22-25 August 2019

  

August 22, 2019, 7PM

Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, University of Victoria, School of Music

Festival opening and CD-release event the timber of those times

In collaboration with the Canadian Music Center

 

Thursday, August 22, 8PM

Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, University of Victoria

Concert of Ensemble Tsilumos

Gregory Vajda – FromTheLeftToTheRight (2019)

Ajtony Csaba – Gossamer 2 (Tsilumos – part, 2019)

Vykintas Baltakas – Saxopho(e)nix (2014)

Annesley Black – Earl Brown’s Forgotten Piece in Moholy Nagy’s Light-Space-Modulator

Friday, August 23, 4:30PM

starting from Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, University of Victoria

The mixing of the timber of those times. 

Guided studio visit, demonstration and listening session in the CreaTe studio of UVic with Sound Engineer Kirk McNally. 

 

Friday, August 23, 8PM

PhillipT. Young Recital Hall, University of Victoria

Concert of Quasar Saxophone Quartet Montreal

Territoires sonores 1.

Rebecca Bruton – Mammalian Mother Tongues

Émilie Girard-Charest – Bestiaire

Jim O’Leary – Music for Saxophone Quartet

Ofer Pelz – I need to hear it first

Ajtony Csaba: Gossamer2 (Quasar-part, 2019)

 

Saturday, August 24, 10:30AM

Body, eyes and ears – new connections 

PhillipT. Young Recital Hall, University of Victoria 

Open Symposium and colloquium on current issues in New Music

Discussants: Wolf Edwards, Sabrina Schroeder, Mauricio Pauly, Ajtony Csaba

Chair: Dr. Adam Con

 

Saturday, August 24, 2:30PM

PhillipT. Young Recital Hall, University of Victoria

Concert of Modular music

Octet concert with participation of Quasar Saxophone Quartet, Tsilumos Ensemble, Liam Hockley and Kimia Koochakzadeh Yazdi

Ajtony Csaba: Gossamer2 (Octet-version with Quasar Saxophone Quartet and Ensemble Tsilumos 2019)

Jean-Marc Bouchard – Clair / Obscur (octet-version 2019)

Sabrina Schroeder – Stircrazer II (for Bass Clarinet)

 

August 24, 2019, 8PM

Open Space Gallery, 510 Fort Street, 2nd floor, Victoria, BC  V8W 1E6

New Works for Wind Instruments

Duo 1010 (Stephanie Bell, Flutes, Liam Hockley, Clarinets) and Kristen Cooke (Oboe, English Horn)

Max Murray (*1988) – Sötétség ad Meridiem (2019) for E-flat clarinet, oboe, and fixed media  | First Canadian performance                                                                                        

Nina Šenk (*1982) – Srebrno  (2014, rev. 2019) for flute and clarinet  | First North American performance                                                                         

Kimia Koochakzadeh Yazdi (*1997) – Change of Relativity(2019) for amplified solo bass clarinet         

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) – BALANCE(2007) for bass clarinet, English horn, flute     

 

Sunday, August 25, 10:00AM

Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, University of Victoria

Closing event

The festival ensemble presents results of the composition and interpretation workshops.

 

About the artists

Tsilumos Ensemble

The word Tsilumos combines the words Tsil (based on the Hebrew “Tsiltsul” or “ring”) and Lux (Latin for “light”). Tsilumos is a new music ensemble based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Formed in 2011, the ensemble is co-directed by members David Shively, Ajtony Csaba, Marie-Chantal Leclair and Joanna Hood. The ensemble performs chamber music ranging from solos to large instrumental combinations. Its main objective is to give new and little-known Canadian and international works an optimal performance, regardless of technical and intellectual demands or compositional style. Since its inception the ensemble has brought high quality, challenging new music to the larger community of British Columbia, and festival audiences in Montreal and Curitiba (Brasil). In 2011, the ensemble in cooperation with Open Space, an artist-run cultural center in Victoria, created the Salt Festival for New Music and the SALT Festival Orchestra.

