Souvenirs from FORUM 2016

Thank you to every­one who shared a FORUM 2016 expe­ri­ence with us!

Do you have a FORUM 2016 expe­ri­ence to share? If you would like to sup­port the con­tin­u­a­tion of these FORUMs, we would love to hear feed­back from you. Whether it’s a cou­ple of words, a few sen­tences, or more, about any aspect of the FORUM, your feed­back and tes­ti­mo­ni­als will help tremen­dous­ly with our report­ing and future plan­ning. Please email admin@reseaumusiquesnouvelles.ca

From Sonia Steven­son, Artis­tic Direc­tor, Lich­field Fes­ti­val & St Andrews Voic­es, UK:

The range of top­ics cov­ered, the diver­si­ty and wealth of expe­ri­ence of those attend­ing, and the excel­lent organ­i­sa­tion of the hosts made for a tru­ly inspir­ing few days. I came away inspired and invigorated.

From Joe Bates, Artis­tic Direc­tor of Filthy Lukre, UK:

I found [FORUM 2016] inspir­ing, use­ful and fun. The qual­i­ty of dis­cus­sion was con­sis­tent­ly high and com­bined with an open atmos­phere that allowed par­tic­i­pants to eas­i­ly net­work and have in depth con­ver­sa­tions. That this was pos­si­ble for some­body with no pre-exist­ing net­work, like myself, is a tes­ti­mo­ny to the open­ness of the forum and the friend­li­ness of the mem­bers. It has also yield­ed prac­ti­cal results. The con­fer­ence was sophis­ti­cat­ed in its dis­cus­sion of diver­si­ty and inclu­sion due to the read­i­ly appar­ent efforts tak­en by its organ­is­ers. I have returned to the UK with a set of clear­ly defined actions to take and the links to evi­dence their effi­ca­cy. This will help both my organ­i­sa­tion and the com­mu­ni­ties we serve.

From Frank Hor­vat, composer/pianist, Toronto:

I reg­u­lar­ly attend many music con­fer­ences … [FORUM 2016] was a breath of fresh air to be sur­round­ed by atten­dees who feel equal­ly as pas­sion­ate about main­tain­ing their cre­ative voice as get­ting audi­ences to hear it.

From Cur­tis Per­ry, Ottawa New Music Creators:

FORUM 2016 pro­vid­ed indis­pen­si­ble dis­cus­sion about such wide-rang­ing issues as mar­ket­ing, pre­sen­ta­tion, attend­ing to diverse pro­gram­ming with sen­si­tiv­i­ty, effec­tive com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment, and more. I learned about the expe­ri­ences of orga­niz­ers, artists, and oth­er pro­fes­sion­als from across Cana­da and abroad that I will be car­ry­ing for­ward as an inte­gral part of my pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment. There is no doubt in my mind that CNMN’s FORUM 2016 was a sem­i­nal and invig­o­rat­ing event that fur­ther strength­ened the stan­dards of pro­fes­sion­al­ism, in all its atten­dant mean­ings, for all involved in this artis­tic prac­tice that we call new music.

From Susan­na East­burn, Chief Exec­u­tive, Sound and Music, UK:

It was won­der­ful to be … part of such good qual­i­ty of debate. I met some great con­tacts and … am con­fi­dent that it will lead to fur­ther exchanges and coop­er­a­tive activ­i­ties for all of us.

From Sean Clarke, Com­pos­er & Per­former, Calgary/Ottawa:

I did­n’t have much expe­ri­ence with the CNMN before­hand but found the dis­cus­sions, pan­els and pre­sen­ta­tions very reward­ing and thought pro­vok­ing. By the end of the week­end I was inspired and impressed by the orga­ni­za­tion and moti­vat­ed to become more involved. It’s great to have a net­work like this that’s so com­mit­ted to Cana­di­an new music in all its forms.

From Ellen Water­man, musi­cian and pro­fes­sor, Memo­r­i­al Uni­ver­si­ty, Newfoundland:

I was inspired by the stim­u­lat­ing dis­cus­sions about diver­si­ty at FORUM 2016. It was tru­ly a thought pro­vok­ing con­fer­ence and left me very encour­aged and refreshed about the prospects for new music in Canada.

From Lau­ra Kavanaugh & Ian Birse, Instant­places, Hull:

As inde­pen­dent artists we wel­comed the chance to meet face-to-face with peo­ple we have been in con­tact with long-dis­tance. We caught up with old friends and made some new ones! By invit­ing Pauline Oliv­eros and Ione as spe­cial guests, the CNMN showed us an open­ness to artists who embrace hybrid­i­ty and exper­i­men­ta­tion and embody new-world ways of working/feeling/being.

From Henk Heuvel­mans, Direc­tor of Gaudea­mus Muziek­week, Utrecht:

Though many of the top­ics of [FORUM 2016] are sim­i­lar to the ones we dis­cuss in our part of the world, it was real­ly spe­cial to expe­ri­ence how some things are very dif­fer­ent in Cana­da, not only because of the size of the coun­try but espe­cial­ly because of the dif­fer­ent his­to­ry. [It was] good to feel lots of ener­gy to move for­ward in exist­ing and new co-operations.

From Scott Good, com­pos­er • per­former — Toronto:

I found the FORUM 2016 to be a very use­ful and fun event to attend and par­tic­i­pate. The rig­or­ous pace, vari­ety of speak­ers, and gen­er­al friend­ly tone were con­ducive to the spir­it of net­work­ing and new­ness. I’m very pleased to have gone.

From Véronique Lacroix, Artis­tic Direc­tor, Ensem­ble con­tem­po­rain de Mon­tréal (ECM+):

The FORUM 2016 was very well orga­nized, extreme­ly con­struc­tive and par­tic­i­pa­tive. The per­fect meet­ing place for Canada’s new music community.

From Mary Kene­di, pianist, Toronto:

[FORUM 2016] was real­ly infor­ma­tive, excit­ing and pro­vid­ed great oppor­tu­ni­ties for net­work­ing. … I found the whole expe­ri­ence intel­lec­tu­al­ly stim­u­lat­ing, lift­ing one out of the every­day strug­gles in this dif­fi­cult area of cul­tur­al life.

From Mon­i­ca Pearse, Artis­tic Direc­tor, Toy Piano Com­posers, Toronto:

[FORUM 2016 was] a fan­tas­tic place to con­nect and recon­nect with some of the top pro­fes­sion­als in new music. A great plat­form for dis­cussing issues and ideas. Get­ting to meet so many peo­ple from across the coun­try is a real priv­i­lege. I also love how the net­work­ing feels more nat­ur­al than at more showcase‑y events.

Direct link: Sou­venirs of FORUM 2016
Return to full Bul­letin – June 2016