Featured Guests

Paul Spong and Hele­na Symonds (The Orca Lab and Orca-Live, Han­son Island BC)

Co-direc­tors for over 30 years of OrcaL­ab, which demon­strates, through a net­work of remote hydrophone sta­tions, a focus on son­ic envi­ron­ments as a non-inter­fer­ing research tool for study­ing marine life. They are also involved in numer­ous qual­i­ty-of-life issues that affect orcas and oth­er marine wildlife, includ­ing com­mer­cial whal­ing, cap­tiv­i­ty, whale watch­ing and Crit­i­cal Habitat.

Hilde­gard West­erkamp (World Forum for Acoustic Ecol­o­gy, Van­cou­ver)

Com­pos­er, per­former, writer, radio artist and sound ecol­o­gist, West­erkamp presents sound­scape work­shops and lec­tures inter­na­tion­al­ly. Her com­po­si­tions are con­cerned with aspects of the acoustic envi­ron­ment: with urban, rur­al or wilder­ness sound­scapes, with the voic­es of chil­dren, men and women, with noise or silence, music and media sounds, or with the sounds of dif­fer­ent cultures.

Kim Cas­cone (Hydro­pho­nia Fes­ti­val, San Francisco)

Sound design­er, pro­duc­er and com­pos­er of elec­tron­ic music, best known for his ambi­ent, indus­tri­al and elec­tro-acoustic com­po­si­tions. Late­ly, Cas­cone has focused on anthro­pogenic noise in ocean envi­ron­ments and has devel­oped Hydro­pho­nia, a sound art fes­ti­val that has tak­en place in Genoa, Italy, San Sebas­t­ian and Barcelona.

Joel Chad­abe (Elec­tron­ic Music Foun­da­tion, Ear to the Earth, New York)

Com­pos­er, author, pio­neer in inter­ac­tive musi­cal instru­ments, Direc­tor of the Com­put­er Music Stu­dio at Man­hat­tan School of Music, and Founder of the Elec­tron­ic Music Foun­da­tion (EMF). In 2006, Chad­abe found­ed Ear to the Earth, which pro­duces an annu­al fes­ti­val in New York City and hosts the Ear to the Earth Net­work, known as Musi­cians (and their Friends) for the Environment.

Bar­ry Tru­ax (SFU School of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion, World Sound­scape Project, Vancouver)

Award-win­ning pro­fes­sor of acoustic com­mu­ni­ca­tion and elec­troa­coustic com­po­si­tion, spe­cial­iz­ing in sound­scape com­po­si­tion. As a com­pos­er, Tru­ax is best known for his work with the PODX com­put­er music sys­tem, used for solo tape and tape with live per­form­ers or com­put­er graph­ics. He is a core spokesper­son for the World Sound­scape Project, edit­ing its Hand­book for Acoustic Ecol­o­gy. His book Acoustic Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is used world­wide in stud­ies of sound and technology.

pho­to cred­it: Deen van Meer

Rod­ney Shar­man (Van­cou­ver)

One of Canada’s most dis­tin­guished and rec­og­nized com­posers, Sharman’s work has been per­formed wide­ly by soloists, ensem­bles and orches­tras in Cana­da and inter­na­tion­al­ly. He has writ­ten music for dance and opera, and is active as a men­tor and teacher of young composers.

Owen Under­hill (Turn­ing Point Ensem­ble, Van­cou­ver)

Com­pos­er, con­duc­tor, artis­tic direc­tor and pro­fes­sor at the School for the Con­tem­po­rary Arts at Simon Fras­er Uni­ver­si­ty. Underhill’s com­po­si­tions have been per­formed by many of Canada’s lead­ing ensem­bles, and pre­sent­ed wide­ly inter­na­tion­al­ly and on disc. A tire­less pro­mot­er and pro­duc­er of con­tem­po­rary music, Under­hill is also direc­tor of the SFU Woodward’s Cul­tur­al Unit and of its School for the Con­tem­po­rary Arts.

pho­to cred­it: Chris Randle

DB Boyko (Arts and Health Seniors Project, Van­cou­ver)

Com­pos­er, per­former (spe­cial­ist in exper­i­men­tal voice), co-founder of sev­er­al impro­vis­ing ensem­bles, record­ing artist and curator/director (West­ern Front). Her stud­ies and prac­tice of Javanese game­lan court music, dance, pup­pet the­atre, and butoh have informed her involve­ment in a wide spec­trum of projects, includ­ing her intrigu­ing voice per­for­mances and workshops.

