WSO Unveils 25th Anniversary WINNIPEG NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL

Alexander Mickelthwate, Artistic Director
Matthew Patton, Curator
MEDIA RELEASE - Wednesday, November 18, 2016 - Winnipeg, Manitoba
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra unveils the
25th Anniversary WINNIPEG NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL
January 23-29, 2016.
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25 Anniversary Edition
25 years of breaking boundaries, bringing the international to Winnipeg,
and putting contemporary music on our city’s best stage.
By the Numbers
7 nights of concerts, panels, post-concert receptions
8 World premieres of new orchestral music
7 Canadian premieres
20 composers
Over 80 musicians
4 vocal groups
1 week of cultural adventure and discovery
All past WNMF Composers-In-Residence return to Winnipeg
to help celebrate this momentous anniversary.
Feature Performances
Pan Am Pool Transforms into a Concert Hall
for Gavin Bryars’ The Sinking Of The Titanic
Doom-drone artist Stephen O’Malley of Sunn O))) rocks Union Sound Hall and
composes new work for symphony
New York’s So Percussion ride the line between sound and noise
Plus, David Lang, Joan Tower, Glenn Buhr, Stephen O’Malley, Barbara Monk Feldman,
Gary Kulesha, Randolph Peters, Derek Charke, Vincent Ho, T. Patrick Carrabre, Matthew
Patton, Mikolaj Górecki and So. Much. More.
Art
Genre-defying conceptual artist Michael Snow presents video “Snow in Vienna” in
collaboration with Border Crossings
Plug In ICA sets up pop-up gallery at the Centennial Concert Hall and presents special
performance in the Plug In ICA galleries
Plus, special projects by Simon Hughes, Neil Farber & Michael Dumontier
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
This year is a big milestone for the Winnipeg New Music Festival. Twentyfive years of crazy, audacious programs. Twenty-five years of building a
new canon of Canadian works. Twenty-five years of being the leading voice
for new music in North America!
This year we look both back and forward with three world premieres from
our past composers-in-residence. We invite groundbreaking American
voices to Winnipeg. And we look forward into completely new lines of
exploration with a commission from Stephen O’Malley.
You will see a snapshot of our society through extremes from the core of
the symphonic tradition to unheard new sound worlds where time stands
still. Through it all we will have conversation, art, food, music, and
experiences that will challenge, stimulate and provoke.
Join us!
Alexander Mickelthwate,
Artistic Director, Winnipeg New Music Festival
Music Director, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
“There is an irreducible element of music that connects metal, industrial music,
power electronics and classical minimalism, and no word exists for it. It involves
deep pulsations; excited provocation through sound and concept more than
traditional technique; low end frequencies rarely encountered in life; long
sustained tones enlarged through overdrive; or distortion or just force of hands on
instruments. This (music) event has a presence, a clean, judicious power.”
— Ben Ratliff, New York Times
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
Winnipeg New Music Festival 2016 Line Up
WNMF 1
NEW MUSIC TOMORROW
David Lang & Joan Tower
Saturday, January 23
Centennial Concert Hall
"With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize, Lang, once a post-minimalist enfant terrible, has
solidified his standing as an American master."
— The New Yorker
“One of the most successful woman composers of all time”
— The New Yorker on Joan Tower
WNMF 2016 opens with major works by American composers David Lang and Joan Tower,
plus a special commission from festival co-founder Glenn Buhr. Behind every one of Lang’s
pieces is a fascinating concept being worked out as he gives musical form to the ideas of
both Man and Nature with the assistance of ensemble/soloists So Percussion. Tower's
Grammy-nominated Concerto for Orchestra is a magnificent story of how an idea grows
from the previous ideas in the strongest and most natural way — a lesson the composer
learned from the music of Beethoven.
