Board of directors

Board of Directors

• President

  Juliet Palmer (ON) (President 2019-present, Vice President 2016–2019)
  I attend­ed my first FORUM in Jan­u­ary 2016 and was impressed by the depth and range of expe­ri­ences of the pre­sen­ters. Meet­ing and min­gling with inno­v­a­tive Cana­di­an del­e­gates along­side inno­va­tors from Europe gave me a fresh per­spec­tive on music cre­ation and dis­sem­i­na­tion. It was heart­en­ing to encounter the grow­ing num­ber of indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions work­ing toward mak­ing our com­mu­ni­ty more wel­com­ing to those long exclud­ed from it. Col­lab­o­ra­tion is at the heart of my cre­ative prac­tice and cen­tral to my work as edu­ca­tor, facil­i­ta­tor, men­tor and com­pos­er-in-res­i­dence. As a board mem­ber, I look for­ward to fruit­ful col­lab­o­ra­tions with my fel­low board mem­bers and to the con­tin­ued growth of this invalu­able nation­al network. 

  New Zealand-Cana­di­an com­pos­er Juli­et Palmer is known as a “post-mod­ernist with a con­science” (The Lis­ten­er) whose work “cross­es so many gen­res as to be in a cat­e­go­ry of its own” (Toron­to Star). Her work has been fea­tured around the world, with per­for­mances at New York’s Lin­coln Cen­ter, Lon­don’s South­bank Cen­tre, the Hud­der­s­field Con­tem­po­rary Music Fes­ti­val, Bath Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val, Voix Nou­velles France, Italy’s Angel­i­ca Fes­ti­val, Evenings of New Music Bratisla­va, Musi­ca Fic­ta Fes­ti­val Lithua­nia, NYYD Fes­ti­val Esto­nia, The Istan­bul Fes­ti­val, Sound­cul­ture Japan, the Ade­laide Fes­ti­val, the New Zealand Inter­na­tion­al Arts Fes­ti­val and Canada’s Sound Sym­po­sium. Juli­et is the artis­tic direc­tor of Urban­ves­sel, a plat­form for inter­dis­ci­pli­nary collaboration.

  http://www.julietpalmer.ca

  http://www.urbanvessel.com

• Vice President

  Norman Adams (Atlantic) (2014-present)
  I have attend­ed CNMN’s FORUM 2010 in Hal­i­fax, FORUM 2014 in Cal­gary and FORUM 2016 in Ottawa. There I have dis­cov­ered a group of peo­ple with the same chal­lenges, wor­ries and goals as I have, with great taste in music! I lend my ener­gy to CNMN and our com­mu­ni­ty in order to help pro­vide our artists and orga­ni­za­tions with a strong and clear voice. I believe pas­sion­ate­ly that we are stronger as a unit, and I would like to play my part as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of artists and orga­ni­za­tions from the East, and all over Canada.

  I have a unique expe­ri­ence that can pro­vide per­spec­tive on a broad range of new music prac­tices. I enjoy a career as a clas­si­cal musi­cian, play­ing con­tem­po­rary and more tra­di­tion­al orches­tral and cham­ber music reper­toire, an impro­vis­er with an inter­est in elec­tron­ic music, and Artis­tic Direc­tor and admin­is­tra­tor of an arts orga­ni­za­tion. As Prin­ci­pal Cel­list of Sym­pho­ny Nova Sco­tia, and as fre­quent mem­ber of SNS’s pro­gram­ming com­mit­tees, I have a clear view of the way “the estab­lish­ment” works. At the same time, my thir­teen years as Artis­tic Direc­tor and Admin­is­tra­tor of sud­den­lyLIS­TEN Music has giv­en me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to curate and pro­duce con­certs of a wide vari­ety of con­tem­po­rary musi­cians from estab­lished inter­na­tion­al impro­vis­ers, to locals, all push­ing out the very edges of music mak­ing. As well I am a found­ing pre­sen­ter for The Cir­cuit, a nation­al pre­sent­ing col­lec­tive for tour­ing impro­vis­ers and explorato­ry musicians. 

  It is both inspir­ing and ener­giz­ing to work for our nation­al com­mu­ni­ty as a CNMN board member.

  Nor­man Adams is the Prin­ci­pal Cel­list of Sym­pho­ny Nova Sco­tia, and the Artis­tic Direc­tor of sud­den­lyLIS­TEN, and a cel­list, impro­vis­er and elec­tron­ic musi­cian explor­ing music, sound cre­ation and per­for­mance. Norm has per­formed clas­si­cal, free and new music across Cana­da, the US, the UK and France, col­lab­o­rat­ing with many lead­ing artists includ­ing Joëlle Léan­dre, Eddie Prévost, Pauline Oliv­eros, Ger­ry Hem­ing­way, Jean Derome and Mar­i­lyn Crispell. In addi­tion to CNMN, Norm serves on the boards of Strate­gic Arts Man­age­ment, and The Nova Sco­tia Lt. Gov­er­nor’s Mas­ter­works Award. He has released sev­er­al record­ings includ­ing a solo cel­lo CD. In 2010 he was award­ed an Estab­lished Artist Award by the Nova Sco­tia Arts and Cul­ture Part­ner­ship Coun­cil for his var­ied work.

