Contemporary Music Festival 2022

Humans and Machines, an exploration of the impact of technology on humanity.

Unique in the Atlantic region, the Contemporary Music Festival highlights music from both emerging and established women composers. Join us as we ask ourselves: Has technology dehumanized music? What happens when nothing about your instrument sounds like your instrument anymore? When it comes to music-making, where exactly is the boundary between human and machine?

This exciting Contemporary Music Festival is curated by Nadia Francavilla, violinist and UNB Musician in Residence, a leading exponent of contemporary music in Canada. She will be joined by some of the very best of new music performers in the region: Carl Philip Gionet (piano), Norman E. Adams (cello), Helen Pridmore (singer), Joel Cormier (percussion), Max Gallant (percussion), Richard Hornsby (clarinet), Marcia Dysart (dancer) and with visuals by New Brunswick artist, Stephen Hutchings.

It features the music of Sophie Dupuis, Nicole Lizée, Ana Sokolovic, Bekah Simms, Linda Catlin Smith, Alice Hong, and Jennifer Walshe.
 

Welcome to the Party!

Friday, Oct. 14, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

Kick off this year's Contemporary Music Festival with an exhilarating program of works by Canadian women composers, ranging from the exuberant, to the contemplative, to the undeniably askew. Improvisation mingles with gesture while electronics try out some new moves. Performance, or performance art? Bring your party hat and an open mind; this one's going to be fun! Featuring works by Sophie Dupuis, Nicole Lizée, Ana Sokolovic, Bekah Simms, and more.
 

Dirt Road (includes talk by artist Stephen Hutchings)

Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

Enhanced by stunning photographs from New Brunswick painter Stephen Hutchings, Dirt Road is an hour-long work in 15 movements for violin and percussion. Toronto composer Linda Catlin Smith’s music focuses on harmonic simplicity, orchestration, and color. The discipline of listening is deeply important to Smith. "Though this is relatively quiet music, it is by no means sedentary; on the contrary", she states. "It's constantly on the move. Sometimes hurrying on by, sometimes caught in an aimless drift or relaxed meander."
 

Humans and Machines

Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022 at 7:30 p.m.

The addition of electronics to classical music has pushed the boundaries of the form in more ways than one. Gone are the days of the performer who stood still on stage with their instrument, playing from memory to a hushed audience, starting at the beginning and ending at the end. We move in circles now, meandering, and playful, nonlinear. We are full of improvisation and strangeness. In this new age, the musicians are both performers and actors; speakers, inventors, constructors and deconstructors of sound and experience. Featuring works by Alice Hong and Jennifer Walshe.

These concerts bring contemporary and under-represented repertoire to New Brunswick audiences. Please join us!

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