Continuum Contemporary Music presents Chrysalis: A workshop for emerging composers

Sunday, January 24, 2010 (2-6 pm)

Gallery 345 ’Äì Free Admission

Toronto, December 14, 2009: Intrigued by the creative process of composing? Continuum invites audience members to step inside the creative process by presenting Chrysalis, Sunday, January 24 (2-6 pm) at Toronto’Äôs Gallery 345. The concert / workshop led by the insightful Victoria composer Christopher Butterfield is a rare opportunity to gain insight into the specific challenges of writing music, through discussion and performance. Composers Anna Hostman, Lan-Chee Lam, William Peltier, Chris Thornborrow and Hiroki Tsurumoto (selected from a local call for scores) will have works performed by Continuum’Äôs ensemble. Shedding a light on the craft of writing music, the lively composition master class - a discussion between Butterfield and participating composers ’Äì can be described as a ’Äúbehind-the-scene’Äù experience. The event also includes a performance of Butterfield’Äôs four pearls for piccolo, violin, cello and piano. Admission is free.

The Continuum ensemble’Äôs experienced musicians (Anne Thompson, flute; Max Christie, clarinet; Carol Lynn Fujino, violin; Paul Widner, cello; Laurent Philippe, piano; and Ryan Scott, percussion) and their unique ensemble chemistry promise a memorable event for participants and audience alike as they perform ghosts of swallows (Anna Hostman); La Defense (Lan-Chee Lam); Springtime for Gentle Risings within Gridlock (William Peltier); Music for Marionettes (Chris Thornborrow); and Code Thumbnail 1 (Hiroki Tsurumoto). Continuum has performed workshops at UBC, Banff, U of T, York University, University of Aberdeen (Scotland), and Trinity College of Music (England).

Christopher Butterfield has established himself as one of Canada’Äôs leading composers and educators through

performance art, rock n’Äô roll, opera, installations, multi-disciplinary work, and chamber music (for which he has received the Jules-Lˆ©ger Prize). His music has been played and broadcast across Canada, as well as in Finland, Slovakia, France and Russia. He studied composition with Rudolf Komorous at the University of Victoria (B.Mus. 1975) and with Bˆºlent Arel at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (M.A. 1977). He lived in Toronto between 1977 and 1992, where he was active as a performance artist, rock guitar player, and composer. In 1979/1980 he taught in the graduate visual arts department at Concordia University in Montreal, and in 1986 and 1989 he taught in the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. In 1992 he was appointed assistant professor of composition at the University of Victoria. His music has been performed across Canada and in Europe, and is recorded on the CBC and Artifact labels.

Featured composers:

• A doctoral student in composition at the University of Toronto, Anna Hostman has written works ranging from opera and orchestral to chamber and installation.
• Lan-chee Lam trained in her native Hong Kong and is now a doctoral student at the University of Toronto. She has received numerous international awards, including the Grand Prize of the Georges Enescu Competition (symphonic section).
• William Peltier is a composer re-emerging after a lengthy hiatus. He has some history at Wilfrid Laurier and McGill and early on was performed at Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam; more recently he has had performances in New York, Cuba and various places in Europe.
• Chris Thornborrow studied at Wilfrid Laurier University and is now in the doctoral programme at the University of Toronto. He is a member of Toy Piano Composers Collective.
• Hiroki Tsurumoto has an undergraduate degree in economics, and degrees in composition from the CUNY and the University of Toronto. His works have been performed in Asia, North America and Europe.

Led by artistic director Jennifer Waring, Continuum presents concerts featuring the core ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion, as well as unusual instrumental combinations. The organization has commissioned and premiered more than 100 new works from emerging Canadian and international composers, and also established composers charting new territory. Increasingly the group engages in collaboration and interdisciplinary work. Continuum has toured to Banff, Brandon, Kitchener, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg; touring twice to Europe, it has appeared in Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Ghent, Huddersfield, Leeuwarden, London, and ’Äòs-Hertogenbosch. The group has recorded two CDs on its own label, formed the recording ensemble for a Centrediscs release of works by Chris Paul Harman and is soon to record a CD of works by James Rolfe, also for Centrediscs.

Continuum’Äôs 25^th anniversary season continues on February 28^th with a performance of chamber works by James Rolfe at The Royal Conservatory’Äôs Mazzoleni Hall, in preparation for a Centrediscs recording of Rolfe’Äôs works. The season concludes with performances May 20^th, as part of the free concert series at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre, and May 21^st at the Music Gallery, both featuring soprano Carla Huhtanen, the latter headlined by actor RH Thomson as narrator in works by Tom Johnson and a commission by Juliet Palmer on a text by Thomas King.

Continuum is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, SOCAN Foundation, the George Cedric Metcalf Charitable Foundation through its Strategic Initiatives programme and many private donors.

Continuum Contemporary Music presents

Chrysalis

A workshop for emerging composers

Sunday, January 24, 2010, 2-6 pm at Gallery 345

345 Sorauren Avenue, south of Dundas

Free admission, open to the public

For more information on this concert please visit www.continuummusic.org,

email josh@continuummusic.org or call (416) 924-4945.