  www.normanadams.ca
  www.suddenlylisten.com
  www.soundcarrier.net

• Secretary

  Helen Pridmore (Prairies) (Secretary 2020-present; Board Member 2019–2022)
  I am hon­oured and excit­ed to be part of the CNMN Board.  This is a strong and vital orga­ni­za­tion that brings togeth­er our new music com­mu­ni­ty across Cana­da.  Such a vast land, so many projects and oppor­tu­ni­ties:  CNMN offers a way to con­nect, to share, to col­lab­o­rate and to enjoy the depth and breadth of music and sound pos­si­bil­i­ties in our coun­try.  Lais­sez les bons temps — et la belle musique — rouler!

  Helen Prid­more is a singer and sound artist, with a focus on con­tem­po­rary scored music, exper­i­men­tal music and impro­vi­sa­tion.  She has per­formed across Cana­da and the US, includ­ing a solo appear­ance at Carnegie Hall; Helen has also per­formed in Europe, Mex­i­co and Japan.  She has three CDs to her name, includ­ing …between the shore and the ships…, which won the 2013 East Coast Music Award for Best Clas­si­cal Recording.

  Helen’s cur­rent focus is on the tech­nol­o­gy of the voice and the body, with explo­rations into the con­cepts of aur­al beau­ty, space and silence.  She is writ­ing and per­form­ing new works for voice that employ both struc­ture and impro­vi­sa­tion.  One of her cur­rent projects is her solo voice work Sor Jua­na and the Silences, which will be tour­ing Cana­da in the 2020–21 sea­son.  Helen also shares her ideas with stu­dents and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers via work­shops and impro­vi­sa­tion ses­sions:  see http://www.beingastonished.com/voice-lab/ for cur­rent work and projects.

  With degrees from the Uni­ver­si­ties of Saskatchewan and Toron­to, and the East­man School of Music, Helen is cur­rent­ly a fac­ul­ty mem­ber in Music and Cre­ative Tech­nolo­gies at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Regi­na.  www.helenpridmore.ca

• Treasurer

  Sean Clarke (ON) (2016-present)
  When I attend­ed FORUM 2016 in Ottawa I felt an imme­di­ate con­nec­tion to the CNM­N’s goals of build­ing a stronger, more col­lab­o­ra­tive new music com­mu­ni­ty and of giv­ing voice to an impor­tant Cana­di­an art form. The inclu­sive nature of the net­work is vital to build­ing a rich and rel­e­vant artis­tic com­mu­ni­ty. As an active com­pos­er and per­former I’m com­mit­ted to high­light­ing the impor­tance of new music in Cana­di­an soci­ety and rec­og­nize the val­ue of hav­ing a nation­al orga­ni­za­tion such as the CNMN to achieve that goal. I have worked in sev­er­al dif­fer­ent set­tings in the new music com­mu­ni­ty, includ­ing as a com­pos­er, a per­former of new and tra­di­tion­al music in cham­ber and orches­tral set­tings, a con­cert pro­duc­er, a board mem­ber of New Works Cal­gary, and a the­o­rist at aca­d­e­m­ic con­fer­ences. I bring my expe­ri­ence and enthu­si­asm to the CNMN board, to work for this impor­tant orga­ni­za­tion and the new music com­mu­ni­ty at large.

  Sean Clarke is a com­pos­er and flutist from Cal­gary, AB. Before com­plet­ing a doc­tor­ate in instru­men­tal com­po­si­tion at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mon­tréal under the co-direc­tion of Ana Sokolovic and Jonathan Gold­man, he stud­ied flute and com­po­si­tion at the Roy­al North­ern Col­lege of Music, Eng­land, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­gary. His works have been played in the Unit­ed States, France, and across Cana­da, includ­ing on CBC nation­al radio. Sean has also writ­ten sev­er­al works for young per­form­ers, one of which is pub­lished by the Roy­al Con­ser­va­to­ry of Music (Toron­to).

  Sean has pre­sent­ed his the­o­ry research at sev­er­al nation­al and region­al con­fer­ences, includ­ing those of the Cana­di­an Uni­ver­si­ty Music Soci­ety where his paper was a final­ist for the SOCAN Foundation/George Proc­tor Prize; the South Cen­tral Soci­ety for Music The­o­ry where he was the recip­i­ent of the Best Stu­dent Paper Award; and the West Coast Con­fer­ence of Music The­o­ry and Analysis.

