FORUM 2014 – January 23–26, 2014

Get ready for the FORUM 2014 – our, biggest, best FORUM yet!

CNMN presents the 6th edi­tion of the inter­na­tion­al new music con­fer­ence, FORUM 2014, in Cal­gary, Alber­ta, at the gor­geous Rozsa Cen­tre, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Music Divi­sion of the School of Cre­ative and Per­form­ing Arts, Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­gary. The theme for this year is Cana­di­an Music, Cana­di­an Audi­ences, and the goal is to help new music artists con­nect with the world – with oth­er artists, with pro­duc­ers and pre­sen­ters, with the web, with the media, with edu­ca­tors, and with the public.

To make these con­nec­tions, we have orga­nized an amaz­ing series of meet­ings, pre­sen­ta­tions, dis­cus­sions, and for­mal and infor­mal net­work­ing ses­sions. Our 5 keynote guests rep­re­sent some of the most impor­tant new music pre­sen­ters on the plan­et: The Miller The­ater (New York), The Lon­don Sin­foni­et­ta, The Berlin Phil­har­mon­ic Dig­i­tal Con­cert Hall, the Why Note Fes­ti­val (Dijon, France), and Sound­streams (Toron­to). This is your chance to meet these peo­ple, and learn how they have made con­nec­tions with their audiences.

Pan­el dis­cus­sions will fea­ture top­ics such as Fes­ti­val Pro­gram­ming (how and why the music is pre­sent­ed), New Music and the New Media Land­scape (how to con­nect), Audi­ence Devel­op­ment (strate­gies and ideas that work), Orches­tral Pro­gram­ming (deal­ing with the big machine), and the eter­nal favourite, What is Cana­di­an New Music (“The Unan­swered Ques­tion”, to quote Charles Ives in anoth­er context).

Invit­ed pan­el­lists include rep­re­sen­ta­tives from many of Canada’s main pre­sen­ters and pro­duc­ers: SMCQ, Music Gallery, NEM, Con­tin­u­um, Con­tact, Clus­ter Fes­ti­val, Music On Main, Toron­to Sym­pho­ny, Orchestre mét­ro­pol­i­tain, Quatuor Bozzi­ni, West­ern Front…the list goes on.

There will also be sev­er­al open net­work­ing and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment ses­sions, where peo­ple can exchange ideas and expe­ri­ences around top­ics such as the eco­nom­ics of new music, new music dis­sem­i­na­tion and music edu­ca­tion. These open meet­ings were a great suc­cess in Van­cou­ver at FORUM 2012. They are also a fan­tas­tic way to net­work your ini­tia­tives with new music prac­ti­tion­ers from across Cana­da, as well as explor­ing larg­er issues in the community.

For the first time ever, the FORUM pro­gram­ming is also fuelled by an open call that attract­ed many great pro­pos­als, and 18 peo­ple were invit­ed in response. Here’s a lit­tle taste: Punc­tu­al Pro­duc­tion vs. Con­cert Sea­son: A Few Issues (Simon Mar­tin); Cross­ing Bor­ders: The Com­posers Project and Cana­di­an Music (Jen Black­well & Mike Roma­ni­ak); Unsi­lenc­ing: An Open Forum on Women and their Place in New Music and Sound Art (Tina Pear­son & Jen­nifer But­ler); Sto­ry­telling through sound, speech, and music (Car­men Braden); oh my gol­ly! – a per­for­mance and intro­duc­tion on incor­po­rat­ing con­tem­po­rary music in high school (Scott Godin, Lael John­ston and the Chester­mere High School Drumline.

To round things off, there is a con­cert of new music being pre­sent­ed each night (Jan, 23, 24 and 25), at the Eck­hardt-Gram­mat­té Con­cert Hall, one of Canada’s best cham­ber music halls, housed at the Rozsa Cen­tre. FORUM reg­is­trants can pur­chase spe­cial­ly-priced $10 tick­ets to each con­cert, a sub­stan­tial dis­count. Vis­it the con­cert page for more information.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN, with a very afford­able ear­ly bird rate avail­able only to CNMN vot­ing mem­bers – but only until Jan­u­ary 3 – book now!

See you in Calgary!
Tim Brady

Direct link: FORUM 2014 – Jan­u­ary 23 – 26, 2014
Return to full Bul­letin – Decem­ber 2013