“I am very pleased that we have negotiated an agreement that will facilitate Mount Royal University music students who wish to continue with Music degree opportunities at Brandon University. When universities partner for the benefit of students, both institutions benefit,” said Dr. Deborah Poff, Brandon University’s President and Vice-Chancellor.

“The School of Music is greatly honored to have forged this alliance with Mount Royal University’s Music Diploma Program,” said Dr. Michael Kim, the Dean of the School of Music at Brandon University. “This collaborative venture will be of great and mutual benefit to both our music programs, and we look forward to welcoming the very talented young musicians from this program in the near future.”

This new agreement between Brandon University’s School of Music and Mount Royal University’s Faculty of Communications Studies was preceded by similar transfer agreements between the Calgary-based University and other Albertan universities. This arrangement will be advantageous for Brandon University, Mount Royal University and the students involved.

“With the signing of this articulation agreement, Mount Royal University will be able to provide its Music Diploma students with a remarkable opportunity to complete a four-year degree at Brandon University in a most prestigious Music School,” said Mount Royal University’s President Docherty.
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“The National Youth Band of Canada allows youths aged 16 to 21 to join together for a week of rehearsals and performances that include excellent leadership, challenging repertoire, and meaningful rehearsal,” said Dr. Wendy McCallum, a faculty member in the BU School of Music and the current President of the Canadian Band Association (CBA). “This experience provides opportunities for individuals to extend musical skills, while developing relationships with musicians from across the nation. The National Youth Band is a significant program in the Canadian Band Association’s mandate to represent and support bands and band music across Canada.”

The BU students who auditioned and were chosen for the NYB are second-year alto saxophonist Lauren Dobko, first-year baritone saxophonist Madeline Lowe, first-year tuba player Tyler Lischynski and fourth-year percussionist Melissa Ballard. As well, this year’s Music Director Dr. Colleen Richardson, who is the University of Western Ontario’s Coordinator of Bands, the Wind Ensemble Director and an Assistant Professor, graduated from the BU School of Music in 1987.

In recent past NYB ensembles, there have been numerous BU students involved, including Corah and Suzu Enns, Jennifer Shead, Kena Olson, Julia Howe, Mikaela Oldenkamp, Wendy Stenger, Taryn Jackson, Joelle Nielsen, Sean Pullen, Derek Thorsteinsson as well as soon-to-be-graduates Holly Bryan, Ryan Premack and Chelsey Hiebert. Meanwhile BU School of Music alumnus and current Master of Music (Performance and Literature) candidate, clarinetist Chris Byman spent the 2007 to 2010 sessions with the NYB. He was able to travel to Prince Edward Island, Southern Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia, thanks to this ensemble.

“NYB is a fantastic experience for young musicians in Canada. As the CBA holds the program in different cities around the country each year, it gives re-participating musicians (like me) a chance to not only travel the country, but interact with talented peers and world-class conductors,” said Byman. “The fact that Brandon is hosting a portion of NYB this year is exciting as it shows our city is making yet another national footprint in the arts community.”

The National Youth Band will give two concerts — at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. — Thursday, May 10, in the Western Centennial Auditorium. There are still some tickets left for both performances and will be available at the door.
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Between January 1949 and March 1950, several young musicians recorded an album of music composed for an unusual ensemble of trumpet, alto sax, baritone sax, trombone, French horn, tuba, piano, bass and drums. The compositions were strikingly original, blending jazz harmonies and rhythms with classically inspired counterpoint. Several of the player/composers went on to become household names among jazz followers, including Miles Davis, Gerry Mulligan and Gil Evans. The album, called The Complete Birth of the Cool, was released in 1957, and the title reflects the consensus that these recordings marked the beginning of the post-bebop trend in jazz that prevailed through the 1950’s, known as the “Cool School”.

In spite of the vast influence of this recording, the ensemble itself, with its marvelous colours and possibilities, was extremely short lived (aside from the recording sessions, they only performed one two-night stand at a club in New York) and rarely duplicated. This tragic neglect has now been rectified by “The Complete Rebirth of the Cool” project.

“Miles Davis’s “Birth of the Cool” recording is one of the classics in the history of jazz music—a marker of a new style and approach to jazz-ensemble playing. Every member of this project, as a musician and educator, has been inspired in some way by Miles and this recording,” said Platz. “This project serves as both a tribute to the music of those legendary recording sessions and as a catalyst for new creative works by members of the ensemble.”

Under the direction of Winnipeg trombonist and composer, Jeff Presslaff, “The Complete Rebirth of the Cool” recreates many of the conditions of that original burst of creativity: A team of probing musical thinkers and the means to compose and perform their new ideas.