  As a flutist, Sean has per­formed in new music fes­ti­vals in Mon­tréal, Cal­gary and Saska­toon, as an extra musi­cian with the Cal­gary Phil­har­mon­ic Orches­tra, and in con­cert series includ­ing the Société de Musique Con­tem­po­raine de Québec’s Série Hom­mage and McGill University’s Schulich Pro­fes­sion­al Con­cert Series.

  www.sean-clarke.com
  https://soundcloud.com/seanclarkecomposer‑1
  https://www.musiccentre.ca/node/138590/showcase

• Present Board Members

  Jennifer Thiessen (2022 — present)
  For me, join­ing the board of the CNMN is about fos­ter­ing a thriv­ing com­mu­ni­ty of cre­ative musi­cians across many regions. When I moved back to Man­i­to­ba in 2021, after twen­ty years in Mon­tre­al, I was uncer­tain about what it would be like to con­tin­ue my artis­tic prac­tice out­side of the strong cre­ative com­mu­ni­ty I had become a part of. I rev­elled in that artis­tic hotbed and relied on its pos­si­bil­i­ties and oppor­tu­ni­ties to devel­op my work. 

  Mov­ing to Win­nipeg, it has become par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant to me to stay con­nect­ed to a wide net­work of musi­cians, while also dis­cov­er­ing the excel­lent scene here and want­i­ng to share it with oth­ers. I now also have a posi­tion as artis­tic direc­tor of a clas­si­cal cham­ber music series in Win­nipeg, so am new­ly involved in pro­gram­ming and pre­sent­ing. I need sup­port and con­nec­tion to con­tin­ue doing the work I want to do, and I know oth­ers need this too. The CNMN address­es exact­ly this need. I look for­ward to work­ing along­side won­der­ful friends and fel­low artists I’ve met over the years and to meet­ing oth­ers for the first time through our work together.

  Mix­ing new sounds with instru­ments of the past, Jen­nifer Thiessen is known for impro­vis­ing and com­mis­sion­ing new works on the vio­la and the vio­la d’amore as well as inter­pret­ing their his­tor­i­cal reper­toire. She cre­ates new music as singer-song­writer Dai­ly Alice and with her duos Park Sounds, S[ILK]S and Toninato/Thiessen, as well as many oth­er col­lab­o­ra­tions. Jen­nifer has worked exten­sive­ly as a vio­list with con­tem­po­rary, clas­si­cal and his­tor­i­cal ensem­bles in Mon­tre­al, Win­nipeg and across Cana­da. She is a cre­ative writer and con­tributes music jour­nal­ism to Music­works magazine.

  Orig­i­nal­ly from Man­i­to­ba, Jen­nifer lived in Mon­tre­al for two decades before mov­ing to Win­nipeg in 2021. She became Artis­tic Direc­tor of Vir­tu­osi Con­certs in 2022. From with­in a mul­ti­plic­i­ty of artis­tic adven­tures, she remains ground­ed in a pas­sion to cre­ate mean­ing­ful expe­ri­ences for her­self and her listeners.

  www.jenniferthiessen.ca

• Andrew Reed Miller (2022 — present)
  I have been prac­tis­ing var­i­ous kinds of music both new and old for 3 decades now and I’m look­ing for­ward to shar­ing and net­work­ing with the next generation.

  Orig­i­nal­ly from New York, Andrew stud­ied in Ottawa and Toron­to and even­tu­al­ly toured with The Cana­di­an Opera Com­pa­ny, the Nation­al Arts Cen­tre Orches­tra and the Roy­al Win­nipeg Bal­let. Andrew has per­formed at many venues, includ­ing Open Ears Fes­ti­val (Kitch­en­er), New Music Cal­gary, Sound Sym­po­sium (New­found­land), the Sco­tia Fes­ti­val of Music, Ensem­ble Kore (Mon­tre­al) The Music Gallery (Toron­to), West­ern Front (Van­cou­ver),  and Ton­ic (New  York).  Miller has writ­ten music for orches­tra, dance, cham­ber music, film, tele­vi­sion, and theatre. 

  “Miller is a superb play­er, a mas­ter and a cre­ative inven­tor……” ‑Stephen Ped­er­sen The Chron­i­cle Her­ald (Hal­i­fax) Jan 10, 2011

• Liberté-Anne Lymberiou (2023 — present)
  I’m hap­py and excit­ed to play a part as CNMN board-mem­ber, as it is a valu­able cross-cana­di­an net­work builder. Gath­er­ing a wide vari­ety of artists: musi­cians, per­form­ers, impro­vis­ers, com­posers, inter­preters, cul­tur­al work­ers, bridge builders and beyond, is a moti­vat­ing mis­sion. The meet­ing of these var­i­ous prac­tices, through­out diverse cul­tur­al prac­tices and tra­di­tions, can and will most always hum­ble, enrich and lib­er­ate our indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences. I’m look­ing for­ward to par­take in the work of the CNMN, aim­ing to exem­pli­fy and bol­ster the rich cul­tur­al diver­si­ty that makes up the Cana­di­an land­scape, and cater to the well-being of these inter­con­nect­ed communities. 