Quasar Saxophone Quartet Montreal

Known for their energy and bold innovation, the four members of Quasar – Marie-Chantal Leclair, Mathieu Leclair, André Leroux, Jean-Marc Bouchard – have been exploring the innumerable facets of musical creation since the group’s founding in 1994. Their repertoire is vast in range, including chamber music, improvisation, musical theatre, and mixed music featuring live electronics. Five-time winners of the Québec Music Council’s distinguished OPUS awards, Quasar presents an annual concert series in Montréal while performing extensively across Canada, the United States and Europe. The quartet reserves pride of place for a group of esteemed Canadian and International composers with whom it has formed lasting partnerships. It aims to contribute to the enrichment of our musical heritage and to provide a platform for new music experimentation, exploration and production. Quasar has proudly commissioned over one-hundred works over the course of its twenty years of activity. During that time, it has performed as a solo group with, among others, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Duo 1010 and Kristen Cooke

Vancouver/Victoria-based Duo 1010 (Stephanie Bell, flutes; Liam Hockley, clarinets) is joined by their frequent collaborator Kristen Cooke (oboe/English horn) to present a programme exploring new music for wind instruments. Duo 1010 was founded while Stephanie and Liam were students at the University of British Columbia. Both compelling and dedicated performers in their own rights, they take the major twentieth-century works for flute/clarinet duo as a starting point for their creative work. Their core mission is to expand the repertoire for their ensemble and foster musical experimentation across a broad spectrum of aesthetics through intensive collaborations with composers. Duo 1010 has been the Ensemble in Residence at the Simon Fraser University School of the Contemporary Arts and has given world and regional premieres of works by Ray Evanoff, Alex Mah, Eva-Maria Houben, and Daniel Brandes. Recent performances include KLANGRAUM (Düsseldorf), the Stockhausen-Konzerte und -Kurse Kürten, and A Place to Listen (Victoria). Oboist Kristen Cooke is a DMA candidate in performance at the University of British Columbia. She is a core member of the Fireside woodwind quintet and performs frequently with ensembles including the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Kamloops Symphony, and Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra. In 2017, she was named a BC Emerging Musician by the Royal Over-Seas League.

Liam Hockley

A versatile musician for whom “alternative or avant-garde approaches to his instrument are only part of the everyday tool kit” (Georgia Straight), Canadian clarinetist Liam Hockley is a dynamic performer of classical music and passionate advocate for new and experimental music. His repertoire encompasses not only the standard clarinet repertoire from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, but also the results of numerous collaborations with Canadian and international composers on innovative new works. Through his engagement with a broad range of practices and focus on collaborative work, Liam seeks to redefine the twenty-first century performer as an artist who questions established norms and practices in order to forge new aesthetic paths and connections. Liam has performed as a soloist or ensemble member on in North America, Europe, and Asia. He has been featured as an emerging artist in residence with the Music on Main concert series and the director of the Ensemble in Residence at the Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts for the 18/19 Academic Year. His performances have garnered him many accolades and awards, including an interpretation prize at the Stockhausen-Konzert und -Kurse Kürten. He also maintains an active schedule of performances as a freelancer with diverse ensembles in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. Liam holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance from the University of British Columbia. His dissertation, “Performing Complexity,” developed a new analytical perspective to demonstrate how complexism’s distinctive material and conceptual elements (which are often suggested as leaving the performer no room for interpretation or expression) engage with unique forms of performer agency. Liam also holds a Master’s degree from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor’s degree (with distinction) from the University Victoria. His teachers have included Cris Inguanti, François Houle, Patricia Kostek, Earl Thomas, and Christian Gossart.

Vykintas Baltakas (1972)

Vykintas Baltakas was born in Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1993, he moved to Karlsruhe, Germany, where he studied composition with Wolfgang Rihm and conducting with Andreas Weiss. From 1994 to 1997 he also worked with Peter Eötvös at the Music Academy in Karlsruhe and at the Hungarian composer’s International Institute. It was his physical move to Germany that accompanied a rebellion or break from his Lithuanian heritage. As in most eastern European countries, folk art and culture are often intertwined into composer’s music and aesthetics. He felt that Lithuanian music was missing impertinence. This physical and aesthetic break mixed with a modernist harmonic language, demanding virtuosity, and a healthy dose of impertinence was the result. Baltakas’s view of both musical composition and conducting is one of reciprocity. He says that both as a composer or conductor “you can influence it, suggest ideas, give it direction, make decisions. You give impulses but you also receive impulses back from the music that you then process again and which then reflects back.”  Baltakas incorporates this idea of reciprocity into his music, creating lineages between his works.

