Montreal, August 23, 2017 – Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (ECM+) is pleased to announce that the jury has selected the winners of its biennial composition contest: Sophie Dupuis (N.-B., Ont.), Patrick Giguère (Qc/UK), James O’Callaghan (B.-C./Qc) and Thierry Tidrow (Ont./ DE) will take part in the Generation2018 adventure starting next February.
With more than 60 high-level applications from Canadian composers, aged 35 and under from all over the country, the final choice has proved quite challenging for the jury comprising renowned professionals from the Canadian new music community: Gabriel Dharmoo (Composer and Performer, Montreal), Gordon Fitzell (Composer and Professor at University of Manitoba), Gary Kulesha (Composer and Professor at University of Toronto),Véronique Lacroix (Artistic Director of ECM+ and Professor at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal), Éric Morin (Composer and Professor at University of Laval), David Pay (Music on Main’s Artistic Director), Laurie Radford (Composer and Professor at University of Calgary), Stefani Truant (Associate Artistic Administrator at the National Arts Centre Orchestra, Ottawa), and Owen Underhill (Composer and Professor at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver).
Over the course of the next 15 months, the four Generation2018 composers will explore their distinctive musical voice, write a new piece commissioned by Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (ECM+) and join the Ensemble on a tour introducing their music to audiences across Canada. Public workshops in Montréal (February 21 and 24, 2018) will provide the young composers with the opportunity to experiment directly with ten ECM+ musicians conducted by Véronique Lacroix. They will then have six months to complete the composition that will be presented in October 2018 as part of a ten-concert tour across Canada’s major cities. The Generation2018 tour will begin with a five-day residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts (October 2018) before crossing the country with concerts in Banff, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Montréal, Québec, Toronto, and Ottawa1.
ECM+ and its Artistic Director Véronique Lacroix wish to congratulate the winners of the Generation2018composition contest and are looking forward presenting the music of these four talented young composers to Canadian audiences.
Génération2018: 4 Workshops and Mini-Concerts
Wednesday, February 21, from 12 am to 2 pm | Salle Adrienne-Milotte du Cégep St-Laurent
Saturday, February 24, at 10 am, 1.45 pm et 3.15 pm | Conservatoire de musique de Montréal
About the Generation2018 composers…
Sophie Dupuis (1988, N.-B.), Toronto
Born in New Brunswick, Sophie Dupuis was awarded the 2016 Karen Kieser Prize in Canadian Music for her work Perceptions de La Fontaine. Her orchestral music has been performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia and the Orchestre philharmonique du Haut-St-Jean, while her music for ensembles has been premiered by such renowned outfits as Caution Tape Sound Collective, the Thin Edge New Music Ensemble, the Array Ensemble and Architek Percussion. Currently completing a doctorate in composition at the University of Toronto, Sophie Dupuis is the recipient of the University Medal in Music from Dalhousie University, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the John Weinzweig Graduate Scholarship and the Theodoros Mirkopoulos Fellowship in Composition.
Through a musical discourse that is revealed as it evolves,
the works of Sophie Dupuis overlay melodic fragments or familiar
harmonies with mysterious and quivering textures.
Patrick Giguère (1987, Qc), Birmingham (United Kingdom)
Patrick Giguère recently completed a doctorate in composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire. His music is frequently performed across North America and Europe by such exceptional ensembles as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Exaudi, the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen Orchestra and the Orchestre de la francophonie. His work Le sel de la terre garnered 3rd Prize at the SOCAN Foundation’s 2015 Serge Garant Awards. He founded and was the artistic director of the Quebec City-based Ensemble Lunatik (2009-2014) and served as the artistic director of Erreur de type 27 (2013-2015). Through his compositions and the events he organizes, Patrick Giguère tries to offer people unique moments of shared listening in which they can experience music with their heart, intelligence and all their senses.
Patrick Giguère’s work is full of intensity, ornamentation
and a thirst for discovery, gleefully indulging in the allure
of the non-tempered scale while plunging into the heart
of the physical phenomenon of sound.
James O’Callaghan (1988, B.-C.), Montréal
Originally from Vancouver, James O’Callaghan is a Montreal-based composer and sound artist who has been praised for his “mastery of materials and musical form” (Electromania, Radio France) and “[impressive]virtuosity in fusing genres” (SilenceAndSound). He is the recipient of the 2015 Robert Fleming Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. In 2014, his work Isomorphia won the SOCAN Foundation’s John Weinzweig Grand Prize and was a finalist at the JUNO Awards in the Classical Composition of the Year category. His compositions have also earned first prizes from the Canadian Electroacoustic Community’s Jeu de temps / Times Play (JTTP) (2013), Musicworks Magazine (2014), and were among the finalists for the Gaudeamus Award (2016), the KLANG! Acousmonium (2015) and the Prix collégien de musique contemporaine (2016, 2017). He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University, where he studied with Barry Truax, and a Master of Music from McGill University, under Philippe Leroux (2014).
Culling his sound material from amplified found objects as well as natural
and urban environmental sounds around him, James O’Callaghan
intersects the poetry of these noisy components and the natural musicality
of classical instruments with great refinement.
Thierry Tidrow (1986, Ottawa), Cologne (Germany)
Franco-Ontarian composer Thierry Tidrow recently distinguished himself by winning the Canada Council for the Arts’ prestigious Jules Léger Prize for his piece Au fond du Cloître Humide (2014). As a Fondation Ricard and Canada Arts Council Fellow, he received his Masters degree from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2011, followed by an Advanced Studies diploma at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg in 2013, under Brice Pauset. His works have been performed by a number of prominent ensembles, including the Asko-Schönberg Ensemble, the Talea Ensemble and the Dutch National Opera, which premiered his opera Less Truth More Telling, under the direction of Javier Lopez-Pinon and Lucas Vis (2013). His piece It had something to do with the telling of time… was nominated for the 2011 Gaudeamus Music Week, while Silk Hole was awarded a commission prize at the 2011 Ereprijs Orkest’s Young Composers Meeting. In 2014, both Less Truth More Telling and Violon et Clarinette won SOCAN Foundation Awards.
Thierry Tidrow’s sound universe embraces many musical worlds,
in which explorations of noise, expressionist lyricism,
pastiche and parody form a discursive and richly detailed whole.
About the Generation project…
Released in November 2014, the anniversary book Generation 20 years (1994-2014) summarizes the achievements of this project that has steered 57 Canadian composers with 63 concerts, 9 Canadian tours and 79 composition workshops. The only project of its kind in Canada, Generation discovers young composers and provides them with a unique environment for musical research and exploration involving live experimentation with musicians as well as a large exposure to the Canadian professional musical scene.
Since 2010, the Audience Choice Award allows the audience of each city to vote for their favorite composition. The author of the winning work receives a $1,500 grant. Created in 2014, for the 20th anniversary edition, the Generation Jury Prize is awarded by a jury of Generation alumni and offers the winner a $5,000 grant commission for a chamber music work. At the end of the Generation2016 tour, the Generation Jury Prize was awarded to Taylor Brook for Tirant lo Blanc and the Audience Award was awarded to Sabrina Schroeder for Bone Games – Shy garden.