  Lib­erté-Anne Lym­be­ri­ou is a com­pos­er, pianist and band­leader from Mon­tre­al. Her artis­tic process focus­es on a holis­tic vision of music, con­sid­er­ing the tra­di­tions, the envi­ron­ment, the physics, the move­ment, and the spir­i­tu­al­i­ty of the sounds with which she is engag­ing in the moment. Her work being prin­ci­pal­ly informed by jazz music, Lib­erté Anne pos­es a par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to impro­vi­sa­tion and rhyth­mic struc­tures from the African dias­po­ra, along with the con­cepts and philoso­phies that sur­round these practises. 

  Lib­erté-Anne began her career in 2013 in New York City, found­ing her orches­tra the “Lib­erté Big Band”, per­form­ing her orig­i­nal works. She received men­tor­ship from com­pos­er and pianist Arturo O’Farrill who first encour­aged her to pur­sue a com­pos­ing and band­lead­ing path. It is through her stud­ies with per­cus­sion­ist Chief Baba Neil Clarke that she begins engag­ing more seri­ous­ly with pan-african per­cus­sion ensem­ble con­cepts and a holis­tic vision of art. 

  In 2017, she rebuilt the Lib­erté Big Band in Mon­tre­al and pur­sued var­i­ous self-pro­duced per­for­mances and col­lab­o­ra­tions across styles and for­ma­tions. Between 2017 and 2019, she trav­elled exten­sive­ly to Cuba to research and study under Iri­an Lopez, focus­ing on Batà drumming.

  Lymberiou’s most recent works span across tra­di­tions and gen­res, and include a 50-minute opus for 20-piece jazz orches­tra, as well as reper­toire for sax­o­phone duos, choir, and mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary projects involv­ing dance, tex­tile art and film.

• Chenoa Anderson (2023 — present)
  Like many, my first expe­ri­ence with the CNMN was at a Forum (2014 in Cal­gary, AB), which was such a won­der­ful expe­ri­ence of com­mu­ni­ty and knowl­edge-shar­ing. I am thrilled to be part of the board, amongst amaz­ing col­leagues, con­tribut­ing to the work of fos­ter­ing con­nec­tion, diver­si­ty, and activism.

  Flutist Chenoa Ander­son is a set­tler artist liv­ing and prac­tic­ing in amiskwaciy-wâskahikan/Ed­mon­ton. She has com­mis­sioned and pre­miered dozens of solo and ensem­ble pieces, and is an active impro­vis­er who has worked with musi­cians, dancers, and spo­ken word artists. Cur­rent projects include Ultra­Vi­o­let —  a mixed quar­tet spe­cial­iz­ing in new reper­toire; Gar­den – mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary works set in her per­ma­cul­ture gar­den; Mix­tur with com­pos­er Ian Crutch­ley, per­form­ing exper­i­men­tal reper­toire for flute(s) and found objects/instruments/electronics; and damn mag­pies, a free impro­vi­sa­tion sex­tet. She holds per­for­mance degrees from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to (B.Mus.) and the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia (M.Mus.).  

  Chenoa Anderson’s debut solo record­ing, Big Flutes: Cana­di­an Music for Alto and Bass Flutes was nom­i­nat­ed for a 2006 West­ern Cana­di­an Music Award. Krishna’s Flute (earsay music, 2013) fea­tures music for flute and inter­ac­tive elec­tron­ics.  Cur­rent releas­es include The Bel­low Project, a col­lab­o­ra­tion between spo­ken word artist Dwen­nim­men (Shi­ma Aisha Robin­son) and damn mag­pies (2021, Band­camp), and field stud­ies – cham­ber music of Emi­lie Cecil­ia LeBel (2023, Red­shift Records), fea­tur­ing UltraViolet.

  In addi­tion to an active per­form­ing and teach­ing career, Chenoa has been the Gen­er­al Man­ag­er for New Music Edmon­ton since 2012, and in 2014 was nom­i­nat­ed for Syn­crude Award for Excel­lence in Arts Man­age­ment at the Mayor’s Awards for the Arts. When not play­ing flute, Chenoa can often be found gar­den­ing, knit­ting, cycling, cross-coun­try ski­ing, or read­ing with a cat on her lap.

• Éric Normand (2023 — present)
  Éric Nor­mand is on the board of direc­tors because he believes in net­work­ing and in the music com­mu­ni­ty’s abil­i­ty to pro­mote prac­tices of resource and skill-shar­ing to fos­ter equi­ty and eman­ci­pa­tion with­in the diver­si­ty of sound practices.

  Éric Nor­mand is an impro­vis­er, bassist, com­pos­er, and print­er. He resides in the small town of Rimous­ki in East­ern Que­bec. He leads Tour de bras, an orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to impro­vised music, and engages in cul­tur­al activ­i­ties on both local and glob­al scales. He is one of the founders of the Grand groupe région­al d’improvisation libérée (GGRIL, 2007), an ensem­ble ded­i­cat­ed to the explo­ration of “com­po­si­tions for improvisers.”

