To help celebrate Arraymusic’s beginnings and its remarkable 50 years of work with composers since 1972, Arraymusic is pleased to announce its new Composer Accelerator Program, presented with support from the Azrieli Foundation and the SOCAN Foundation
In partnership in 2022|23 with the Canadian League of Composers and New Music Concerts, the Composer Accelerator Program will provide more support to composers in their professional development through a series of exciting new programs.
Composers are invited to participate in the following 2022|23 Composer Accelerator Program initiatives:
3 Co-presented Sessions in 2023
Composers have too few places to meet, network, receive mentorship, and hear their music come to life. Without reading programs, compositions can be confined to the page forever, impeding their progress.
Our pilot (non-juried) Composer Salons & Readings series, co-presented with the Canadian League of Composers is designed to achieve the following:
- Fosters inclusivity by removing music’s ‘gatekeepers’
- Breathes life into notated music
- Brings international and local composers (of all ages and experiences) into a meaningful conversation with one another.
This season Arraymusic will present 3 such composer salons and open readings sessions in 2023. Check back for dates, more details, and information about how to attend.
A Co-presented Week-long Empowerment Program for Early Career Creators
Public Showcase at St. George by the Grange June 17th, 2023
Evening program & schedule will be updated in early 2023. Stay tuned!
NMC / Array co-present a new program to encourage early-career musical creators of all backgrounds to design, produce and lead their own projects. Part composing workshop, part conducting clinic, and part industry training program, MAKEWAY runs every two years and brings together early-career musical creators, conductors and musicians to Toronto’s renowned Array Space for a week of workshops and seminars, culminating in a public concert at St. George on the Grange.
Featuring guest conductor Maria Fuller, NMC’s Tapestry Women in Musical Leadership fellow for 2022-2023.
FEATURING:
Maria Fuller – Guest Conductor
A Month Long Workshop & Concert
Featuring 5 world premieres of works by early career creators (programme to be announced)
Presented with support from the Azrieli Foundation and the SOCAN Foundation Array’s incomparable (juried) Young Composers’ Workshop & Concert, in its 34th year, gives emerging composers a month with Array’s ensemble and a distinguished composer to create a new work for concert presentation.
Supporting Indigenous and Black Composers and Composers of Colour.
Apply for support to participate in Array’s Young Composers’ Workshop & Concert Program
This season through to 2025, Bruce A. Russell is in residence.
Bruce A. Russell aka Ibrahim El Mahboob (he/him, b. 1968) is a composer and self-taught pianist living and working in Toronto (Tkarón:to, the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat). He studied at York University with James Tenney and Phillip Werren. His early years were spent playing in bands and releasing DIY cassettes of art pop and experimental music, as well as composing predominantly electronic scores for dance, theatre and interdisciplinary productions.
Frustrated by systemic racism, personal struggles, and a lack of interest in his work, he stopped seeking a career in music. He continued composing in private, however, sometimes sharing his work through social media. Interest in his work increased in 2020, resulting in performances by Second Note Duo, Prism Percussion, the San Juan Symphony, Idaho Falls Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra and Regina Symphony Orchestra. Arraymusic presented the first full concert of his music in November of that year, and he will be Composer in Residence at Array for three seasons from 2022 through 2025.
He has composed new works for Gryphon Trio, the Madawaska Quartet and Thin Edge New Music Collective. He is currently creating music for Ian Kamau’s live multi-media work Loss. He was the host of Radio Music Gallery and has written for Musicworks and I Care if You Listen. His interests are in 20th and 21st century concert music especially postminimalism, and music of the African diaspora.
Supported by Arraymusic’s 50+ Friends Who Care 2022|23 Fundraising Campaign, Micro-grants For Music Creators is designed to provide both financial and in-kind support to artists selected by a jury of donors to create, record, and present new miniature works in The Array Space.