Don McLean, is at the forefront of developments in new music. The 2007 edition of the Festival offers ample evidence of this vitality, with four conductors, seven composers, five soloists and no less than eight ensembles directly linked to McGill, not to mention the four foreign composers invited for the occasion: Maura Lanza (Italy), Martin Matalon (Argentina), Manfred Stahnke and Moritz Eggert (Germany), or the 13 talks, lectures and master-classes. We are proud of this partnership with the University of McGill which contributes to the takeover of new music performance both here and abroad.

Four conductors We would like to underline first the exceptional role of Denys Bouliane, conductor, composer, professor of composition and artistic director of the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble (CME). Denys Bouliane has also been the artistic co-director of the festival Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques since its creation and has contributed in a major way to its establishment. A pillar of the partnership between McGill University and the Festival, Denys Bouliane remains at the heart of the development of new music at McGill and his role extends to both the national and international communities.

Seven composers For a young composer only 32 years old, Mauro Lanza, visiting prefessor in composition at the University of McGill in 2004-2005, has followed an exceptional international career, taking in Paris, Venice, Strasbourg, Amsterdam, Montréal, Basle, Geneva, and Cuneo. His work entitled Cane, commissioned by the Fondation Daniel Langlois with the help of the Digital composition studio, will be first performed in the concert of the SMCQ on March 7.

Five soloists: The cellist Matt Haimovitz is recognized as on of the most adventurous artists in classical music, being active also as a performer in chamber ensembles and as a soloist in recitals and concertos in the great concert halls, as well as in new forms of representation. Professor of violoncello at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, he will play a concerto with the McGill Symphony Orchestra, as well the Guerriers du violoncelle ("Warriors of the cello") with his own ensemble « Ucello ».

Eight ensembles: Of the 23 ensembles in the Festival, eight come to us from the reputed Schulich School of Music at McGill University: (Capella McGill, Digital Composition Studio, Lloyd Carr-Harris Quartet, McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble, McGill Percussion Ensemble, McGill Symphony Orchestra, Schulich Quartet, Uccello), evidence of the exceptional level of this University which is recognized world-wide.

Thirteen talks, lectures and master classes: During the whole of the Festival the Schulich School of Music at McGill University will host a number of composers and performers from here and elsewhere, who will let us hear their music and who will have l exchanges with young composers in master classes. This will provide an unique opportunity to have in Montreal the German composers Manfred Stahnke and Moritz Eggert , as well as the Italian, Mauro Lanza and the Argentinian Martin Matalon. We may moreover discover or re-discover the musical personalities of Michel Gonneville, Chris-Paul Harman et Paul Frehner. These encounters certainly represent an ideal way of taking advantage of the presence here of these exceptional musiciants.

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Source Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) www.smcq.qc.ca

Attaché de presse : Alain Labonté communications : (514) 523-9922 [email protected]

Conductors

Bouliane, Denys

Denys Bouliane is one of the nation’s best-known composers at the international level. Initially trained in performance and composition at Laval University (in Quebec City), he later continued his studies abroad, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg (1980-1985). Currently dividing his time between Montreal and Cologne, he has been director of the New Music Society in Cologne of Ensemble Série B and composer- in-residence for the Orchestre symphonique de Québec. In 1995, he founded the Rencontres de musique nouvelle at the Domaine Forget, and subsequently co-directed the Québec-Musiques-au-présent Festival (1998-2000). In September of that year he was appointed professor of composition at McGill University and general director of the Ensemble de musique contemporaine at McGill as well as a member of the artistic committee of the SMCQ.

Bouliane has also garnered several Prix Opus, awarded each year by the Conseil québecois de la musique, in categories that include “Personality of the Year” (1999. With Walter Boudreau he was the artistic co-director of the colossal, multi-authored Millennium Symphony (2000) and organised the first Montreal/New Music International Festival (2003), for which he earned the award “Co-Artistic Director of the Year” (2003).

