| | La Scena Musicale - Vol. 5, No. 1 |  | | Innovations en concert
September 1, 1999
La rentrée musicale – preview
Innovations en concert
by Philp Ehrensaft
The new music season starts auspiciously with the third annual edition of Innovation en concert'simaginative Évolutions festival. Évolutions 1999 - Les nouveaux vents, explores the spectrum of both composed and improvised music for wind instruments. Performances feature a mix of Canadian musicians with international artists from the US, Europe, and Asia.
Artistic director Tim Brady believes that chamber music creates intimacy between audience and performers and that this intimacy may draw people into new music. The venues are chosen accordingly. The Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur is the venue for three concerts: L'Ensemble Pentaèdre de Montréal, formed by wind players from the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, on September 15; Le Nouveau Quatuor de saxophones du Québec on September 16; and solos and duo improvisations by London-based flutist Nancy Ruffer and Saskatchewan clarinetist Gilles Turcotte on September 17. The 18 members of the avant-garde big band KAPPA conclude the festival on the 19th at the cabaret of Le Musée du Rire.
A spectacular change from the chamber music format bursts forth in Carré Saint-Louis on Saturday September 17, when 100 wind players accompanied by 8 bass drums play a composition by Brady appropriately entitled "Sound-Off." The musicians will be dispersed throughout the park and the public is invited to wander and wonder at will. This is part of Brady's efforts to attract young musicians and audiences to new music before their musical attitudes harden. Saxophonist Jean Derome, trombonist Tom Walsh, trumpeter Ivanhoe Jolicoeur, and violist Jean René will offer workshops aimed at this young cohort on the 13th, 14th and 18th.
Innovations en concert continues the themes of Les Nouveau Vents with three notable concerts this winter. Kohei Nishikawa composes contemporary music for traditional Japanese flutes. He appears at the Chapelle du Bon-Pasteur on February 11th, followed by a workshop the next day. On March 9-10th, Innovations presents a "Clarinette Plus" series featuring Robert Stephenson on clarinet and Jean Derome on alto saxophone the first night and a collaboration between Jean-Guy Boisvert and the Quatuor Bozzini on the second.
Individual tickets are $18 or $10 for students and seniors, while a passport is available for $48. Telephone (514) 252-8520. Workshops are free and can be arranged with Philippe Keyser, the leader of KAPPA, by telephoning (514) 279-8613. |
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