This year we are focusing on local, New Brunswick talent. Our concert series showcases innovative and exceptional chamber music performances.
This series of concerts has been curated by Richard Hornsby (CMA Director), Nadia Francavilla (Musician-in-Residence), and Steven Peacock (long-time friend of the Centre), and promises to inspire and impress audiences of all backgrounds.
Come enjoy classical chamber music at its finest, in the beautiful Memorial Hall auditorium.
Don’t miss this incredible night of music. Award-winning jazz saxophonist and composer Joel Miller teams up with Cuban-born New Brunswick musicians Dee Hernandez (vocals) and Silvio Pupo (piano), alongside Jason Flores (bass) and Jon Bailey (drums).
Experience the magic of jazz, and Latin standards blending together with the joyful melodies from Joel’s roster of music creations.
Follow Vivaldi’s famous piece in his journey through the four seasons of the year. Written 400 years ago this year it continues to be a popular work in the classical repertoire. Atlantic Sinfonia, New Brunswick's own chamber orchestra is led by our UNB Artist in Residence, Nadia Francavilla on solo violin.
Postcards: Music for Cello and Guitar from Europe and the Americas
Emily Kennedy and Steven Peacock offer a program of 20th- and 21st-century for cello and classical guitar drawn from a number of European and New World traditions.
The concert features Brazilian composer Radamés Gnattalli's Sonata for Cello and Guitar and includes shorter works by Marchelie, Granados, Villa-Lobos, Boutros, Bellafronte and Piazzolla, along with two new vignettes by the guitarist.
The New Brunswick Contemporary Music Festival is dedicated to exploring the intersections between classical concert music, electronic music, and other contemporary idioms, and to providing the public with access to artistic programming not available elsewhere in the Atlantic provinces.
For 2025, “Terra ignota, terra ignita” features recent works from contemporary women composers exploring the human relationship to earth and ocean, network and screen. Anna Höstman’s Blind (2019) channels the sea's most extreme and lightless depths, while Pamela Z’s Attention (2016) challenges its performers’ focus with escalating interruptions, notifications, reminders and disruptions. Woven throughout the program, the looming issue of climate change, the fragile ecosystems that surround us and our increasingly distant relationship with our fellow humans and the earth we all inhabit. The land is unknown. The land is on fire. Where do we go from here?
The 2025 festival will include the following three concerts:
Nov. 21 | 7:30 p.m.
Resonant Landscape capstones a two-year community-engaged project where sounds and images gathered by the public on artist-guided nature walks in Fredericton and Sackville structure a 20-minute improvised work addressing biodiversity and climate change.
Performers
Nov. 22 | 7:30 p.m.
Flickering Sky traces a spectrum of disquiet, ranging from the catastrophic to the everyday. Composers Gabriella Smith and Cecilia Livingston explore the aftermath of fire, drought and storm, while Diane Berry and Pamela Z test the limits of an individual’s tolerance for disruption.
Performers
Nov. 23 | 7:30 p.m.
Dark Water explores water as both a vessel of life and a world of the unknown, nurturing the most intimate human connections—our memories, our grief, our histories—while also concealing vast, alien realms filled with creatures and forces beyond our comprehension.
Performers
Come enjoy the Chorale’s end or term concert in the beautiful Memorial Hall auditorium.
The UNB Chorale is comprised of students, staff, and faculty from UNB, as well as members of the larger community.
Directed by Illyana Vermeersch.
This year’s program presents classic wind band music, a world premiere by local composer Douglas Vipond, and holiday arrangements based on familiar seasonal carols.
The concert will take place at the Tom Morrison Theatre, Fredericton High School.
The UNB Concert Band is comprised of students, staff, and faculty from UNB, as well as members of the larger community.
Directed by Hugh Kennedy.
Saint John and Elm City Quartets with special guest, Andrew Miller (bass)
Make it a double! The Saint John String Quartet and the Elm City String Quartet join forces with special guest Andrew Miller (double bass) for double the trouble and double the fun. First up: Mendelssohn’s famous string octet, written when the composer was only 16 years old.
This youthful piece brings the quartets together into a miniature symphony, famous for its eight-part fugue-like motifs. But no good thing lasts forever, and the passion of youth gives way to the passion of dance in Osvaldo Golijov’s homage to the tango, Last Round (1996).
In the composer’s own words: “Two quartets confront each other, separated by the focal bass [...] The bows fly in the air as inverted legs in crisscrossed choreography.”
A journey through the history of love songs.
Identity, Influence, Expression, Legacy
This concert explores how women composers from 1750 to today have expressed the complex tension between inner identity and outer circumstance—between the self and the other. From Anna Bon’s 1757 Divertimento, published at age 19 as she declared artistic independence from patronage to Jessie Montgomery’s Rhapsody No. 1, written explicitly for her own hands, each work captures a distinct intersection of personal voice and historical context.
Louise-Marie Simon, known professionally as Claude Arrieu, adopted a pseudonym to navigate the French musical world of the 20th century with elegance. Madeleine Dring’s spirited Trio reveals her admiration for Poulenc and her devotion to her oboist husband. Valerie Coleman’s Fanmi Imèn, inspired by Maya Angelou’s poetry, blends musical geographies in a call for unity.
Enjoy their end of term offering in the beautiful Memorial Hall auditorium. The UNB Concert Band is comprised of students, staff, and faculty from UNB, as well as members of the larger community.
Directed by Hugh Kennedy.
Come enjoy the Chorale’s end or term concert in the beautiful Memorial Hall auditorium.
The UNB Chorale is comprised of students, staff, and faculty from UNB, as well as members of the larger community.
Directed by Illyana Vermeersch.
Tickets can be purchased in advance by appointment or at the door via cash or card. Please email musicart@unb.ca to schedule a time to come in.
Regular $30
Students $15
Family pass or date night (two adults + any children) $50
Regular $20
Student $10
Regular $40
Sstudent $20
Our work to provide accessible, high-quality music has been made possible in large part by our donors and patrons, for whom we are deeply grateful. If you’re able, please consider contributing to our efforts. Note, you will receive a tax receipt for your donation.
For decades, UNB has provided the university and the broader community with quality concerts by both regional and other Canadian artists. We typically use our acoustically fine, Memorial Hall on the UNB campus.
Experiencing live classical music can be a revelation. An opportunity to get up close to the musicians provides an experience where you can feel the musical vibrations, here the rosin as the bow moves across the strings of a violin and be fascinated at the facial expressions and other forms of communication that musicians use in order to be in perfect synchronicity.
All this can be experienced by participating in the "MusicUNB" concerts in our intimate and acoustically fine Memorial Hall, on the UNB campus. We bring in the finest musical artists from the area and region and sprinkle them with some visiting artists from farther afield to provide quality concerts at reasonable ticket prices.
The concerts cover a large variety of styles and eras. There is something for everyone. Join us as a pass holder (best deal) or a single ticket buyer. Come be entertained and inspired.