Peter Niklas Wilson has described Bouliane’s music as “Music of Magic Realism, akin to a virtuoso game of criticism bordering on stylistic mystification, following in the footsteps of Jorge-Luis Borges, Italo Calvino and Boris Vian.” His œuvre consists of more than forty works, including the prize-winning Jeux de société (1982 CBC Competition for Young Composers Grand Prize, and the 1982 Gaudeamus Foundation Competition), and À propos… et le Baron perché? (Jules Léger Prize).

Concert : 01.03.07 20:00 Metropolis / Retour vers le futur (CME) 5 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Concert : 03.03.07 21:30 Les (nouvelles) boîtes de Pandore ! (Quasar, Uccello, DJ Orchestra) 10 $ Société des arts technologiques [SAT] : 1195, boul. Saint-Laurent | 514 844-2033

Hauser, Alexis

Winner of the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize of the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1974, Alexis Hauser has established an international conducting career with numerous appearances in Europe, North and South America, and the Far East. A native of Vienna, Hauser studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Universität für Musik, where he graduated with distinction in 1970. He also studied conducting with Franco Ferrara at the 1969 Accademia Chigiana in Sienna, Italy, and with Herbert von Karajan at the 1970 Summer Academy Mozarteum in Salzburg. In 1977, he became the winner of the First International Hans Swarowsky Conducting Competition in Vienna.

In Europe, Hauser has appeared as guest conductor with, among others, the Vienna Symphony, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and RSÖ Vienna; the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Radio Philharmonic Hilversum; the Radio Symphony Berlin; the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow; the Orchestre National de Toulouse; the Bruckner Orchestra Linz; the Philharmonia Hungarica and Budapest Philharmonic (Principal Guest Conductor, 1991-1995) and the Budapest Symphony; the Zagreb, Belgrade and Ljubljana Philharmonic Orchestras; the Enescu Philharmonic Bucharest and Czech State Philharmonic Brno, in addition to concert tours in Germany, Scandinavia and Iceland. In North America, he has conducted the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, Toronto, Montreal, Minnesota, Atlanta, Seattle, Rochester, Kansas City, Edmonton, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa; in Latin America, the Mexican State Orchestra and the UNAM Philharmonic of Mexico City, and the National Philharmonic Orchestras of Buenos Aires and Lima.

Concert : 05-06/03.07 19:00 Zodiac, folklore de Masovie et conte de fée (McGill SO) 10 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Lavoie, Jean-Michaël

Jean-Michaël Lavoie is assistant conductor to the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. Since September 2003, he has conducted 14 premieres of young Canadian composers. Recipient of a Quebec government Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC) grant in 2005, he will soon complete his Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting at the McGill University Schulich School of Music. A trained pianist, he recorded recitals in 1999 and 2002 at the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur for the Radio-Canada cultural channel radio programme “Les Jeunes Artistes”. Rehearsal pianist for the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal Choir in 2000 and 2005, he currently holds the same function with the Chœur de la Radio de Radio-Canada. In January 2006, he was invited by the Windsor Symphony Orchestra to conduct at the Annual Young Composers’ Reading for the Canadian Music Festival. In June 2006, he participated in “Entre le chef et l’orchestre”, a documentary presented on “Mélomaniaques”, an ARTV programme.

In 2007, he will conduct McGill University’s large ensembles in Olivier Messiaen’s Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum and Denys Bouliane’s Du fouet et du plaisir.

Concert : 07.03.07 19:00 Méchants garçons ! (SMCQ) 25 $ | 12,50 $ | 10 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Schubert, Peter Artistic Director Peter Schubert has conducted The Orpheus Singers since 1991. He came to Montreal from New York City, where he founded and directed Opera Uptown and The New Calliope Singers, a group renowned for its commitment to modern music during its fifteen-year career. The group has presented over fifty premieres and released a CD entitled New Cantatas and Madrigals (CRI 638). In addition to The Orpheus Singers and McGill Chamber Singers, he directs Viva Voce, a professional vocal ensemble founded in 1998.

Peter Schubert studied conducting with Nadia Boulanger, Helmuth Rilling, Jacques-Louis Monod and David Gilbert and has been assistant to Gregg Smith and Agnes Grossman. He has published an edition of Renaissance Noels as well as his own innovative arrangements of five popular Christmas carols with C.F. Peters.

