New Music Critics' Picks

DRUM & LIGHT FESTIVAL
(March 1 and 14 at the WISE Hall)
Hard Rubber New Music’s latest venture into the multimedia fray is a festival that combines John Korsrud’s all-star cast of musicians with turntablists, visual artists, the dance-pop band Sekoya, Latin percussionists, taiko drummers, and the avant-garde choreographers of the Tomorrow Collective.
The Draw: A contemporary take on the ’60s “happening”.
Target Audience: Aesthetically hungry hipsters.

RZEWSKI FEST
(March 5 to 8 at the UBC School of Music Recital Hall, Gessler Hall, and the Scotiabank Dance Centre)
Contemporary music is often thought of as an abstract or elitist art form, but for piano virtuoso, composer, and political activist Frederic Rzewski, it’s just another way to engage with—and possibly improve—a world that is far from perfect. Highlights of this celebration include a solo concert by Rzewski himself, at the Scotiabank Dance Centre on March 6, and the Nu:BC Collective’s version of the timeless Coming Together at the same venue on March 8.
The Draw: Music that’s more about ideas than marketing.
Target Audience: Free radicals.

STANDING WAVE ENSEMBLE
(March 15 at the Pendulum Gallery)
Thanks to the ongoing New Music in New Places series, one of Vancouver’s best bands visits the HSBC Building’s Pendulum Gallery for a free afternoon concert.
The Draw: A chance to revisit local composer Bradshaw Pack’s Palladia, one of Standing Wave’s greatest hits.
Target Audience: Connoisseurs and frazzled downtown shoppers.

TURNING POINT ENSEMBLE
(March 15 at Ryerson United Church)
The Turning Point Ensemble’s B.C. Concentrate concert is a kind of stock-taking exercise, featuring previously performed material. But since the stock includes works by Jocelyn Morlock, John Korsrud, Bradshaw Pack, and more, this is one backwards-looking event that will feel utterly current.
The Draw: A short survey of B.C.’s best composers, as played by some of our finest instrumentalists.
Target Audience: Lovers of finesse.

EVE EGOYAN
(March 20 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre)
Piano virtuoso Eve Egoyan
(Atom’s equally talented sister)
has the rare gift of making complex music accessible. Her abilities will be put to the test in a four-hour-long reading of Alvin Curran’s chimerical Inner Cities.
The Draw: Egoyan’s sure touch, and a piece the composer describes as “brutally lyrical [and] aggressively impolite”.
Target Audience: Listeners with a patient capacity for wonder.

DREAMS OF THE WANDERER
(April 5 at the Capilano College Performing Arts Theatre)
Composer and arts activist Moshe Denburg is the guiding force behind the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, which brings together a score of musicians from radically different backgrounds. His large-scale composition Dreams of the Wanderer, which will be performed by VICO and the combined choirs of the Capilano College music program, is a look inside his mind, where texts in Farsi, Mandarin, Hebrew, and English meld with varied musical sources to revelatory effect.
The Draw: Music that sounds like Vancouver looks.
Target Audience: Everyone. Really.

SONIC BOOM
(April 10 to 13 at the Western Front)
The annual survey of new work by B.C. composers returns, this time with the UBC–based Nu:BC Collective as its house band.
The Draw: An early-warning system aimed at identifying new sounds and emerging artists.
Target Audience: Those who would be in the know.

ENSEMBLE CAST
(April 18 at the Roundhouse Community Centre)
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra continues its collaboration with the musica intima choir, in a program graced by concertmaster Mark Fewer’s eloquent violin and contemporary classics by Samy Moussa, Robert Lemay, Rodney Sharman, and Kaija Saariaho.
The Draw: Easy entry into the world of the new.
Target Audience: Askers of the question, “After Igor Stravinsky, then what?”

MOHAMMAD REZA SHAJARIAN
(May 4 at the Orpheum Theatre)
Part-time North Shore resident Mohammad Reza Shajarian is a legend in our midst: widely thought of as the greatest living male vocalist in Persian music, he’s an artist whose emotional subtlety makes most operatic tenors sound crass. He’ll be singing mostly in Farsi, but his art transcends linguistic and cultural barriers.
The Draw: The chance to see an icon at the very top of his game.
Target Audience: Every Iranian in Vancouver, and anyone who loves beautiful singing.