  Nor­mand has released over 30 albums on Cana­di­an and for­eign labels, and his music has been fea­tured in var­i­ous fes­ti­vals in more than 20 coun­tries. Through Tour de Bras, Nor­mand has been advo­cat­ing for impro­vi­sa­tion prac­tices for 20 years, cre­at­ing an impres­sive inter­na­tion­al net­work that inter­sects with impro­vi­sa­tion hubs world­wide and includes co-pro­duc­tions with coun­tries like Aus­tralia or Slovenia.

• Meredith Bates (2024 — present)
  I’m delight­ed to join the CNMN board of direc­tors to serve as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the West Coast. The vision and mis­sion of the CNMN are very much in align­ment with my prac­tices as artist and arts admin­is­tra­tor. I believe we can always do bet­ter when it comes to rais­ing the bar for equi­ty in arts orga­ni­za­tions and I’m here to fur­ther that con­ver­sa­tion at the CNMN. I’m a great admir­er of the work that CNMN does on the ground and have par­tic­i­pat­ed in the PCM Hub. I hope to work with oth­er mem­bers of the board to expand on such ini­tia­tives and build new and excit­ing adven­tures for our grow­ing new music community. 

  JUNO and WCMA award-win­ning vio­lin­ist and com­pos­er Mered­ith Bates has thor­ough­ly embed­ded her­self in the Cana­di­an musi­cal land­scape, both as a gen­er­ous col­lab­o­ra­tor and increas­ing­ly as a pow­er­ful and idio­syn­crat­ic solo artist.

  Grate­ful­ly bas­ing her­self on unced­ed Coast Sal­ish ter­ri­to­ry in “Van­cou­ver”, the mul­ti­ple-award win­ner has devel­oped a rep­u­ta­tion for both refined intro­spec­tion and unfet­tered vir­tu­os­i­ty on her instru­ment. She has spent the past twen­ty years record­ing and per­form­ing around the world in ensem­bles such as JUNO and West­ern Cana­di­an Music win­ning instru­men­tal band Pugs and Crows, and the avant-cham­ber pop out­fit Gen­tle Par­ty. She’s also involved in projects led by Van­cou­ver scene stal­warts such as Peg­gy Lee, Tony Wil­son, Leah Abramson,Lan Tung, Ruby Singh, CR Avery, Joshua Zubot, and Ford Pier.

  A big part of Bates’ endur­ing ver­sa­til­i­ty is her com­mit­ment to stay­ing artis­ti­cal­ly curi­ous. She has stud­ied pri­vate­ly with every­one from renowned clas­si­cal music ped­a­gogue Philippe Djo­kic to acclaimed exper­i­men­tal­ist Car­la Kihlst­edt, and has con­tin­ued to invest in the expan­sion of her sound through oppor­tu­ni­ties such as the late Jer­ry Granel­li’s leg­endary Cre­ative Music Work­shop in Hal­i­fax, and res­i­den­cies in cru­cial cen­tres for cre­ative explo­ration includ­ing Stock­holm’s Fylkin­gen, West­ern Front (Van­cou­ver), and the Banff Centre.

  This inquis­i­tive spir­it can also be wit­nessed in the con­sid­er­able range of Bates’ artis­tic projects. She is the founder and leader of Like the Mind, a sex­tet of cel­e­brat­ed female impro­vis­ers from Van­cou­ver and Stockholm—namely the afore­men­tioned Lee, Lisa Ullén, Lisen Rylan­der Löve, Elisa Thorn, and Emma Augustsson—and of Sound Migra­tions, a col­lab­o­ra­tive endeav­our com­bin­ing mul­ti-chan­nel elec­troa­coustic sound­scapes with processed pho­tog­ra­phy. In 2019, Bates found­ed the Impro­vised Arts Soci­ety which sup­ports process-based inter­dis­ci­pli­nary expe­ri­ences through­out the year and two mul­ti-day fes­ti­vals of per­form­ing arts: Lis­ten, Lis­ten Fes­ti­val and the West Coast String Sum­mit. Mered­ith also serves on the Sea­grass Music Soci­ety and Cana­di­an New Music Net­work board of direc­tors and is par­tic­i­pat­ing in the BC Arts Council’s Path­ways Program.

  In 2019, Mered­ith released her ambi­tious solo debut, the 2‑disc If Not Now on Phonomet­ro­graph, which gar­nered both praise in the media and a Polaris Prize long-list men­tion. Her sim­i­lar­ly expan­sive follow-up,Tesseract, released in 2023, was also met with­ac­claim in notable press out­lets. Van­cou­ver Sun’s Stu­art Derdeyn called it “haunt­ing and com­plete­ly addic­tive” while vet­er­an crit­ic Marc Mas­ters list­ed it among The Best Exper­i­men­tal Music on Band­camp for June 2023. “Tesser­act is ulti­mate­ly mood music in the best sense,” Mas­ters not­ed. “It not only can alter your cur­rent mood but con­jure unfa­mil­iar ones. That’s espe­cial­ly true on the 46-minute title track, a mon­u­men­tal col­lage of hums and roars that could be revis­it­ed for­ev­er.” Tesser­act was nom­i­nat­ed for Best Instru­men­tal Album of the Year at the 2023 JUNO Awards.