Schubert holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Columbia University. Currently an Associate Professor at the McGill University Faculty of Music, he is the author of textbooks on Renaissance modal counterpoint (Oxford University Press, 1999) and Baroque Counterpoint (Prentice Hall, 2006).

Concert : 28.02.07 20:00 Que la voix demeure (Cappella McGill / Chanteurs d’Orphée) 5 $ Redpath Hall : 3461, rue McTavish | 514 398-4547

Composers

Bouliane, Denys (Canada, 1955) (See composers section)

Concert : 03.03.07 21:30 Les (nouvelles) boîtes de Pandore ! (Quasar, Uccello, DJ Orchestra) 10 $ Société des arts technologiques [SAT] : 1195, boul. Saint-Laurent | 514 844-2033

Concert : 04.03.07 16:00 40 doigts sur les cordes raides I (Solistes) Entrée libre Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur : 100, rue Sherbrooke Est | 514 872-5338

Frehner, Paul (Canada, 1970)

Paul Frehner completed his Doctorate in music in 2004 at McGill University, where he studied composition with Denys Bouliane. Frehner’s works have been played and broadcast in Canada and abroad by professional soloists, ensembles and orchestras including, among others, Almeida Opera, the Esprit Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the North Holland Philharmonic Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Trio Fibonacci, the Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal and the Quasar Saxophone Quartet. In 2001, Frehner was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation to compose Sirius on Earth, a one- hundred-minute opera based on a libretto by Angela Murphy.

Frehner has received numerous awards and mentions both in Canada and on the international scene, including: First Prize in the Prague Philharmonia’s Symphony of the Third Millennium Composition Competition and First Prize in the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra's International Composition Competition.

Frehner’s recently completed compositions include Sanctuary, a twenty-five-minute orchestral work commissioned by the Esprit Orchestra; Tightrope, a concerto for three accordions and orchestra and Lila, a work for two spatially separated chamber orchestras, commissioned by the Ensemble contemporain de Montreal and Bit 20 (Norway).

Currently Paul Frehner holds the posts of Assistant Professor of Music in Composition at the University of Western Ontario and Composer in Residence at the Chapelle historique du Bon Pasteur in Montreal.

Concert : 04.03.07 16:00 40 doigts sur les cordes raides I (Solistes) Entrée libre Concert : 06.03.07 21:30 40 doigts sur les cordes raides II (Solistes) Entrée libre Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur : 100, rue Sherbrooke Est | 514 872-5338

Concert : 04.03.07 20:00 Jeux de Cordes (Castagnéri) 20 $ | 10 $ Redpath Hall : 3461, rue McTavish | 514 398-4547

Harman, Chris Paul (Canada, 1970)

Chris Paul Harman studied classical guitar, cello, and electronic music with Barton Wigg, Alan Stellings, and Wes Wraggett respectively. His works have been performed by many ensembles and orchestras in Canada and abroad, including the Asko Ensemble, the CBC Radio Orchestra, the Esprit Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the New Music Concerts Ensemble, the Noordhollands Philharmonisch, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Tokyo Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.

Harman has been commissioned by guitarists William Beauvais and Sylvie Proulx, violinist Jacques Israelievitch, oboist Lawrence Cherney, Continuum, the Esprit Orchestra, the Guelph Spring Festival, Music Canada 2000, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, among others.

Chris Paul Harman was the grand prizewinner at the CBC Radio National Competition for Young Composers in 1990 with Iridescence, work that was subsequently awarded first prize at the 1990 International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. At the 1994 International Rostrum of Composers, Harman's Concerto for Oboe and Strings was chosen as a recommended work. Both works have been broadcast in some 25 countries. In 2001, Mr. Harman's work Uta received an honourable mention at the Gaudeamus International Music Week, and his work Amerika was awarded the Jules Leger Prize for new chamber music in Canada, and shortlisted for the Prix de Composition de la Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco. He has been teaching at McGill University in Montreal since 2005.