Marie Lopes (Round­house Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, Van­cou­ver)

An arts edu­ca­tor and admin­is­tra­tor whose focus for the past twen­ty years has been to facil­i­tate engage­ment and pub­lic dis­course in the arts. Lopes has held cura­tor and pub­lic pro­grams coor­di­na­tion posi­tions at the Edmon­ton, Wind­sor, Burn­a­by and Van­cou­ver Art Gal­leries. She is cur­rent­ly devel­op­ing artists-in-res­i­dence projects and com­mu­ni­ty part­ner­ships with arts orga­ni­za­tions across diverse dis­ci­plines with Vancouver’s Round­house Com­mu­ni­ty Arts and Recre­ation Centre.

Arne Eigen­feldt (SFU School for the Con­tem­po­rary Arts, Vancouver)

A Com­pos­er and soft­ware design­er, cur­rent­ly asso­ciate pro­fes­sor of elec­troa­coustic music at Simon Fras­er Uni­ver­si­ty’s School for the Con­tem­po­rary Arts whose music and research has been pre­sent­ed through­out the world. Eigenfeldt’s research involves live inter­ac­tive com­put­er sys­tems, with a cur­rent focus on Metacre­ation — endow­ing machines with cre­ative behaviour.

Gior­gio Mag­na­nen­si (Van­cou­ver New Music, Van­cou­ver)

His diverse artis­tic prac­tice includes com­po­si­tion, con­duct­ing, impro­vi­sa­tion, cir­cuit-bend­ing and video art. From the ear­ly 80’s to date he has been work­ing as a com­pos­er, con­duc­tor, teacher, and per­former on con­tem­po­rary and exper­i­men­tal music in Europe, Japan and Cana­da. He is artis­tic direc­tor of Van­cou­ver New Music and lec­tur­er at the School of Music of The Van­cou­ver Com­mu­ni­ty College.

Jer­ry Per­gole­si (Con­tact Con­tem­po­rary Music, Toron­to)

Founder and Artis­tic Direc­tor of Con­tact Con­tem­po­rary Music, one of Canada’s most adven­tur­ous and respect­ed new music ensem­bles and pro­duc­ers, Per­gole­si is also a con­tem­po­rary per­cus­sion­ist who has stud­ied Mid­dle East­ern music, African drum­ming and dance, and Javanese Gamelan.

Dylan Robin­son (Indi­gene­ity in the Con­tem­po­rary World, Uni­ver­si­ty of Lon­don, UK)

A mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary artist, schol­ar and researcher, Robinson’s work explores mod­els for dia­logue between cul­tures, schol­ars, artists and the pub­lic. His research focus­es on rep­re­sen­ta­tions of First Peo­ples in art music and opera, and the less­er-known his­to­ry of art music and opera by Indige­nous com­posers and musicians.

Raven Cha­con (New Mexico)

Raven Cha­con (Dine’) is a Nava­jo exper­i­men­tal com­pos­er, per­former, artist and active edu­ca­tor. His works range from music for cham­ber instru­ments to sounds made from home­made elec­tron­ics to acoustic phe­nom­e­na. He is also a mem­ber of the inter­dis­ci­pli­nary Post­com­mod­i­ty collective.

David Pay (Music on Main, Van­cou­ver)

Founder and Artis­tic Direc­tor of Music on Main, a con­cert series ded­i­cat­ed to build­ing com­mu­ni­ty by pro­duc­ing great music in a casu­al but stim­u­lat­ing envi­ron­ment, with top-flight musi­cians, an ear for con­tem­po­rary music, and refresh­ing con­cert formats.

Sandeep Bagh­wati (matral­ab, Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­si­ty, Montreal)

Inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned com­pos­er, the­atre direc­tor and media artist. Born in Mum­bai, hav­ing lived in Europe for over 30 years, he moved to Cana­da in 2006 as a Cana­da Research Chair for Inter‑X Arts in the depart­ments of Music and The­atre at Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­si­ty Montréal.

Brady Cran­field, Vancouver

A sound and visu­al artist, musi­cian and instruc­tor (Emi­ly Carr), founder and co-orga­niz­er of the ongo­ing pub­lic art projectThe Music Appre­ci­a­tion Soci­ety. Cran­field fre­quent­ly col­lab­o­rates on projects explor­ing the pol­i­tics and cul­ture of glob­al capitalism.

Anju Singh, Vancouver

Audio artist inter­est­ed in noise, sound art, and exper­i­men­tal music. Singh has been described as an “omniv­o­rous musi­cian,” using vio­lin, cel­lo, gui­tar, ped­als, drums, found objects-turned noise-machines, and can­ni­bal­ized instru­ments, as the con­text dictates.

