Winnipeg 
Events Description
The 33rd edition of the Winnipeg New Music Festival (WNMF) will thighlight world and Canadian premieres, promising emerging composers, and one-of-a-kind venues. This festival remains unparalleled in its commitment to contemporary art music.
WNMF SHOWCASE: LAUNCHPAD | Thursday, January 25, 2024 , 7:30 pm @ Centennial Concert Hall
This concert is FREE but tickets must be reserved.
Throughout its history, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra has played a leading role in supporting the creation of new music in Canada, most notably through its now 33-years-young Winnipeg New Music Festival. Building on this tradition of fostering the voices of the future, the WNMF Composers Institute now enters its sixth year, gathering emerging talents from across the nation to work with the WSO in bringing to life an exciting program of fresh ink orchestral music.
Maestro Julian Pellicano is joined by WSO’s new RBC Assistant Conductor Monica Chen and RBC Guest Conductor Serena Reuten as they lead your WSO through a set of world and Canadian premieres of new works by six gifted composers, including the winner of the Canadian Music Centre’s annual Emerging Composer Competition. Mentor composers Eugene Astapov and Amy Brandon join WSO composer-in-residence Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis in introducing this year’s featured young artists as the 2024 Winnipeg New Music Festival lifts off in this free symphonic concert celebrating Winnipeg’s musical community.
The composers selected to have their pieces premiered at the 2024 Winnipeg New Music Festival and to participate in the 2023 WNMF Composers Institute are:
Lauren Greenberg: Cosmic Origins – Canadian Premiere
Willyn Whiting: Framework – World Premiere
Tom Lachance: Blizzard Sylvestre – World Premiere
Yejin Kwon: White Clad – World Premiere
Judah Williams: Cosmic Abyss – World Premiere
Also participating in the 2024 Composers Institute are the winners of the CMC Prairie Region and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s Emerging Composer Competition:
Robert Humber: Warmth Comes World Premiere
WNMF 1: RITES & PASSAGES | Saturday, January 27, 2024 , 7:30 pm @ Centennial Concert Hall
The WSO is proud to present this year’s WNMF distinguished guest composer, American powerhouse Missy Mazzoli. Two of her orchestral works are presented this evening, each an epic musical journey unto itself. Orpheus Undone reaches back to Greek mythology for its inspiration, tracing the bard-prophet’s death and journey into the underworld, while the five-movement Violin Concerto (Procession) – featuring WSO associate concertmaster Karl Stobbe – evokes magic and mystery, with the soloist serving as a processional guide through the ebb and wane of fear and wonder.
Restless Oceans by English composer Anna Clyne deploys the orchestra in both familiar and unconventional ways in this celebration of the power of women; while Ukrainian-Canadian composer-conductor Eugene Astapov shares his work Burial Rites that explores the nature of grief and memory in response to deep personal tragedy. Opening the concert is Croatian pianist-composer Dejan Lazic’s S.C.H.E.rzo, composed as a tribute to Beethoven and the musical form he pioneered, replete with references to his seminal Third Symphony.
WNMF 2: KAMANCELLO | Sunday, January 28, 2024, 8:00 pm & 9:30 pm: @ The Leaf, Mediterranean Biome (Assiniboine Park)
The Leaf: This ADD-ON concert is exclusively available to WNMF Pass Holders.
In 1992, the WSO planted a musical seed in Winnipeg, carving out a space within its traditional programming season that would be dedicated entirely to new musical creations by the artists of our own time. Over 33 seasons, the seed has grown organically into the internationally renowned Winnipeg New Music Festival, an institution unto itself whose tendrils have reached across the globe, creating new connections and introducing new voices to its audiences.
This year, WNMF moves to The Leaf, the new architectural and horticultural crown jewel of Assiniboine Park, for two performances by the innovative cello and kamancheh duo Kamancello.
Kamancello brings together the individual voices, stylistic explorations, and cultural influences of Canadian cellist & composer Raphael Weinroth-Browne (Leprous, The Visit, Musk Ox) and Kurdish-Canadian kamancheh player & composer Shahriyar Jamshidi. Weaving together equal parts composition and improvisation, each unique performance grows organically as these master musicians respond to each other in the moment – which the audience will fittingly experience while nestled within the natural environment of The Leaf’s Mediterranean Biome.
WNMF 3: WORLDS WITHIN | Tuesday, January 30, 2024 , 7:30 pm @ Knox United Church
WNMF once again teams up with long-time collaborators Polycoro Chamber Choir – this time joined by Kamancello member Raphael Weinroth-Browne on cello – in a program of deeply personal, introspective musical creations, presented in the inviting and resonant Knox United Church.
