It’s a new year and Soundstreams is happy to welcome Ben Dietschi to the team as the new Metcalf Foundation Intern. Ben has worked with Soundstreams in a volunteer capacity since this past October and now, thanks to the support of the Metcalf Foundation, Ben’s role has change to a full time position that will… Read More
Five and a Half Bridges, James Rolfe’s new composition, will premiere at The Three Faces of Jerusalem concert on Sunday January 27 at Koerner Hall. James worked with poet André Alexis who wrote the text for this piece using the concept of a bridge “as a metaphor for connection.” Five bridges from around the world… Read More
In the last few decades, the use of percussions has exploded onto the contemporary music scene, redefining the very definition of percussion instruments, as well as percussion composition and performance. To better understand the changing sound-world of percussion instruments in contemporary music, Haruka Fujii, a Japanese multi-percussionist and one of the most prominent solo percussionists… Read More
James Rolfe’s long history with Soundstreams has included performances of 8 new works. This January, he premieres his latest as part of The Three Faces of Jerusalem concert. He recently shared his inspiration for this work, as well as his advice for turning 30, with Soundstreams. Your new piece is called Five and a Half… Read More
This was my third time during University Voices with the Calixa Lavallee Singers from the University of Ottawa. One thing I can confidently say about this project is that it has been a different experience every year I have participated since 2008. The days often included 6 hour rehearsals followed by choristers going shopping or… Read More
Last week, for five days, 120 choristers came together for 21 hours of rehearsal to create University Voices. Under the direction of Kaspars Putnins, this group sang alongside the Latvian Radio Choir, one of the premiere choral ensembles in the world. The experience was thrilling: being part of Ana Sokolovic’s ASAP 4 SATB (a world… Read More
We commissioned Ana Sokolovic to write a new work for our upcoming Latvian Radio Choir concert. Ana created ASAP 4 SATB, a new choral work with text based on the language of text messaging. The Soundstreams staff is quite tech savvy but even we needed to look up the meaning of some of these acronyms…. Read More
We get a lot of question from patrons, new audience members and even our artists about Salon 21. We thought that we could take a moment to answer some commonly asked Salon 21 questions. 1. What does the name mean? The actual name Salon 21 means: A Salon for the 21st Century. A quick Google… Read More
2 conductors 1 pianist 1 flutist 2 trumpeters 2 contrabassists 4 cellists 4 violists 4 percussionists 12 violinists 22 singers 24 hours of rehearsal over 5 days in 4 different studios 2 vibraphones 2 five-octave marimbas An assortment of pots and pans tuned to specific pitches 5 loudspeakers 1 specialized effects rack… Read More
R. Murray Schafer has a special place within Soundstreams. He shares, with our artistic director, Lawrence Cherney, a passion for the larger architectural possibilities of music, the ‘big ideas.’ Schafer’s work is created not simply for conventional concert halls but commonly specifies extraordinary locations (including the woods, lakes, and warehouses), uses unconventional ensembles (six choirs,… Read More
On November 11, Soundstreams welcomes back The Latvian Radio Choir and Kaspars Putnins, the choir’s conductor since 1992. A leader in the promotion of new choral music, Kaspars also regularly appears as a guest conductor with leading European choirs such as the BBC Singers, RIAS Kammerchor, Netherlands Chamber Choir, Swedish Radio Choir, Netherlands Radio Choir,… Read More
Within our new site we thought that we’d introduce a blog to showcase Soundstreams’ inner world. The posts on Sound Stories will not be written in one voice but will speak through the thoughts and experiences of the entire Soundstreams staff. We look forward to offering you a series of different pathways into behind the… Read More