The music reflects to a large degree the sensibilities of the original recording, but the goal is emphatically to make new pieces that reflect the musicians’ personal experiences, as well as the changes in the musical landscape over the past 60 years. There is a greater variety of grooves and much influence from modern composition techniques and the music of other cultures.

“In performance, the repertoire of this project will include a few arrangements of music from the original “Birth of the Cool” recording along with compositions written specifically for this project by some of Western Canada’s leading contemporary jazz composers,” Platz said. “It’s an exciting combination of old and new, traditional and contemporary, that I don’t think you get to hear presented all that often in jazz.”

Presslaff has a strong track record of successfully coordinating collaborative composition projects, including the Jazz Composers Ensemble, All Winds, Papa Mambo and the Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra.

This newly formed ensemble will be drawing on the formidable instrumental abilities of both the composers and highly regarded players from the region. Presslaff will be joined by some of the leading lights of Western Canada’s creative jazz community, including the already eminent Dean McNeil on trumpet (Saskatoon) and Ken Gold on baritone sax (Winnipeg), as well as composers Will Bonness (also on piano), Jonathan Stevens, Chuck McClelland and Danielle Baert. Also in the lineup will be Irene Sas on French horn (Winnipeg) and Steve Oberheu on tuba (Winnipeg).

“Personally, the reward of being involved in this project is the chance to make a connection to an important part of the jazz tradition in the context of a contemporary community of modern improviser/composers. For me, music making is about community—expressing and strengthening community,” said Platz.

This concert will take place Saturday, May 5 at 8 p.m., at The Music Studio, 940 Rosser Avenue. Admission is $10 for students and seniors and $15 for adults.

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BRANDON, MB — The 101st Convocation at Brandon University this spring will not only celebrate the accomplishments of 675 new graduates, but will also acknowledge the contributions of two distinguished Canadians. One of them is internationally accomplished musician, Anton Kuerti.

Brandon University is pleased to announce the conferral of a Doctor of Music (honoris causa) upon Mr. Kuerti. An Officer of the Order of Canada, he has received numerous awards during his long career. These include the Schumann Prize of the Schumann Gesellschaft and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

Acclaimed for his performances of Beethoven’s music, Mr. Kuerti has appeared with many of the world’s top orchestras. Born in Austria, he grew up in the United States and has lived in Canada since 1965. His late wife, cellist Kristine Bogyo founded the Mooredale Youth Orchestras in Toronto. Today, Mr. Kuerti remains the artistic director of these ensembles as well as the Mooredale concert series.

With more than 25 discs to his credit, Mr. Kuerti has displayed his individuality and musicianship in recordings of all the Beethoven Concertos and Sonatas, the Brahms and Schumann Concertos, and the Schubert Sonatas. An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with other remarkable instrumentalists, the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and the Tokyo String Quartet. Also, he is the founder of the much lauded Festival of the Sound.

“It is an honour for Brandon University to recognize this extraordinary musician and citizen,” said Deborah Poff, Brandon University’s President and Vice-Chancellor.

There will be four convocation ceremonies at Brandon University this spring. Mr. Kuerti will receive his honorary doctorate the afternoon of Saturday, June 2. This ceremony will be dedicated to graduands in Music, General Studies, Physical Education and the Education concurrent programs. Two ceremonies are slated for Friday, June 1: The morning commencement exercises will be for Health Studies and Science graduands, while the 2 p.m. ceremony will be for Arts and Rural Development graduands. On June 2 at 10 a.m., the focus will be on Education graduands. All ceremonies will take place in the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium.
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This semester had been a series of shining moments for the musician. Kim, who was born in South Korea and has lived in Canada since he age of 12, first came to Brandon University as a scholarship student of Professor Emeritus Dr. Lawrence Jones in the Eckhardt-Gramatté Conservatory of Music. Now, recognized for his outstanding performance and potential, he has been studying at the Brandon University School of Music as a recipient of the President’s Scholarship and is a student of Dr. Kyung Kim.

In March, he shone during his performances at the Brandon Festival of the Arts, winning the Westman Communications Group Scholarship and the Western Financial Group Tudor Bowl. He was then invited to perform in the Festival Encore Concert, after which he took home the coveted Kaye and G.R. Rowe Memorial Scholarship. Furthermore, in the annual audition for the School of Music’s concerto competition, Kim won the chance to perform with the BU Orchestra in their semester-ending performance.