Annesley Black (1979)

Annesley Black was born in Ottawa in 1979. She began her studies in electronic music and jazz guitar at Concordia University before continuing her musical education with major composers around the world such as Brian Cherney, York Höller, Hans-Ulrich Humpert, Mathias Spahlinger, Orm Finnendahl and Cornelius Schwehr. Her pieces have been performed internationally at various festivals and by notorious ensembles such as the Hessian Radio Orchestra, Ensemble Mosaik, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Ascolta, Ensemble contemporain de Montréal and Nouvel Ensemble Moderne de Montréal. She has received many distinctions for her work, including the Busoni-Foerderpreis der Akademie der Kuenste (2008), the Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart (2009) and a portrait CD from Deutsche Musikrat in their series Edition Zeitgenössische Musik (2013). Black worked as a sound engineer for institutions such as EXPERIMENTALSTUDIO des SWR and ensemble recherche. She has collaborated with many choreographers, artists, film/media artists and theatre directors throughout the years and has been an active member of numerous rock bands such as The New International Standards (with members of Arcade Fire) and The Special Interest Group. Black is currently the vice-president of the German Society of Electroacoustic Music (DEGEM). She teaches theoretical and practical composition seminars at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main and electroacoustic composition at Dr. Hoch’s Conservatory. 

Jean-Marc Bouchard (1964)

Jean-Marc Bouchard has dedicated himself to exploring new music as a performer, composer, improviser and an educator. A founding member of Quasar, he oversees artistic direction of the In Vivo improvisation series and has penned many compositions, including Le Cri des oiseaux fous, Jeux, L’éveil de la tortue and notably Les Cinq Orients (OPUS prize for Concert of the Year in 2010). As well as acting as saxophone instructor at the University of Montreal, he also directs their improvisation studio, open to composers and instruments from all areas of concentration.

Rebecca Bruton (1989)

Rebecca Bruton (MFA) is a Western Canadian composer, song maker and vocalist. Loosely characterizing her work as understated, surrealist folk music, Rebecca often involves sonic ideas that estheticize tuning discrepancies, auditory illusions and other acoustic phenomena alongside of simple and surprising melodic structures. Her music deals with subjects of land, loss, and desire. Rebecca’s chamber compositions have been performed by Quatuor Bozzini (Montréal, CA), Quasar Quatuor de saxophones (Montréal, CA), Momenta Quartet (NYC), Array Music (Toronto), Continuum Ensemble (Toronto), and by her own bands. She has completed one feature-length film score (with Katie Streibel), for the critically acclaimed Circle of Steel (Kino Sum Productions 2018). As one half of the vocal performance duo Moss Moss Not Moss (with Canadian-Icelandic poet Angela Rawlings), Rebecca has also presented original work at Tectonics Festival Glasgow. She, with Australian sound artist Alexandra Spence, co-founded Tidal ~ Signal, a Vancouver-based festival dedicated to women and trans-identifying artists working in experimental music. Her songwork can be found under the pseudonym F L O O D. Rebecca lives in Banff, Alberta.

Ajtony Csaba

As a versatile conductor, composer and researcher, with a flair for captivating the attention, emotions and intellect of audiences, Ajtony Csaba is a thought-provoking and imaginative artist. Csaba graduated with distinction from the conducting program of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and further studied with Peter Eötvös and Lucas Vis. As a conductor, Csaba strives for musical communication that overarches physical and conceptual borders. He is currently the music director and conductor of the UVic Symphony Orchestra in Victoria, BC, Canada and the conductor of the Central European Chamber Orchestra (mikamo) in Vienna. Csaba has been a frequent guest at the Darmstadt New Music Festival, SiMN (Curitiba, Brazil), Wien Modern and the Transparent Sound Festival in Budapest. He plays a vital part in the global contemporary music community with his imaginative curating in such positions as co-director of the SALT New Music Festival in Victoria (Canada) and artistic director of the NewSpiritMusic concert series in Budapest. As a composer, Csaba is known for his balanced use of extended and historical techniques and a genuine interest in glissando. He has won several prizes for composition in Hungary, Austria, Canada, and German, and his music has been regularly performed in concert houses and festivals around the world.

