- search
Announcing HATCH 2023 Participants!
For our fifth consecutive season, we are excited to present HATCH, Continuum’s annual summer music mentorship project for performers, composers and conductors made possible with the generous support of The Azrieli Foundation.
From this year’s pool of applications, our jury selected the following participants:
Composers: Gabo Champagne, Nathan Friedman and Ethan Wray Hill
Performers: Roan Ma (violin), Audréanne Filion (cello), Sara Constant (flute), Juliette Moreno (clarinet), Megaria Halim (piano) and Alex Fraga (percussion)We are also proud to continue our partnership with Tapestry Opera and other partner organizations across Canada for the Women in Musical Leadership program. We welcome conductor Monica Chen, who will lead the HATCH ensemble in rehearsal and performance. Monica’s conductor mentor is Rosemary Thomson, Music Director and conductor of the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra.
Mentors: Carolyn Chen (composer), Jason Doell (composer), Carol Fujino (violin), Paul Widner (cello), Leslie Newman (flute), Anthony Thompson (clarinet), Gregory Oh (piano), Ryan Scott (percussion).
We are excited to once again partner with our friends at the Canadian Music Centre that will host our rehearsal process in Toronto in July, followed by performances at the Toronto Summer Music Festival (July 18), BIGLAKE Festival (July 20), and Ottawa Chamberfest (July 22)! Stay tuned for dates and ticket availability. We look forward to sharing recordings of the works by our participating composers and mentors as part of our Press Play series next season.
Lessons are underway – we look forward to sharing more information on our upcoming performances and these phenomenal next generation of contemporary music artists!
Program Sponsors and Partners
HATCH 2023 Call for Applications!
ATTN: EARLY-CAREER PERFORMERS and COMPOSERS
Continuum is excited to announce a call for applications for the fifth edition of HATCH, our annual summer mentorship program for early-career performers and composers supported by the Azrieli Foundation.
This program is designed for self-identified EARLY-CAREER PERFORMERS AND COMPOSERS
Free to apply. The program does not have a tuition fee.
DEADLINE: February 20, 2023 at 5pm EST
APPLICATION FORM BELOW
HATCH returns in-person, bringing together early-career performers and composers for artistic and professional development with a focus on contemporary chamber music. This summer, performer participants will work with the Continuum core ensemble, and composers with mentors Carolyn Chen and Jason Doell. Rehearsals at the Canadian Music Centre in Toronto will be followed by a tour of Toronto, Prince Edward County, and Ottawa.
The conductor position for the HATCH ensemble will be filled by a participant of the Women In Musical Leadership program (WML).
Please note: The piano position will be filled by last year’s accepted candidate who was unable to participate in the program at the last minute due to force majeure.
Applicants should be based in the Toronto area or able to provide their own transportation to and accommodation in Toronto for the duration of the program.
TIMELINE
Participants must be available for all rehearsal and tour dates.
March 1: Notification of acceptance
March 6: Composer mentorship begins
June 16: Deadline for completed works
June 16: Performer mentorship begins
July 12-17: Rehearsals and meetings at the Canadian Music Centre
July 18: HATCH Tour – Toronto Summer Music performance
July 20: HATCH Tour – BIGLAKE Festival performance
July 22: HATCH Tour – Ottawa Chamberfest performance
Transportation to and from Wellington, ON in Prince Edward County will be provided, plus per diem.
Transportation to and from Ottawa, ON will be provided along with overnight hotel accommodation (shared, two per room), plus per diem.
Performers
The six selected performers will:
- Receive mentorship in their instrument from Continuum’s core ensemble throughout the process. Mentors: Leslie Newman (fl), Anthony Thompson (cl), Carol Fujino (vn), Paul Widner (vcl), Gregory Oh (pno), and Ryan Scott (perc);
- Prepare and rehearse (up to) 3 new ensemble works by the participating composers and a work by each composer mentor (Note: the work by composer mentor Jason Doell will be a premiere written for the HATCH ensemble);
- Perform the works listed above on the HATCH Ontario tour;
- Receive a $750 honorarium.
Composers
Composers should plan the majority of activity to happen between March 10 – June 16 (composition), with interaction with performers from July 12-23.
The three selected composers will:
- Write a maximum 8-minute piece for Continuum’s HATCH ensemble (fl, cl, pno, perc, vn, vc, conductor)
- Receive mentorship from Carolyn Chen and Jason Doell;
- Participate in rehearsals and the HATCH Ontario tour;
- Receive a $750 honorarium.
Decisions will be arrived at by juries consisting of selected mentors and Continuum staff.
