The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra launches “Breaking Ground”, its 19th Annual New Music Festival tonight (February 5), with a pre-festival event at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The official opening is February 6, and concerts run through to February 12. Most concerts are led by WSO music director Alexander Mickelthwate. Featured composers and performers this year include composers Steven Stucky, Derek Charke, Tim Brady, John Psathas and performers Tanya Tagaq, Jenny Lin, and the ensemble Eighth Blackbird. A particular highlight of this year’s festival is the February 6 world premiere of WSO resident composer Vince Ho’s new work, Arctic Symphony, inspired by a week Dr. Ho spent aboard the icebreaker ‘Amundsen‘ with the scientists engaged in the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study. The festival also includes “an adrenaline-filled homage to Les Paul, inventor of the electric guitar, with over 20 electric guitarists and the WSO – all on one stage!” – among many other delights. Festival passes are available for as little as $49 for students. For more information, you can visit the NMF website here.
The Windsor Canadian Music Festival is also in full swing right now, and runs until tonight. The festival, a partnership between the Windsor Symphony and the School of Music at the University of Windsor, includes chamber, electro-acoustic and orchestral concerts, panel discussions and ‘happenings’ in venues throughout the university campus and downtown Windsor. One of the highlighted venues is the Windsor Armouries, an impressive heritage building that’s been identified by the WSO as a potential future home. Featured composers this year include Robert Lemay, Brent Lee, Jordan Nobles, Robert Rival and Sundar Subramanian. As well, the work of video artists is prominently featured. For more information on the WCMF, please visit their website here.
On February 16, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (led by guest conductor Scott Yoo) will be premiering The Widening Gyre, a new work by Winnipeg composer David R. Scott. Like the WSO and Dr. Ho, the MCO and Mr. Scott were also artistic partners in the Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study, and the new work is the product of Mr. Scott’s time aboard the ‘Amundsen’. For the kinaesthetically inclined, the MCO has posted a series of photographs from the ship, and you can find them here. The program will also feature the premiere of a new work for soprano, guitar and orchestra by Jim Hiscott, entitled The Song of the Stars, based on a Passamaquoddy text. The concert takes place at the MCO’s home at Westminster United Church.