“To be sure, we’re very proud of Jinsung’s recent accomplishment and are thrilled that our School will be represented by such a fine young pianist and person on a tour of Western Canada,” said Greg Gatien, the Chair of the Music Performance Department in the School of Music. “Jinsung is an excellent example of the kind of students that the School of Music has been attracting over its many years. It is wonderful to see Jinsung’s work rewarded with this recognition, but equally gratifying to see the work of our faculty continue to shape the musical landscape of Western Canada in such tangible ways.”
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For more information, please contact:

Joanne F. Villeneuve
Communications, Brandon University
270 – 18th Street
Brandon, MB R7A 6A9
204-727-9762
villeneuvej@brandonu.ca

http://www.brandonu.ca

BRANDON, MB — The 2011-2012 pro series, an annual presentation by the School of Music, continues with a recital featuring violinist Kerry DuWors and pianist Futaba Niekawa. Their programme will include duo works by Mozart, Fauré, Debussy, Enesco and Stockhausen.

Kerry DuWors first came to Brandon in 2003, when she won the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition. Previously, she studied in Saskatoon, where she grew up, at the University of Victoria before obtaining a Master Degree in Performance from the University of Toronto. Today, she maintains a demanding concert career as soloist and chamber musician, and is an Assistant Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at Brandon University.

In the last year and a half, DuWors has been studying toward a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance & Literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Along with collaborating with some of the classical music world’s most acclaimed musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma and Dame Evelyn Glennie, the violinist has been working with Futaba Niekawa, a fellow doctoral student at Eastman.

Originally from Japan, Niekawa is an active soloist and collaborative artist. She received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music as a student of Thomas Schumacher, and a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory under Patricia Zander and Irma Vallecillo. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree at the Eastman School of Music, where she studies with Natalya Antonova and Maxim Mogilevsky. She has also served as a teaching assistant.

“We are very excited to be hosting the Duwors-Niekawa duo on our pro series,” said Dr. Michael Kim, the Dean of Music at Brandon University. “Both are outstanding artists in their own right, and their abilities in tandem should make for a memorable evening of music-making.”

The Kerry DuWors-Futaba Niekawa pro series recital will take place Tuesday, March 20, at 8 p.m., in the Lorne Watson Recital Hall.

The final pro series offering of the season will present two pianists — BU School of Music faculty member Megumi Masaki and Tim Steeves, a faculty member of Memorial University in St. John’s. This recital will take place Friday, March 30, at 8 p.m., in the Lorne Watson Recital Hall.

Tickets for pro series recitals are $15 for adults, $10 for students, seniors and alumni, and $8 for Conservatory students. Tickets can be purchased in advance in the main office of the School of Music or at the door. The pro series and the School of Music gratefully acknowledge the generous support of The Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council and of the Province of Manitoba, through a Consolidated Arts Programming Grant from Culture, Heritage and Tourism.
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For more information, please contact:

The School of Music
Brandon University
(204) 727-9631
www2.brandonu.ca/music/events/events.asp
OR
Joanne F. Villeneuve
Communications
Brandon University
270 – 18th Street
Brandon, MB R7A 6A9
204-727-9762
villeneuvej@brandonu.ca
http://www.brandonu.ca

BRANDON, MB — The Brandon University Opera Ensemble, under the co-direction of School of Music Assistant Professor David Playfair and sessional instructor Gordon Portman, presents a new adaptation of Mozart’s comic opera, “The Marriage of Figaro”. This is the Opera Ensemble’s third full-length production — Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte was produced in 2008 and Britten’s Albert Herring in 2010.

“The School of Music’s Opera Ensemble Program provides the only chance to see opera in Brandon,” said Playfair. “The new modern adaptation of this particular work, the comic performances, and the visual elements of sets and costumes will make this unique opportunity memorable for audiences.”

Another highlight of this production is the first-time incorporation of a specially assembled chamber orchestra composed of professional musicians.

“The presence of an orchestra will add hugely to both the audience’s enjoyment of the show and the learning experience of the students,” said Portman.

According to Playfair, the Opera Ensemble program is a unique undergraduate program unlike any other in the country, and perhaps on the continent, in that no other student studying vocal performance at this level has the opportunity to systematically learn how to acquire an entire role in a full opera production.

One of those students, Sage Robinson, a third year voice student, is interpreting the role of Susanna. When asked about this unparalleled experience, she said: “What I find most challenging about this project is its sheer scale. It can be truly daunting and I was terrified. However, because of my amazing cast mates and professors, my determination and love for this opera constantly grows. With such support and care, you are continually driven to become the very best you can be.”

This production will present a new adaptation of the opera’s libretto, prepared for this cast by the Ensemble’s co-directors. Set in the Roaring Twenties, the language and attitudes of the time provide the perfect setting for the story’s wild and crazy sequence of events.

