Christopher Reiche Composer

This is the homepage of Christopher Reiche, a composer and occasional performer based in Victoria, BC.

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May 23, 2020

of-the-now: archipelago Live Streamed Concert: May 23 @8 p.m. EST Facebook Event: of-the-now:archipelago Live stream will be found at: of-the-now.ca

of-the-now: archipelago is an occasional streaming series of experimental music and sound, artist talks, conversations, sound ecology, and studio sessions. These moments will bring together artists and artistic partners to create and present work in isolation and at a distance, as people connecting across many islands. We begin our series with Christopher Reiche Boucher playing Chedo Barone's Piano Installation with Derangements followed by a discussion. The entirety of the event will be approximately three and a half hours.

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Dory Hayley performing Postcard Pieces including: Seven Lines, Musica Moderna, Seven Lines of Equal Length, and Two Words. This video was made by the Canadian Music Centre BC, and RedShift Music.

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More Postcard Scores

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June 29, 2018

SongLaunch: Songs from Art Song Lab 2018 June 29 @ 7:30p.m.  Pyatt Hall, VSO School of Music Facebook Event : SongLaunch more information: www.artsonglab.com

Art Song Lab pairs poets and composers together to create a new work collaboratively. It culminates in a week long intensive workshop finishing with a concert presentation featuring the new works that were created during the collaborative process.

For Art Song Lab  2018 I am very happy to be working with Barbara Black. Together we created a new work for soprano and piano: Serenity.

12 World Premieres from Art Song Lab 2018.

Serenity by Barbara Black & Christopher Reiche Boucher A Season to Bid Farewell by Janet Rogers & Michael Trew Too Much Light by Barbara Black & Martha Helen Schmidt Midwinter Reading List by Leanne Boschman & Glenn Sutherland Doum Aquae: Gift of Water by JC Cortens & Carolyn Quick City by mia susan amir & Patrick McGraw interstellar modification by Irina Rakhilkina & Robert Strobel universe is trying to tell me something but it's mute by Irina Rakhilkina & Jonathan Daniel Song for Smoke by felicia klingenberg & Judy Specht Waiting by Kagan Goh & Steven Webb Nostalgia by Le Roy Wan & Arturo Fernandez This Is That by Cory Philley & Katerina Gimon Performed by singers: Dorothea Hayley, Lynne McMurtry, and Will George pianists: Rachel Iwaasa, Alison d'Amato, and Marguerite Witvoet Art Song Lab 2018 is an independent venture, funded entirely through participant fees, ticket sales, and the generosity of donors like you. Please consider adding a donation to your ticket purchases so we can continue to bring new life to art song in North America.

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June 2 and 3, 2018

The Fourth Annual: Oak Bay New Music Festival Concert: June 2 @4 p.m. and @8 p.m., June 3 @2 p.m.

Composer meet and greet: June 2 @2 p.m.

St. Mary’s Church, 1701 Elgin Rd. Victoria, BC Facebook Event : Oak Bay New Music Festival

more information: here                                

Oak Bay Music and the Victoria Composers Collective present their 4th annual Oak Bay New Music Festival.

This year’s festival centers around “The Art of Listening: Reinvigorating the Art of Reception”. Composers from the local community and around the globe will reflect diverse perspectives on the art of listening, its role in music, and in our broader society. Saturday’s special opening concert program “Nocturne: Canadian Art Songs” features Cathy Fern Lewis (voice) and Rachel Iwaasa (piano).

Cathy Fern Lewis and Rachel Iwaasa will perform my song Weep You No More on their concert on Saturday at 4 p.m.  I am looking forward to performing piano, melodica, and toy piano as part of the Sunday afternoon concert.

Hope to see you there!

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April 18, 2018

APTL presents: Pushing the Boundaries of Song  Concert: April 18 @7 p.m. James Bay United Church 511 Michigan Street Victoria, BC Facebook Event : Pushing the Boundaries of Song

Victoria’s Cathy Fern Lewis and APTL Ensemble member Christopher Reiche Boucher will join together to push the boundaries of songs and games.

