Contemporary Classics December 11, 2018 - Modulus Festival

Tonight we are celebrating the Modulus Festival of contemporary music  which is sponsored by Music on Main in Vancouver British Columbia Canada.  I attended the 5 days of great music and conversation from November 2^nd  to 6^th .   The festival opened on Friday, November 2^nd with a concert at the Roundhouse auditorum in Yaletown area of Vancouver featuring composer/performer Thierry Pecou (and his band Ensemble Variances. And the next afternoon he was on an “Awesome Talks” panel with Graham McKenzie, artistic director of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in Huddersfield Great Britain and Canadian composer, Anna Höstman.   One of the works they performed in the Friday night concert was Paseo de la Reforma, which was a Canadian premiere of this work.  

 Also on the  afternoon of Saturday, November 3^rd following the “Awesome Talk” (their term not mine – although I agree with their terminology) was a concert at the Roundhouse entitled “Percussion Music is Revolution” performed by the Driftwood Percussion Ensemble assisted on one piece by composer Nicole Lizee.  The Driftwood Percussion Ensemble rotated between three different percussion set-ups in the middle of a large space where the audience could wander around and between the percussion set-ups to hear 4 works performed.  The members of the Driftwood Percussion Ensemble would dash between the set-ups between numbers to play the different pieces.  The concert opened with Jennifer Higdon’s Splendid Wood for marimba sextet – 6 players with 3 marimbas.  This work was commissioned by the New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble and premiered in 2007. 

Another piece on the “Percussion Music is Revolution” program performed by the Driftwood Percussion Ensemble was was the Canadian Premiere of the deeply meditative Anna Thorvaldsdottir's  "Aura" (Version for Percussion Quartet).   The afternoon “Percussion Music is Revolution” concert ended with a performance of Nicole Lizée’s  "White Label Experiment" for percussion and turntables (live electronics).  This was a fascinating work which involved not only Nicole Lizee performing using electronics and turntables but at least one percussionist also had a turntable and a typewriter as part of their percussion kit.  

Then in the early evening of Saturday, November 3^rd was a concert “Blazed More Brightly” featuring flutist Claire Marchand and harpist Albertina Chan performed at the CBC studios in Vancouver.  One of the works that was performed was Steve Reich’s “Vermont Counterpoint” for flute and tape.  The work is It is scored for three alto flutes, three flutes, three piccolos and one solo part all pre-record on tape, plus a live solo part. The live soloist plays alto flute, flute and piccolo and participates in the ongoing counterpoint as well as more extended melodies. The piece has four sections in four different keys, with the third section is in a slower tempo all presented in a piece of less than 10 minutes in length.   Also at the early evening of November 3^rd concert “Blazed More Brightly”  Albertina Chan performed the harp solo "Scherzo del Pueblo" from Caroline Lizotte’s "Suite Galactique", Op. 39. The last work from that concert that I am going to share with you is R Murray Schafer’s “Wild Bird”, for Violin and Harp.   This was performed in the concert of course for flute and harp.

Saturday November 3^rd ended with a late evening concert featuring Canadian composer/performer Nicole Lizée and British composer/performer  Laura Bowler with improvisational and composed works – for none of which are there recordings as they are all 2017-2018 compositions. 

Tonight on Contemporary Classics we are featuring music from the Modulus Festival sponsored by Music on Main which was from November 2^nd  to 6^th in Vancouver, British Columbia.  Sunday, November 4^th began with another “Awesome Talk” featuring Canadian composer/performer Nicole Lizée and British composer/performer  Laura Bowler and pianist/composer Eve Egoyan.  Next was “Echo Replay”, a concert of music that combined piano, prepared piano and electronics all done by British pianist Richard Utley.  Again there are no recordings of these works.  That evening was a concert called “Solo for Duet” featuring Eve Egoyan playing piano with electronics and video.  She opened the concert with Laura Catlin Smith’s “Thought and Desire”.

Monday, November 5^th  at the Modulus Festival started with an early evening “Canteen Concert” in the Canteen of the Music on Main offices by pianist Richard Uttley.  He began with a work by Domenico Scarlatti.  Then he performed a favorite work of his: Maurice Ravel’s Sonatine.  This is a very early work by Ravel with still a lot of Debussy influences.  The last work on this “Canteen Concert” was Richard Uttley performing a work written for him by Mark Simpson called “Barkham Fantasy”.  The premiere of the video of this "Canteen Concert" will be on Wednesday, December 12, 7:30 PM (PT-Vancouver Time) and 10:30 PM ET at: https://youtu.be/q509P_7uFQ0    And you will be able to go to see this "Canteen Concert" at anytime following.

The “Canteen Concert” was followed by a movie about jazz drummer Milford Graves  called “Milford Graves Full Mantis”,  and the night ended with an improvisational concert  featuring performers from both Montreal and Vancouver called “Trading Places: Un Echange  

The festival ended on the evening of Tuesday, November 6^th with a concert “Mythos” by the Vancouver band Standing Wave.  They performed the first two movements of Laura Bowler’s “Salutem” which traces the development of human technology.  

I hope you have enjoyed this journey through some highlights of the Modulus Festival which I attended in early November in Vancouver British Columbia. 

NEXT YEAR Modulus Festival will run from October 29 - November 5, 2019.

And for more information on the Modulus Festival and everything else Music on Main does go to http://www.musiconmain.ca