Musical Opportunities

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.

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.

———— Last Season’s Program ————

2022|23 • CALLING EMERGING COMPOSERS!

• APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 1/23
• WORKSHOP DATES: MAY 8 – JUNE 3
• INSTRUMENTATION: 4 INSTRUMENTS TBA
• MENTOR: LINDA CATLIN SMITH
• ASSOCIATE MENTOR: BRUCE A. RUSSELL

Arraymusic’s Young Composers’ Workshop provides mentorship for emerging composers through creative workshopping, composition seminars, and individual lessons. 

Four music creators will be selected to work closely with The Array Ensemble and composer mentors Linda Catlin Smith and Bruce A. Russell to develop new pieces (or works-in-progress) to be presented publicly in the final stage of the workshop. Upon selection, artists receive intensive twice-weekly rehearsal sessions with Array’s ensemble and mentors, allowing each participant to try out and refine ideas. Participants are able to book private lessons with Linda.

Composition Seminars occur weekly and include presentations by the participants, so they get to know each other’s work, and presentations by the mentors.

The workshop provides an opportunity for composers to work closely with professional musicians, to learn about the instruments in greater detail, and to take the time to experiment with techniques, sounds, timbral combinations and other considerations.   

TRAVEL AND COVID-19 CONSIDERATIONS/CONTINGENCIES

Our hope is to deliver the workshop with participants joining us in Toronto, however the workshop can be adjusted to facilitate an entirely virtual experience, if required.

 VENUE & ACCESSIBILITY

Array’s workshop will be hosted at The Array Space—on the second floor of 155 Walnut Avenue in Toronto. The building entrance can be accessed by a ramp. Once inside, there is an elevator and staircase leading to the second floor (location of Array Space). Washrooms are available on the main floor (these are gender neutral, and wheelchair accessible). The venue is within walking distance of two frequent service public transit routes (Queen and King streetcars).

ELIGIBILITY

• Sound/music should be an established feature of your artistic practice. 
• International applicants are welcome and encouraged to apply. 
• This is a voluntary workshop. There is no application or participation fee. 
• The jury will prioritize applicants with limited career experiences.
• Successful applicants are responsible for their own accommodation and travel.

HOW TO APPLY 

Interested composers should submit application materials via email to David Schotzko ([email protected]) with “Young Composers Workshop Submission” in the subject line.

These are the Application Requirements:

• An artist resume, CV, or biography .
• Streaming audio/video: performances/presentations of two previous works. 
• Recommended: if streaming audio/video samples are based on notated, graphical, instructional, text, and/or software scores, or other documentation, feel free to include appropriate links or uploaded PDF material. This is helpful to the jury, particularly if you plan to incorporate these techniques/methods should you be selected for the workshop. 
• Short statement (maximum 100 words): Briefly tell us about your current artistic interests. What is important to you in your process and/or the works you create? 
• Other information (optional): you are welcome to mention additional information that would be helpful to the jury/organizers, including logistical or technical requirements that would enable your work, material you would bring/provide as part of your creative process, etc.

WORKSHOP TIMELINE (2023)

• MARCH 1: Application Deadline 
• MARCH 17: Confirmation of participants 
• MAY 8: Workshop begins
• JUNE 3: Public presentation

IBPOC COMPOSER FELLOWSHIP

Arraymusic offers limited financial assistance to composers self-identifying as Indigenous, Black, or Persons of Colour in order to help offset the costs of participating in the sessions. This includes lodging expenses and a modest per diem. If you wish to be considered for our Fellowship, please indicate this request in your application.

ABOUT THE MENTORS

LINDA CATLIN SMITH grew up in New York and lives in Toronto. Her music has been performed by: BBC Proms, Tafelmusik, BBC Scottish Orchestra, Tectonics Festival (Glasgow), and many others. Recordings include: Thought and Desire, with Eve Egoyan, and five recordings: Dirt Road, Drifter, Wanderer, Among the Tarnished Stars (with Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time) and Ballad, with ‘another timbre’. Recently her string trio Meadow was released on CD with Louth Contemporary Music Society. In 2019, her orchestral work, Nuages, (commissioned by the BBC Proms), was premiered by the BBC Scottish Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall. Her newest orchestral work, Tableau, was premiered recently by the Victoria Symphony in Canada. Her works are available through Composers Edition and the Canadian Music Centre.

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.

While the Young Composer’s Workshop is tuition free, Arraymusic offers limited financial assistance to composers self-identifying as Indigenous, Black or Persons of Colour to help offset the costs of participating in the sessions–including lodging expenses and a modest per diem.

This fellowship is part of Arraymusic’s Equity Action Plan, which you can discover HERE.

This program offers talented composers an unparalleled opportunity to work closely with seasoned musicians, access to state-of-the-art resources, and the unique chance to see their compositions come to life in performances. Through fostering these creative collaborations, we not only advance the art of composition but also enrich our cultural tapestry with innovative musical narratives.

Arraymusic’s BIPOC Access Program is designed to support Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour as they rehearse, teach, record and present their work at The Array Space. 
 