Following a months-long exploration of creativity and play, Cathy and Chris have together curated this concert: ”a musical journey that includes what some might consider folk songs or popular songs, along with music found in surprising places.” "While deciding what pieces to do, the concept that making music is playing music kept coming up," said Chris. "The planning of this concert began with a game of cribbage. The act of play encouraged us to juxtapose works that may seem, at first, to be unusual pairings.” "The concert will begin with “musical cribbage," said Cathy. "This is a work that Chris and I have been developing over time, where game play and musical play can intersect." The program will also feature the world premiere of Cathy Fern Lewis’ Clear Love, which was written especially for this performance. A work by Bjork, a piano solo, a piece by John Oswald, and a surprise piano duet are also on the program. They will also perform Linda C. Smith’s setting of the poetry of three young students from Regent Park School of Music in Ontario. $10 at door.

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November 22, 2017 to November 27, 2017

My work: November 25 10am to 4pm only.

Sonologues  Installation: Nov. 22 to 27, 2017 (my works is Nov 25 from 10am to 4pm)  Roundhouse Exhibition Hall, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver, BC. More information: Redshiftmusic.ca

As part of Redshift Music’s Sonologues, my work Frequency Sweep will be presented on their 16 Channel speaker array on November 25 from 10 am to 4 pm.  Hope to see you there!

Sonologues

A week of exotic sonic art installations at the Roundhouse! 10 composers, 10 unique sonic visions! Free admission. Come down and check it out!

Wednesday, November 22 Annette Brosin 10 am - 4 pm 'fantasiae' Scott Wilson 4 pm - 10 pm 'Kelp Road'

Thursday, November 23

Lisa Cay Miller 10 am - 4 pm 'Hekkaideca-myth' Jordan Nobles 4 pm - 10 pm 'Möbius'

Friday, November 24 Chris Blaber 10 am - 4 pm 'Different Currents' Mike WT Allen 4 pm - 10 pm 'Tesphne'

Saturday, November 25 Christopher Reiche 10 am - 4 pm 'Frequency Sweep' Benton Roark 4 pm - 9 pm Vancouver New Music 9-11 pm 'Uri Caine Mix'

Monday, November 27 Colin MacDonald 10 am - 4 pm 'The Sky is a Clock' Brian Topp 4 pm - 10 pm 'Tundra'

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November 24, 2017  Canada on Key: Canadian Music Week Concert Concert: November 24 @7:30 p.m. Wood Hall, Victoria Conservatory of Music, Victoria, British Columbia. More information: here

As part of the Victoria Conservatory’s Canada Music Week, the faculty of the VCM presents Canada on Key, an evening of Canadian piano music. 

For this concert I will be performing Linda Catlin Smith’s Thought and Desire. 

Hope to see you there!

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June 17, 2017 and June 24, 2017

Casse-Tête  Concert: June 17 @8:40 p.m. Theatre North West, 556 N Nechako Rd #36, Prince George, British Columbia. Facebook Event : Casse-Tête More information: www.casstetefestival.com

Vancouver Island Chamber Music Festival  Concert: June 24 @7:00 p.m. Harbour City Theatre, 25 Victoria Rd, Nanaimo British Columbia. More information: here

Featuring music from the Ursuline Monastery in Quebec, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, John Taverner, new work by Hasselberg & Lewis, a world premiere by Christopher Reiche, and showing of the John Bolton Legacy Video: The Pines of Emily Carr by Jean Coulthard.

At this performance Hesselberg & Lewis will be premiering two new post cards as part of my piece Messages by Hand: A Collection of Postcards. 

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June 16, 2017 to June 17, 2017 Casse-Tête presents Satie’s Vexations Concert: June 16 @12 p.m.  Theatre North West, 556 N Nechako Rd #36, Prince George, British Columbia.  Facebook Event : Casse-Tête More information: here

From June 16 till June 17 I will be performing Erik Satie’s Vexations. Starting at noon and ending at noon the following day, the performance takes about 24 hours to complete. Feel free to come and stay for as much or as little as you like.

“Pour se jouer 840 fois de suite ce motif, il sera bon de se preparer au préalable, et dansle plus grand silence, par des immobilités sérieuses.”

-Erik Satie Vexations for piano

“True, one could not endure a performance of Vexations... but why give it a thought?”