Concert : 28.02.07 20:00 Que la voix demeure (Cappella McGill / Chanteurs d’Orphée) 5 $ Redpath Hall : 3461, rue McTavish | 514 398-4547

Concert : 05-06/03.07 19:00 Zodiac, folklore de Masovie et conte de fée (McGill SO) 10 $ Concert : 07.03.07 19:00 Méchants garçons ! (SMCQ) 25 $ | 12,50 $ | 10 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Lanza, Mauro (Italie, 1975)

After studying piano and composition in his native city, Venice, Mauro Lanza was invited by the Ensemble Intercontemporain and IRCAM to participate in the Cursus in composition and musical computer science in 1998-99. Since then he has taught composition and is a research composer in the field of synthesis by physical models and of computer-assisted composition at the institute. His works have been performed at Ircam, the Présences Festival, the Venice Biennale, The Musica Festival (Strasbourg), the Gaudeamus Music Week (Amsterdam), the MNM Festival (Montreal), and the Europaïsche Musikmonat (Basle), working closely with artists such as the ensembles Court-circuit, Alternance, United Berlin, Divertimento, the young Chœur de Paris, and the Accentus choir, as well as D. Michel-Dansac, F. Filidei, V. David, D. Zambon and P.-S. Meugé, and he has also worked with the choreographer Angelin Preljocaj. In 2002 and 2004.Ircam, in collaboration with the Archipel de Ben¡eve Featival dedicated 3 monographic concerts to him .

Mauro Lanza was the guest professor of composition at McGill University in 2004-2005 and since then he has been teaching computer-assisted composition at the conservatory in Cuneo (Italy). He was in residence at the Fresnoy and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in 2005-2006, and is about to be in residence at the French Academy in Rome in 2007-2008. His works have been published by Ricordi BMG.

Concert : 07.03.07 19:00 Méchants garçons ! (SMCQ) 25 $ | 12,50 $ | 10 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Mather, Bruce (Canada, 1939)

Bruce Mather was born in Toronto, but has made Montreal his home since 1966 and is considered one of Quebec’s most important composers. He studied piano with Alberto Guerrero and composition with Oskar Morzwetz, Godfrey Ridout and John Weinzweig at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, completing his Bachelor’s degree in 1959. Post-graduate studies took him to France, where he worked with Darius Milhaud (composition), whom he had met previously at a summer course in Aspen, and Olivier Messiaen (analysis). Mather completed a master’s degree at Stanford University with Leland Smith and received his doctorate from the University of Toronto in 1967.

Mather’s music has been performed regularly throughout Canada and is frequently heard in the United States and Europe. He has been commissioned by numerous major orchestras and contemporary music organisations at home and abroad, including the Orchestre symphonique de Montreal, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio France, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, Toronto New Music Concerts, the Esprit Orchestra, the Rouen Chamber Orchestra, Trio Basso (Cologne), and the Collectif musical international de Champigny (2e2m).

Mather was appointed to the Faculty of Music at McGill University in 1966, and remained there until 2004, teaching analysis, advanced harmony, and composition.

Concert : 06.03.07 21:30 40 doigts sur les cordes raides II (Solistes) Entrée libre Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur : 100, rue Sherbrooke Est | 514 872-5338

Settel, Zack (États-Unis-Canada / USA-Canada, 1957)

Zack Settel studied at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts, Valencia, USA), where he received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in composition. He did his doctorate studies at the Université de Montréal. In 1986, with a Fulbright Scholarship for computer music at IRCAM, Settel moved to Paris, and the following year he was awarded a grant from the French government. After a two-year composing residency there, Settel remained at IRCAM until 1995, working full-time in the music production and music research groups. In 1997 Settel returned to North America, where he was a professor at McGill University in Canada for two years, chairing the Music Technology area, and a visiting professor of composition at the Université de Montréal. He now composes full-time, and is in (arts/science) collaboration with the Center for Intelligent Machines at McGill, working on immersive audio/music.

