Archives: Board Members |

Thierry Tidrow (2024 — present)

PC: Anika Neese

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).

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.

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

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.

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.

Marina Hasselberg (2023 — 2024)

As a mem­ber of the CNMN board I aim to take advan­tage of my own expe­ri­ence as a music per­former to active­ly sup­port the organization’s mis­sion of con­nect­ing and enrich­ing the Cana­di­an music scene and improv­ing its impact in the world.

Eclec­tic and award-win­ning cel­list Mari­na Has­sel­berg “has become a stand­out pres­ence on Vancouver’s music scene” (Geor­gia Straight). Like her new Jesse Zubot-pro­duced album Red, her per­for­mances are a provoca­tive, deeply per­son­al mix of clas­si­fi­ca­tion-resis­tant writ­ten works and adven­tur­ous impro­vised excur­sions, with Has­sel­berg employ­ing extend­ed tech­niques, a vari­ety of bows and acces­sories, and elec­tron­ics to skirt the fine line between the known and the unknown.

 

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.

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

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

An-Laurence Higgins (2020- 2022)

It gives me great plea­sure to get involved on the board of direc­tors of the Cana­di­an New Music Net­work as the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Que­bec. I am very hap­py to be able to con­tribute to the func­tion­ing of an orga­ni­za­tion that works to bring togeth­er new music artists across the coun­try despite the immense dis­tance that sep­a­rates us. I admire the work CNMN does topro­vide a plat­form for artists, espe­cial­ly dur­ing the Forums, to encour­age the emer­gence of the next gen­er­a­tion (Con­neX­ions) and to address impor­tant issues that have been ignored for too long in our com­mu­ni­ty with the series Con­ver­sa­tions on Decolonization.

An-Lau­rence Hig­gins is a Mon­tre­al-based new music per­former as well as a mul­ti­me­dia artist address­ing top­ics such as transna­tion­al iden­ti­ty and rela­tion­ships.
As a musi­cian, An-Lau­rence has per­formed as a gui­tar soloist, cham­ber musi­cian and impro­vis­er across Que­bec and Ontario since 2016. In 2019, she inde­pen­dent­ly pro­duced and direct­ed the project “Émer­gences (f.pl.)”, com­mis­sion­ing 5 news works by emerg­ing women com­posers and cul­mi­nat­ing in per­for­mances in Mon­tre­al and Toron­to. As a mul­ti­me­dia artist, An-Lau­rence has explored her transna­tion­al iden­ti­ty as an adoptee of Chi­nese ori­gin through the mul­ti­me­dia instal­la­tion “Con­fi­dences en trois temps” and the inter­ac­tive per­for­mance “Come Clos­er, I’ll tell you what I for­got”.
An-Lau­rence is an avid col­lab­o­ra­tor and believes the act of cre­ation is one of shar­ing and car­ing. A dar­ing per­former, she has col­lab­o­rat­ed with artists from var­i­ous dis­ci­plines (visu­al arts, cin­e­ma, dance) and thrives in set­tings that stretch the lim­its of tra­di­tion­al music per­for­mance. Com­mit­ted to her com­mu­ni­ty, An-Lau­rence has been a co-orga­niz­er of the Mon­tre­al Con­tem­po­rary Music Lab peer-men­tor­ship pro­gram since 2017, and recent­ly joined the Board of direc­tors of the new music con­cert series Codes d’accès.
Pho­to: Car­los Riobo

Robert Thomson (BC) (2020 — 2022)

I had the good for­tune of attend­ing and con­tribut­ing to a CNMN Sus­tain­abil­i­ty con­ver­sa­tion in 2019. I felt a con­nec­tion with the organization’s val­ues and left excit­ed with the dia­logue and the knowl­edge exchanged. CNMN is pro­vid­ing inno­v­a­tive and excit­ing events that enrich our music com­mu­ni­ty. I’m hon­oured to be asked to join the board and am excit­ed to con­tribute and learn. 

Robert Thom­son is a musi­cian, music cura­tor, and per­former of Hai­da, Tsimshi­an, and mixed Euro­pean ances­try. He is the band leader of soul-pop project Sis­ter Says, an artis­tic pro­duc­er at Full Cir­cle: First Nations Per­for­mance and the music pro­gram­mer for the Talk­ing Stick Fes­ti­val and Múyuntstut ta Slúlum Con­cert Series. In 2019, Robert received the award for “Emerg­ing Per­form­ing Arts Leader” pre­sent­ed by the Cana­di­an Asso­ci­a­tion for Pre­sent­ing Arts. 


Out­side of Full Cir­cle and Sis­ter Says, Robert is cur­rent­ly the elec­tric bass play­er in the projects SOLA, Logan and Nathan, a sound designer/performer/live loop­er in the exper­i­men­tal musi­cal Mor­ag, You’re a Long Time Deid (2020), part of the Indigifest (2019) artis­tic team, and co-curat­ed the con­cert, Giv­ing Voice (2017). 

Müge Büyükçelen (BC) (2019–2024)

I’m very hap­py and hon­oured to serve as a board mem­ber of the CNMN. As an active per­former and huge advo­cate of con­tem­po­rary music and specif­i­cal­ly Cana­di­an con­tem­po­rary music, I’m aware of the impor­tance of net­work­ing, com­mu­ni­cat­ing with wider com­mu­ni­ties. I’m hop­ing to be able to share my excite­ment and joy of work­ing with com­posers, per­form­ers in cre­at­ing new works. I’m hop­ing to uti­lize my expe­ri­ence in the field to assist in pro­mot­ing new Cana­di­an music.

