Pierre Simard, music director, Diane Berry, ACWC secretary, Paolo Bertolussi, principal flute (photo – Dirk Heydemann of HA Photography)

On Saturday, January 19, 2019, at their concert in Nanaimo, British Columbia, the Vancouver Island Symphony announced a commitment to gender equity in their programming of new music. The ACWC’s secretary, Diane Berry was on hand to help them with their announcement. It read, as follows:

“Tonight, the Vancouver Island Symphony is formalizing its commitment to equity in the compositional world. In recent years, we have established ourselves as leader in commissioning and promoting new works by Canadian composers. Tonight, we take this dedication to creation and build on it with a commitment to gender equity across all of our new music endeavors, in programming and commissioning new music. From this point on, we are pledging all future commissions will respect and abide by this principle of gender equity”

This is an exciting pledge for an orchestra to take. Diane congratulated them on being leaders in this, and hopes others will follow. The announcement was warmly and enthusiastically received by the audience.

Canadian composers Maria Case (Toronto) and Gayle Young (Grimsby) are the latest recipients of the Roberta Stephen Composition award.

The Roberta Stephen Award offers support to a Canadian woman composer aged 36 or older for professional development such as further studies, conferences, or workshops, or composers’ festivals. The prize was established by Calgary composer and publisher Roberta Stephen and is administered by the Association of Canadian Women Composers.

Maria Case

Maria Case is an accomplished composer, performer, music theorist, and choral conductor. Founder of the Artemis Trio and Artemis ensemble, Case directs the 60-voice Annex Singers and is Director of Music at the Glebe Road United Church. Her compositions include choral works, song cycles, works for piano, and works for chamber ensemble. Her award will go toward her next composition project, a cycle of pieces for chamber choir in which each singer functions both as an ensemble member and as a soloist, utilizing madrigal-like independence of voice lines. Case will use the Roberta Stephen award for consultations with Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt at the University of Toronto throughout the compositional process.

Gayle Young

Gayle Young’s wide-ranging compositional interests include expanded tuning systems, instrument design, sound sculpture, and acoustic ecology, merging performance, design, and composition. The Roberta Stephen Award will assist Young to lecture and perform at the 14^th annual Visiones Sonores conference and festival at the Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras in September 2018. Young’s participation in this conference will be followed by a two-week residency at the CMMAS in February 2019, which will enhance her international profile, provide her with new networking opportunities, and give her an opportunity to become familiar with current electroacoustic techniques.

 For further information, contact: Janet Danielson jrd@sfu.ca 250 886-4534

Press release: RobertaStephenPressRelease2018

Canadian composers, Veronika Krausas (currently located in Los Angeles, CA) and Amy Brandon (Truro, Nova Scotia) are the recipients of the 2017 Roberta Stephen Composition Award.

The Roberta Stephen Award offers support to a Canadian woman composer aged 36 or older for professional development such as further studies, conferences, or workshops, or composers’ festivals. The prize was established by Calgary composer and publisher Roberta Stephen and is administered by the Association of Canadian Women Composers.

Veronika Krausas

Veronika Krausas’ commissions and performances include the LA Philharmonic, The Industry, New York City Opera, musikFabrik, Esprit Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony, ERGO Projects, Fort Worth Opera, Motion Music, and the Penderecki String Quartet. Upcoming performances at Tanglewood and a new opera with Calgary Opera in 2019 with novelist André Alexis and the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. She is on faculty at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She has directed, composed for, and produced multi-media events that incorporate her works with dance, acrobatics and video.

Amy Brandon

Holding degrees in jazz guitar performance and composition, guitarist Amy Brandon is currently completing an interdisciplinary PhD in music cognition at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She has performed internationally and received commissions to write for ensembles from Canada, the US and the UK. Awards include the National Sawdust Hildegard Initiative (Honourable Mention), nominations for Music Nova Scotia and ECMA awards for her jazz-electroacoustic album ‘Scavenger’, and the Roberta Stephen Award from the Association of Canadian Women Composers.