-John Cage Silence

I didn’t find Vexations, Vexations found me. Early in 2002, I went to the National Art Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and was struck by an art exhibit that has stayed with me ever since that day. The Gallery had an exhibit of the works of Robert Racine. The exhibit included his methodically created Mirrored Pages as well as a room with a grand piano, a hand copied score and a video of Racine performing Vexations. At this point, I had just finished applying to music schools and knew that my interests were in the realms of composition and theory. I had also been completing a course in art in high school. It was in this art class that a love for contemporary art was fostered but until I saw this exhibit, music and art were very different things. I still remember being taken by the haunting melody that sounded nothing like anything I had ever heard before. The fact that it was so short and repeated so many times gave the performance stability, like a painting or a sculpture. In that moment, the possibilities of contemporary music being considered “art” became clear to me. It was after seeing this exhibit that I made a decision that someday I would perform this piece. Although it was a number of years before I made an attempt at performing Vexations, elements of this work influence my compositional writings. I was drawn to repetition and the play between stasis and motion.I became interested in concepts around boredom in music and what that meant. I remember having discussions about Vexations with composition professors and learned that when it is performed it is usually done as a “tag-team” type performance. What I had originally thought was the norm for the performance was actually the exception which fueled my desires to attempt the task. Through my musical education I was introduced to the ideas of John Cage and eventually to FLUXUS. My interest in FLUXUS was their performances that questioned the nature of music. Most of these scores are created by completing a list of tasks to be performed. From these I gathered that the intent to complete a task constitutes a form of artistic practice. The art is not the completion of the task as much as it is the doing of the task until completion. The challenge is to fully submit to the experience of the task. It is with this sentiment that I present Vexations.

About the piece

Vexations was composed in 1893 during an interesting time in Erik Satie’s life. Having been involved with a Rosicrucian sect and then forming his own, his music during this period seems to have a liturgical quality. This quality is evident within Vexations. The structure of this work consists of a plainchant like melody followed by a harmonization of that plainchant. The harmonization is notated in such a way that even for a practiced musician it is difficult to read. There is an unmemorable quality to this piece and as a result even performers who have played it numerous times have difficulty memorizing it. Part of the tradition of performing this work is the mind set that each repetition is a new expression of the same work and should be taken as a fresh beginning.

The score of this work also includes the phrase:

“To play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence by serious immobilities.”

Satie was in the practice of annotating his music with phrases to help influence the mind set of the performer as they were playing. Of which the intent was to affect the playing of the music in a more subtle way counter to the traditional mindset of the standard 19th century pianist. With this in mind, it is likely that the statement at the beginning of this work is not so much an instruction as it is a suggestion of a mental preparation. This mental preparation is intended to help the performer to express the staves correctly; however in 1963, amongst the ideals of FLUXUS and performance art, the first “complete” public performance of Vexations took place. This performance was organized by John Cage, inferring from the annotation that the piece was to be played 840 times. Since then it has been performed numerous times by groups and individuals ranging in length from 18 to 28 hours.

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June 2, 2017 (with Talk on May 31, 2017) Feeling Backward Concert: June 2 @7 p.m. The 519 (519 Church St. Toronto ON) Admission: $10. Facebook Event : Feeling Backward

Talk: May 31 @5p.m. Canadian Music Centre (20 St. Joseph St. Toronto ON)  Admission: free. Facebook Event:  An open dialogue about Feeling Backward

Contaqt (Contact Contemporary Music) presents Feeling Backward. (read about my piece: Double Shadow near the bottom!)

This concert features new works by queer music creators that reflect on, re-interpret, re-imagine, re-story, are inspired by, and invoke the spirit, if not of a direct work of, a queer artist of the past or not so past through a lens of the present with the assumption that there is a subverted queer voice embedded within the music and/or the intent behind the music... or perhaps not, and what that might mean.

Along with the concert on June 2, we will be presenting a talk on May 31st at 5 p.m. As the queer community gains visibility within mainstream culture, we run the risk of abandoning a history that has not yet been fully uncovered. By refusing to look backwards at a sometimes dark past we often succumb to homonormativity: assimilating queer culture to mainstream ideals that effectively silence queer voices. Radical queer theory however, calls for the queer community to embrace its own culture, good and bad, and re-present ourselves in a way that transcends generational divides and speaks to our past, present and future. By re-storying our past we find new ways to communicate our present and imagine a future. Music by Annette Bosun, Allison Cameron, Julius Eastman, Jerry Pergolesi,Christopher Reiche, and Nephenee Rose

This concert will feature a premiere of Double Shadow commissioned by Contact especially for this event.  