COVID Protocols
Continuum staff continue to monitor public health conditions and will adapt the program as necessary. Participating artists agree to abide by the policies and procedures set forth by Continuum and the rehearsal/performance venues throughout the program. This may include wearing a mask and participating in regular COVID testing. In this event, KF94 masks and rapid tests would be provided by Continuum..
Continuum shares responsibility in fostering an equitable, diverse and inclusive contemporary music community. We encourage applications from members of groups with historical and/or current barriers to equity. Please be in touch if you wish to discuss possible program adaptations that would remove barriers to participation.
All participants must agree to a Code of Conduct that requires all participants and mentors to work respectfully and constructively.
Should you have questions related to the program, please email Operations Manager Christina Volpini at christina@continuummusic.ca
This project is funded with the support of The Azrieli Foundation
PROGRAM PARTNERS
Project Partners: The Canadian Music Centre, Tapestry Opera (WML)
Festival Partners:
Toronto Summer Music
Jonathan Crow, Artistic Director
Vanessa J Goymour, Executive Director
BIGLAKE Festival
Johannes Debus, Artistic Director
Elissa Lee, Executive Director
Ottawa Chamberfest
Carissa Klopoushak, Artistic Director
Mhiran Faraday, Executive Director
Jenna Richards, Director, Artistic Planning & Community Engagement
Marion Newman & Continuum co-winners of Friends of Canadian Music Award 2022!
We are thrilled to have been selected as a co-recipient of the Friends of Canadian Music Award 2022! We are honoured to share this award with mezzo-soprano Marion Newman, who has been a close collaborator through the years. The award is given by the Canadian League of Composers in partnership with the Canadian Music Centre to recognize exceptional commitment to elevating Canadian composers and/or sound artists.
We have chosen to share this award with composer Amy Brandon, and Marion shares the award with composer Jessica McMann.
The announcement from the Canadian League of Composers reads: “In addition to recognizing artistic and career accomplishments, the jury – comprised of Mark Takeshi McGregor, Keiko Devaux, Saman Shahi, and Matthew-John Knights – believed it was important for this year’s award to acknowledge the extraordinary events and the important conversations that have taken place in all parts of our community throughout these past difficult few years. They were adamant that, in addition to their successful track records as performers, both Newman and Continuum deserved recognition for stepping up during these difficult times.”
The full announcement can be read on the CLC website:
Announcing 2023 Teen Composer Award recipient Jacob Eaton
We are absolutely delighted to announce this year’s recipient, Jacob Eaton, based near Wateron National Park, Alberta!
Jacob’s private lessons are in progress with composer mentor Lieke van der Voort. With Lieke’s guidance, Jacob will compose a string quartet to be premiered by Aaron Schwebel and Carol Fujino, violin, Carolyn Blackwell, viola and Paul Widner, cello in a pre-concert presentation at our concert Spore Wind on June 9, 2023.
Jacob writes: “There are 6 kids in my family and we all play musical instruments. My sisters play cello, violin and harp and my brothers and I play piano and organ. I am currently learning Mozart’s Fantasie in d minor. Outside of music my interests include playing chess, football, hiking, trading stocks and reading.
I like the way composition allows you to collaborate with other musicians on projects. I have been part of a few composition projects now and they have taught me about composing music as a group. I really enjoyed that way of composing.
I have observed the way my music teachers share ideas with others and contribute to concerts and musical events through composition. This has inspired me to want to learn more about composing so that I can contribute to my community in that way.”
Announcing Continuum’s Artistic Producers
We are excited to share that Hillary Jean Young and Émilie Fortin join Continuum as Artistic Producers for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons through our inaugural Mentorship in Artistic Production (MAP).
These wonderfully imaginative and inquisitive artists each bring a wealth of knowledge to our organization through their own unique multidisciplinary practices. Over the next two seasons, they will learn the day-to-day processes and procedures of Continuum including programming and curation, collaboration, commissioning practices, grant writing and reporting, contracting and scheduling musicians, working within a budget, logistics, marketing, and general event production.
This two-year mentorship period will culminate in a concert co-curated by Hillary and Émilie in the Spring of 2024 complete with a Continuum’s full budget and resources. This is a project we intend to continue every two years to help facilitate a new generation of Artistic Producers replete with knowledge of administrative infrastructure to go forward and create projects responsibly and sustain operations in good practice.
The MAP selection process was completed by a jury comprising Sanjeet Takhar, Artistic Director of The Music Gallery; Juliet Palmer, Artistic Director of Urbanvessel; Ryan Scott, Artistic Director of Continuum; and Christina Volpini, Continuum’s Operations Manager.
