Sunday March 7, and Sunday May 2 at 2:00 pm: “Artword Composers Soirée”, Hamilton, a new series of New Music workshops, curated and coordinated by composer/guitarist Wade Whittaker, hosted monthly at Artword Artbar, 15 Colbourne Street, Hamilton.
Sunday May 2:
Wade Whittaker plays his compositions for solo guitar.
Christian Ledroit presents two pieces: Trade Winds (Concerto for Tabla) and Wandering the Threshold of Delirium (for Violin and optional Electronic Accompaniment). We will listen to recordings of these works. Christien will discuss, and then we’ll have a Q&A session.
Christien Ledroit was born in 1975 in London, Ontario. He studied music composition at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and completed a Master of Music degree in composition at McGill University in Montreal in 2002. He has studied with an eclectic group of composers including Michael Colgrass, Jean Lesage, alcides lanza, Alfred Fisher, John Burge and Marjan Mozetich. Since high school Christien has played guitar in a punk band, while still continuing to develop technique on the violin and in contemporary art music. It is precisely this dichotomy which most influences his music today. Christien has received commissions and awards from many sources including two SOCAN Young Composers Competition awards. Christien now lives near Toronto with his wife Stefanie and daughters Ramona and Chloë.
The inaugural Soirée on March 7 featured three composers:
Elma Miller http://www.hwcn.org/~aa210/Profile.html
Joe Schacher. The piece Joe is presenting is posted here: http://www.archive.org/details/Orphanogenesis
Wade Whittaker, with new compositions for classical guitar.
To find out how it works, read more…
Composers are invited to perform their works (or find performers) and share and discuss their works with audience and fellow composers. For the audience, this is an exciting opportunity to hear new music compositions, and new works-in-progress, in an intimate café environment.
Wade Whittaker writes music and plays the guitar (classical and electric, with signal processing). He studied composition with Kristi Allik at UWO and with Lothar Klein at U of T. Some of Wade’s music theatre pieces (exploring Canadian history – The Northwest Company, expo67) have been performed in the village of Kintore (near London, ON) that Wade calls home. For several years he wrote for and ran WALE (Wade’s Awesome Little Ensemble) in the Stratford area. Currently he plays with the VOC Silent Film Harmonic in Kitchener.
Artword Artbar is a new arts-focussed bar in the James North arts district of Hamilton, run by Ronald Weihs and Judith Sandiford (Artword Theatre, formerly in Toronto where they hosted numerous new music events). The bar has a baby grand piano and a PA system.
To find out more about participating in the Composers Soirée, contact Wade Whittaker at kwwhittaker@gmail.com or {519) 301 8142.
For March 7, the composers’ biographies:
Elma Miller is a composer, born in Toronto, now living in Burlington. She has a Master€™s Degree in Composition and Theory from the University of Toronto.
Her compositions have been recognized through national and international awards. She has received numerous commissions through grants from the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, various foundations and private individuals for orchestral, chamber and solo works. Her compositions have been performed throughout Canada and abroad.
What has characterized her works is her sense of drama, humour and irony. While her orchestral pieces feature a colourful use of texture and rhythmic drive, her vocal compositions are explorations in the use of language as pure sound with and without meaning.
She is a member of Canadian League of Composers (CLC); Canadian Music Centre (CMC); Association of Canadian Women Composers (ACWC); Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers of Canada (SOCAN); Founding Member of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (WFAE).
