Contemporary - my/maSCENA

Browsing: Contemporary

Montreal/New Musics 2023: Feb. 23 to March 5

By Wah Keung Chan on 13 February 2023 Contemporary, Indigenous

Hearing new SMCQ artistic director Ana Sokolovic talk about the 2023 Montreal/New Musics (MNM) festival, it’s hard not to get excited. “I joke that the only problem with this festival is that it is in Montreal. It’s because when we go to the festivals very often it’s not in our city, and then we go to spend the entire time in that city. And we’re seeing absolutely everything,” she said. “Everything is happening during the events—during the concerts, but also in between the concerts. During the lunch, during the supper, during the cocktail, having this opportunity to talk with people…

Photo: J. Bertrand

Pauline Vaillancourt – Prix Opus Hommage

By Réjean Beaucage on 3 February 2023 Contemporary, Opera

It has been a while since we last heard soprano Pauline Vaillancourt singing in Montreal. In fact, it was back in 2000 when she shared the stage with actor Jean Maheux in L’Enfant des glaces, an “electr’opera” that she designed and staged (music by Zack Settel, libretto by Quevedo and de Nerval). It was the ninth production of Chants Libres, the lyric-creation company of which the singer is artistic director. To get a chance to hear Vaillancourt sing, you’d have to go to Europe, since it is there that she has been working with the Italian composer Maurizio Squillante. She…

Newswire | New music from here and abroad with the theme Music and spirituality

By Newswire on 26 January 2023 Canadian Music, Contemporary, Orchestral

Montreal, January 26, 2023 – The Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) resents the complete program of the Montreal/New Musics international festival (MNM). This 11th edition will take place from February 23 to March 5, 2023, with the theme “Music and Spirituality”. The public is invited to hear the musical creations of some of the most innovative and passionate composers and performers on the local, national and international scenes. SMCQ Artistic Director Ana Sokolović notes, “Since the dawn of humanity, music has accompanied spirituality, which is addressed in our festival in a broad and open way by evoking the…

Photo: Marc Bourgeois

José Evangelista (1943-2023)

By Adrian Rodriguez on 11 January 2023 Contemporary, Obituaries

Composer José Evangelista passed away on Jan. 10, 2023. As a tribute to him, we republish our interview and article about his legacy from our October 2017 issue bellow. José Evangelista – Composer in Constant Evolution by Adrian Rodriguez, October 10, 2017 José Evangelista is a composer who perfectly represents the cultural diversity and historical background of Canada and Montreal. In the early 1970s Evangelista was, like many Spaniards of his generation, in search of a better quality of life and trying to escape the Spanish dictatorship of Francisco Franco. Coming to Canada,he says, was not a straight line. “It…

Lebrecht Weekly | Dmitri Shostakovich: Chamber symphonies (SWR Music)

By Norman Lebrecht on 30 December 2022 Contemporary, Orchestral

During gaps between COVID shutdowns, when small performances were possible, musicians turned with much ingenuity to chamber symphonies, a neglected genre midway between a Brahms sextet and a Strauss tone poem. Shostakovich, in point of fact, never wrote a chamber symphony; but the violist and conductor Rudolf Barshai expanded some of his string quartets for his Moscow Chamber Orchestra, and the first piano concerto is essentially conceived in miniature, for string orchestra, piano and trumpet. The intense performances on this album took place in a Saarbrücken studio amid full COVID precautions. The eighth quartet opens at a sepulchral pace, so…

Ensemble Silakbo. Photo: Sofia Nathanlshar

Concert review | The Silakbo Ensemble: Merging cultures together

By Justin Bernard on 5 November 2022 Chamber Music, Concert Reviews, Contemporary, World Music

On November 2, the Silakbo Ensemble launched its Canadian tour with a first stop in Montreal, at Jeunesses Musicales Canada’s Joseph-Rouleau Hall. Formed by three Bulgarian musicians (Angelina Gotcheva, clarinet, Yoanna Bozhkova, soprano, Bogdan Ivanov, piano), Portuguese violinist Edgar Gomes and Filipino American cellist Mikko Pablo, this quintet was joined exceptionally by Adam Vincent Clarke, composer and piper proud of his Nova Scotia roots. Together they presented their latest project, named Est-Ouest. More than a gathering, it is an exchange, an interconnection, between the Canadian and Bulgarian musical cultures. As part of this project, three creations commissioned by the Silakbo…

Olga Ranzenhofer et Guido Molinari

Quatuor Molinari – A 25-year Success Story in Retrospect

By Justin Bernard on 4 November 2022 Classical Music, Contemporary, Quebec Music

On Oct. 14, the Molinari String Quartet marked its 25th anniversary at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal with a retrospective of works by such contemporary Eastern European luminaries as Penderecki, Kurtág and Ligeti. In years past, all string quartets of these composers have been played by this enduring Montreal foursome. Those on hand surely must have appreciated hearing a cross-section of that repertoire, some for the first time, others anew. First violinist Olga Ranzenhofer, the group’s artistic and administrative director since its inception in 1997, is more than happy about the turn of events. In her words: ‟Our concert…

photo: Kevin Lloyd

Violinissimo: Esprit Orchestra Aims High

By Eva Stone-Barney on 4 November 2022 Classical Music, Contemporary, Orchestral, Violin

At first glance, the premise may sound simple: one concert, four violin concertos. The seasoned classical concert-goer, however, will understand just how ambitious an endeavour this is, and that this sort of programming is practically unheard of. Who would do such a thing? Alex Pauk, of course—the same person who was told that a full-sized orchestra devoted to the performance of contemporary music was never going to survive for longer than a year, and who has been conducting that very orchestra for 40. On Nov. 27, Esprit Orchestra will present its second concert of the ambitious 40th anniversary season, Violinissimo.…

Isolde Lagacé – Learning to make things better

By Justin Bernard on 4 November 2022 Classical Music, Contemporary, Quebec Music

On Nov. 15, Isolde Lagacé bids a fond farewell to the Salle Bourgie after 10 years at its helm as artistic and administrative director. Two months before, on Sept. 18, she officially passed the torch on stage to her successors: Caroline Louis as the new administrative head and her counterpart programmer Olivier Godin. ‟In the early days of my work for Bourgie,” recalls Lagacé, ‟I could handle both of these tasks easily thanks to my own life history of growing up in a musical family first and then pursuing a career in arts management. After five years on the job,…

La Nef: Tout tourne

By Annette Lou Rouft on 4 November 2022 Classical Music, Contemporary

Known for its unique productions and recognizable artistic signature, La Nef will present Tout tourne in February 2023—a seemingly improbable encounter between contemporary minimalist music and virtuosic baroque music. Indeed, who could believe that the latter—abundant, ornate and contrasting—could be coupled with the pared-down esthetics of contemporary music? This is the nature of the challenge taken up by two of the most important musicians of Quebec’s baroque scene: recorder player Vincent Lauzer and harpsichordist Dorothéa Ventura, with special guest contemporary dancer François Richard. “The basic idea is to evoke the unceasing cycles of life,” they explain. So much baroque music…

Previous 1 … 3 4 5 6 7 … 44 Next

Current Issue

PDF HTML

Next Issue : February/March

Ad Deadline : January 24, 2025

Past Issues, Subscriptions, Advertising