Now Hear This Festival of New Music
Event Information
Description
Now Hear This Festival of New Music
Tuesday, March 14 – Sunday, March 19, 2017 – Holy Trinity Anglican Church and various venues
This season New Music Edmonton is expanding the Now Hear This Festival to six full days! This immersive event will bring dozens of artists together March 13 to 19 for an auditory happening worthy of the history books. This year will feature the Bozzini String Quartet in residence throughout the festival, as well as international groups like guitarist Tim Brady, recorder virtuoso Sylvia Hinz, LUX:NM a group made of the rare combo of saxophone, accordion, violin, and trombone. But we’re also looking locally and proud to feature award-winning Edmonton artists like dancer Gerry Morita, Pigeon Breeders, the Warczynski – Simurdova piano duo, NME-house ensemble UltraViolet, and the Edmonton Saxophone Quartet.
Open your ears and expand your definition of music. Meet the artists and composers while taking workshops. Join the discussion – literally! – at panels with leading artists debating hot artistic topics and current trends. From electro-acoustic and improvisation to sonic and cross-disciplinary spectacles, Now Hear This is Edmonton’s preeminent new music event.
New Music Edmonton — you gotta hear this!
Tuesday, March 14
The Warszynski-Simurdova Piano Duo – Muttart Hall (10050 MacDonald Dr.), 7:00 p.m.
Edmonton favourites Mikolaj Warszynski and Zuzana Simurdova make their New Music Edmonton debut in a concert of new works for two pianos, piano 4-hands and piano with electronics. These two incredible pianists have chosen the program especially for the opening night of our festival, with a mixture of local, national and international composers,including a new work for piano 4-hands and electronics by Edmonton’s Jacek Sobieraj.
Following the concert, join us in the lobby of Muttart Hall for an opening-night reception. The New Music Edmonton team and many of the festival’s artists and composers will be on hand for refreshments, conversation, information about the festival and a few surprises. Cash bar available.
Wednesday, March 15
Bradyworks: Instruments of Happiness – Studio 96 (10909 96 Street), 7:00 p.m.
Instruments of Happiness is an electric guitar ensemble, led by Montréal’s Tim Brady. With an intense focus on exploring the electric guitar as a concert medium, the group has commissioned and performed many new works by established and emerging composers and new versions of classical works, as well as having ventured into spectacular public events such as the amazing 100 guitars project. For their first performance in Edmonton, Instruments of Happiness are bringing along 5 (yes, 5!) newly composed works by some of Canada’s finest emerging composers – Emily Hall, Maxime McKinley, Gordon Fitzell, Jordan Nobles, Scott Godin – as well as a work by Tim Brady himself.
Late-night Live I – Studio 96 (10909 96 Street), 9:30 p.m.
A highlight of Now Hear This is always our two late-evening shows which offer performances by some of Edmonton’s most daring musical experimenters. With a wild mixture of electronics, improvisation, noise, video and a large measure of the unexpected, Late-night Live I and II offer a great opportunity to “get in tune” with the wilder side of our city’s musical underground.
Thursday, March 16
The Bozzini String Quartet and Guests – City Hall (1 Sir Winston Churchill Square), 12:00 p.m.
In A Large Open Space
This stunning, public event is destined to be one of the most unusual, yet moving and beautiful events ever to happen in City Hall. The Bozzini String Quartet, this year’s Now Hear This Artists In Residence, will lead an ensemble of some 20 Edmonton musicians in a free, public performance of late Canadian composer James Tenney’s In A Large Open Space. With the musicians spread across the space, and on two levels, the lobby will be breathtakingly filled with the wondrous sounds of a vast spectrum of instruments playing cosmic, meditative harmonies. The audience free to move from place to place so they can discover their own “version” of the music. This is a must-be-there event!
The Edmonton Saxophone Quartet – Studio 96 (10909 96 Street), 7:00 p.m.
The Edmonton Saxophone Quartet will offer a program of works selected through our open call. The four musicians in this group represent an all-star lineup of performers, each of whom is capable of pushing their instruments to the limits (and maybe even further!). As a group, their skills create a brilliant and unforgettable experience for audiences, combining the intricate interactions of complex chamber music with a fantastic wall of sound only 4 saxophones could make. This, their second appearance as Now Hear This performance is guaranteed to be an exciting sonic adventure.
Late-night Live II – Studio 96 (10909 96 Street), 9:30 p.m.