Settel's music often includes the use of advanced live interactive electro-acoustic and audiovisual systems. He has composed chamber and studio works, and music for film, video, television, theater, dance, and opera. He has worked with various performing ensembles, including the Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris), Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Montreal), Zeitgeist (Minneapolis), the California Ear Unit (Los Angeles), and Chants Libres (Montreal), for which he wrote the music for the opera L'enfant des glaces. Settel is also a founding partner of zeep.com, developers of music production software. Photo

Concert : 03.03.07 21:30 Les (nouvelles) boîtes de Pandore ! (Quasar, Uccello, DJ Orchestra) 10 $ Société des arts technologiques [SAT] : 1195, boul. Saint-Laurent | 514 844-2033

Wild, Jonathan (Canada, 1969)

Jonathan Wild teaches music theory and composition at McGill. He is sought after for his choral and vocal music; several of his works receive frequent international performances by the Hilliard ensemble, for whom he was composer-in-residence in the summer of 2002. Born in England, Wild came to Canada as a youth and studied music at McGill as an undergraduate, which led to doctoral work at Harvard under David Lewin. Currently he is Assistant Professor at McGill's Schulich School of Music.

Concert : 28.02.07 20:00 Que la voix demeure (Cappella McGill / Chanteurs d’Orphée) 5 $ Redpath Hall : 3461, rue McTavish | 514 398-4547

Solistes

Grégoire-Rousseau, Éveline Harp

Éveline Grégoire-Rousseau began her musical studies on the piano at the age of 6. She turned her attention towards the harp at twelve years of age. She recently completed her graduate studies on a scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City where she studied with Debrorah Hoffman, the harpist of the Metropolitan Opera. She also holds Masters and Bachelors degrees from McGill university where she studied with world renown harpist Jennifer Swartz. Mrs. Rousseau has also participated in many workshops and festivals abroad, notably the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado. She has actively participated in the growth of orchestral music in Québec having made many appearances with the various orchestras in the province, such as l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, l’Orchestre Symphonique de Québec et les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal.

Concert : 04.03.07 16:00 40 doigts sur les cordes raides I (Solistes) Entrée libre Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur : 100, rue Sherbrooke Est | 514 872-5338

Haimovitz, Matt Cello

Cellist Matt Haimovitz has established himself as one of classical music’s most adventurous artists, equally at ease playing the masterworks for his instrument in solo, chamber and concerto performances in leading concert halls, as he is bringing classical music to new listeners in surprising new venues. With his innovative Bach “Listening-Room” Tour, he has taken Bach’s beloved cello suites out of the concert hall and performing them in intimate clubs and coffee-houses across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., to great acclaim. These listening-room tours have been profiled on television and radio broadcasts as well as in newspaper articles. Haimovitz was the first classical artist to play at New York’s infamous CBGB club, in a performance that was filmed by ABC.

Since his 1984 debut with the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta, Haimovitz has performed with such conductors as James Levine, Daniel Barenboim, Charles Dutoit, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Leonard Slatkin. He has performed with many of the world’s great orchestras, including those of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia, Berlin and many others. Alongside his performing and recording activities, Matt Haimovitz is committed to teaching. He was appointed Professor of Cello at McGill University in September 2004.

Concert : 03.03.07 21:30 Les (nouvelles) boîtes de Pandore ! (Quasar, Uccello, DJ Orchestra) 10 $ Société des arts technologiques [SAT] : 1195, boul. Saint-Laurent | 514 844-2033

Concert : 05-06/03.07 19:00 Zodiac, folklore de Masovie et conte de fée (McGill SO) 10 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Laimon, Sara Piano

Pianist Sara Laimon is an active performer in both solo and chamber music. She has performed in Canada, the US, France, Japan, Mexico, and Poland, and represented the U.S. Information Agency as an Artistic Ambassador in India and Nepal. Sara is founding member and co-artistic director of the acclaimed New York-based group Sequitur, the pianist for the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, and has been guest artist with numerous other ensembles and at festivals.