W ORKS
Glenn Buhr (CAN) Solstice ii, 2015 WORLD PREMIERE (1)
David Lang (US) Mountain CANADIAN PREMIERE
David Lang Man Made CANADIAN PREMIERE (2)
- Intermission Joan Tower (US) Concerto for Orchestra CANADIAN PREMIERE
ARTISTS
Alexander Mickelthwate, conductor
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
(1) Jan Kocman, flute
(2) So Percussion:
Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting
Concert sponsor:
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
WNMF 2
SO PERCUSSION
Steve Reich, David Lang, Bryce Dessner
Sunday, January 24
Centennial Concert Hall
“An exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam...”
– The New Yorker on So Percussion
Acclaimed percussion quartet So Percussion perform three major works for
unconventional instruments including Steve Reich’s 20th century masterwork Drumming
Part 1, David Lang’s The So-Called Laws of Nature, for which So Percussion built their own
instruments, and Bryce Dessner of The National’s Music for Wood and Strings. Dessner’s
work is performed on “chord sticks,” a cross between a hammer dulcimer and an electric
guitar, created by instrument builder Aron Sanchez in collaboration with the composer.
W ORKS
Steve Reich (US) Drumming Part I
Bryce Dessner (US) Music for Wood and Strings CANADIAN PREMIERE
- Intermission David Lang (US) the so-called laws of nature
ARTISTS
So Percussion
Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting
Concert sponsor: Daniel Friedman & Rob Dalgliesh
WNMF 3
INVITATION TO SILENCE
The Rothko Chapel
Monday, January 25
Westminster United Church
“There is no more stunning passage in postwar composition than (the ending) of Rothko
Chapel... the final effect is so magical I hope never to understand it.”
– Tim Johnson, musicologist
Morton Feldman’s masterwork was inspired by the feeling of suspension and floating one
senses in the tranquil Houston sanctuary filled with large Mark Rothko canvasses. A world
premiere choral work by Feldman’s widow, composer Barbara Monk Feldman will also be
performed. David Lang’s The National Anthems explores what might be common in
national anthems from around the world. Canadian Oleksa Lozowchuk’s startlingly assured
Waters of Rest provides a rich and ornate counterpoint. WSO soloists and two outstanding
choral ensembles perform.
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
W ORKS
Barbara Monk Feldman (CAN) Poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins WORLD PREMIERE (1)
Morton Feldman (US) Rothko Chapel (2,3)
- Intermission Oleksa Lozowchuk (CAN) Waters of Rest (2)
David Lang (US) The National Anthems CANADIAN PREMIERE (1,4)
ARTISTS
(1) Camerata Nova, Mel Braun, conductor
(2) Polycoro Chamber Choir, John Wiens, conductor
(3) Daniel Scholz, viola; Frederick Liessens, percussion; Donna Laube, celesta
(4) WSO Clearwater String Quartet
Presenting Patron: Sandi & Ron Mielitz
WNMF 4
BACK TO THE FUTURE
World Premieres from Canada
Tuesday, January 26
Centennial Concert Hall
"A masterpiece.”
— Georgia Straight on Derek Charke’s Tundra Songs
“One of the finest pieces of Canadian symphonic writing ever produced.”
— John Terauds, Musical Toronto on Gary Kulesha’s Third Symphony
An evening of world premieres all commissioned especially for WNMF 2016 and conducted
by Gary Kulesha. Derek Charke’s choral symphony Earth Airs (Symphony No. 2) draws on a
text of Greek philosopher Anaximenes, who muses on the infinite nature of air, the soul of
the world, the crystalline vault of the heavens and the moon being fire. Randolph Peters,
former composer-in-residence of the WNMF will premiere Thermokarst for solo clarinet,
cello and orchestra, while composer/conductor Gary Kulesha will present the world
premiere of his new work Echoes of Light.
