The Canadian Music Centre in BC Presents The Murray Adaskin Salon Concert Series CELEBRATING OUR LEGACY Documentary Film Festival Concert Friday, May 26, 2017 • 7:00pm As a courtesy… Please turn off the sound for all phones and other electronic devices. You are welcome to take non-flash photos during applause between pieces, but please refrain from taking photos during a performance and between movements, thank you. We encourage you to post your photos and share your experience on social media using the hashtag #CMCBC CMC BC on Twitter: @MusicCentreBC CMC BC on Facebook: facebook.com/CanadianMusicCentreBC Website: musiccentrebc.ca CMC National on Twitter: @CMCnational CMC National on Facebook: facebook.com/CanadianMusic Website: musiccentre.ca Enjoy a glass of red or white wine Show your ticket and get 10% off from Chaberton Estate Winery, a all hot beverages at Breka Bakery local vineyard in Langley, BC, next door at 855 Davie Street. available at the lobby bar. ‘ Program by Stefan Hintersteininger and Tom Hudock Paper generously provided by C-PAC Letter from the BC Director The Roaring 20s was a time of dramatic social and political change, giving birth to mass culture and the modern consumer society. Women had only recently gained the right to vote. More North Americans lived in cities than farms for the first time in history. The very first feature-length movie with sound was released in 1927: Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer. 1927 was also the year that Jean Coulthard wrote her very first composition: Cradle Song. Coulthard was part of the very first generation of composers to begin writing concert music from the West Coast of Canada: Murray Adaskin, Barbara Pentland, Jean Coulthard, Rudolf Komorous and Elliot Weisgarber. Given that we are celebrating those composers tonight through film, I felt that link was more than coincidental. It also provides a lens to help us place the music of that generation of composers in a distinct historical, social, and cultural context. And it also helps us understand how modern — how revolutionary, in fact — their music was juxtaposed against the times they were living through. Barbara Pentland was a cutting-edge member of Canada’s avant-garde, co-opting Webern’s serialism to create her own unique language. She wrote music for a film called The Living Gallery, and later, in 1968, wrote a piece called Cinéscene for chamber orchestra, which she described as: Changing ‘frames’ of sound as in a contemporary film; characters move in and out of scene; there are distant views and close-ups, quick changes of densities. The tone rows are somewhat chameleon-like as are the characters. At a time when women were actively discouraged from pursuing professional careers in music; when orchestras were entirely male; when there were few if any role models, Jean Coulthard was appointed the very first composition teacher at UBC in 1947. Murray Adaskin began his professional career playing violin for silent films in Toronto movie houses. Elliot Weisgarber, who was unique in first incorporating Japanese and other Asian influences and instruments into western concert music, also wrote a number of scores for film and television. Rudolf Komorous was a founding member of the Czech avant-garde movement and his interest in Dadaism and Surrealism parallels that of the great French filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960’s. – 1! – The five art films we’re going to see tonight, 90 years after The Jazz Singer first premiered, is each based on a recording of a live performance of one of the composer’s signature works, paired with a story unique to the composer, the performers, or that work of music. In between each film, we’ll hear a short work for piano written by that composer performed by one of the advanced students from Dr. Corey Hamm’s piano class at the UBC School of Music. We are indebted to the BC Arts Council whose support made it possible to commission these films. We are deeply grateful to John Bolton, Producer and Director, and to Maggie MacPherson, his assistant on this project. We are thankful to the musicians, whose stunning performances helped breathe life into the composers we’ve grown to know and admire over the past year. And we are grateful to Dr. Corey Hamm and his advanced students who will perform for us this evening. Sean Bickerton, BC Director Canadian Music Centre / Centre de musique canadienne John Bolton, Filmmaker John Bolton is an award-winning filmmaker from Vancouver, Canada, preoccupied with revelation, consolation and transcendence, sometimes even in that order. He produces, writes and directs dramas, documentaries, performing arts pieces and the occasional disaster film through his production company Opus 59 Films. John's most recent films are the feature length “musical