#nicole lizee

[jgthirlwell]

03.06.19 Ecstatic Music Festival presented the 2019 edition of the Bang On A Can People’s Commissioning Fund concert at Merkin Hall. The Bang On A Can Allstars, with guest cellist Mariel Roberts, performed newly commissioned pieces by Henry Threadgill, Josue Collado Fregoso, Trevor Weston and a great piece by Nicole Lizee which incorporated film she made. The second half of the program was dedicate to pieces that used alternate tunings, starting  with "Movement Within” by Glenn Branca on instruments he had created or modified. This was followed by a stunning piece by Annie Gosfield with dizzying keyboard work by Vicky Chow, and the vintage piece Escalator by Arnold Dreyblatt.

[jgthirlwell]

08.05 17 Bang On A Can held their annual MASS MoCA Marathon (aka Banglewood) in the performance hall of the magnificent museum. Louis Andriessen was present for the performance of two of his pieces, as were the core BOAC composers David Lang. Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon, whose piece Dry was stunning. Along with a world premiere from Jeffrey Brooks, pieces were also performed by Fjola Evans, Lois V Vierk, Nicole Lizee, Judd Greenstein and Mary Jane Leach, and the six hour concert concluded with an ecstatic rendering of Steve Reich’s Tehillim, conducted by Brad Lubman.

[falaiseparkmusic-blog]

East Side Animals and next year's Remembrance Day project are part of the Little Chamber Music Series' Newsletter

Click on the photo to read the newsletter, including a video of the East Side Animals creation process.

[littlechambermusic-blog]

Our first newsletter (Nov/Dec 2013) is here!

Click on the photo to read about our relaunch and upcoming projects!

[falaiseparkmusic-blog]

Anybody home?

A legitimate question of late! I haven't spent anywhere near the kind of time in the park as I usually do, mainly because I was consumed by the relaunch of The Little Chamber Music Series That Could and by East Side Animals.

Maybe you heard percussion coming out of the field house last week? The incredible Ben Reimer from Montreal was practicing up a storm for our performances at Mountain View Cemetery's All Souls on October 31.

The world premiere of Nicole Lizée's "Oujist", October 31, photo by Diane Park

Our relaunch party on the 26 was a great event, and the perfect way to get the series going again. Thanks to everyone who came, especially those in costume and our fabulous dancers!

photo and Star Trek costumes by Diane Park

But the main tie between the field house and the Little Chamber Music Series is East Side Animals; a project with around 70 young composers (age 6-10) where we're creating themes for the animals in Falaise Park's incredible stone mosaic.

In the above picture you can see Sir Chubby the Bear, Justin Beaver, Cranium, Fluffy the Fox and Pinky the Salmon

Over the last 2 weeks we've had 2 amazing guests. Nicole Lizée joined us for week 5; both the concerts described above were Nicole's music, she's one of Canada's most innovative and exciting composers and it was an incredible gift to have her join us for a week.

photo by Diane Park

Nicole's concerto for power trio based on themes by Rush is being performed and recorded this weekend by the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, and performing the drum and guitar parts are Ben Reimer and Steve Raegele. Ben and Steve performed at our relaunch concert, and Ben also performed at our All Souls event.

This week we had Mark McGregor join us. Mark is a virtuoso flautist, and one of the finest performers of contemporary music in Canada. His input really helped shape some of the pieces, especially Fluffy the Fox. Ask him to do a bunny scream for you some time.

"I like the Shakuhachi effect!" 

photo by Diane Park

For the rest of this week I'm playing in "Bread and Salt" at the Ukrainian Hall on East Pender. It's part of the Heart of the City Festival, one of Vancouver's most inclusive arts festivals. I'm thrilled to be a part of it, and not just because I'm getting a Ukrainian dinner at the end of it.

After that is the 7th and final week of East Side Animals, and then it's a week long vacation. It's been an exhilarating and amazing year, but I'm in dire need of a re-charge.

If you'd like to get bi-monthly updates from the Little Chamber Music Series, please click here and sign up for our email list.

[littlechambermusic-blog]

Our Relaunch Events!

It's relaunch week for The Little Chamber Music Series That Could!!!!

Over a year of hard work by AD Mark Haney, GM Diane Park and our amazing board is all coming together, and we'd like you to be a part of it.

You can read about the series in this great article from Stuart Derdeyn at the Vancouver Province: New Music Mayhem In The Lower Mainland

Our list of events:

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26

- RELAUNCH PARTY AT THE ROUNDHOUSE

That's right! Put on a costume and come on down! We're relaunching with a party, and the music to move to is cutting-edge Canadian new music.

This is a family-friendly event, and the most unusual new music concert in a month full of unusual new music concerts.

Nicole Lizée and SaskPower will be joined by the Little Chamber Strings; Nicole has arranged over an hour of her music into a large-scale piece that re-imagines the rave. With visuals, electronics, strings, guitar, drums, costumes and more, it is a party that Kubrick and Stockhausen would have enjoyed.

There will be a bar, and plenty of room to shimmy.

The Little Chamber Music Series That Could is back! Tickets at the door or through Brown Paper Tickets:

SUNDAY OCTOBER 27

- FREE CLINICS AT THE CMC (837 Davie St)

11am - Join Nicole to look at her work, including excerpts from Fantasia on Themes by Rush: Concerto for Power Trio and Orchestra. As a special treat, Ben Reimer (drums) and Steve Raegele (guitar), two of the soloists the work was written for, will join Nicole to discuss the concerto.

1pm - Ben Reimer discusses the role of drum set in contemporary music and drum set notation. Not to be missed. If you don't know Ben, I would suggest checking out this video:

TUESDAY OCTOBER 29

- NICOLE LIZEE JOINS EAST SIDE ANIMALS

A special treat for the 70 young composers creating East Side Animals, they will get to work with Nicole! For a month we've been working on creating music for the animals in Falaise Park's stone mosaic, and I think Nicole will be impressed with what we've come up with.

Read about East Side Animals here.

THURSDAY OCTOBER 31

- WORLD PREMIERE OF NICOLE LIZEE'S "OUIJIST"

AT MOUNTAIN VIEW CEMETERY AS PART OF ALL SOULS

A free event, with performances at 7, 8 and 9pm. The piece is around 20 minutes, and in between you can talk to Nicole and the musicians. 

In the Celebration Hall, enter off Fraser Street.

Please join us as we bring the Little Chamber Music Series That Could back to Vancouver's thriving new music community!

We are also raising funds for our activities, mainly hiring musicians for East Side Animals; please consider donating through our Canada Helps page. We are a registered charity, and you will get a tax receipt. Every bit helps, and all funds raised will go to amazing Vancouver composers and musicians.

See you at the Roundhouse on Saturday!