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Winners of two OPUS awards at their 2024 gala, the Stick&Bow duo will open Le Vivier’s new season on Sept. 6, along with All the Madmen. Presented at Montreal’s Sainte-Hilda church, this concert will see the music of Beethoven, David Bowie and Nina Simone mingled with a reflection on the madness sometimes associated with great artists. The evening will conclude with the world première of Roman Candle (2024) by composer Jason Noble. On Sept. 28, the Sanctuaire du Saint-Sacrement will host an immersive concert dedicated to Austrian composer Klaus Lang. Soprano Natacha Demers and organist and composer Olivier St-Pierre will navigate between Canada and Austria in a program of organ works by Klaus Lang, Hans Martin, William Kuo, Olivier St-Pierre, Eduardo Caballero and Alyssa Aska.
Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines will then host a number of Le Vivier events, starting with Ce qui reste quand la peau se détache du corps on Oct. 4 and 5. Part stage performance, part sound art and part installation, this multidisciplinary work by creators Sara Létourneau and Chantale Boulianne invites you to explore the senses and metamorphoses of the body. Quatuor Bozzini kicks off the evening on Oct. 4 with Long Gradus (2021) by composer Sarah Davachi, while on Oct. 5 vibraphonist Raphaël Guay and gambist and composer Pierre-Yves Martel present Chance Variations (2023), a work in which chance and rhythmic subtleties create music in perpetual evolution. On Oct. 6, Marc Ducret and the collective L’animal inquiet take over with Ducret/Animal Inquiet/Quatuor JRJE, an evening of jazz, rock and improvisation.
On Oct. 10, the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal will resound to the sounds of the Architek Percussion ensemble, along with pianists Pamela Reimer and Daniel Añez, presenting works by Andrea Young and Julius Eastman in an evening of timbral exploration and minimalism. In a completely different genre, the Growlers Choir’s powerful, throaty vocals will be heard on Oct. 15 at Sacré-Cœur-de-Jésus. The choristers and their conductor, Pierre-Luc Senécal, will be performing the world première of Vox Colossus (2024), an epic work where sacred music meets the energy of metal. On Oct. 24, Salle Bourgie will be the setting for Quasar’s 30th anniversary celebrations, with the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet. The musicians will be performing new works commissioned from Gordon Williamson and Martina Tomner, as well as paying tribute to the late composer José Evangelista. The Stenhammar Quartet will present Tales of Strength on Oct. 27 in the Wilder Building‘s Blue Space, a concert celebrating resilience through works by Anna Einarsson, Karl-Erik Welin, Tanya Tagaq, Cris Derksen and Caroline Shaw.
Also at Espace Bleu, distinguished composer Roxanne Turcotte will present Artefacts II on Nov. 21. Her singular approach to electroacoustic music invites deep introspection through the exploration of the artefacts of thought. The year will come to a close with the presentation of ChamberDestroy (Nov. 29) and Binôme(s) (Dec. 8). The former will bring together the Paramirabo ensemble and Thin Edge New Music to perform works by Nicole Lizée, Yaz Lancaster, Louis Andriessen and Julius Eastman, while the latter will see the SuperMusique and ILÉA ensembles perform works by their members. www.levivier.ca
Arte Musica / Salle Bourgie
On Oct. 22, the Molinari Quartet and soprano Odile Portugais will present Molinari: From Painting to Music, a vibrant tribute to Quebec painter Guido Molinari to commemorate this year’s 20th anniversary of his death. The performance will combine visual art and music in a program inspired by Molinari’s paintings, including works by Maxime McKinley, R. Murray Schafer, Ana Sokolović and Anton Webern. Then Barbara Hannigan, a soprano and conductor renowned for the dramatic intensity of her interpretations, will appear with pianist Bertrand Chamayou on Nov. 26, offering a program that includes: Chants de terre et de ciel (1938), by Olivier Messiaen; Poème-nocturne (1911) and Vers la flamme (1914), by Alexandre Scriabin; and Jumalattaret (2012), by John Zorn. www.mbam.qc.ca
La Société de musique contemporaine du Québec
The venerable concert society will be paying a luminous and evocative tribute to Kaija Saariaho on Oct. 3 at Salle Pierre-Mercure. Conducted by Cristian Gort, the SMCQ ensemble will join forces with Les Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal and their conductor Andrew Gray to present a program of luminous and evocative works by the Finnish composer, including Horloge, tais-toi! (2006) and Lichtbogen (1986). The concert will also include a new work by Hans Martin, exploring the purity of sound, and Arras (2020) by Keiko Devaux, winner of a 2022 Juno Award. www.smcq.qc.ca
Special mentions
A veritable incubator for new music talent, Codes d’accès will open its next season on Oct. 30 at the Sala Rossa with S’accrocher, dériver, a concert based on the contemplation of time and its traces. The duo Asclépiades will present Almanach (2024), a work inspired by the cycle of the seasons, while Bénédicte (Maxime Gordon) will present Halves, Shoals (2023), a meditative ode to sound collages. Florence Garneau will close the evening with her piece Grand-mère (2024), a touching work for saxophone and electronics on the theme of aging.
Canada’s only major orchestra devoted entirely to new music, Esprit Orchestra, will open its new season at Koerner Hall (Toronto) on Nov. 27 with a concert featuring Toronto accordionist Michael Bridge. The program will include several North American and Canadian premières by Gabriella Smith (U.S.A.), Bent Sorensen (Denmark), and the winner of the 2023 Grawemeyer Composition Prize, Julian Anderson (England). www.codesdacces.org, www.espritorchestra.com
Translation by Gianmarco Segato
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