  www.meredithbates.com | www.improvisedarts.ca

• Thierry Tidrow (2024 — present)
  As a Fran­co-ontar­i­an liv­ing in Ger­many for more than ten years, I ter­ri­bly miss the two soli­tudes that make up my lin­guis­tic and cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty. For this rea­son, I‘m extreme­ly hap­py to be a part of the CNMN board and to con­nect with ded­i­cat­ed artists from sea to sea. Fur­ther­more, I look for­ward to shar­ing knowl­edge from my expe­ri­ences work­ing in a pre­dom­i­nant­ly Euro­pean con­text and from my areas of exper­tise, works for the stage and for younger audi­ences (ages 3 to 16). 

  Thier­ry Tidrow (*1986, Ottawa) is an award-win­ning Cana­di­an com­pos­er of instru­men­tal and vocal music, with a predilec­tion for opera. His music has been described as “embrac­ing many musi­cal worlds, in which explo­rations of noise, expres­sion­ist lyri­cism, pas­tiche and par­o­dy form a dis­cur­sive and rich­ly detailed whole.” (ECM+ Gen­er­a­tions Jury 2018) This auda­cious syn­the­sis of styles gives rise to a chiaroscuro of mean­ing, often play­ful, but where the humourous can quick­ly turn to the hor­rif­ic or trag­ic and back. His stud­ied approach to text and sound reveals hid­den mean­ings and erects new ones, and his dra­mat­ic instinct leads to an intrin­si­cal­ly nar­ra­tive mode of expres­sion packed with sur­prise and intrigue.

  Thier­ry has col­lab­o­rat­ed with many per­form­ers across Europe and North Amer­i­ca, includ­ing the Asko-Schön­berg Ensem­ble, Ensem­ble Mod­ern, Klang­fo­rum Wien, the Quatuor Bozzi­ni, Con­tin­u­um, Ensem­ble Paramirabo, Sarah Maria Sun, Thomas Hamp­son, Johannes Fis­ch­er, Heather Roche and many oth­ers. Their most recent Cana­di­an pre­miere, Entre Nous, for Quasar and four actors, is a con­cert-length music the­atre that explores what the Que­bec/Fran­co-ontar­i­an lan­guage does and does­n’t say about our past, our val­ues, our trau­mas, our prej­u­dices, our need to belong and  to laugh.
  
  Thier­ry has writ­ten more than ten operas, includ­ing many for younger audi­ences and ama­teur per­form­ers. From 2019 to 2022 they were com­pos­er-in-res­i­dence at Oper Dort­mund, and their oper­at­ic works have also been played in many opera hous­es in Ger­many and Aus­tria, includ­ing Bonn, Cologne, Dres­den, Darm­stadt, Düs­sel­dorf and the Vien­na State Opera. Thier­ry has received many dis­tinc­tions, includ­ing the 1st prize of the inau­gur­al Gra­ham Som­mer Com­pe­ti­tion for his string quin­tet Quick­sil­ver (2018), and the Cana­da Coun­cil for the Arts’ Gov­er­nor Gen­er­al’s award, the Jules-Léger Prize for Au fond du Cloître Humide (2014).

• Hillary Jean Young (2024 — present)
  Hillary Jean Young is a musi­cian, vocal­ist, and impro­vis­er work­ing in exper­i­men­tal music, new opera, and con­tem­po­rary cham­ber music. Hillary has per­formed with numer­ous ensem­bles and col­lec­tives, such as kallisti cham­ber opera, Oper­aQ, red fish blue fish, Quin­ta­gious!, FAWN Cham­ber Cre­ative, Din of Shad­ows, and The Hap­pen­stancers. In 2019, Hillary earned their Doc­tor of Musi­cal Arts in Con­tem­po­rary Music Per­for­mance from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego (UCSD), where they stud­ied with Gram­my award-win­ning sopra­no Susan Naruc­ki. In addi­tion to their work as a per­former, Hillary has held cura­to­r­i­al and admin­is­tra­tive roles with Con­tin­u­um Con­tem­po­rary Music, Paper Bag Records, and Oxin­gale Music.

  I am absolute­ly thrilled to be rep­re­sent­ing Ontario on the CNMN board of direc­tors. I believe whole-heart­ed­ly in CNM­N’s mis­sion, and I look for­ward to help­ing to shape the future of this orga­ni­za­tion. I have a deep admi­ra­tion for the ways in which CNMN encour­ages col­lab­o­ra­tion and con­nec­tion through music and sound while still pri­or­i­tiz­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty, and I am excit­ed to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to both con­tin­ue and build upon that invalu­able work.