A highlight of Now Hear This is always our two late-evening shows which offer performances by some of Edmonton’s most daring musical experimenters. With a wild mixture of electronics, improvisation, noise, video and a large measure of the unexpected, Late-night Live I and II offer a great opportunity to “get in tune” wilder side of our city’s musical underground.
Friday, March 17
The Bozzini String Quartet – Holy Trinity Anglican Church (10037 84 Ave), 7:00 p.m.
Our Artists In Residence take centre stage in this exhilarating feature concert. The Bozzini Quartet are internationally known, having performed extensively and to rave reviews in major festivals and other events around the world, as well as on their extensive catalogue of recordings. At home with virtually any style of music, and with a phenomenal record of performing established and new works, the quartet’s shows are always a special occasion. New Music Edmonton is pleased to welcome The Bozzini Quartet back to Edmonton for a compelling display of just what this group can do. A world premiere of a new work by Edmonton composer Alissa Cheung, along with works by Swiss composer Jürg Frey and Edmontonian Ian Crutchley will make for a scintillating, unforgettable concert.
Mile Zero Dance and Pigeon Breeders – Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Upper Hall (10037 84 Ave), 9:30 p.m.
The Trance Sessions
Gerry Morita, Artistic Director of Mile Zero Dance, and renowned music trio Pigeon Breeders, have created The Trance Sessions especially for Now Hear This. New Music Edmonton is proud to be partnering with Mile Zero Dance in presenting this new collaborative work. Featuring Gerry Morita and small group of dancers, Pigeon Breeders, and a stunning film component, The Trance Sessions is certain to be one of the most compelling and cutting-edge performances to be seen by Edmontonians this season.
Saturday, March 18
Sylvia Hinz in Recital – Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Sanctuary (10037 84 Ave), 2:00 p.m.
Think you know what a recorder can do? This concert will change all that. As an artist dedicated to many forms of new music practice, Sylvia Hinz turns all of the clichés about recorders on their head. Presenting a compelling and varied new program of works by composers from all over the world, this recital will be a virtuosic revelation, showing the spectacular breadth of expression the recorder has inspired in composers and inviting the audience into a unique and fascinating sound world. Sylvia will perform the Canadian premiere of Birds (2012) for renaissance soprano recorder composed by Calgary native, Clio Montrey. We are pleased to welcome Sylvia Hinz, one of the finest recorder virtuosi in the world, for her Canadian debut.
UltraViolet – Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Sanctuary (10037 84 Ave), 7:00 p.m.
UltraViolet brings together two of our most important Now Hear This features – an open call for scores and an Edmonton group devoted to the performance of contemporary music. UltraViolet has been a mainstay of our Festival for four years. Now appearing in a quartet format, these incredible local musicians have been with us since the start and are at the ready take on anything composers can throw at them!
Mile Zero Dance and Pigeon Breeders – Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Upper Hall (10037 84 Ave), 9:30 p.m.
The Trance Sessions
Gerry Morita, Artistic Director of Mile Zero Dance, and renowned music trio Pigeon Breeders, have created The Trance Sessions especially for Now Hear This. New Music Edmonton is proud to be partnering with Mile Zero Dance in presenting this new collaborative work. Featuring Gerry Morita and small group of dancers, Pigeon Breeders, and a stunning film component, The Trance Sessions is certain to be one of the most compelling and cutting-edge performances to be seen by Edmontonians this season.
Sunday, March 19
The Bozzini Quartet and Gerry Morita- Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Upper Hall (10037 84 Ave), 2:00 p.m.
One of the great treats of our festival comes when we have a chance to witness the first coming-together of guest artists in the creation of once-in-a-lifetime improvised works. This afternoon’s extraordinary pairing of The Bozzini Quartet and Mile Zero Dance Director Gerry Morita is being created especially for the Festival. We don’t know exactly what they’ll do, but we know it will be amazing!
LUX: NM- Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Sanctuary (10037 84 Ave), 7:00 p.m.
Now Hear This comes to a nice, garlicky close with this astonishing performance by Berlin ensemble, Lux:NM. The show will focus on the work of Canadian composer Jef Chippewa, in particular his Fluxus-inspired, cabinet de curiosités for saxophone, accordion, violin, trombone and found objects. To quote the composer, “ultimately, cabinet de curiosités is an entirely inconclusive foray into reflections on the point at which a selection of objects becomes a “collection” and whether this collection is in fact more interesting, let alone important, than the (sum of the) parts contained therein. to the would-be musicologists: sit back and enjoy the show, and don’t worry, i don’t get it either.”
And yes, there will be garlic. And squeaky toys. And bicycle bells. And a jigsaw….