If you self-identify as BIPOC and wish to be considered for this program, you can find more information and APPLY HERE.

Arraymusic will review your application and let you know within one month if we are able to assist. Artists may apply once per calendar year. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis (there is no deadline), but space is limited.

*Remember to allow yourself more than one month lead time from your project start date to apply

APPLY HERE

Array’s BIPOC Access Program is part of Arraymusic’s Equity Action Plan, which you can read about HERE

Array’s mission to ignite a passion for Canadian contemporary experimental music within an international, interdisciplinary context, and each year Array’s Artistic Director reviews scores submitted by composers from around the world as part of planning future Array Ensemble season’s programming. We pride ourselves on performing works by composers at all stages in their career, from emerging to distinguished, young to old. And, we have always sought out new and under-represented voices whose music may be little known or fall ‘in between’ genres, but which deserves a spotlight.

Array tends to program music commissioned by our Artistic Director which is then written expressly for our virtuosic Array (variable size and instrumentation) Ensemble. However, if you have a work that is similar in instrumentation (piano, percussion, clarinet/s, cello, violin; double bass is possible) and would like Array’s chamber group to perform your work, you are welcome to submit a digital score online. 

We also accept submissions for co-presentations of works (that may be multi-disciplinary in nature) which feature exceptional experimental music. 

Please contact our General Director [email protected] to enquire.

Composers wishing to submit a score can do so HERE.

Applications for Red Sky are not being accepted at this time.

In addition to our co-productions, once a year, Arraymusic selects a talented group of artists, or an artist, to take a ‘residency’ in The Array Space. 

The Array Resident Artist Incubator/ARAI Program gifts a significant amount of free and/or subsidized time in our space to selected artists to rehearse, record, livestream, teach, and to present their music and performance art. 

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year and two groups are selected once annually in July. 

Past and current Resident Artist groups have included:

• Thin Edge New Music
• The Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan
• CCMC
• The Glass Orchestra

APPLY

Arraymusic prides itself on partnering with other artists working in our contemporary and experimental music communities to co-present events (i.e. concerts, symposiums, workshops). 

Just as Arraymusic approaches other new music artists and organizations from time to time requesting they partner with us to co-present an event or mini-festival, artists are welcome to approach our Artistic Director to request that we review a particular project they are working on with a mind to partnering.

Co-presentation partnerships mean that Arraymusic may provide in-kind support such as the gift of one free day in our Array Space to rehearse or co-present an event, production and/or video livestreaming and technical support, and some promotional and marketing support on our social media platforms and/or through direct mail.

To learn more and enquire about co-presenting with Arraymusic this season.

APPLY HERE.

• “At risk students who have access to the arts in or out of school tend to have better academic results, better workforce opportunities, and more civic engagement, according to a new NEA report, The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth.”  [1]
  – National Endowment for the Arts Study Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies by James S. Catterall, University of York, U.K., with Susan A. Dumais, Louisiana State University and Gillian Hampden-Thompson, University of York, U.K.

•  “Music brings people together. For a moment, immersed in music, it doesn’t matter where one is from… the trauma or the history or the struggles are forgotten. That’s the magical part of music.”  [2]
  – Karen Francis, Executive Director Matthew House, Toronto

• “New research suggests that playing music or singing together may be particularly potent in bringing about social closeness through the release of endorphins… researchers found that performing music—through singing, drumming, and dancing—all resulted in participants having higher pain thresholds (a proxy measure for increased endorphin release in the brain) in comparison to listening to music alone. In addition, the performance of music resulted in greater positive emotion…” 5
  – Jill Suttie, Editor Greater Good Magazine – Science Based Insights For A Meaningful Life

Equity is a complex problem in Canada that requires engagement at all levels of our society – from governments and service providers to community participants and Arts & Culture organizations, like Arraymusic. 

MusicALL is a new initiative from Arraymusic designed to positively impact young people living in equity-seeking communities through monthly workshops and accessible/affordable concert ticket prices to all Arraymusic produced events.

Arraymusic welcomes all and any  new Community Partners working with children and youth at risk to enquire about participating in our outreach program, MusicALL. 

CONTACT: General Director David Schotzko at [email protected] to enquire.

Arraymusic’s MusicALL Workshops:

• MusicALL: Making Music For Stories Workshop – Ages 5 to 10 – Children gain an early understanding of the importance of sound in animating stories by helping to bring a story to life themselves using an assortment of fun percussion instruments; guided by an experienced storyteller and musician; presented free of charge; reserve early as workshop size is limited.

• MusicALL: Synthesizer Workshops led by The Frequency Freaks – Ages 12 to 22 – Come to Array’s Space once a month to learn how to play moog synthesizers from the pros. Space is limited so apply early (some seats reserved for BIPOC participants per workshop). 

Arraymusic is grateful to MusicALL’s sponsors: The Douglas and Frederick Memorial Trust Foundation, the LOHN Foundation, The SOCAN Foundation, and the arts councils — Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.