“Just the other day in rehearsal, I was thinking how very much like an I Love Lucy episode so many scenes are,” said Playfair.

The opera’s plot is complicated and farcical, consisting of a series of challenges faced by the clever Figaro (Connor Lavell) and the hot tempered Susanna (Ms. Robinson) as they prepare for their wedding. The opera takes place all in one day and the events, confrontations, misunderstandings and at times touching expressions of love all resolve in one of Mozart’s happiest endings — a grand finale to what has traditionally been viewed as one of the composer’s most beautiful, most magical and most human works.

Other cast members include Chelsea Chimilar, Kyle James, Kendra Thompson and Nicholas Urquhart, with guest artists Megan Eccleston, David Cathcart and Erin Pogue. Helping behind the scenes are pianist Kara Dixon, stage manager Donna Lowe, and assistant stage manager/publicist Emily Diehl.

This operatic production is supported by the generosity of several public and private donors, as well as by the School of Music. Performances are slated for Tuesday, March 27 and Thursday, March 29 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 1 at 2 p.m., in the Lorne Watson Recital Hall. Tickets for the production are $15 for adults, $10.00 for students, and seniors, and are available in advance from the School of Music or at the door.
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For more information, please contact:

School of Music
Brandon University
204-727-9631
OR
Joanne F. Villeneuve
Communications
Brandon University
270 – 18th Street
Brandon, MB R7A 6A9
204-727-9762
villeneuvej@brandonu.ca

http://www.brandonu.ca

BRANDON, MB — To mark International Women’s Day, professors have selected 17 remarkable women students to be honoured during a campus celebration organized by the BU Status of Women Review Committee. They range in age. Their fields of interest vary. They all excel in their studies and have all earned multiple scholarships and other academic distinctions. What makes each of these women shine even more are their activities beyond the classroom.

• Natalie Bohrn (Jazz Music Performance – bass): freelance columnist and volunteer;
• Laura Brandon (Anthropology/Archeology and Native Studies): wife and mother of three, campus and community volunteer;
• Kirsty Cameron (Creative Arts): mother, winner of writing contests, campus volunteer;
• Krista Curry (Master of Education): wife and mother of four, published writer, superintendant of Border Land School Division;
• Alyssa Cuthbert (Biology – biomedicine): accomplished musician, community volunteer;
• Alise Gaiser (Biology – biomedicine): community volunteer;
• Chelsey Hiebert (Music Performance – oboe): Bobcat basketball team member, Academic All Canadian, music instructor;
• Hannah Mazier (Biology – biomedicine): campus and community volunteer, active club member, tutor;
• Darla Palmer (Biology – biomedicine): medical technician/corporal in the Canadian Forces Army Reserves, campus and community volunteer (including for the Souris Fire Department as an EM Technician);
• Shantelle Rank (Psychiatric Nursing): community volunteer, co-leader of the Suicide Survivor Young Adult Support Group;
• Julia Redfern (Biology – biomedicine): published research assistant, actor/singer in community productions;
• Jaryn Ruether (Nursing): Bobcat volleyball team captain, campus volunteer;
• Ericka Serrano (Master of Education): Spanish instructor, founder of the Brandon Latina Women’s Association, advocate and community volunteer;
• Carly Swain (Music Education): campus and community volunteer;
• Tina Thomas (Biology – biomedicine – and Psychology): medical assistant/private with the Canadian Armed Forces Reserves, community and campus volunteer,
• Tammy Turner (Nursing): wife and mother of three, lactation consultant;
• Melissa Wishart (Biology): accomplished musician, lifeguard, campus and community volunteer.

“We are blessed with this extraordinary and diverse group of talented and exceptional women students. It is wonderful that the Brandon University Status of Women Committee has chosen to recognize and honour them on International Women’s Day,” said University President Deborah Poff.

To read more about these accomplished women, please visit http://www.brandonu.ca/womens-week/ .
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For more information, please contact:

Joanne F. Villeneuve
Communications
Brandon University
270 – 18th Street
Brandon, MB R7A 6A9
Tel. 204-727-9762
villeneuvej@brandonu.ca

http://www.brandonu.ca

BRANDON, MB — World-acclaimed Icelandic composer Kjartan Ólafsson has been on the Brandon University (BU) campus this week for the 2012 New Music Festival (BUNMF), entitled “Music Gates of the Arctic”. He will be in attendance to hear the world premiere of two of his recent works in the Lorne Watson Recital this weekend.

A native of Reykjavik, Ólafsson is an Icelandic musicologist, composer and academic notable as the creator of the composing software CALMUS as well as an authority on artificial intelligence in classical music composition. Earlier in the week, Ólafsson gave a lecture to students and faculty members about his unique system of composition that uses algorithms.