Coat Cooke (Orkestra Futu­ra, Van­cou­ver)

Founder and leader of the renowned NOW Orches­tra, Cooke is one of Canada’s most lyri­cal and inven­tive sax­o­phon­ists, com­posers and impro­vis­ers. His projects include col­lab­o­ra­tion with mul­ti-media, dance, elec­tron­ics, video and film, and com­mu­ni­ty-based impro­vi­sa­tion workshops.

pho­to cred­it: Femke van Delft

Ste­fan Smulovitz (Van­cou­ver)

Musi­cian (vio­la & lap­top), com­pos­er and soft­ware devel­op­er. Inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned as the cre­ator and vir­tu­oso of the real-time music soft­ware known as Kenax­is, he reg­u­lar­ly per­forms with the world’s lead­ing impro­vis­ers and com­pos­es for ensem­bles rang­ing from orches­tras to string quar­tets to solo instru­ments with electronics.

Pho­to cred­it: Max D. Well

Avatar Orches­tra Meta­verse (Glob­al)

A glob­al col­lab­o­ra­tion of com­posers, media artists and musi­cians explor­ing the telem­at­ic and cre­ative pos­si­bil­i­ties of three-dimen­sion­al net­worked plat­forms. AOM per­forms in hybrid and vir­tu­al real­i­ty events inter­na­tion­al­ly, using its evolv­ing col­lec­tion of exper­i­men­tal audio-visu­al instru­ments. Mem­bers include Bjorn Eriks­son, Nor­man Lowrey, Leif Inge, Pauline Oliv­eros, Pomodoro Bolzano col­lec­tive, Viv Cor­ring­ham, Tim Rish­er, Bren­da Hutchin­son, Jere­my Owen Turn­er, Tina Pear­son, Sachiko Hayashi, Liz Solo and others.

Tina Pear­son (Vic­to­ria, BC)

Com­pos­er, impro­vis­er and cura­tor whose inter­est in process and inten­tion has led to facil­i­tat­ed com­po­si­tion and lis­ten­ing projects in diverse venues and real­i­ties with com­mu­ni­ty groups and pro­fes­sion­al artists in Toron­to, Vic­to­ria and glob­al­ly. She com­pos­es and per­forms with LaSaM, the Avatar Orches­tra and independently.

Pauline Oliv­eros (via Skype, Deep Lis­ten­ing Insti­tute, New York)

Inter­na­tion­al­ly acclaimed com­pos­er, per­former, human­i­tar­i­an, and pio­neer, Oliv­eros has forged new ground, writ­ten books, for­mu­lat­ed new music the­o­ries and inves­ti­gat­ed new ways to focus atten­tion on music includ­ing her con­cepts of “Deep Lis­ten­ing” and “son­ic aware­ness.” She has been vocal about rep­re­sent­ing the needs of indi­vid­ual artists, the need for diver­si­ty and exper­i­men­ta­tion in the arts, and pro­mot­ing coop­er­a­tion and good will among people.

Pho­to cred­it: Geoff Howe

George Tzane­takis (Uni­ver­si­ty of Vic­to­ria, Victoria)

A researcher, com­pos­er, musi­cian, soft­ware devel­op­er and edu­ca­tor cur­rent­ly teach­ing in the com­put­er sci­ence and music depart­ments at Uni­ver­si­ty of Vic­to­ria. Tzane­takis’ research inter­ests include audio sig­nal pro­cess­ing, com­put­er music, machine learn­ing, human com­put­er inter­ac­tion, eth­no­mu­si­col­o­gy and the his­to­ry of music nota­tion, among oth­er things.

Cléo Pala­cio-Quintin, Hyper­flute (Mon­tre­al)

Flutist-impro­vis­er-com­pos­er Cléo Palacio-Quintin’s com­po­si­tions and per­for­mances have been pre­sent­ed through­out North Amer­i­ca and Europe. She has extend­ed her musi­cal explo­rations to the devel­op­ment of hyper­flutes, which enable her to com­pose new and unique elec­troa­coustic soundscapes.

Michael Ten­z­er (Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia, Game­lan Gita Asmara, Vancouver)

Schol­ar, com­pos­er and per­former, Tenzer’s inter­ests span the globe and his achieve­ments include: per­for­mance, com­po­si­tion, research, teach­ing and men­tor­ing, ana­lyz­ing, think­ing and writ­ing about music, pro­mot­ing inter­est in the world’s finest musics, and envi­sion­ing what can be done to best shape our future world of music. He is rec­og­nized as a lead­ing eth­no­mu­si­col­o­gist in Bali­nese Gamelan.