docudrama” AIM FOR THE ROSES (in association with the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council), about Canadian musician Mark Haney and Canadian stuntman Ken Carter, which had its world premiere at Hot Docs and which was DOXA’s opening night film; and the short documentary DEBRIS (for the National Film Board of Canada), about Tofino, BC-based “intertidal artist” Pete Clarkson and the making of his most ambitious and personal project to date — a memorial to the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake & Tsunami, made entirely out of marine debris from the disaster — which had its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival. – 2! – Program Murray Adaskin (1906 - 2002) Film: A Wedding Toast Performance: Thirds and Octaves, Etcetera (1996) Solomon Cheung, piano Jean Coulthard (1908 - 2000) Film: The Pines of Emily Carr Performance: The Valley of the Butterflies, from Aegean Sketches (1961) Susan Xia, piano Rudolf Komorous (b. 1931) Film: 13 Thoughts on 13 Preludes for Early Instruments Performance: Wu (excerpts) (2002/03) Gene Emerson, piano Ow INTERMISSION Wo Barbara Pentland (1912 - 2000) Film: The Lake Performance: Five Preludes for Piano (1938) I. Prologue • II. Legend • III. Jest • IV. Romance • V. Curtain Nicole Linaksita, piano Elliot Weisgarber (1919 - 2001) Film: Aki-no-hinode (Autumn Sunrise) Performance: A Japanese Miscellany (excerpts) (1969) 6. Mountain's Edge (Yama-no-Ha) • 7. Winter Moon (Kangetsu) • 8. By the Gulf of Isé Megan Thibault, piano H;h Pianists are advanced students of Dr. Corey Hamm’s piano class at the UBC School of Music. Films were made possible by grants from the BC Arts Council and the Government of BC. – 3! – BC Associate Composers Murray Adaskin* Arne Eigenfeldt Colin MacDonald Rodney Sharman Kathleen Allan Jean Ethridge Don Macdonald Evgeny Shcherbakov Peter Allen Itamar Erez David K. MacIntyre Jon Siddall Mark Armanini Nicholas Fairbank Miklos Massey Chris Sivak Edward Arteaga Dennis Farrell James Maxwell Bruce Sled John L. Baker Douglas Finch Ian McDougall Anita Sleeman* Michael Conway Hugh Fraser Robert George Douglas Gwynn Smith Baker Nathan Friedman McKenzie Judy Specht Sergio Barroso William George Lisa Cay Miller Paul Steenhuisen Martin Bartlett* Stephen R. Gibson Jared Miller Tobin Stokes Hal Beckett Yvonne Gillespie John Mills-Cockell Brent Straughan Marcel Bergmann Marcus Goddard Diane Morgan Morley* Fred Stride Peter Berring Theo Goldberg* Glen Morley* Glenn Sutherland Diane Berry Martin Gotfrit Jocelyn Morlock Brian Tate Wallace Berry* Iman Habibi Bernard Naylor* Scott Andrew Taylor Adil Bestybaev Jaap Hamburger Larry Nickel Keith Tedman Keon Birney Keith Hamel Christopher Tyler Michael Tenzer Dániel Péter Biró Mark Hand Nickel Steve Tittle Dean Blair Ronald Hannah Jordan Nobles Edward Top Daniel Brandes Peter Hannan John Oliver Bramwell Tovey Frank Brickle Joan Hansen Dubravko Pajalic Jill Townsend Taylor Brook Hubert Klyne Headley* Michael Park Michael Trew Stephen Brown Edward Henderson Alexander Pechenyuk Barry Truax Robert Buckley Adam Hill Barbara Pentland* Rita Ueda Liova Bueno Stefan Anita Perry Owen Underhill Lloyd Burritt Hintersteininger Katya Pine Catalin Ursu Michael Bushnell François Houle Arthur Polson* Leslie Uyeda Jennifer Butler Peter Huse Robert Pritchard Sean Varah Christopher Butterfield John-Paul Christopher Randy Raine-Reusch Jon Washburn Patrick Carpenter Jackson Imant Raminsh Eugene Weigel* John Celona Alex Jang Jan Randall Neil Weisensel Dorothy Chang Daniel Janke Christopher Reiche Elliot Weisgarber* Stephen Chatman Euphrosyne Keefer* Dale Reubart* Hildegard Justin Christensen Elizabeth Knudson Sylvia Rickard Westerkamp Timothy Corlis Rudolf Komorous Dave Riedstra Charles M. Wilson Jean Coulthard* John Korsrud Jeffrey Ryan Wes R. D. Wraggett Paul Crawford Christopher Kovarik Farshid Samandari Ryszard Wrzaskala Andrew Czink Rupert Lang Alfredo Santa Ana Xiao-ou Hu Janet Danielson Grace Jong Eun Lee Daniel Scheidt Jin Zhang Bruce Davis Jacqueline Leggatt Frederick Schipizky Rui Shi Zhuo Moshe Denburg Frank Levin Douglas Schmidt Paul M. Douglas* Christopher Ludwig Ernst Schneider * Deceased David Gordon Duke Ramona Luengen Duncan Schouten Wolf Edwards Leila Lustig Sabrina Schroeder – 4! – Thank You! COMPOSERS CIRCLE Don James Jocelyn Morlock CMC BC TEAM Dorothea & Murray Janet & Derwyn Lea Ellie O’Day Adaskin Virginia Lowrie Dubravko Pajalic Sean Bickerton, BC Jane Coop & George Keith & Jennifer Peter Rohloff Director Laverock Macleod Jeffrey Ryan David McLaughlin, Colin Miles Janet Summers Operations Manager PERFORMERS CIRCLE John Pauls Sigrid-Ann Thors Stefan Hintersteininger, Anonymous Sharon Riches Edward Top BC Head Librarian Rudy Bootsma Sylvia Rickard Owen Underhill Christopher Reiche, David Gordon Duke Cliff Ridley Hildegard Victoria Engage-