Ms. Laimon has recorded for CRI, Capstone Records, North/South Recordings, MODE records and Albany Records. Her most recent solo CD on Albany Records features American Music from the 1940’s with music of Bernstein, Carter, Foss, Kirchner and Ruggles. She is a frequent performer on CBC and has also been heard on radio broadcasts of summer performances at Marlboro, Tanglewood and Banff. Born in Vancouver, Sara is a graduate of the Vancouver Academy of Music, the University of British Columbia, the Yale School of Music and SUNY Stony Brook, where she received a DMA under Gilbert Kalish. Ms. Laimon was a member of the piano faculty at the Yale School of Music (1990-2000) and the University of Manitoba (2000-2001) before joining the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in 2001. She lives in Montreal with her husband and two daughters.

Concert : 03.03.07 19:00 De l’Empire du Mu… (Percussions McGill, UdeM, Lyon) 5 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Marandola, Fabrice Percussion

Fabrice Marandola obtained a ‘Diplôme de Formation Supérieure’ in Jacques Delécluse’s class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMD) in 1997. Currently he is a professor of percussion at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, co-director of the McGill Percussion Ensemble and has been a guest instructor at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY (State University of New-York) since September 2006. Fabrice Marandola has also previously taught at the Conservatoire National de Region of Grenoble and of Angers (France) and at the CNSMD of Paris (Pedagogy department). He is particularly devoted to new music, and often collaborates with composer Arnaud Petit. The CD Chants …,which he recorded with Les Jeunes Solistes, devoted to the vocal works of Claude Vivier, won the Académie du disque Charles Cros "Grand Prix 2003". He remains equally attached to orchestral music and participated in numerous concerts with the orchestras of Radio France (Orchestre National de France, Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique of Radio France) from 1998 to 2005.

Along with his career as a performer, Fabrice Marandola carries out research in ethnomusicology. In 2003 he completed a PhD in Ethnomusicology at the Sorbonne in Paris. He is currently a member of the Langues-Musiques-Sociétés laboratory (CNRS-Paris V) and has collaborated on three compact discs dedicated to the traditional music of Cameroon (Inédit and Ocora/Radio France). He recently joined the research group devoted to “Expanded Musical Practice” at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology in Montreal (CIRMMT).

Concert : 03.03.07 19:00 De l’Empire du Mu… (Percussions McGill, UdeM, Lyon) 5 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Racine Gaudreault, Noémi Violin

A native of Montreal, Noémi Racine Gaudreault studied violin at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, where she received a First Prize with Great Distinction, and at McGill University’s Faculty of Music, where she obtained her Artist Diploma. She has performed as a soloist with several orchestras, including the Orchestre du Festival Radio France in Montpellier (France), the Buffalo (U.S.) Symphony Orchestra, the Ankara (Turkey) Symphony Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Montreal, Edmonton, Quebec City, Laval, Trois-Rivières, and Montérégie. She has also been awarded several prizes, including the Société Radio-Canada’s Galaxy Prize, the CBC/Debut series, and McGill University’s Lloyd-Carr Harris Award.

A soloist as well as a chamber musician, Noémi Racine Gaudreault has been invited as a guest performer at several international music festivals in France, Italy, Ireland, Argentina, Canada and the United States. She is very active in the contemporary music scene, and is concertmaster of the SMCQ (Société de musique contemporaine du Québec) and the Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal. She has performed the tango repertoire as violinist of the ensemble Quartango since 2002. She has recorded her second album with the bandoneon player Denis Plante.

Noémi is presently principal second violin of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Along with her career as a performing violinist, she also gives private lessons in the Alexander Technique in Montreal and Ottawa as well as in workshops at the Domaine Forget and at McGill University.

Concert : 08.03.07 20:00 Sans peur et sans reproche ! (OSM) 30 $ | 15 $ | 10 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547 Ensembles

Cappella McGill Peter Schubert, dir.

Capella McGill is small ensemble of 12-16 singers performing music from all periods. The group often sings one-on-a-part in the manner of the old Ensemble Vocal Marcel Couraud. This year visiting lecturers include Charlotte Corwin and Christopher Jackson.

