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.
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.).
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.
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.
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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industrys standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged.
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Lorem Ipsum est tout simplement un texte factice de l'industrie de l'impression et de la composition. Lorem Ipsum est le texte factice standard de l'industrie depuis les années 1500, quand un imprimeur inconnu a pris une cuisine de type et l'a brouillé pour faire un livre de spécimen de type. Il a survécu non seulement à cinq siècles, mais aussi au saut dans la composition électronique, demeurant essentiellement inchangé.
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Lorem Ipsum est tout simplement un texte factice de l'industrie de l'impression et de la composition. Lorem Ipsum est le texte factice standard de l'industrie depuis les années 1500, quand un imprimeur inconnu a pris une cuisine de type et l'a brouillé pour faire un livre de spécimen de type. Il a survécu non seulement à cinq siècles, mais aussi au saut dans la composition électronique, demeurant essentiellement inchangé.
Lorem Ipsum est tout simplement un texte factice de l'industrie de l'impression et de la composition. Lorem Ipsum est le texte factice standard de l'industrie depuis les années 1500, quand un imprimeur inconnu a pris une cuisine de type et l'a brouillé pour faire un livre de spécimen de type. Il a survécu non seulement à cinq siècles, mais aussi au saut dans la composition électronique, demeurant essentiellement inchangé.