Hillary Jean Young is a musician, vocalist, and improviser working in experimental music, new opera, contemporary chamber music, and electronic music. Hillary has performed with numerous ensembles and orchestras, such as kallisti chamber opera, OperaQ, red fish blue fish, and The Happenstancers. Hillary’s operatic experience includes roles such as the title role in Janáček’s Příhody lišky Bystroušky, Elle in La voix humaine, La Modista in Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, and Ghost 2 in the premiere of Lei Liang’s Inheritance.With their queercore performance art duo, masc4masc, Hillary has curated, hosted, and performed in venues across North America, as well as released an album, Not Another Queer Movie, via people places records. In 2019, Hillary earned their Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where they studied with Grammy award winning soprano Susan Narucki. Since relocating to Toronto, they have participated in the Toronto Creative Music Lab, performed at the inaugural season of the West End Micro Music Festival, written for DOMINIONATED, and worked for Paper Bag Records.
Émilie Fortin‘s artistic practice revolves around three axes: the creation of new repertoire through close collaboration between performer and composer, the exploration of new sounds through improvisation, and teaching.
Constantly seeking to enrich the trumpet repertoire, she has participated in the creation of over forty works. Her future and present collaborations explore physicality connection with training in body mime, dance and theater. In 2018, she created the soloist collective Bakarlari and serves as its artistic director. Dedicated to solo contemporary and creative music by offering concert experiences outside the traditional framework, Bakarlari is supported by Le Vivier Group.
She is a member of the Toronto-based ensemble Freesound, a collective of artist-creators dedicated to commissioning and presenting contemporary music in all its forms, and of ék, a mime and sound duo with trombonist Kalun Leung.
As an improviser, Émilie is known for her rigorous approach to noise music. Her collaborations include recordings and performances with, among others, Éric Normand, the Ratchet Orchestra and GGRIL.
Émilie has participated in the soundSCAPE Festival (Italy), Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance and Practice (Boston), Oh My Ears Festival (Arizona), Re:Sound (Cleveland) and Northwestern New Music Conference (Chicago). She has worked with members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (Banff Centre for the Arts), Ensemble Musikfabrik (Bauwerke Brass Academy), Ensemble Modern (Klangspuren Schwaz) and Vinko Globokar (Laboratorium), and has studied with Marco Blaauw and Peter Evans. In Montreal, she has performed with Productions SuperMusique (PSM) and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM).
A firm believer that pedagogy is an integral part of being a well-rounded performer, Émilie teaches in various high schools and music camps in the Montreal area as a specialist. For three years, she taught trombone, trumpet and music theory in Croix-des-Bouquets and Jacmel (Haiti) as part of the Ambassadors program. During the 2017-2018 season, she had the chance to hone her skills in community teaching with The Global Leaders team, having been one of 35 people selected from around the world to be part of this adventure. This allowed her to be a guest teacher in Bolivia (Conservatorio Plurinacional de Mùsica), Chile (Viva la Mùsica Panguipulli), Panama (Orquestra Veragüense de Vientos ) and Washington (DC Youth Orchestra Program).
As an ardent defender of the representativeness of brass instruments and the democratization of contemporary music, Émilie advocates for these issues as a presenter for organizations and conferences such as IRCAM Forum 2021, UQAM (Gender Differences and Inequalities in Music in Quebec), the Vivier Interuniversitaire and at the Canadian League of Composers. She is also a founding member of the Burning Brass Band, an ensemble that aims to increase the place of women, trans, non-binary and queer people in the Montreal brass band scene.
Originally from Abitibi-Témiscamingue, she studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Val-d’Or in the class of Frédéric Demers; she then studied classical performance with Lise Bouchard at the Université de Montréal. In 2017, she completed her Master of Music at McGill University under the tutelage of Russell DeVuyst.
Émilie has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Montreal Arts Council.
Émilie Fortin photo credit: Gabrielle Valevicius
Applications: 2023 Teen Composer Award (Now Closed)
The 7th Annual Teen Composer Award
The Teen Composer Award (TCA) provides an invaluable and practical composition experience for one high-school aged composer through one-on-one composition mentorship, professional development and an introduction to the Canadian contemporary music community. The program includes participation in the workshop and rehearsal process and culminates in a live performance by the Continuum Ensemble on our main stage concert series.
Application deadline: October 24, 2022
During the late fall and winter of 2022 and early 2023, the selected composer will be mentored online by professional Canadian composer Lieke van der Voort, who will serve as a guide for the composition process. Lessons may be in person or via Zoom.
The recipient of the award will compose a 5-8 minute work for string quartet to be performed by Continuum musicians, including Aaron Schwebel, violin, Carol Fujino, violin, and Paul Widner, cello (viola TBA).
