Board Member Category: Current Board Members | 9

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Bio:
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

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.

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.

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/