Concert : 28.02.07 20:00 Que la voix demeure (Cappella McGill / Chanteurs d’Orphée) 5 $ Redpath Hall : 3461, rue McTavish | 514 398-4547

DCS (Digital Composition Studio) Sean Ferguson, dir.

The McGill Digital Composition Studios (formerly the Electronic Music Studio) were founded in 1965 to promote and facilitate all activities within the Schulich School of Music that involve the creative and applied use of music technologies. As such, they are a meeting place for students, faculty members, and visiting artists and researchers in composition, performance, music technology and sound recording.

Activities within the Digital Composition Studios include teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels, compositional projects, production of concerts involving live sound and electronics, creation/research activities (including those of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music, Media and Technology), and collaborative projects. Sean Ferguson was named Director of the Digital composition Studios in 2003.

Concert : 01.03.07 20:00 Metropolis / Retour vers le futur (CME) 5 $ Concert : 03.03.07 19:00 De l’Empire du Mu… (Percussions McGill, UdeM, Lyon) 5 $ Concert : 07.03.07 19:00 Méchants garçons ! (SMCQ) 25 $ | 12,50 $ | 10 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Concert : 02.03.07 21:30 Stockhausen / Stimmung (Theater of Voices) 20 $ | 10 $ Redpath Hall : 3461, rue McTavish | 514 398-4547

Concert : 03.03.07 21:30 Les (nouvelles) boîtes de Pandore ! (Quasar, Uccello, DJ Orchestra) 10 $ Société des arts technologiques [SAT] : 1195, boul. Saint-Laurent | 514 844-2033

Lloyd Carr-Harris String Quartet Jean Sebastien Roy, Emmanuel Vukovich, Frédéric Lambert, Rachel Desoer

Grand Prize Winner/ Gold Medal of the 2005 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition and winner of the 2004 Sir Ernest MacMillan Memorial Foundation, the Lloyd Carr-Harris String Quartet has rapidly established itself as one of the most important string quartets in Canada. Formed in 2002 by Professor André Roy, its members are all recipients of the Schulich School of Music of McGill University’s Lloyd Carr-Harris Scholarships.

After concerts in Canada, France and England, the 2006 season took the quartet on an extensive tour of the United States and on its first tour to Italy, with concerts at the Emilia Romagna Festival and the Trecastagni International Music Festival in Catania. Hailed by critics, their exceptional rendition of Brian Cherney’s String Quartet No.3 was followed by an invitation by the composer to record three of his string quartets with the illustrious sound engineer Martha de Francisco. The LCH is one of the eight quartets selected from throughout the world to participate in the 5th Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition in Melbourne in July 2007.

Concert : 05.03.07 21:30 Au coeur des choses (Lloyd Carr-Harris/Schulich String Quartet) 5 $ Redpath Hall : 3461, rue McTavish | 514 398-4547

McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble Denys Bouliane, dir.

The McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble was created in September 1970 and has been directed successively by Richard Lawton, Eugene Plawutsky and Bruce Mather. Since 1996 composer and conductor Denys Bouliane has been its music director. The CME is made up of a flexible group of about forty young musicians who give five concerts a year; it is dedicated to the musical repertoire of the past hundred years and pays special attention to the performance of new music. Every year the ensemble performs 10 to 15 new works by young McGill composers (more than 80 premieres since 1996). The CME works in close collaboration with the Composition and Performance Areas. It is an indispensable laboratory for the training of young composers and performers, fostering support and interaction.

During the past few years, the CME has rapidly become one of the most dynamic student ensembles in Canada. It plays a very active role in McGill's annual New Music Festival with its partners, the SMCQ (Société de musique contemporaine du Québec) and the OSM (Orchestre symphonique de Montréal).

Concert : 01.03.07 20:00 Metropolis / Retour vers le futur (CME) 5 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

McGill Percussion Ensemble Aiyun huang & Fabrice Marandola, dir.

The McGill Percussion Ensemble was founded in 1969 by Pierre Béluse, professor of percussion at the Faculty of Music from 1967 to 2001. Performing a varied repertoire, the ensemble is particularly renowned for its premieres of new works. The group appears several times each year at McGill, but also travels in Canada and abroad: in 2006, the ensemble undertook a tour of France, and recently participated in the Gubaidulina Festival in Toronto. The ensemble may also be regularly heard on the CBC and Radio Canada networks.