Émilie Girard-Charest (1987)

Émilie is a cellist, composer, and improvisor. She has numerous recordings to her credit and has taken part in festivals across North and South America and Europe. Émilie regularly collaborates with theater, dance and performance productions. Émilie is a graduate of the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in cello (under Denis Brott) and in composition (under Michel Gonneville). She also holds a Master CoPeCo (Contemporary Performance and Composition) degree from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg and is currently enrolled as a doctoral student under the direction of Philippe Hurel and Laurent Pottier at Conservatoire national supérieur musique et danse de Lyon, where she is developing an ergonomic notation of microtonality for the cello. She was the recipient of the Career Development Award from the Fondation du Conservatoire de musique de Montréal in 2014. In 2015, she was awarded the Prix d’Europe de Composition Fernand-Lindsay.

 

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi (1997)

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi (b. 1997 Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian/Canadian composer based in Vancouver, Canada. Working with instrumental and electroacoustic media, she has actively collaborated on projects written for dance performance and film in addition to concert pieces. She seeks to incorporate into her music her experiences of the cultural contexts she has been living in so far. She was recently commissioned by Western Front to write for their 8.2 octophonic sound system and has just finished her artist residency at Media Arts Committee. Koochakzadeh-Yazdi has recently joined the New Music on the Point program as participant composer and will be attending EQ:Evolution of the String Quartet at Banff Centre along with wasteLAnd’s 2019 Summer Academy in July and August also as participant composer. She is currently studying composition at Simon Fraser University with Sabrina Schroeder, Owen Underhill and Mauricio Pauly.

Max Murray (1988)

Following music composition, performance, and theory studies [Dániel Biró, David Clenman, Eugene Dowling, Colin Tilney, Gary Karr, Louis Ranger, Gordon Mumma] in his hometown of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Max Murray completed parallel graduate degrees in performance and composition at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik ‘Hanns Eisler’ [Thomas Keller, William Forman], and the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik und Theater ‘Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.’ As a tubist he has worked across classical and contemporary repertoire [guest of the Staatskapelle Berlin, SWR Experimental Studio, guest of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic, Lucerne Festival Academy, Axel Dörner], appearing in festivals including Märzmusik [Berlin], Borealis [Bergen], and Musica Nova [Helsinki], and receiving invitations for residencies as an interpreter in the composition departments of Stanford, and Huddersfield Universities. In 2014/15 Max Murray was a visiting fellow in the music department of Harvard University, where he is currently a PhD candidate in music composition [Chaya Czernowin, Hans Tutschku].

Jim O’Leary (1971)

Jim O’Leary is a composer from Windsor, Newfoundland. After completing his studies in percussion performance, Jim turned his attention to composition, studying in Sweden with composer Jan Sandström. After working in Stockholm for several years, he returned to academia, obtaining his MPhil at Cambridge and his Ph. D from Queens University, Belfast. Jim was Composer-in-Residence with the PEI Symphony Orchestra from 2011 to 2013. His current artistic project concerns the Beothuk, the extinct indigenous people of Newfoundland. Jim currently lives in Charlottetown, PEI.

Ofer Pelz (1978)

Ofer is a composer, improvisor, and sound artist, born in Haifa, Israel and currently residing in Montreal. He composes music for diverse combinations of instruments and electroacoustic media. He, with Preston Beebe, is the co-founder of Whim Ensemble. Ofer’s music explores the concept he defines as “unstable repetition” – repetitive fragments which always vary from repetition to repetition, all the while trying to keep a perceivable tension. His work ahs been recognized by the reception of many international prizes, including two ACUM awards and the Ernst Von Siemens Grant. His music is played regularly at festivals and he has collaborated with several dance choreographers, including French choreographer François Raffinot. Ofer received a Masters with excellence in composition and music theory from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. Following that, he pursued studies in instrumental and electroacoustic composition at the Conservatory of Blanc-Mesnil with Thierry Blondeau and Gilles Racot, as well as at the Paris Conservatory and at IRCAM. He completed his doctorate in music at the Université de Montréal with Ana Sokolovic and Caroline Traube in April 2018.

Sabrina Schroeder (1979)

Composer-performer Sabrina Schroeder (Canada) integrates tactile transducers, live processing, and self-built mechanics into performance that digs into heavy sound spaces that are as much about body-feel as they are about audible sound. Recent/current projects include residencies at Civitella Ranieri (Umbria, Italy) and the Experimentalstudio des SWR (Freiburg, Germany), with new commissions for ICE Ensemble (New York/Chicago), JACK Quartet (New York), Architek Percussion (Toronto), No Hay Banda (Montreal), and a collaborative project with theatre creator Jenna Harris and Thin Edge Collective (Toronto).  Schroeder has been on the faculty of iEAR (Integrated Electronic Arts) department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, New York), the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester UK), the Banff Summer Music Programs (Banff, Canada). She is currently the 2019-2021 Composer in Residence at Music on Main (Vancouver, Canada) and Assistant Professor of Composition at Simon Fraser University’s interdisciplinary School for the Contemporary Arts.