W ORKS
Gary Kulesha (CAN) Echoes Of Light WORLD PREMIERE
Winner of the Canadian Music Centre Composition Competition
Randolph Peters (CAN) Thermokarst WORLD PREMIERE (1)
- Intermission Derek Charke (CAN) Earth Airs (Symphony No. 2) WORLD PREMIERE (2)
ARTISTS
Gary Kulesha, conductor
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
(1) Micah Heilbrunn, clarinet, Yuri Hooker, cello
(2) Horizon, choir; Vic Pankratz, director
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
WNMF 5
THE TRANSCENDENT DRONE
Niblock & Snow
Wednesday, January 27
Centennial Concert Hall
"[Phill Niblock is] one of the living legends of the early minimalist generation and
universally recognized as one of the authentic masters of drone music.”
— Chain DLK
Phill Niblock incorporates drone and its microtonal variation. “(Niblock’s) pieces never fail
to induce new ways of hearing sound.” (The Quietus). Michael Snow is, without a doubt,
one of the foremost North American artists of the latter half of the 20th century.
Russian-American composer Lera Auerbach’s Icarus incorporates the rarely heard
theremin. Former WSO composer-in-residence T. Patrick Carrabré will premiere Winter
Wind for French horn and orchestra. Vincent Ho, the most recent WSO composer-inresidence, will have the Postlude from his Arctic Symphony performed.
W ORKS
Phill Niblock (US) #9 (Number 9) NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Vincent Ho (CAN) O Glorious Arcticus - Postlude (from Arctic Symphony, 5th movement)
T. Patrick Carrabre (CAN) Winter Wind WORLD PREMIERE (1)
Lera Auerbach (US) Icarus CANADIAN PREMIERE
- Intermission & Launch of Border Crossings Issue #136 FILM Michael Snow: Snow in Vienna
INTERVIEW Michael Snow and Robert Enright
ARTISTS
Alexander Mickelthwate, conductor
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
(1) Patricia Evans, horn
presents Michael Snow
Sponsored by
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
WNMF 6
MUSIC AND TRAUMA
The Sinking of the Titanic: Gavin Bryars
Thursday, January 28
Pan Am Pool
“Words can’t do justice to The Sinking of the Titanic, there is a timelessness, a patience
and an ineffable beauty to this music that is almost impossible to describe. Unique,
flawless and totally essential music.”
— Boomkat, U.K.
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“One of the great musical events of the 20 century.”
— Sinfini Music, U.K.
Gavin Bryars’s The Sinking of the Titanic has been called “devastatingly poignant” by
Uncut magazine. Taking countless forms and variations both musical and visual in
performances around the world, ours will be heard at the Pan-Am Pool, the water, in effect,
becoming the virtual protagonist. In this piece, Bryars explores the prolongation of music
into eternity through the metaphor that sounds once generated never die. Composer
Matthew Patton will premiere a new parallel work to Titanic, based around a more personal
haunting trauma of the present age, the plane crash.
W ORKS
Matthew Patton (CAN) Afterlife Mutilation WORLD PREMIERE
Gavin Bryars (UK) The Sinking Of The Titanic
ARTISTS
Julian Pellicano, conductor and percussion
Elise Lavallée, viola; Gregory Hay, viola; Leana Rutt, cello; Michiko Singh, horn; Bruce
Okrainec, double bass; Michelle Goddard, bass clarinet; Victoria Sparks, percussion
Winnipeg Synchronized Swimming Club
Sistema Winnipeg Choir
Sponsored by
POP NUIT
STEPHEN O’MALLEY
Thursday, January 28
Union Sound Hall
“A slow-motion pyroclastic flow of primal frequencies... Sunn O))) have ended up highly
rated in the meditative uplands of the avant-garde. This show is like a giant, maleficent
“om” offered up to the gods of amplification - mesmeric and involving.”
— The Guardian
“Monoliths and Dimensions becomes one of the boldest and most completely realized
albums of the year.”