Müge Büyükçelen is a pas­sion­ate vio­lin­ist known for her mul­ti-genre ver­sa­til­i­ty. High­lights of her recent per­for­mances include the pre­mier of Jared Miller’s vio­lin con­cer­to ded­i­cat­ed to Müge, the Beethoven vio­lin con­cer­to, a con­cert tour through Aus­tralia and New Zealand, per­for­mances of new works by Jen­nifer But­ler, Paul Frehn­er, as well as var­i­ous con­certs with the Emi­ly Carr String Quartet.

She is a cur­rent mem­ber of the Vic­to­ria Sym­pho­ny, Emi­ly Carr String Quar­tet and the Aven­ta Ensem­ble as well as an active vio­lin teacher at the Vic­to­ria Con­ser­va­to­ry of Music. Müge has been a fea­tured soloist with numer­ous orches­tras around the world. In 2009, she pre­miered “Archimedes’ Codex’ a Cana­di­an work ded­i­cat­ed to her by com­pos­er Michael Oester­le. She holds a Mas­ters degree in music per­for­mance from Bilkent Uni­ver­si­ty, in Ankara Turkey, an asso­ciate teach­ing diplo­ma from the Vic­to­ria Con­ser­va­to­ry of Music and was a teach­ing assis­tant stu­dent at the Toulouse Nation­al Conservatory.

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.

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

Pierre-Olivier Roy (QC) (2018–2020)

I am always enthu­si­as­tic about con­tribut­ing to the influ­ence of new music in all con­texts. I par­tic­i­pate every day as a com­pos­er, artis­tic direc­tor and teacher.

An orga­ni­za­tion like CNMN is vital to the cul­tur­al ecosys­tem in which our music evolves. Many issues need dis­cussing and actions need to be tak­en. I cer­tain­ly mean to use my expe­ri­ences in cre­at­ing and pro­duc­ing events. I sin­cere­ly hope that the Que­bec region, and the east­ern part of the province in par­tic­u­lar, will be more involved in the actions of the network.

CNMN projects are excit­ing and the music field is dynam­ic. It is with pride that I agreed to put my shoul­der to the wheel by sit­ting on the board of directors.

Pierre-Olivi­er Roy prac­tices in new music cre­ation and audio pro­duc­tion, main­ly for live music, live music and sound design. His body of work includes cham­ber music (instru­men­tal and mixed) and elec­troa­coustic works. In his recent career, mixed music occu­pies a pride of place. In 2017, Pierre-Olivi­er Roy was cho­sen to con­duct a research res­i­den­cy for the cre­ation of an inter­ac­tive musi­cal work in the White House, based on the qual­i­ty of his work and his vision inte­grat­ing instru­men­tal com­po­si­tion and musi­cal tech­nolo­gies. His work Machine Music, cre­at­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with SAGA, was exhib­it­ed at the Musée de la civ­i­liza­tion between April and June 2017.
More specif­i­cal­ly, he explores the use of musi­cal tech­nolo­gies as part of the cre­ation & com­po­si­tion of mixed music in con­cert. His work Under a Fine Sky (elec­tric gui­tar, per­cus­sion, tapes, live video and immer­sive envi­ron­ment) was nom­i­nat­ed at the Opus Gala in the cat­e­go­ry Con­cert of the Year — Québec and was recip­i­ent of the Uni­ver­sité Laval Hom­mage aux Créa­teurs Mem­bres Award in 2017. In the sum­mer of 2018, The Time Frac­ture — Mul­ti­ple Times (20 per­cus­sion­ists and octo­phon­ic bands) was pre­miered at the Place des Fes­ti­vals in Mon­tre­al as part of Rythmopolis.
Pierre-Olivi­er Roy is very active on the Que­bec new music scene. Since 2015, he has been the gen­er­al and artis­tic direc­tor of the E27 musiques nou­velles. He cur­rent­ly teach­es at the Fac­ul­ty of Music of Laval University.

André Cormier (Atlantic) (2018-present)

André Cormier’s work has been pre­sent­ed in Cana­da, the US, Europe, and New Zealand. He has writ­ten for solo, small and large cham­ber ensem­bles, as well as music for opera, dance as well as col­lab­o­ra­tive work with visu­al artists. His works have been com­mis­sioned from a vari­ety of artists in Cana­da, the US, and Europe. In 2008, he launched Édi­tions musique Sisyphe (www.emsis.ca), a pub­lish­ing house pri­mar­i­ly for exper­i­men­tal music scores; he also directs its per­form­ing branch, Ensem­ble Sisyphe. In 2011, after near­ly twen­ty years on the west coast shared between British Colum­bia and Cal­i­for­nia, André made his return to east­ern Cana­da, first in Mon­tre­al, and then in the sum­mer of 2012, he returned to his native Acadie. Today, André main­tains a busy sched­ule as a com­pos­er by ful­fill­ing com­mis­sions and pre­sent­ing work, all in an effort to greater under­stand what makes sound and silence so irre­sistible. He also finds the com­ple­ment of cacao and sug­ar immense­ly intriguing.