Now Hear This: a festival of new music

There’s an argument that the best stories are always non-linear – and that applies to music as well as storytelling.

New Music Edmonton took this philosophy to heart 30 years ago when it launched its fledgling operation determined to introduce the world’s most innovative, cutting edge sounds produced by living composers.

This year NME hits a new avant-garde stride. It celebrates the fifth annual Now Hear This Festival at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Edmonton from March 18 to 20.

For novelty seekers, Now Hear This features three days of dramatic premieres embedded with a trademark spirit of adventure.

A couple of highlights among the avant-garde revolutionaries are clarinetist Lori Freedman’s The Virtuosity of Excess and sound artist Darren Copeland’s multi-channel electro-acoustic works.

The Virtuosity of Excess, a 50-minute spectacle, is a solo concert of music for bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet and live electronics using computer software.

“She pushes the boundaries of these incredibly low, earthy instruments. Lori has taken Virtuosity on tour for the last two months. The new music community is very small and Lori is very well known. This was a ready-made concert for our festival,” said Allison Balcetis, a festival board member since 2010.

On the other hand, Copeland has moulded his fascination with eight-channel octophonic surround sound into an art.

“Not only that, he uses motion capture technology to send music from one speaker to another, almost like wand,” added Balcetis.

Alongside dozens of diverse performances, the three-day festival of sound art offers free lectures, panel talks and open participation events.

St. Albert saxophonist Charles Stolte, associate professor of music at King’s University, also blows his horn as part of Edmonton Saxophone Quartet.

“Charles was the one that brought us together. The quartet happened at Charles’ instigation. He’s a huge saxophone influence in the city,” Balcetis explained.

The quartet is composed of four Alberta university professors, Stolte (baritone sax), Balcetis (soprano sax), Ray Baril (alto sax), and Chee Meng Low (tenor sax). Baril and Low are unable to participate during the festival. The temporary fill-in musicians will be Laura Kerslake (alto sax) and Justin Massey (tenor sax).

For this concert the quartet hosted a worldwide call for scores, sifted through the submissions and narrowed the program to five new works.

One of the charts is Edmonton composer George Andrix’s world premiere of Saxophone Quartet No. 1. It is a three-movement composition focused on three styles of jazz – a slow ballad, a bebop with super fast lines and riff with catchy non-stop rhythms.

Also on tap is Erin Roger’s Mother Earth showcasing flautist Chenoa Anderson and electronics artist Nicholas Arnez complementing the quartet.

“It has a message inspired by a battle between an overpopulated Earth and Aurora, the outer world.”

Edmonton Saxophone Quartet’s eclectic program extends to Mei-Sang Lin’s Entangled, an abstract work of overlapping fragments, Lansing McLoskey’s OK-OK, a riff on Charlie Parkers’ Koko, and Carl Schimmel’s Peregrinations, a spiritual piece inspired by Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy.

Also on the festival program is Jen Mesch, a contemporary dancer with Mile Zero Dance. She offers an original approach to new music when she pairs up with trumpeter Nate Wooley for a one-of-a-kind collaboration.

Damn Magpies, Edmonton’s recently formed improvisational sextet, squares off for a few fast rounds of spiraling, in-the-zone music. And the Violet Collective, performed by NME’s very own house band has a few surprises of its own.

“This is the only festival like it around here. It’s the only one that focuses on contemporary avant-garde music. It gives you music you won’t hear at the ESO. This is music connected to our society now rather than always listening to music of the past.”

For a full list of events and times visit newmusicedmonton.ca.