Double Shadow was commissioned by Contact and is an expression of the duality shared by many members of the LGBTQ+ community. In day to day life one encounters situations where our queer selves can feel to be overpowered or suppressed by pressures of society and social situations. This is particularly felt in situations where one is not completely "out". Double Shadow is a reflection on the existence of this duality especially in situations where one is not "out" or doesn't feel safe to express their queer identity. In my experience in such situations, my queer identity is always present even though it may be overshadowed. Here, the violin and cello are present throughout the work even though they are not always in the fore front. Double Shadow doesn't try to express a solution and doesn't even address a message of hope that is often accompanied during discussion of this duality. It merely tries to illustrate one mode of experience of this duality. I would like to thank Contact Contemporary Music for the opportunity and support for the creation of this work. As well as Pierre Boulez, whose public persona and the lack of definite information about his personal life encouraged to think about the duality that is faced by all members of the LGBTQ+ community no matter where they fall on that wide spectrum.

Finally I need to give a very big thank you to the BC Arts Council and the SOCAN Foundation for their support  making it possible for me to be in Toronto for rehearsals, the talk, and the concert!

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May 18, 2017 Woodstockhausen 2017 Copper Owl 1900 Douglas St. Victoria, BC @8:00 p.m. Admission: $10

For the second calendar year, Victoria BC will witness the fusion of the experimental music legacy from 20th century composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and the communion and freeing rock'n'roll atmosphere from the Woodstock festival of 69. This concert includes After Henry Flynt - For Cassandra, one of my very few pieces for “Fixed Media”.

The concert also includes:

Music by: Nathan Friedman Alex Jang Nolan Krell Seán Maynard Maria Eduarda Mendes Martins

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May 5, 2017 Nocturnes - Canadian Art Songs Canadian Music Centre in BC 837 Davie St. Vancouver, BC @8:00 p.m.

Hosted by Rodney Sharman, Voice artist Cathy Fern Lewis and pianist Rachel Iwaasa present an evening of Canadian Art Song. Themes of night, death, and love are expressed by notable poets and are set with rich, varied harmonic textures by some of Canada’s finest composers.Elements of cabaret also appear. Poems by Guillaume Apollinaire, Kollan Arici, Emily Carr, H.D., Poch-Goldin, Pinget, William Richardson, and Dylan Thomas. Music by Murray Adaskin, Anna Höstman, Lorna Paterson, Jean Coulthard, Christopher Reiche, Rodney Sharman, and Linda Catlin Smith. Composer-Host Rodney Sharman will join Iwaasa and Lewis in a performance of Smith's exquisite "Grey Broken". Lewis says: “Canada has a wealth of superb art songs. I am so pleased to be performing these beautiful songs with pianist and contemporary music champion, Rachel Iwaasa. The program is close to my heart; I am continuing the tradition of my teacher and mentor, renowned Canadian soprano, Frances James Adaskin (1903 -1988), and several of the works were written especially for me.”

This concert included a performance of my work Weep You No More Sad Fountains.

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April 22, 2017 Piano Installation with Derangements arc.hive 2516 Bridge St. Victoria, BC @1:00 to 4:00 p.m. More information: arc-hive.weebly.com Facebook Event: Piano Installation with Derangements Admission: By Donation

​On April 22nd from 1:00 to 4:00 pm, near the close of the 'strange knowledge' exhibition, Christopher Reiche will perform Chedo Barone's composition Piano Installation with Derangements. Piano Installation with Derangements by Chedo Barone consists of 750 coupled derangements of the major scale (derangement refers to a permutational mode in combinatorial mathematics where by no element of a given set, such as a scale, appears in its original place). Presented as an "installation", this work allows for the audience to come and go as they please, walk around, or stay for the whole performance. The performance will be followed by a Q & A.

As suggested by eldritch Priest's book Boring Formless Nonsense, the work attempts to provide a sensation of the sublime by stretching the limits of the listener's ability to comprehend the entire work, but falls short as that the revelation of this failure becomes continually less dramatic resulting in a sense of boredom and ambivalence. Since the listeners are able to come and go as they please, the only person required to face the full impact of this boredom is the performer.

"Staged as an 'installation' so that the listeners... might come and go as they wish, the piece, says Barone, is actually intended for the performer, whose encounter with boredom, because he or she 'must pay attention or the piece collapses,' does not have the luxury of being carried away from its monotony."

~eldritch Preist, Boring Formless Nonsense: Experimental Music and the Aesthetics of Failure (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), 82.

Performer Description

Christopher Reiche is a performer and composer in Victoria BC known for his enthusiasm for performing and composing for unusual instruments and performance situations. He is not unfamiliar with performing works that investigate boredom and long durations. In 2013, he completed a solo performance of Erik Satie's Vexations, a musical phrase that is repeated 840 times, in just under 24 hours.