Grammy-winning composer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Gilbertson’s choral work Returning explores what draws humans together, while WNMF 2024 distinguished guest composer Missy Mazzoli’s Year of Our Burning for vocal ensemble and cello presents a window into the mind of the artist during a time of great turmoil and deep isolation.
WNMF celebrates the life of the great Winnipeg-born composer Jocelyn Morlock, presenting her masterwork Exaudi, a stunning piece for vocal ensemble and cello that seeks meaning and empathy within the depths of grief.
Interspersed throughout the program are selections from Raphael Weinroth-Browne’s album for solo cello and electronics Worlds Within, each piece a richly atmospheric and wordless exploration of sound, space, and the complexities of our inner lives.
WNMF 4: DIALOGUES | Wednesday, January 31, 2024 , 7:30 pm @ Centennial Concert Hall
Returning to our familiar concert hall, music director Daniel Raiskin leads the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in a series of works featuring a stunning array of acclaimed guest soloists from around the world. This unique program places a spotlight on the relationship between soloist, conductor, orchestra, and composer – and the dialogue, synergy, and conflict that arise from their interactions.
Distinguished guest composer Missy Mazzoli returns with her sonorous concerto for double bass Dark with Excessive Bright that features WSO principal bassist Meredith Johnson, placing a spotlight on a ubiquitous instrument of the orchestra and its rich expressive possibilities.
Chinese-American composer and guzheng master Wu Fei is joined by NYC oud specialist Shanir Blumenkranz in the orchestral adaptation of her monumental Hello Gold Mountain, a powerful work inspired by the real stories of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai from Europe in World War II and built new lives in China.
In Mirror of Eternity, Lebanese composer Houtaf Khoury explores the socio-philosophical complexities of life in the Arab world through the soulful sonorities of the flute and symphony orchestra – a performance that doubly serves as a celebration of WSO principal flutist Jan Kocman’s stunning 50 years of service to the orchestra.
Finally, Kamancello returns to the stage, this time with the WSO, to weave together a rich sonic tapestry with their semi-improvisatory Convergence Suite, an expansive outgrowth of their repertoire heard three nights earlier at The Leaf.
WNMF 5: BUILDING BRIDGES | Friday, February 2, 2024 , 7:30 pm @ Centennial Concert Hall
WNMF 2024 wraps in style with a striking slate of stylistically eclectic works, putting a spotlight on the extreme and thrilling musical contrasts that the symphony orchestra is uniquely capable of.
Missy Mazzoli opens the program with River Rouge Transfiguration, inspired by the relationship between industry and geography in the development of Detroit’s urban identity.
Canadian iconoclast and multiple JUNO nominee Andrew Staniland in turn mines the rich timbral and gestural possibilities of his own primary instrument in his concerto for electric guitar (RE)volution, featuring New York City-based virtuoso Jay Sorce (Hypercube).
WSO composer-in-residence Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis reprises his epic tone poem Holocene Extinction, a work that mines the sweeping symphonic language of romanticism and cinema alongside the propulsive drive of modern metal as it ruminates on humanity’s unprecedent impact on the geological evolution of the planet and of its biosphere.
New Orleans-based composer Courtney Bryan presents her expressive work Bridges, an elegant symphonic tapestry that considers the physical and societal connections between the disparate communities of a single city through the symbol of its interconnecting bridges.
And finally, capping off this program and the festival, Maestro Daniel Raiskin leads the WSO in the Canadian premiere of Pretty, a raucously celebratory and irreverent new work by legendary American composer, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Bang On A Can co-founder Julia Wolfe.
HOW MUCH
Tickets:
WNMF Pass includes tickets to all Centennial Concert Hall and Knox United Church performances. Due to extremely limited capacity, Kamancello at The Leaf on Sunday, Jan 28, is not included with the pass. Pass holders have exclusive access to add that event for $25.
Early bird WNMF Pass: $79
WNMF Child Pass: $49
All performances take place at 7:30pm. Worlds Within takes place at Knox United Church. All other performances take place at the Centennial Concert Hall.
How to get tickets?
Buy Online
WHEN & WHERE
Date & Time: January 25 – Febraury 2, 2024
Venue: Centennial Concert Hall, 555 Main Street, Winnipeg
Knox United Church, 400 Edmonton St, Winnipeg
More to do
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