Featured Guests

5 KEYNOTE PRESENTERS

  • Andrew Burke – Chief Exec­u­tive, Lon­don Sin­foni­et­ta – Lon­don, UK
  • Lawrence Cher­ney, Artis­tic Direc­tor, Sound­streams – Toron­to, Canada
  • Patri­cia Ros­ner – Direc­tor of Coop­er­a­tions and Social Media, Berlin Phil Media GmbH, Dig­i­tal Con­cert Hall, Berlin­er Phil­har­moniker – Berlin, Germany
  • Melis­sa Smey, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Arts Ini­tia­tive and Miller The­atre at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty – New York, USA
  • Nico­las Thiri­on – Artis­tic Direc­tor, Why Note Asso­ci­a­tion & Ici l’Onde (Depart­ment of Music of the Con­tem­po­rary Art Cen­tre Le Con­sor­tium) – Dijon, France

 

Andrew Burke has been the Chief Exec­u­tive of the Lon­don Sin­foni­et­ta since 2007.  He is respon­si­ble for the over­all run­ning of the ensem­ble, curat­ing a wide range of artis­tic projects and devel­op­ing the ensemble’s work with part­ners at home and abroad.

In 2009 he launched the Lon­don Sinfonietta’s Acad­e­my pro­gramme and in 2013 its Emerg­ing Artists Pro­gramme, to give train­ing and pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence to bril­liant play­ers of the next gen­er­a­tion.  In 2010 he start­ed the next phase of the ensemble’s Blue Touch Paper pro­gramme to nur­ture new cross art-form work from emerg­ing composers.

From 2003–2007, he was Head of LSO Dis­cov­ery and from 1998–2003 he was Edu­ca­tion Offi­cer at the BBC Nation­al Orches­tra of Wales.

 

pho­to cred­it: Trevor Haldenby

Lawrence Cherney’s first pro­fes­sion­al engage­ment was under the baton of Igor Stravin­sky. A rec­og­nized nation­al leader at the fore­front of Cana­di­an music for over 40 years, he is often referred to as Canada’s “Ambas­sador of New Music”. His para­mount role in the com­mis­sion­ing, devel­op­ing, pro­duc­ing, per­form­ing, tour­ing and record­ing of new music by Cana­di­an and inter­na­tion­al com­posers has been wide­ly rec­og­nized: Mem­ber of the Order of Cana­da, Muriel Sher­rin Award for Inter­na­tion­al Achieve­ment, two Lieu­tenant Governor’s Awards and the Chalmers Nation­al Music Award. Lawrence found­ed Sound­streams in 1982, which under his lead­er­ship, has become an inter­na­tion­al cen­tre for new direc­tions in music and one of the most dynam­ic orga­ni­za­tions of its kind in the world.

 

Patri­cia Ros­ner, cul­tur­al man­ag­er, social media spe­cial­ist and musi­cian, is Direc­tor of Coop­er­a­tions and Social Media at Berlin Phil Media GmbH, the com­pa­ny behind the Dig­i­tal Con­cert Hall of the Berlin­er Phil­har­moniker. Pri­or to her work with the Berlin­er Phil­har­moniker, Patri­cia stud­ied com­po­si­tion, vocal per­for­mance, lit­er­a­ture and musi­col­o­gy in Berlin and Lon­don and served as a music mar­ket­ing spe­cial­ist with sev­er­al com­pa­nies. She ini­ti­at­ed and now runs the orchestra’s Face­book page (460k fans) and an online out­reach project, EXPLORE CLASSICAL MUSIC!. She is also respon­si­ble for the orches­tra’s cin­e­mat­ic dis­tri­b­u­tion and man­ages coop­er­a­tions with oth­er organisations.

 

pho­to cred­it: Bran­non Chase

Melis­sa Smey is Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Arts Ini­tia­tive and Miller The­atre at Colum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty, where she leads the campus’s pio­neer­ing ven­ture to make the arts a vital part of every Columbian’s expe­ri­ence and the most acclaimed venue for new music in New York City.  She has com­mis­sioned new works from com­posers Georges Aperghis, Julio Estra­da, Hil­da Pare­des, and John Zorn; pro­duced the Unit­ed States pre­miere pro­duc­tions of Kai­ja Saariaho’s bal­let Maa and James Dillon’s epic new music cycle Nine Rivers; and pro­duced the urban out­door pre­miere of John Luther Adams’s Inuk­suit, fea­tur­ing 99 musi­cians and 1,000 per­cus­sion instru­ments for an audi­ence of over 2,500 in Harlem’s Morn­ing­side Park.

 

Born in 1973, Nico­las Thiri­on is a musi­cian, gui­tar play­er and elec­tron­ics artist, notably with Death in Death Val­ley (noise improv) and Toro Piscine (exper­i­men­tal song). In 2010, he cre­at­ed La Générale d’Expérimentation, a col­lec­tive of adven­tur­ous musi­cians in Bur­gundy, with whom he devel­ops projects focussed around exper­i­men­tal and con­tem­po­rary music and sound art per­for­mances. He com­plet­ed stud­ies in elec­troa­coustic com­po­si­tion at the Con­ser­va­toire de Chalon-sur-Saône (teacher: Jean-Marc Weber). Since 2003, he is the Artis­tic Direc­tor of Why Note in Dijon, an asso­ci­a­tion ded­i­cat­ed to the cre­ation, dif­fu­sion and pro­mo­tion of con­tem­po­rary and exper­i­men­tal music. He is also Artis­tic Co-Direc­tor of Ici l’Onde, a fes­ti­val at the Depart­ment of Music of the Con­tem­po­rary Art Cen­tre Le Con­sor­tium.

Additional National & International Guests

Check out who was invit­ed in response to the inau­gur­al Open Call for Proposals