Joel Bons (Nieuw Ensem­ble, Atlas Ensem­ble, Nether­lands)

Com­pos­er, Artis­tic Direc­tor, and coor­di­na­tor of the com­po­si­tion depart­ment of the Con­ser­va­to­ry of Ams­ter­dam, Bons’ research focus­es on the Near East and Cen­tral Asia, lead­ing to the found­ing of the Atlas Ensem­ble, a unique cham­ber orches­tra that unites musi­cians from dif­fer­ent cul­tur­al backgrounds.

I Wayan Sudi­rana, Game­lan Gita Asmara, Van­cou­ver

A grad­u­ate of the ISI Bali­nese Arts Insti­tute and a mem­ber of Game­lan Çudamani, he is one of Bali’s most gift­ed young musi­cians, has com­posed and taught active­ly all over the island of Bali and toured abroad fre­quent­ly. He has been co-direc­tor of Gita Asmara since 2004.

Mei Han (Chi­nese / new music spe­cial­ist, Vancouver)

Con­tem­po­rary and Tra­di­tion­al music for the Chi­nese Zheng, vir­tu­oso, inno­va­tor, impro­vis­er and schol­ar. Han’s stun­ning pre­sen­ta­tions of con­tem­po­rary music con­stant­ly chal­lenge the con­ser­vatism of Chi­nese music, and rede­fine the zheng as a pow­er­ful vehi­cle of inno­va­tion and expression.

Michael O’Neill (Van­cou­ver)

A com­pos­er and per­former known for his land­mark con­tem­po­rary scores for high­land bag­pipe, bag­pipe ensem­ble, bag­pipe and game­lan and for his col­lab­o­ra­tions with the taiko group Uzume Taiko.

Jon Sid­dall (Van­cou­ver)

Pro­duc­er, com­pos­er and gui­tarist, Jon Sid­dall stud­ied with Lou Har­ri­son, Ter­ry Riley, James Ten­ney and John Cage. Founder of the Ever­green Club Game­lan Ensem­ble, his works show a strong influ­ence with Indone­sian music.

Moshe Den­burg (Van­cou­ver Inter-Cul­tur­al Orches­tra (VICO), Van­cou­ver)

Founder of VICO and a dri­ving force behind its many activ­i­ties since its incep­tion in 2000, Denburg’s musi­cal career has spanned almost 4 decades and his accom­plish­ments encom­pass a wide range of musi­cal activ­i­ties, includ­ing com­po­si­tion, per­for­mance, music edu­ca­tion, and artis­tic direction.

Michel Lev­asseur (Fes­ti­val Inter­na­tion­al de Musique Actuelle de Vic­to­ri­av­ille (FIMAV), Vic­to­ri­av­ille, Quebec)

CEO and Artis­tic Direc­tor of FIMAV, one of the most impor­tant Con­tem­po­rary music fes­ti­vals in North Amer­i­ca which fea­tures ground­break­ing con­tem­po­rary, jazz, rock, elec­troa­coustic and impro­vised music. “Michel Lev­asseur has demon­strat­ed an abil­i­ty to cut across musi­cal bound­aries” — Stu­art Broomer (Music­works #111).

Ken Pick­er­ing (Coastal Jazz Soci­ety, Van­cou­ver)

Ken Pick­er­ing is the Artis­tic Direc­tor of the Van­cou­ver Inter­na­tion­al Jazz Fes­ti­val and a dri­ving force for jazz, free impro­vi­sa­tion and cre­ative improv in Cana­da. His exten­sive knowl­edge and under­stand­ing of the Jazz com­mu­ni­ty has earned him an inter­na­tion­al reputation.

Gor­don Mon­a­han (Elec­tric Eclec­tics, Meaford Ontario)

Gor­don Mon­a­han cre­ates music, sound sculp­ture, sound instal­la­tion, and com­put­er-con­trolled sound envi­ron­ments that span var­i­ous gen­res from avant-garde con­cert music to mul­ti-media instal­la­tion and sound art. He has exhib­it­ed and per­formed inter­na­tion­al­ly for over 30 years and is the founder of Elec­tric Eclectics.

Peter Hatch (Open Ears Fes­ti­val, Kitch­en­er Ontario)

Com­pos­er, con­cert orga­niz­er and edu­ca­tor, Peter Hatch’s works are in a large num­ber of gen­res, from orches­tral and cham­ber music to instru­men­tal the­atre, elec­troa­coustics and instal­la­tions. He is the found­ing direc­tor of both NUMUS Con­certs and Open Ears Fes­ti­val and teach­es at the music fac­ul­ty of Wil­fred Lau­ri­er University.