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
— The Guardian on the album by Sunn O)))
PROGRAM
10:15pm Burden: Doreen Girard, Caitlin Hutchison, Shelagh Pizey-Allen
11pm Stephen O’Malley, guitar
WNMF 7
THE SLOWING OF EXPERIENCE
Stephen O’Malley & Henryk Górecki
Friday, January 29
Centennial Concert Hall
“Gruidés (Stephen O’Malley’s first orchestral work, 2014) is a wonderfully droning, heaving,
and dissonant epic of modern composition... It is an impressively satisfying, inventive, and
disquieting tour de force.”
— Brainwashed
Stephen O’Malley’s drone music is associated with several of the genre’s key groups. He is
a noted figure in European modernism and has collaborated with Pierre Boulez’ IRCAM
Institute in Paris. We will hear O’Malley’s first work for chamber orchestra in this world
premiere. Henryk Górecki is best known for his mega-hit Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of
Sorrowful Songs). Górecki’s Symphony No. 4 was left unfinished at his death in 2010 and
will receive its Canadian premiere on our Festival finale. The composer’s son Mikolaj
Górecki will be in attendance.
W ORKS
Stephen O’Malley (US) Un vide dans le ciel WORLD PREMIERE*
- Intermission Henryk Górecki (PO) Symphony No. 4 CANADIAN PREMIERE
ARTISTS
Alexander Mickelthwate, conductor
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
*Commission sponsored by Michael Nesbitt
Concert sponsor: Dr. Alex Grunfeld & Silvester Komlodi
TICKET INFORMATION
TICKETS
Regular $25
Student $12
POP NUIT
Advance $15
At the Door $20
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
FESTIVAL PASSES
Early Bird Regular $69 Student $39
After January 9th Regular $89 Student $49
Tickets available at the WSO Box Office and all Ticketmaster outlets.
W SO Box Office
204 949 3999
wso.ca | wnmf.ca
Ticketmaster
1 855 985 ARTS
Ticketmaster.ca
Selected Artist Biographies
DAVID LANG
Passionate, prolific, and complicated, composer David Lang embodies the restless spirit of
invention. Lang is at the same time deeply versed in the classical tradition and committed
to music that resists categorization, constantly creating new forms.
In the words of The New Yorker, "With his winning of the Pulitzer Prize for the little match
girl passion (one of the most original and moving scores of recent years), Lang, once a
post-minimalist enfant terrible, has solidified his standing as an American master."
Musical America's 2013 Composer of the Year and recipient of Carnegie Hall's Debs
Composer's Chair for 2013-2014, Lang is one of America's most performed composers.
Many of his works resemble each other only in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision
that inform their structures. His catalogue is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber
and solo works are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling and very
emotionally direct. Much of his work seeks to expand the definition of virtuosity in music —
even the deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly difficult to play and require incredible
concentration by musicians and audiences alike.
Lang is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music collective Bang
on a Can. His work has been recorded on the Sony Classical, Harmonia Mundi, Teldec, BMG,
Point, Chandos, Argo/Decca, and Cantaloupe labels, among others.
His music is published by Red Poppy Music (ASCAP) and is distributed worldwide by G.
Schirmer, Inc.
JOAN TOWER
Joan Tower is widely regarded as one of the most important composers living today. Over
a career spanning more than fifty years, she has made lasting contributions to musical life
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
as composer, educator, and performer. She has written for the Emerson, Tokyo, and Muir
quartets; soloists Evelyn Glennie, Carol Wincenc, David Shifrin, and John Browning; and the
orchestras of Chicago, New York, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Washington DC, among others.
Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony recorded Made in America in 2008, an
album that collected three Grammy awards including Best Classical Contemporary
Composition. In 1990 she became the first woman to win the prestigious Grawemeyer
Award for Silver Ladders, written for the St. Louis Symphony where she was Composerin-Residence (1985-1988). Other residencies include the Orchestra of St. Luke's (19972007) and the Pittsburgh Symphony (2010-2011). She was cofounder and pianist for the
Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players from 1970-1985.