Nina Šenk (1982)

Nina Šenk graduated in composition from the Ljubljana Academy of Music under Prof. Pavel Mihelčič. She continued her postgraduate studies in composition in Dresden under the mentorship of Prof. Lothar Voigtländer and obtained her master’s degree in the class of Prof. Matthias Pintscher at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich in 2008. She is a recipient of many awards, including the European award for the best composition at the Young Euro Classic festival for her Violin Concerto in 2004, the Academy of Music Prešeren Award and the first prize at the Weimar Spring Festival of Contemporary Music for her composition Movimento fluido in 2008. In the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons, Nina Šenk was a Composer in Residence of the Staatstheater Cottbus Orchestra in Germany. In 2010, the Rector of the University of Ljubljana awarded her a special recognition for artistic work in the area of musical composition and performance as well as architecture. In 2017, she was awarded the Prešeren Fund Prize for her creative work in the previous two years. Nina Šenk’s works have been performed at numerous important international festivals and in many other concerts around the world with various orchestras and ensembles.

Gregory Vajda (1973)

Born in Budapest, Gregory Vajda studied conducting at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under Professor Ervin Lukács. He also studied conducting and composition with well-known composer and conductor, Peter Eötvös. In March 2018, Mr. Vajda was awarded the Bartók-Pásztory Award. This prestigious award, founded by the wife of the great composer and pianist Béla Bartók, celebrates the musical achievements of Hungarians. In addition to being a gifted composer, Mr. Vajda has become one of the most sought-after conductors on the international scene. He is currently the music director of the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. After concluding his 3-year tenure as Principal Conductor he was named Principal Guest Conductor of the Hungarian Radio Symphony in 2014. Mr. Vajda is Music Director of the Portland Festival Symphony and Artistic Director of the International Armel Opera Festival. He is also a frequent guest lecturer and professor of the conducting and composition master classes of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation. 

Wolf Edwards

Wolf Edwards (b. Montreal, Quebec) began his formal musical training at the Victoria Conservatory of Music (1994-1996) before transferring to the University of Victoria (1996-2000) where he completed an undergraduate degree in music composition and theory. To further his education Edwards relocated to Montreal, Quebec, from 2000-2002, where he attended private studies with Olivier Messaien’s former student, and legendary Canadian composer, Gilles Tremblay. In 2002 Wolf was granted a two-year University of Victoria Fellowship enabling him to complete the degree of Master of Music in 2004. Further studies included Acanthes Summer Academy, in Metz, France, 2005 where he studied with composers Pascal Dusapin (France), Wolfgang Rhim (Germany), and Hilda Peredes (Mexico). Wolf also enrolled at the prestigious Schloss Solitude Academy, in Stuttgart, Germany, 2007 where he attended private lessons with composers Chaya Czernowin (Israel), Stephen KazuoTakasugi (U.S.A), and Ole Lutzow Holm (Norway/Sweden). Following his attendance at the Schloss Solitude, Wolf continued private studies in musical composition with Chaya Czernowin from 2007-2009. Wolf Edwards currently teaches at the University of Victoria as a session professor of composition and theory. He has participated, lectured, and had music performed at international festivals, and events, throughout North America and Continental Europe. His works have been performed and/or commissioned several orchestras and ensembles.

