Round Tables

Panel 1: Finding unity in diversity: the structural issues

Cre­ative music is a com­plex art form, but it also involves a com­plex series of social and eco­nom­ic actions in order to thrive and pros­per. Increas­ing­ly, artists and music advo­cates are work­ing to cre­ate col­lab­o­ra­tive artis­tic, social and eco­nom­ic struc­tures in order to help cre­ative music move for­ward in soci­ety. How can we com­bine the need for effec­tive, col­lab­o­ra­tive artis­tic struc­tures with the need for artis­tic free­dom? What role do inde­pen­dent artists play in this process? What role does the gov­ern­ment play? Do we need social struc­tures (asso­ci­a­tions, lob­by groups, pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies), or phys­i­cal struc­tures (con­certs halls, rehearsal and work­shop spaces)? What role do asso­ci­a­tions and lob­by groups play? How does one deal with the com­pet­ing needs of dif­fer­ent artists with­in a sin­gle “struc­ture”: absolute equal­i­ty, rel­a­tive democ­ra­cy, a for­mal­ized com­pet­i­tive mod­el, unfet­tered chaos? What cre­ates the best art? What cre­ates the best struc­ture? Does a good struc­ture cre­ate good art, or…?

with:

Mod­er­a­tor — Bob Bauer
Com­pos­er • Gui­tarist • Producer
(Bed­ford, NS)

Joël Bons
Com­pos­er • Artis­tic Direc­tor, Nieuw Ensem­ble & Atlas Ensem­ble • Coor­di­na­tor of the com­po­si­tion depart­ment of theCon­ser­va­to­ry of Amsterdam
(Ams­ter­dam, Netherlands)

Matthew Greenall
Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Sound and Music
(Lon­don, UK)

Jim His­cott
Com­pos­er • Musi­cian • Pro­duc­er • Co-Artis­tic Direc­tor of Groundswell
(Win­nipeg, MB)

Marie-Chan­tal Leclair
Vice Pres­i­dent, groupe Le Vivi­er • Artis­tic Direc­tor, Quasar, sax­o­phone quartet
(Mon­tréal, QC)

Tina Pear­son
Direc­tor, LaSaM • Mem­ber, Son­ic Presence
(Vic­to­ria, BC)

Panel 2: NEW MUSIC PROGRAMMING AND DIVERSITY

Diver­si­ty — is it an issue? How is it an issue? Is it good for new music? Bad? Irrel­e­vant? Essen­tial? What does an artis­tic direc­tor do to deal with diver­si­ty — what fac­tors do they have to weigh to cre­ate a “bal­anced” sea­son: style, tech­nique, aes­thet­ics, age, nation­al­i­ty, region­al­ism, eco­nom­ic, lan­guage, gen­dre, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, per­son­al­i­ty? Does the pub­lic care (should the pub­lic care?), or do they just want a great con­cert? How does one bal­ance our oblig­a­tions to rep­re­sent the full scope of musi­cal cre­ativ­i­ty with the desire to present a sin­gle, coher­ent, uni­fied artis­tic vision? Is this pos­si­ble, is it desirable?

with:

Mod­er­a­tor — Jérôme Blais
Com­pos­er • Pro­fes­sor, Depart­ment of Music, Dal­housie University
(Hal­i­fax, Nova Scotia)

Paul Bendzsa
Clar­inet­tist • Artis­tic con­sul­tant & found­ing mem­ber of the Sound Sym­po­sium
(St. John’s, New­found­land & Labrador)

Shawn Bostick
Atlantic Region­al Direc­tor, CMC • Per­cus­sion­ist • Teacher
(Sackville, NB)

Joane Hétu
Co-Artis­tic Direc­tor, Pro­duc­tions Super­Musique • Com­pos­er • Per­former • Pres­i­dent & Gen­er­al Direc­tor of DAME (Dis­tri­b­u­tion Ambiances Mag­né­tiques Etcetera Inc.)
(Mon­tréal, QC)

Jer­ry Pergolesi
Co-Artis­tic Direc­tor, Con­tact Con­tem­po­rary Music • Percussionist
(Toron­to, ON)

Blair Mack­ay
Per­cus­sion­ist • Direc­tor, Ever­green Club Con­tem­po­rary Gamelan
(Toron­to, ON)

Panel 3: NEW MUSIC, NEW CANADIANS: CULTURE AND MUSIC

What is “Cana­di­an” new music? Does it exist? Can it exist? Should it exist? How do we rec­on­cile cul­tures with long, deep musi­cal tra­di­tions with the almost pris­tine, vir­gin ter­ri­to­ry that is the Cana­di­an musi­cal land­scape? We are (almost) all immi­grants — how do we build a cre­ative music tra­di­tion with so much diver­si­ty in our cul­ture? How can we, how should we, cre­ate a pos­i­tive envi­ron­ment for the expand­ing range of musi­cal tra­di­tions that are becom­ing part of the Cana­di­an new music world?

with:

Mod­er­a­tor — Peter Tog­ni
Com­pos­er • Organ­ist • Pianist • Radio Host
(Hal­i­fax, NS)

Parmela Attari­wala
Attar Project • PhD can­di­date (eth­no­mu­si­col­o­gy), Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto
(Toron­to, ON)

Sandeep Bhag­wati
Com­pos­er • Cana­da Research Chair in Inter‑X Art • Direc­tor matral­ab, Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­si­ty, (Mon­tréal, QC)

Kiya Tabass­ian
Artis­tic Direc­tor, Con­stan­tino­ple
(Mon­tréal, QC)

Lan Tung
Erhu (Chi­nese Vio­lin) musi­cian • Artis­tic Direc­tor of Orchid Ensem­ble •Vice Pres­i­dent of Van­cou­ver Inter-Cul­tur­al Orches­tra (Van­cou­ver, BC)

*Pro­gram­ming sub­ject to change with­out pri­or noti­fi­ca­tion* (Decem­ber 16, 2009)