Vancouver New Music will celebrate its 40th anniversary season with a four-night ode to its experimental past.

In its just announced 2013-14 season, the company revealed a retrospective concert from October 16 to 19 spread between the Vancouver Playhouse and the Orpheum Annex.

The first night will focus on small ensembles and solos (featuring performers Lori Freedman, François Houle, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, Mark McGregor, and Catriona Strang); the second on electronic, electroacoustic, and new media (featuring works by the likes of Jackson 2Bears and Hildegard Westerkamp); the third on opera excerpts (including Rodney Sharman and Atom Egoyan's Elsewhereless); and the fourth on large ensemble work (by composers like John Korsrud, Alexina Louie, and James Maxwell).

That big birthday event is followed on November 17 by a premiere by VNM artistic director Giorgio Magnanensi for large ensemble and electronics. Copresented by Redshift Music Society, Chambercon will be performed by Ethos Ensemble, with Negative Z and members of the Vancouver Electronic Ensemble. The concert is at the Orpheum Annex.

In the new year, on March 22, VNM presents Sound Space Architecture at Vancouver Community College's Atrium with a new commission for large ensemble by Howard Bashaw, plus new works by Jordan Nobles and Scott Smallwood, and a remount of a John Oswald piece.

The season wraps on April 12 at the Orpheum Annex with Sequitur, a program of all-new works inspired by pieces selected from VNM’s repertoire. Jennifer Butler, Dorothy Chang, Owen Underhill, and Cameron Wilson have drawn inspiration from Barbara Pentland, Jean Couthard, Martin Bartlett, and Rudolph Komorous.

For the first time, Vancouver New Music is offering season subscriptions. All seven concerts are going for $190 (taxes and venue surcharges included). Subscriptions as well as single tickets will be available for purchase in August.