In 1979, the group’s first recording (Percussion) was awarded the Grand Prix du Disque-Canada by the Canada Council for the Arts in the Chamber Music category. This success was followed by a record produced by Radio Canada International dedicated to works by Canadian composers Walter Boudreau, Vincent Dionne et Claude Vivier. The Percussion Ensemble recorded its first compact disc in 1988 and won the 1992 Darius Milhaud Prize at the French Music Performance Competition in Montreal. Its latest CD, Percussion Music from the Americas, was recorded in 1996.

Concert : 03.03.07 19:00 De l’Empire du Mu… (Percussions McGill, UdeM, Lyon) 5 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547 McGill Symphony Orchestra Alexis Hauser, dir.

The McGill Symphony Orchestra’s renown has been consistently spreading since its remarkable debut appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in April of 1989. At the time it was the first Canadian student orchestra to perform in the historic hall. The most respected critics in journalism have confirmed the orchestra’s excellent reputation in reviews lauding its concerts at such prestigious venues as the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Grand Théâtre in Quebec City, Place des Arts in Montreal, and the Lincoln Centre in New York. Recordings by the McGill Symphony Orchestra have garnered a number of prizes including one Juno, and two honourable mentions at the Grand Prix du Disque du Canada—awards earned in competition with a number of the country’s professional orchestras. Students of the McGill Symphony Orchestra have worked under the direction of such celebrated conductors as Charles Dutoit, Franz-Paul Decker, Paul Sacher, Georg Tintner, and Simon Streatfield. Alexis Hauser has been the artistic director of the orchestra since 2001.

Concert : 05-06/03.07 19:00 Zodiac, folklore de Masovie et conte de fée (McGill SO) 10 $ Pollack Hall : 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest | 514 398-4547

Schulich String Quartet Jeffrey Dyrda, Jeremy Gabbert, Marcin Swoboda,Judith Manger

Formed in 2005 by Professor André Roy, the quartet’s members are all Schulich School of Music of McGill University scholarship recipients. After studying the classical quartet repertory of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, the Schulich String Quartet has ventured into the world of Bartok and Rhim. Their “Debut concert” at Salle Gilles Lefevre at the Orford Festival was described by many as marked by a rare level of professionalism.

Concert : 05.03.07 21:30 Au coeur des choses (Lloyd Carr-Harris/Schulich String Quartet) 5 $ Redpath Hall : 3461, rue McTavish | 514 398-4547

Uccello Matt Haimovitz, dir.

Uccello, an all-cello ensemble, is comprised of Haimovitz's top students from McGill University. Haimovitz tours with Uccello frequently, performing in venues ranging from Seattle’s Tractor Tavern to Boston’s Sanders Theater, presented by the Celebrity Series, as well as New York's Jazz at Lincoln Center and Montreal's Pollack Hall. Uccello twice reached Billboard's classical chart with Haimovitz on his recording Goulash! The ensemble has been featured and reviewed in The New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, NPR's All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, as well as numerous CBC broadcasts throughout Canada.

About his tour with the ensemble on the West Coast, the San Jose Mercury News wrote,

“But the glorious cap to the evening was Led Zeppelin's ‘Kashmir.’ The cellos ’singing’ the soaring vocal lines and burning through the guitar solos (it's only fair since Jimmy Page often took a violin bow to his guitar) of the Middle Eastern melody. Underneath, the young cellists slap the bodies of their instruments and clack bows against strings below the bridge to lay down the driving rhythms. As one Bachophile said, ‘Led Zeppelin never sounded so good.’ A standing ovation and handshakes from the appreciative crowd, and the cello warriors drove off into the night.”

Concert : 03.03.07 21:30 Les (nouvelles) boîtes de Pandore ! (Quasar, Uccello, DJ Orchestra) 10 $ Société des arts technologiques [SAT] : 1195, boul. Saint-Laurent | 514 844-2033