• Anju Singh (2024 — present)
  I share with CNMN a per­son­al com­mit­ment to devel­op­ing and sup­port­ing new music works and exper­i­men­ta­tion in music and sound across Cana­da. As a nation­al com­mu­ni­ty of artists, we all ben­e­fit when we have more oppor­tu­ni­ties to con­nect and learn about one anoth­er’s work. A new music net­work is an excit­ing and grow­ing concept. 

  Anju Singh is a com­pos­er, mul­ti-instru­men­tal­ist, noise/sound artist and video artist based in Van­cou­ver. Her sound and image-based works focus on tex­ture, den­si­ty, and extreme dynam­ics. She uses tra­di­tion­al instru­ments, extend­ed or exper­i­men­tal tech­niques, elec­tron­ic pro­cess­ing, non-musi­cal mate­ri­als and objects, and cus­tom built tools and instru­ments to exper­i­ment and devel­op her works. A core aspect of her prac­tice is to use meth­ods of decon­struc­tion and rean­i­ma­tion to repur­pose and con­tex­tu­al­ize mate­ri­als in new com­po­si­tion­al environments. 

  Anju is an active tour­ing artist and has pre­sent­ed and per­formed her work across Cana­da, in Europe, Brazil, Mex­i­co, and the Unit­ed States in a vari­ety of spaces includ­ing at Fylkin­gen in Stock­holm, Swe­den; Send + Receive Fes­ti­val in Win­nipeg; Van­cou­ver Jazz Fes­ti­val; Poly­gon Gallery; New Forms Fes­ti­val; and most recent­ly on tour in Japan.

• Julie Richard (QC) (2019-present)
  As a mem­ber of the fran­coph­o­ne com­mu­ni­ty in Que­bec, it is of inter­est to me to open my hori­zons to more glob­al ini­tia­tives whose scope and man­dates are just as inno­v­a­tive as the caus­es they sup­port. I am there­fore filled with impa­tience and curios­i­ty as I join the board of CNMN. 

  Com­mit­ted musi­cian, com­pos­er and cul­tur­al work­er, Julie Richard has been active­ly involved in Mon­tre­al’s artis­tic and musi­cal scenes for near­ly 20 years. Three-time grad­u­ate in clas­si­cal music, she is also versed in vocal inter­pre­ta­tion, jazz, pop, exper­i­men­tal music as well as African, Gyp­sy, Jew­ish and Cre­ole music.

  Hav­ing par­tic­i­pat­ed in numer­ous tours across Cana­da and the Unit­ed States, she par­tic­i­pat­ed in the SXSW fes­ti­val and per­formed inter­na­tion­al­ly in East­ern Europe, France and Colom­bia. Along­side her musi­cal prac­tice, Julie’s inter­dis­ci­pli­nary career led her to work in the areas of artis­tic man­age­ment, inter­ven­tion psy­chol­o­gy, and cul­tur­al research and ani­ma­tion. She is also known for her involve­ment in the pro­gram­ming of the Lux Magna fes­ti­val and the Suoni per il Popo­lo festival.

  Her lat­est project, Black Ark Orches­tra, inspired her to work with frag­ments of musi­cal com­po­si­tions cre­at­ed by black musi­cians who pre­dom­i­nant­ly came up in the Unit­ed States in the 1920s. The Black Ark project aims to reha­bil­i­tate these mar­gin­al­ized works of clas­si­cal music pro­duced by African-Amer­i­can women. It is a ques­tion of find­ing, updat­ing and rec­og­niz­ing the val­ue of what remains of these com­po­si­tions so that they do not remain for­got­ten, so that they can final­ly enter into con­ver­sa­tion with the his­to­ry of con­tem­po­rary music. In com­pos­ing, she does not seek to accu­rate­ly recon­struct the con­tours of these com­po­si­tions, but aims to draw a liv­ing ges­ture that is non-lin­ear and simul­ta­ne­ous­ly heal­ing, trans­for­ma­tive and creative.

• Emily Doolittle (Non-Regional) (2016-present)
  I’m thrilled to join the board of the CNMN as a Non-Region­al Rep­re­sen­ta­tive. I’ve lived in a num­ber of dif­fer­ent coun­tries in my life as a com­pos­er – Cana­da, the US, the Nether­lands, Fin­land, Ger­many, and now Scot­land – and while each of these coun­tries has lots of fan­tas­tic musi­cians and amaz­ing musi­cal things to offer, my time out­side of Cana­da has made me aware of just how spe­cial the Cana­di­an new music com­mu­ni­ty is. We have such a rich diver­si­ty of music being made, so many strong and sup­port­ive region­al and nation­wide net­works, and, most impor­tant­ly, a real sense that we’re all in this togeth­er. Any­thing that helps one of us helps all of us.

  As a Non-Region­al Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, I’m par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ed in fig­ur­ing out how to main­tain con­nec­tions between Cana­di­an com­posers and new music per­form­ers abroad and those in Cana­da, in pro­mot­ing the work of Cana­di­an com­posers world­wide, and in facil­i­tat­ing inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tions. I’m also inter­est­ed in find­ing ways to encour­age ensem­bles, con­cert series, and fes­ti­vals to pro­gram new pieces in a way that rep­re­sents the true diver­si­ty of Cana­di­an com­posers, in terms of gen­der, eth­nic­i­ty, region­al, styl­is­tic and oth­er dif­fer­ences. I will work with the CNMN on behalf of all of us in the Cana­di­an new music community.

