New Works Calgary, through its concert series, supports the creation and performance of contemporary concert music with emphasis on Calgary and Southern Alberta composers and musicians. It encourages the exploration of relationships between music and other artistic disciplines, offering inquisitive audiences thought-provoking, enriching and unique experiences.
New Works Calgary’s mission is to present Canadian music, and to create a cultural environment in which an appreciation of 20th and 21st century Canadian music can be developed. Our mandate also includes the presentation of landmark 20th Century compositions.
New Works Calgary came about because the artist John Snow had commissioned a trio by Allan Rae and discovered there were no performance opportunities for the piece. Surprised by this, John and his wife Kathleen sponsored a concert of new music by Calgary composers and musicians, in association with the Canadian Music Centre, celebrating the 25th anniversary of its foundation in April 1984. The success of this concert encouraged John and co-founder Quenten Doolittle to continue with a concert series that would feature new works. As a result, the “New Works of Art Calgary Society” was established in 1984 and has maintained a continuous series of three to seven programs each season ever since.
The need for this new society was best expressed by John Snow:
“New paintings are easily seen by everyone, even if it is only by looking in the window of an art gallery. Written works are almost as easy being available from libraries, magazines, books, and many radio programs. More difficult are works for the theatre and most difficult of all is to have the opportunity to hear new music.”
Besides being the first President of the society, John designed the programs and posters, which became collector’s items. John and Kathleen Snow again helped to fund the next program, which was held in the Pleiades Theatre, in April, 1985.
New Works Calgary’s mission is to present Canadian music (with a particular emphasis on the music of Calgary and Albertan composers), and to create a cultural environment in which an appreciation of 20th and 21st century Canadian music can be developed. Our mandate also includes the presentation of landmark 20th Century compositions.
As co-founder Quenten Doolittle has said, “Our general goal has been not only to present contemporary Canadian music in all its diversity but also to explore the rich collaborative possibilities between Canadian composers and poets, writers, video and performance artists, visual artists, dancers, actors, and musicians.
Not only has New Works Calgary presented a rich diversity of music, we’ve also played host to collaborations between Canadian composers, poets, visual artists, dancers and more. Striving to be thought-provoking has always been in our makeup.
Artists interested in performing or having New Works Calgary present their work are invited to contact the New Works General Manager.
Premieres by Calgary Composers
neworks 2017 – 2018 make a noise!
Artists & Composers
Stuart Saunders Smith
Stuart Saunders Smith is an American composer and percussionist. He was born in Portland Maine, and began his percussion and composition studies at the age of six with Charles Newcomb. He studied harmony, counterpoint, and arranging at the Berklee School of Music in 1966, and continued his percussion and composition studies at the Hartt College of Music (1967–1972) and the University of Illinois at Urbana (1973–1977).
Lael Johnston
Lael Johnston is a percussionist, a conductor, and an educator. After completing a Masters of Music Performance from the University of Alberta, Lael spent several years touring North America with a variety of musical groups, covering a spectrum of musical styles....
Pat Belliveau
Pat Belliveau started his formal musical training at the age of four and began playing the saxophone at age 12. He has an extensive performing background which has involved numerous performances at international jazz festivals in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary,...
Linda Catlin Smith
Linda Catlin Smith grew up in New York and lives in Toronto. Her music has been performed by Tafelmusik, Other Minds Festival, California Ear Unit, Kitchener-Waterloo and Vancouver Symphonies, Arraymusic, Tapestry New Opera, Via Salzburg, Evergreen Club Gamelan, Trio Fibonacci and the Del Sol, SuperNova, Penderecki, and Bozzini quartets, among many others.
Anna Pidgorna
Anna Pidgorna (b. 1985) is a Ukrainian-Canadian composer, artist and vocalist who combines sound, visual arts, writing and carpentry in her work. Anna works extensively with Ukrainian folk singing, incorporating elements of this style in instrumental music and performing as a pseudo-folk vocalist herself.
Annette Brosin
Originally from Germany, composer and bass player Annette Brosin has been living and working on Coast Salish territory in Victoria, BC since 2009, where she received her Ph.D. in composition at the University of Victoria in 2016. Her music has been performed and broadcasted in North and South America and Continental Europe.
Christopher Butterfield
Christopher Butterfield was born in Vancouver B.C. in 1952. He studied composition with Rudolf Komorous at the University of Victoria, and with Bülent Arel at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. For fifteen years he lived in Toronto, where he played in a rock band and made performance art.
Mark Limacher
Canadian-born Mark Limacher is a composer-pianist currently based in Calgary, Canada. He is a graduate of New School University in New York City where he studied with Kirk Nurock, Ernesto Klar, Armen Donelian, and Evan Rapport, among others.
Jordan Kusel
Jordan Kusel: is a composer and creative coder living in Seattle, Washington whose work explores transdisciplinary design, communal ennui, eroticism, and alternative virtuosities.
Madeleine Isaksson
In the music of Madeleine Isaksson, the relationship between different sonorous sources, that which separates them and that which causes them to blend together, are in the foreground.
Flannery Cunningham
Compose Flannery Cunningham is fascinated by illusion and auditory perception, the expressivity of voices, and the performative possibilities of interactive electronics. She aims to write music that surprises and delights.
Laurie Radford
Laurie Radford is a Canadian composer, sound artist, music technologist, educator and researcher who creates music for diverse combinations of instruments and voices, electroacoustic media, and performers in interaction with computer-controlled signal processing of sound and image.
Ofer Pelz
Ofer Pelz was born in Haifa (Israel) and lives in Montreal. His music explores the concept he defines as “unstable repetition” – repetitive fragments which always vary from repetition to repetition, all the while trying to keep a perceivable tension.
