2014 Newfound Music Festival starts Today!

The Newfound Music Festival was scheduled to begin last night, but, as locals know, Memorial University was closed last night due to a "snow storm" (sic).

It wasn't much of a storm, but, as often happens, the prediction of a snow storm puts some people around here in a tizzy (no, the sky isn't falling; it's just snow), and free-ranging cancellations ensue. This may seem rather odd for a place that gets as much snow as we do (we had 21 feet of snow in 2000-2001, which was the highest all-time snowfall among all major Canadian cities), but there it is.

Let's move on to the festival:

• The repertoire from last night's concert will be redistributed to the concerts tonight (Thursday) and tomorrow (the day after Thursday), and tonight's concert will now start a half-hour earlier (7:30), although tomorrow's will start at 8PM as originally scheduled. There will also be a "pre-concert installation" starting at 7PM tonight.  The Newfound Music website will be updated today to reflect these changes, so you may wish to check that periodically if you are planning to attend.


• The Symposium, enigmatically titled "On the Bleeding Edge," is going ahead this afternoon as planned.
  • Start time: 1PM.
  • Location: Suncor Energy Hall.


• I would like to strongly encourage all members of my composition class (Music 3100, W2014) to attend as many of these events as possible. The festival is organized primarily for your benefit.


• As a further incentive, I offer the following: Students who write a thoughtful reflection on their experiences in the festival in the comments area below will receive credit for up to two blog comments. Heck, I could even go as far as giving three comment credits if you really go to town and write a reflection that is lengthy and thoughtful. This deal expires in one week, so, if you wish to avail of this opportunity, it would be best to do so in the next few days. Comments may be critical if you like — there is no need to pretend you loved something if you didn't — but whether they are critical, positive, or even wishy-washy, try to give reasons why you feel that way. Were there compositions that you especially liked? Were there others that you didn't like or didn't understand? Were there presentations that you particularly enjoyed or didn't enjoy? Either way, try to give a few reasons why you felt that way. I certainly will not be offended if I read negative comments; on the contrary, as long as they are articulated well I welcome them, or any other honest reactions you had to festival events and compositions.

And that is all for now; I hope you enjoy the festival!

Newfound Music Festival starts today!

Newfound Music Festival!

Today is the day classes are cancelled, replaced by a day-long slate of seminars, colloquia, performances, etc., all relating to new and recent music.  Please check schedules posted around the building to see what's going on, and post any comments / thoughts / reactions you have about the festival on this blog entry.

Our special guest, John Beckwith, will start things with a keynote address at 9AM in PC Hall.  If you are interested in composition (and hopefully you are, if you are reading this blog!), you will not want to miss this.  He has had a long and brilliant career as a composer, musicologist, professor, administrator (former Dean of the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto), and CBC scriptwriter/programmer.  And, for five years, he was also my composition teacher at the University of Toronto.

I will be talking about my composition, Dream Dance, at 12:30 in PC Hall, in a talk called "Playing With Expectations."  I have spent approximately 20 hours on the PowerPoint for this, and hopefully you will find it an interesting and fun presentation.

And I'll be doing another talk on The Beatles at 3:30.  Time spent preparing PowerPoint presentation for this: Approximately 50 hours.  Yes, I am insane.  But you probably knew that…

There will be 8 PM concerts tonight (music by two very talented former students, Kim Codner and Aiden Hartery, an ensemble improv led by Paul Bendzsa, and some pieces of mine that span a 20-year period), tomorrow (an entire programme of John Beckwith's music), and Saturday (works by a variety of composers).  Saturday's concert will be followed by a trip to Bitter's pub for the premieres of seven newly commissioned 2-minute pieces, called "Pint-Sized Encores."

Please take in as much as you can, and post comments on the festival here!

Festival Feedback, Please

The Newfound Music Festival, which had its final concert this past Saturday night, involved more than 100 performers this year, if you include the 4 evening concerts, the student performers concert, and the performance of Terry Riley's "In C" that took place Thursday at 9 AM. We also had 12 presentations on that Thursday, the list of which was posted in my previous blog.

If you figure that everyone involved spent a number of hours preparing for their various performances and presentations, and add in the administrative hours spent planning the event, you could estimate that perhaps over 1000 hours were spent on this year's festival…

All of which begs the question: Do you think the festival is a worthwhile endeavor?

And, while I am at it, here are a few more questions; answer as many or as few as you wish:

• What concerts did you attend?
• What did you think of them?
• What Thursday events did you attend, and what did you think of those you attended?
• How do you feel about being required to attend some of the Thursday presentations or evening concerts?
• Would you have attended as many presentations and recitals if you had not been required to do so?
• Do you have any ideas as to how we could get more students to take in festival events without making them required?
• Make a rough estimate of the percentage of the students at the School of Music who did not attend any of the Thursday presentations, and/or who attended only one of them.
• Do you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see/hear at future festivals, or things that you feel could be improved?

Newfound Music Festival - Thursday Daytime Events

The Newfound Music Festival begins on Wednesday evening with a concert sponsored by the Sound Symposium. There are concerts on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings as well, and below you will find the Thursday schedule. Almost all classes are cancelled that day, so I hope that you will take the opportunity to attend as many of the presentations as you can.

Time	Location	Presentation
9:00	Eleanor Mews Jerrett Instrumental Room	"In C" - Terry Riley's Minimalist Classic – It’s a JAM! Bring your instrument or voice! Chris Miller, conductor
	MU 2025	Melanie Redmond: Pedagogical Considerations in Selected Piano Works by Clifford Crawley
10:00	Charles W. Hutton Choral Room	Panel Discussion: Ki Adams, Paul Bendzsa, Scott Godin, Andrea Rose & Clark Ross: Bringing Your Creativity to the Classroom
	MU 2025	Ian Sutherland: Contemporary Sonic and Visual Arts as Sites for Knowing
11:00	Petro-Canada Hall	Larysa Kuzmenko: Retrospective I
12:00	School of Music Lobby	SMS Lunch Mingle and chat about the day, hosted by the student music society!
	Eleanor Mews Jerrett Instrumental Room	Paul Bendzsa & Richard Blenkinsopp: Interface; spatial music
1:00	DF Cook Recital Hall	Postprandial Recital – Talented students perform music from the recent past
	MU 2025	Scott Godin: Composing for High School Band
2:00	Charles W. Hutton Choral Room	Clark Ross: John Weinzweig; Composer – Maverick
	DF Cook Recital Hall	Chamber Orchestra Open Rehearsal with conductor Vernon Regehr and composer Clifford Crawley
3:00	Petro-Canada Hall	Larysa Kuzmenko:  Retrospective II
	MU 2025	Leila Qashu: Negotiating gender through dance among Arsi Oromo youths in Ethiopia