On Friday evening, the BU New Music Ensemble (BUNME) will perform his chamber orchestra work “Ocean”, for winds, strings, guitar, pianos, percussion and electronics. Then Saturday evening, the artistic director of the BU New Music Festival, pianist Megumi Masaki and her School of Music colleague, clarinetist Catherine Wood will give the first performance of “In the Darkness of the Light”, another new Ólafsson work.

“BUNME and I are very honoured that Kjartan has written two new CALMUS works especially for BUNME and for Dr. Catherine Wood and me,” said Masaki. “Kjartan Ólafsson’s music and sound merges both the musical traditions of the past with artificial intelligence and technology of the present to create new music which reflects the diversity of artistic possibilities of the 21st century.”

Having a composer-in-residence — Ólafsson— presents an invaluable experience for the students, faculty members and audiences of the New Music Festival. Not only sharing his insights benefit those involved in the Festival, but his work as artistic director of new music festivals in his homeland is inspiring.

“Kjartan told me that his Dark Music Days on January 26-29, 2012 featured 21 concerts for all ages, over four days in the beautiful new hall in Reykjavik. More than ten per cent the population of Iceland (in excess of 4,000 people) attended these concerts! That is what I dream to achieve in Brandon,” said Masaki, who added that having the composer collaborate with her students has been an unparalleled opportunity.

Ólafsson wrote that his composition “In the Darkness of the Light” for clarinet, piano and electronics was “composed in the ‘darkest time period’ in Iceland, but at the same time the brightest time. The motives and object of the piece are expressing the ‘unseen and untouchable’ figures and waves of the darkness.” This work was specifically composed for the two Brandon University faculty members. When he created “Ocean”, a composition inspired by the Atlantic Ocean that surrounds Iceland, Ólafsson had the BUNME in mind.

“The student and the faculty are doing a great job on my music and really working hard to be able to give good performances in the concerts,” said Ólafsson, who is also a Professor of Composition and Theory at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. “I have always wanted to visit this part of Canada and this is interesting — a small festival within a university and produced by the faculty and the students with a great interest in new music. The interest here in Canada for music from Iceland and Icelandic culture is also valuable.”

The Brandon New Music Festival concerts, featuring music by Ólafsson and other Icelandic composers, will be held tonight, Friday, February 24 at 8 p.m. and on Saturday, February 25, in the Lorne Watson Recital Hall. Start time for all three concerts is 8 p.m.  All performances are open to the public and are free of charge.

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For more information, please contact:

Joanne F. Villeneuve
Communications
Brandon University
270 – 18th Street
Brandon, MB R7A 6A9
Tel. 204-727-9762
villeneuvej@brandonu.ca

http://www.brandonu.ca

BRANDON, MB — A day-long winter celebration — WINTERLUDE — will take place on campus for the Brandon University community as well as the general public. Beginning at 10 a.m., on Saturday, February 25, the parking, the brunch, the skating, the cool workshops — everything during Winterlude is free and everyone is welcome to check out the fun.

“This is a warm invitation to all Westman to come and share part of Saturday with us and participate in the many fun and exciting events that will be taking place at BU on the 25th. Join us. We will be there to welcome you as well as answer any questions that prospective students may have about Brandon University,” said Dr. Deborah Poff, President and Vice-Chancellor of Brandon University.

Following an open skating session on a newly created outdoor rink and a free brunch — complete with live entertainment — there will be hands-on activities for everyone to enjoy all afternoon. An African drumming circle, interactive games in the gym, a musical instrument petting zoo, Aboriginal storytelling, physics toys in action, CSI in the archeology lab, tours in the residences and so much more await.

“Winterlude will be a great opportunity for prospective students to meet faculty members, visit our classrooms and laboratories and speak with current students. The event will highlight our extraordinary facilities, people and programmes,” said Katie Gross, the Director of Recruitment and Retention.

The grand finale of the day will be a hockey game, in which BU students will take on faculty members.

“The game should be a good test of their youth and speed versus our wisdom and experience. It’s all in good fun and a great way to end the day’s festivities,” said David Rowland, the Dean of Students and one of the faculty team players.

For a complete schedule of the day, please visit BrandonU.ca/Winterlude or Brandon University’s facebook place page. Please note that a free brunch will be available for the first 500 visitors to Winterlude.
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For more information, please contact:

Joanne F. Villeneuve
Communications
Brandon University
270 – 18th Street
Brandon, MB R7A 6A9
Tel. 204-727-9762
villeneuvej@brandonu.ca

http://www.brandonu.ca