  Emi­ly Doolit­tle’s music has been described as “elo­quent and effec­tive” (The WholeNote), “mas­ter­ful” (Musi­cal Toron­to), and “the piece…that grabbed me by the heart” (The WholeNote). Doolit­tle has been com­mis­sioned by such ensem­bles as Orchestre Mét­ro­pol­i­tain, Tafel­musik, Sym­pho­ny Nova Sco­tia, and Ensem­ble Con­tem­po­rain de Mon­tre­al, and sup­port­ed by the Sorel Orga­ni­za­tion, the Cana­da Coun­cil for the Arts, Opera Amer­i­ca, and the Ful­bright Foun­da­tion, among oth­ers. Recent projects include Seal Songs, a 30-minute piece based on Gael­ic selkie folk­lore, com­mis­sioned by Paragon and the Voice Fac­to­ry Youth Choir (Glas­gow), a con­cer­to for vio­lin­ist Calvin Dyck and the Van­cou­ver Island Sym­pho­ny, and five months as com­pos­er-in-res­i­dence at the Max Planck Insti­tute for Ornithol­o­gy in Seewiesen, Ger­many. Orig­i­nal­ly from Nova Sco­tia, Cana­da, Doolit­tle was edu­cat­ed at Dal­housie Uni­ver­si­ty, Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty, the Konin­klijk Con­ser­va­to­ri­um, and Prince­ton. From 2008–2015 she was on the fac­ul­ty of Cor­nish Col­lege of the Arts in Seat­tle. She now lives in Glas­gow, Scotland.

  emilydoolittle.com
  https://www.facebook.com/EmilyDoolittleComposer/

• Past Board Members

  Marina Hasselberg (2023 — 2024)
• Jennifer Waring (ON) (President 2016–2019, Board Member 2014–2016)
• An-Laurence Higgins (2020- 2022)
• Robert Thomson (BC) (2020 — 2022)
• Müge Büyükçelen (BC) (2019–2024)
• André Cormier (Atlantic) (2018-present)
• Po Yeh (Prairies) (2016–2022)
• Linda Bouchard (Non Regional) (2018–2023)
• Megumi Masaki (Prairies) (2016–2023)
• Jérôme Blais (Atlantic) (2012-present)
• Marc-Olivier Lamontagne (QC) (2016–2017)
• Clemens Merkel (QC) (2017–2020)
• David Pay (BC) (2012–2019)
• Jason Cullimore (SK) (2008–10)
• Patrick Giguère (QC) (2018–2019)
• Janice Jackson (Atlantic) (Secretary, 2008-12)
• Brenda Cleniuk (SK) (2017–2019)
• Jennifer Butler (BC) (2016–2019)
• Aimé Dontigny (QC) (2006)
• Brent Lee (ON) (2011–14)
• Heidi Ouellette (MB) (2012–16)
• Cléo Palacio-Quintin (QC) (Treasurer, 2010–14)
• Alain Perron (SK)(2010–2017)
• Clark Ross (NF) (2006–08)
• Ellen Waterman (ON) (2006–07)
• Gayle Young (ON) (2006–08)
• Jason van Eyk (ON)(2010–2011)
• Jerry Pergolesi (ON) (2008–13)
• Jim Hiscott (MB) (Secretary-Treasurer, 2006-08; Board Member, 2009-10)
• Jim Montgomery (ON) (Secretary, 2012–16)
• Joe Sorbara (ON) (2006–08)
• John Gzowski (ON) (2008–12)
• John Reid (AB and the Northern Territories) (2010–14)
• Karen Sunabacka (MB) (2010–12)
• Kathryn Ladano (ON) (2016–2018)
• Kyle Brenders (ON) (President, 2014–16; Board Member, 2013–14)
• Lawrence Cherney (ON) (2008–10)
• Louise Campbell (QC) (Vice-President, 2014–16; Board Member, 2008-12)
• Marianne Perron (QC) (2006–08)
• Mireille Gagné (QC) (Vice President, 2005-08; Treasurer, 2009-10)
• Randy Raine-Reusch (BC) (2010–12)
• Paul Cram (Atlantic) (2005–14)
• Pauline Minevich (SK) (2006–07)
• Pierre-Olivier Roy (QC) (2018–2020)
• Roger Admiral (AB) (2005–10)
• Ron Samworth (BC) (2006–08)
• Sarah Albu (QC) (Board Member, 2016–2018)
• Stacey Brown (QC) (Treasurer, 2014–16; Vice-President, 2012–14)
• Therese Costes (MB) (2006–07)
• Tim Brady (QC) (Board Member, 2014–2017; President, 2005–14)
• Tina Pearson (BC) (Vice President, 2008-12)