Mauricio Pauly

Mauricio Pauly’s practice combines composition for hybrid instrumental/electronic ensembles, sound design, and live performance. As an active cross-disciplinary collaborator, his work includes numerous projects with writers, designers, programmers and theatre-makers. His music has been featured by festivals that include Ultima Festival (Norway, 2011), Warsaw Autumn (Poland, 2013), Darmstadt International Summer Courses (Germany, 2010/12/14/16), Images Sonores Festival (Belgium, 2015), Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik (Austria, 2016) and Open Ears Festival (Canada 2018). Recent collaborations include live-performed music and sound design for Athina Rachel Tsangari’s production of Wedekind’s LULU in a sold-out 10-show run at the 2017 Salzburg Festival. FREAM AD WALL, written in collaboration with programmer and 3D animator, Gabriel Montagné, was performed by Line Upon Line Percussion as a 3-show premiere in Austin, TX and will tour Europe and the UK in Fall 2019. A collection of music, print-works and texts created with American experimental novelist Renee Gladman and Argentinian composer Santiago Díez-Fischer will be released on New Focus Recordings (New York, 2020). Pauly spent the summer of 2018 as an awarded Artist Fellow at Civitella Ranieri (Umbria, Italy). In 2017 he was Composer-in-Residence at Villa Romana (Florence, Italy) undertaking a two-part creation and performance residency. He spent 2014-2015 as a full-year Fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (Boston, USA). Pauly is the artistic director of UK-based ensemble, Distractfold, awarded the Kranichstein Musik Prize in performance by the Darmstadt International Music Institute (2016) and with whom he produced BBC3’s Cut & Splice Festival (2017). The group has been ensemble-in-residence at Stanford, Harvard, McGill and Huddersfield Universities and will be in residence at Columbia University in 2020. Pauly is a senior lecturer at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK (2007-current) as well as at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, UK (2011-current) where he teaches collaborative practice and time-based design. Since 2018, he has been a Limited-Term Assistant Professor at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts in Vancouver, Canada. He has given workshops and masterclasses at McGill University, New York University, Brussels Royal Conservatory, Bath Spa University and Huddersfield University among others. His home and studio have been based in Vancouver, Canada, since 2017.

Dr. Adam Con

Dr. Adam Jonathan Con is a conductor, a visionary, a respected teacher of choral conducting and Tai Chi Chuan, and a leader in the advocacy of music education. A native of Vancouver and a third generation Chinese Canadian, his holistic approach to choral music through a unique blend of kinesthetic whole body movement and Eastern philosophy continues to inspire singers of all ages in mind, body and spirit. His motto is “Music is more than notes in motion; music is notes in Emotion.”  Dr. Con is a tenured Associate Professor of Music at University of Victoria. His duties at School of Music include conducting the UVic Chorus, teaching Elementary Music Methods, Music Education Foundations, Choral Conducting, Choral Organization, Rehearsal Techniques and Literature, Middle and Elementary School choir methods, and supervising music education students. Dr. Con earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education (Secondary Instrumental and Choral) and a Master’s Degree in Music Education (Elementary) from the University of British Columbia. At Florida State University, he earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in Music Education (Choral Conducting Emphasis) studying with Rodney Eichenberger, Andre Thomas, Clifford Madsen and Judy Bowers. In addition, Dr. Con is a certified Orff Schulwerk specialist and has extensive study experience as an Alexander Technique practitioner. In high demand both as a guest conductor and choral conducting teacher, Dr. Con has been invited to present and conduct at many prestigious events. His talent and ability to work with all levels of musical experience is grounded in 15 years of diverse K-12 public school music teaching which includes Orff, Kodály, and Dalcroze based general music, French immersion music, middle and secondary school choral, vocal jazz, concert band and jazz band. His professional conducting experiences include numerous All-State and honor choirs, civic orchestras, professional musical theatre, community choirs, concert bands, and 39 years as a church choir director and organist. He currently serves as the University of Victoria Convocation organist.

Kirk McNally

Kirk McNally is a sound engineer who specializes in popular and classical music recording, and new music performances using electronics. His professional resume includes studio work in Toronto and Vancouver, working with numerous national and international recording artists. His work as a balance/electronics engineer for new music performances has been heard in performances across Canada; in Tel Aviv, Israel; Graz, Austria; New York, United States; and as part of the Fromm Concert series at Harvard University. He joined the School of Music at the University of Victoria in 2006 to support a new combined program in Music and Computer Science. In 2016, he was appointed as assistant professor of Music Technology for the School, and is the current program administrator for the undergraduate combined major program and the graduate program in Music Technology. His research and creative work has been supported by: the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), the Canada Council for the Arts, the University of Victoria’s Learning and Teaching Centre, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. His current research explores the multitude of ways that recording engineers and producers communicate with musicians, both verbally and through their use of technology to manipulate sound, in order to better understand how they create the music we know and love in our everyday lives.

Festival manager: Eszter Bodnár