Philippe Leroux
Philippe Leroux (b. 1959) entered the Paris Conservatory in 1978, studied with Ivo Malec, Claude Ballif, Pierre Schäeffer and Guy Reibel and obtained three first prizes. Meanwhile, he followed classes with Olivier Messiaen, Franco Donatoni, Betsy Jolas, Jean-Claude Eloy and Iannis Xénakis. In 1993, he was selected to enter the Villa Medicis in Rome for two years, where he remained until 1995.
His compositional output (about seventy works to date) includes symphonic, vocal, electronic, acousmatic and chamber music.
Scott Edward Godin
Scott Edward Godin began his musical training on piano, completing a Bachelor of Music Degree at the University of Alberta with Helmut Brauss. By winning the Johann Strauss competition in 1993, Scott was able to study in Vienna, Austria with internationally renowned pianist Paul Badura-Skoda.
Taylor Brook
Taylor Brook is a composer of concert music for large and small ensembles, both acoustically as well as using electronics and new technologies. Brook also writes music for video produced by visual artists, and music for theater and dance.
Payton MacDonald
Shawn Mativetsky is a highly sought-after tabla performer and educator. He is active in the promotion of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures, workshops, and performances across Canada and internationally.
Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa was an American musician, activist and filmmaker. His work was characterized by nonconformity, free-form improvisation, sound experiments, musical virtuosity, and satire of American culture. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock,...
Tawnie Olson
Described as “especially glorious… ethereal”, and “a highlight of the concert”, the music of Canadian composer Tawnie Olson has been performed by a wide range of ensembles and individual musicians.
Shawn Mativetsky
Shawn Mativetsky is a highly sought-after tabla performer and educator. He is active in the promotion of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures, workshops, and performances across Canada and internationally.
Xenia Pestova
Xenia Pestova’s performances and recordings have earned her a reputation as a leading interpreter of uncompromising repertoire of her generation.
Pierre Andre Valade
Pierre-André Valade was born in Corrèze, France in 1959. In 1991, he co-founded the Paris- Pierre-André Valade was born in Corrèze, France in 1959. In 1991, he co-founded the Paris based Ensemble Court-Circuit of which he was Music Director for 16 years until...
Ed Hanley
Ed Hanley is a multi-dimensional artist – creator, performer, producer, cinematographer, recording engineer, video editor, photographer, blogger, and tabla player. Described as “a remarkable player, both in his musical thoughtfulness and his technical virtuosity”...
Matt Heller
A native of Tacoma, Washington, double bassist Matthew Heller joined the Calgary Philharmonic in 2007. He has appeared frequently as a recitalist and chamber musician, including performances with the Mountain View Chamber Music Festival, Land’s End Chamber...
Cecilia String Quartet
Hailed for its “powerful” (Chicago Sun-Times) and “dauntingly perfect” (Berliner Zeitung) performances, the Cecilia String Quartet performs for leading presenters around the world.
Gabriel Dharmoo
Gabriel Dharmoo’s artistic approach encompasses composition, improvisation and research.
Hans Tustchku
Hans Tutschku (born 1966) is a German composer. He has been a member of the Ensemble for Intuitive Music Weimar since 1982. He studied composition of electronic music at the Hochschule für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber", Dresden and since 1989 has participated in...
Katelyn Clark (rockeys duo)
Canadian harpsichordist Katelyn Clark specializes in the performance of historical repertoire and experimental music on early keyboard instruments. As a soloist and ensemble musician, she has performed in Europe, the USA, and Canada, and has appeared at such...
Midnight Blue Jazz Society
The Midnight Blue Jazz Band is a “traditional” big band with 17 musicians plus 1 director. We are based in Calgary, Alberta and our repertoire spans a wide variety of styles — swing, jazz, blues, latin, funk, classic rock — whatever fits the occasion. We play at...
Raylene Campbell
Raylene is a sound artist who embraces various creative practices including improvisation, composition, performance art, sound and image, public intervention, and Deep Listening. She studied/worked as a freelance artist in New York and Montreal...
rockeys duo
performed by Rockeys Duo composer | Linda Catlin Smith performed by Rockeys Duo composer | Louis Andriessen Rockeys duo, taking its name from the majestic Rocky Mountains of Canada, is a unique collaboration between harpsichordist Katelyn Clark (Montréal) and pianist...
Timepoint Ensemble
Timepoint is a new music ensemble in Calgary, dedicated to performing works by living composers. October 20, 2017 | Timepoint Ensemble at the 2017 Calgary New Music Festival...
Véronique Mathieu
Canadian violinist Véronique Mathieu has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in Europe, South Africa, South America, and the United States. She is a prizewinner of the 2012 Eckhardt-Gramatté Contemporary Music Competition, the 2010 Krakow International...
Ben Reimer
Winnipeg-born percussionist Ben Reimer became captivated by the drumset and the music that showcases this instrument at an early age. The sounds of drummers such as Neal Peart, Stewart Copland and Dave Grohl fuelled his...
Nicole Lizée
Called a “brilliant musical scientist” and lauded for “creating a stir with listeners for her breathless imagination and ability to capture Gen-X and beyond generation”, Montreal based composer Nicole Lizée creates new music from an eclectic mix of influences including the earliest MTV videos, turntablism, rave culture, Hitchcock, Kubrick, 1960s psychedelia and 1960s modernism.
Hope Lee
Lee writes complex music that creates organic forms, and is “forcefully expressive” and “mesmerizing”. She exploits conventional instruments imaginatively and in unusual combination, creating colourful and evocative sonorities.
Luciane Cardassi
Luciane Cardassi is a versatile pianist and creative artist. For 20 years she has been exploring the contemporary music world through collaboration and performance. Her resulting repertoire includes numerous premieres and close collaborations with composers, performers and other artists from around the world.