Reiche performs occasionally in Victoria at A Place to Listen or on concerts hosted by the Victoria Composers Collective. He is also known as Victoria Engagement Leader for the Canadian Music Centre’s Victoria Creative Hub, New Music Coordinator for Open Space Arts Society, and is currently President of the Canadian League of Composers. He teaches piano, theory, and composition lessons at Brentwood College and the Victoria Conservatory of Music.

christopherreiche.tumblr.com

Composer Biography

Chedo Barone is a composer living in Victoria BC and is a sessional lecturer at the University of Victoria in Mathematics.

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April 6, 2017 Handmade and Analogue: Film Art Exhibition presented by MediaNet Sunset Labs 401 Herald. Victoria, BC @7:00 p.m. More information: medianetvictoria.org Facebook Event: Handmade and Analogue Admission: Free!

An installation and exhibition of experimental film art works by participants of MediaNet's HANDMADE AND ANALOGUE filmmaking program.

Participants painted on film, or shot with Super-8 or 16 mm cameras - supported by MediaNet with gear and tech support. Completed films will be exhibited on April 6, at 7 pm, at the Sunset Labs, 401 Herald (behind Value Village). Free admission! Sponsored by the Sunset Labs.

For this exhibition I created a short film: Overlay.  It is an experiment in 8 mm film, 16 mm optical sounds, and digital editing.

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February 11, 2017 Oak Bay New Music Concert presented by Oakbay Music in collaboration with the Victoria Composers Collective St. Mary the Virgin, Anglican Church 1701 Elgin Rd. Victoria, BC @8:00 p.m. More information: oakbaymusic.ca Tickets: Eventbrite (Tickets are $10/$15) Facebook Event: Oak Bay New Music Concert

For the third year in a row, Oak Bay Music presents the Victoria Composers Collective and guest musicians, bringing new and experimental music to Oak Bay.

New compositions by Martins, Penhale, Friedman, Jang, Farkas, Reiche, Dzbik, Rickard, Berry, Klassen and Longton are performed by Friedman, Thibault, Farkas, Brandes, Klassen, Penhale, Reiche, Pashenko, Lewis, Bonham, Dodds, Nemeth, and Martins.

At this concert I will be premiering a new work: Inconsistencies No. 2.  I wrote this composition for one performer an ping pong balls.   I will also be performing For Leo composed by Hollas Longton.

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January 25, 2017 New Music for Old Instruments I presented by Early Music Vancouver in collaboration with the Vancouver Symphony’s New Music Festival Christ Church Cathedral 690 Burrad St. Vancouver, BC @7:30 p.m. (pre-concert talk @6:45 p.m.) More information: www.earlymusic.bc.ca Tickets: www.vancouversymphony.ca Facebook Event: New Music for Old Instruments I

A two concert collaboration with the Vancouver Symphony’s New Music Festival: contemporary compositions written for baroque instruments. Co-Curated by Composer Rodney Sharman and PBO Music Director Alexander Weimann. Performers include: Camille Hesketh soprano, Vicki Boekman recorder, Soile Stratkauskas flute, Chloe Meyers violin, Beiliang Zhu gamba/cello, Alexander Weimann Harpsichord.

This concert will begin with a performance of my composition An Overture for Joy. I will be at this concert as well and am looking forward to sharing a bit about my piece at the pre-concert talk happening at . I am very much looking forward to this performance.

PROGRAMME

*Christopher Reiche (b. 1983) – An Overture for Joy (2014) – fl, violin, cello, harpsichord – 8’

Markus Zahnhausen (b. 1965) – 2 movements from Winterbilder (1989-91) – recorder – 4′

Murray Adaskin (b. 1906) – Two Pieces for Solo Viola da Gamba (1972) – viola da gamba – 9′

Louis Andriessen (b. 1939) – Ende (1981) – recorder – 2’

György Ligeti (1923-2006) – Continuum (1968) – harpsichord solo – 5′

Moritz Eggert (b. 1965) – Ausser Atem (Breathless) (1995) – recorder – 7’

*Linda Catlin Smith (b. 1957) – Grey Broken (1982) – soprano, flute, harpsichord – 11′

INTERMISSION

*Anonymous (Music from New France, early 18th century) – Motet a voix seule au St Sacrement – 5′ (soprano alone)

*Peter Hannan (b. 1953) – Trinkets of Little Value (1986, rev. 2016) – soprano, flute, recorder, violin, gamba, harpsichord – 20′

*Canadian composer