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The Winnipeg New Music Festival begins in earnest on January 21 with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra performing works by Juno Award winner Samy Moussa. On January 22, contemporary classical music fans can enjoy a free concert as part of the festival’s In the Community series at the Desautels Concert Hall at the University of Manitoba being presented by the Winnipeg Chamber Winds Collective, the University of Manitoba Percussion Ensemble and the eXperimental Improv Ensemble.
The concert’s title, Every Freeze is Different, emerges from the title of one of the works being performed by Yellowknife composer Carmen Braden. “We kind of stumbled upon it by accident,” explains Tori Sparks, the director of the U of M Percussion Ensemble, adding that one of the things that made it attractive was its open instrumentation, meaning that any instrument could take on any part. “Every time the piece is performed, it could potentially be a completely different kind of sonic world, and that’s something we all know in the Manitoba and the prairie winters.”
“In reading her notes, [Braden] really wanted to exploit this idea that as the seasons change and the way the elements interact in those changes,” adds Jacquie Dawson, who leads the Winnipeg Chamber Winds Collective. “There are different choices to make and they just create a different energy. It’s just playing with colour.”
Those colours in the blended ensembles range from more traditional wind, string and percussion elements all the way to different types of chimes that Sparks laughingly admits she’s collected on various vacations over the years.
These elements all combine in other pieces by Manitoban-affiliated composers like Karen Sunabacka, whose work “The Great Flood” is a musical recreation of a Cree creation myth, and Jocelyn Morlock’s “Stone’s Throw”, which examines repetitive tasks that may be pejoratively known as “woman’s work”.
Musical elements of the concert also combine with the visual arts as students from the U of M’s School of Art will create responsive artwork live on the Desautels Concert Hall stage as the music is being shared.
Dawson says that the physical connection between the music and art schools allows for collaborations like this to be easily facilitated. “There couldn’t be a better opportunity because of the abstract nature of some of these works and the openness... to be experimental with visual components. It’s going to be some digital visual abstract representations of how the music is taking form.”
Sparks highlights that experiences like the Winnipeg New Music Festival give students a chance to explore opportunities in music beyond a stereotypical idea of what a musical career can be. She also credits the UM Strategic Initiatives Support Fund and the UM Community Engagement Fund for providing the supports needed to make this experience as professional as possible for the emerging artists. “We’re actually able to give all these students these opportunities in a very professional setting in a concert hall with everything being done at the highest level.”
Every Freeze is Different takes the Desautels Concert Hall stage on January 22 at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free to the public. For more information, patrons are encouraged to visit the website of the Winnipeg New Music Festival.