SO PERCUSSION
With its innovative multi-genre original productions, sensational interpretations of modern
classics, and “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” (The New
Yorker), So Percussion has redefined the scope of the modern percussion ensemble.
Recent and upcoming highlights include David Lang’s percussion concerto “man made”
with Gustavo Dudamel for the opening of the LA Phil season; Bryce Dessner’s “Music for
Wood and Strings” at the Barbican in London and at Bonnaroo Music and Art Festival; a
featured appearance on WNYC’s Radiolab with Jud Abumrad; collaborations with Shara
Worden and Glenn Kotche at Carnegie Hall; and more.
So Percussion is the Edward T. Cone Ensemble-in-Residence at Princeton University, and
its members are Co-Directors of a new percussion department at the Bard CollegeConservatory of Music.
So is: Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting
STEPHEN O’MALLEY
"Insofar they may expand on the O))) principles albeit perhaps a more sculptural and
angular direction; the extended solid and geometric aspects of the guitar and amplifiers,
sound pressure, volume and temporal structure as ambiguous and solitary form."
Stephen O’Malley (b. 1974) was born in New Hampshire, USA and raised in Seattle. He
eventually spent a decade in New York and presently is based in Paris.
As a composer and musician he has been involved in hundreds of concerts and
performances around the world over since 1993.
O’Malley is a founding member of several groups including Thorr's Hammer (1993), Burning
Witch (1995), Sunn O))) (1998), Khanate (2000), KTL (2005), Nazoranai (2011), ÄÄNIPÄÄ
(2011) and others. He is a frequent collaborator of many outsider musicians, artists and
composers in various formations, in concert and studio settings. He was also part of the
formative teams which created the Southern Lord (1998) and Ajna Offensive (1995) record
labels, and has worked as the art director for the Misanthropy records label (1997-2000)
and others, as well as for various NY based advertising agencies and publications (1998-
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
2006). In 2011 he created the Ideologic Organ record label in collaboration with Peter
Rehberg / Editions Mego.
Wildly prolific, O’Malley’s oeuvre is defined by its remarkable breadth and complexity and
includes collaborations with a wide range of experimental musicians, including Scott
Walker, Merzbow, Jim O’Rourke, Keiji Haino, Mats Gustaffson, Peter Rehberg, and Oren
Ambarchi; French choreographer and theater director Gisèle Vienne; author Dennis
Cooper; contemporary composers Iancu Dumitrescu, Roger Tessier, Eyvind Kang and Alvin
Lucier; Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov; American sculptor Banks Violette; Italian performance
artist Nico Vascellari; Luxembourg’s filmmaker artists Gast Bouschet & Nadine Hilbert;
Swiss artist Emily Ding; American filmmaker Jim Jarmusch; Fashion designer Rick Owens;
Belgian filmmaker Alexis Destoop; and many others. O’Malley’s multifaceted,
multidisciplinary interests intersect on many levels.
Within Gisèle Vienne plays, he has created the music for Kindertotenlieder (2006), This is
How You Will Disappear (2010), LAST SPRING: A Prequel (2011), The Pyre (2013) and The
Ventriloquy Convention (2015) in collaboration with Peter Rehberg (with whom he
founded the band KTL) and also for Eternelle Idole (2009).
O’Malley has also worked together with film makers and visual artists in gallery and
museum installation work, notably with the American sculptor, Banks Violette on several
pieces between 2005-2008.
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival
Generously sponsored by:
We gratefully acknowledge our funders and supporters:
About W SO:
The WSO is integral to Winnipeg's rich cultural life, delighting more than 225,000 audience
members each year with innovative programming and musical excellence. The WSO
presents educational programs for more than 40,000 students annually and tours to
communities across Manitoba.
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MEDIA: For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact:
Sarah Panas, Marketing & Communications Coordinator
p. (204) 949-3970
e: [email protected]
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Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra | Winnipeg New Music Festival