The selected composer’s work will receive a live performance on June 9, 2023 at our concert Spore Wind co-presented by The Music Gallery (918 Bathurst, Toronto). The recipient will receive high quality video and audio of the performance; this documentation will also be shared via Continuum’s online platforms.
To Apply
Please send an email to christina@continuummusic.ca with the subject “Teen Composer Award” by Monday, October 24, 2022 which includes:
- one or two links (Soundcloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Bandcamp etc.) for audio or video of your music
- a PDF of one score
- a paragraph in the body of the email about your interest in the program.
Teen composers residing in Canada are invited to apply. Continuum does not cover travel or accommodation expenses to attend the premiere performance.
Previous Recipients
Cindy Chen (2017), Erik Kreem (2018), Sarah Lu (2019), Zack Payne (2020), Sointu Aalto (2021), Britney Dawn Do (2022)
Welcome to Continuum’s 38th season!!
After launching our current season with three concerts in our annual HATCH summer music festival tour, we are excited to announce plans for the rest of our season!
MAINSTAGE CONCERTS
In March, we present two performances of Show Room, a world premiere one-act opera by Rodney Sharman and librettist Atom Egoyan. Soprano Carla Huhtanen, mezzo soprano Andrea Ludwig and baritone Nicholas Higgs join a ten-piece Continuum ensemble in one of our biggest and boldest productions to date. Over five years in the making, this opera’s strange and colourful tonalities created by instruments both early and modern reflect the twisted relationships of a mother, her son and a boutique shopkeeper all driven together by mysterious forces. This is a not-to-miss event!
And in June, we present Spore Wind, a multimedia concert featuring a world premiere by Bekah Simms, who is also the concert co-curator! The amazing jaw harp soloist chik white and digital artist Dan Tapper join an extended Continuum ensemble to present works by composers from around the world and here in Canada accompanied by cutting edge visuals in digital media.
MENTORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
This fall we will accept applications for:
- 7th annual Teen Composer Award with mentorship by composer Lieke van der Voort;
- Composer, conductor and performer applications for HATCH 2023, and
- Our new biennial project MAP: Mentorship in Artistic Production.
In the coming days applications for MAP will be launched as we seek two passionate, imaginative, and collaborative early-career artists to join our team as Artistic Producers through the 22-23 and 23-24 Seasons. The producers will curate a shared concert program to be presented in our 23-24 Season with Continuum’s full ensemble. Our goal of this recurring new program is to provide agency and administrative skills to new voices and chart new directions in music.
Now in its 10th year, Continuum in the Classroom returns to Earl Haig Secondary School where 15 new works by students will be workshopped and premiered by members of the Continuum core ensemble.
ONLINE ENGAGEMENT
Throughout the season, we continue our Press Play web series with 11 new episodes. Beginning with composer introductions, each episode presents works from our most recent concerts Grounds for Goodness, Brush Line, and HATCH 2022.
Join us for another exciting season of new chamber music masterfully performed and shared in mentorship with the next generation. And if you like what we’re doing, please consider joining our Continuum family by making a donation now!
Announcing HATCH 2022 Participants!
For our fourth consecutive season, we are excited to present HATCH, Continuum’s annual summer music mentorship project for performers, composers and conductors made possible with the generous support of The Azrieli Foundation.
From this year’s pool of applications, our jury selected the following participants:
Composers: Carly Splett, Paolo Griffin, Yon Chekhanovich
Performers: Arlan Vriens (violin), Emma Schmiedecke (cello), Amanda Lowry (flute), Anjali Covill (clarinet), Ricardo Ferro (piano), Randall Chaves Camacho (percussion)
We are also proud to continue our partnership with Tapestry Opera and other partner organizations across Canada for the Women in Musical Leadership program. We welcome conductor Kelly Lin, who will lead the HATCH ensemble in rehearsal and performance.
Mentors: Linda Catlin Smith (composer), Anthony Tan (composer), Carol Fujino (violin), Paul Widner (cello), Leslie Newman (flute), Anthony Thompson (clarinet), Gregory Oh (piano), Ryan Scott (percussion), Brian Current (conductor).
After presenting two online editions of the program, we’re excited to return in-person with a rehearsal period in Toronto followed by performances at the Toronto Summer Music Festival, BIGLAKE Festival, and Ottawa Chamberfest! Stay tuned for more information on tickets. We look forward to sharing recordings of the works by our participating composers and mentors as part of our Press Play series in Fall 2022.
Lessons are just getting underway – we look forward to sharing more information on our upcoming performances and this phenomenal next generation of contemporary music artists!