HELEN PRIDMORE, singer and sound artist

Helen Pridmore is a singer and sound artist. Her passion for new music has resulted in many performances and premieres of works by Canadian and international composers, including Helen Hall, Tim Brady, W.L. Altman, Jim O’Leary, Randall Snyder, and more. Helen has recorded for CBC Radio and Albany Records. She has performed at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Sound Symposium in Newfoundland, the Scotia Festival and in numerous venues in Canada and the US. Helen also employs improvisation, spoken word and extended vocal techniques in her work. She is a member of Motion Ensemble, New Brunswick’s new music group, whose concerts include scored music, improvisations, and interactive electronic and visual media. Motion has toured widely in Canada, has been broadcast on CBC Radio, and made its US debut in New York City. Motion’s CD of works by John Cage was released worldwide by Mode Records. <http://www.motionensemble.com> With the duo Sbot N W o, Helen creates vocal/electronic improvisations in sound. Sbot N W o has been broadcast on Radio-Canada and has performed in various Canadian centres as well as Berlin, Amsterdam and London. <http://www.myspace.com/sbotnwo>

Born in England, Helen studied voice and piano in Canada and the US, earning a doctorate at the Eastman School of Music. More recently she has studied extended vocal techniques with Joan La Barbara and Richard Armstrong. At Mount Allison, Helen teaches Applied Voice and related topics (vocal methods, opera history). Under Helen’s direction the Opera workshop presents regular performances on campus and tours annually in the Maritime region.

 

 

CHENOA ANDERSON, flutes

Flautist Chenoa Anderson is one of Canada’s leading interpreters of new music and has been praised by critics, audiences and composers as a dynamic and exacting performer. Always seeking exciting new composers and repertoire, she has commissioned and premiered dozens of solo and ensemble pieces. Most recently, she has collaborated with composers on new works for flute with interactive electronics and video. She received her early musical training in her home city of Edmonton, later pursuing performance studies at the University of Toronto (B.Mus.) and the University of British Columbia (M.Mus.).

Chenoa has performed as a soloist and chamber musician across Canada and Europe. As a freelance musician, she has collaborated with many of Canada’s finest musicians and ensembles. She has received grants to attend artist residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (Vancouver), and to collaborate with composers in the creation of new repertoire.

Chenoa Anderson’s first solo recording, Big Flutes: Canadian Music for Alto and Bass Flutes was released in March 2006, and was nominated for a 2006 Western Canadian Music Award. She is featured on CDs of music by composers Paul Dolden and Barry Truax. Her performances and recordings are regularly broadcast on the CBC, and she has also appeared on Radio-Canada Television.

 

 

ALLISON BALCETIS, saxophones

Internationally recognized as an ambitious new-generation saxophonist, Allison Balcetis has studied and collaborated with artists from around the world. Allison has per-formed throughout Canada, France, Italy, Slovenia, and the United States. World premières include Trichromie by Thierry Alla in 2006, Chose Grave Sans Conséquence by Philippe Laval in 2009, and Balcetis for virtual tape and amplified baritone saxophone by Piotr Grella-Mozejko, also in 2009.

Allison holds a Bachelor’s of Music Performance and Education from Bowling Green State University, where she studied with Dr. John Sampen, and has the honour of being the first—and only—saxophonist to earn a joint degree from the Université de Bordeaux and the Conservatoire National de Région de Bordeaux where she studied with Marie-Bernadette Charrier. Since beginning her doctoral studies in 2007 at the University of Alberta (Prof. William H Street), Allison won the University of Alberta Concerto Competition in 2008. Later that year, she was among winners of the Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society Concerto Competition, as a result of which she gave the North American première of Piotr Grella-Możejko’s concerto Dream Daemon with the Edmonton Chamber Players under the eminent Polish conductor and composer, Maestro Jacek Rogala.

Currently, Allison is a member of the Anubis Quartet: a contemporary, modular saxophone group specializing in premiering modern music.

 

 

IAN CRUTCHLEY, computers / unconventional instruments

Dr Ian Crutchley grew up in Surrey, B.C. and now resides in Edmonton, Alberta. His initial interest in music came from playing saxophone in high school jazz and concert bands. He took his first for-mal instruction in music and began to compose at Douglas College and later The University of Brit-ish Columbia, attaining a Bachelor of Music (1988) and a Master of Music (1993). Between 1993 and 1998 he lived in The United Kingdom, completing a Ph.D. in Music Composition at The Univer-sity of York. His composition teachers have included Stephen Chatman, Keith Hamel, Richard Orton and Nicola LeFanu. He has taught at The University of Lethbridge, Mt. Allison University and Uni-versity of Alberta, teaching composition, theory, and electroacoustic music.

Dr Crutchley divides his time between electro-acoustic and instrumental compositions and recent works explore the melding of the two as well as improvisatory live electronics and multimedia collaborations. He has worked with many of the finest interpreters of new music from across Canada, as well as Britain and the United States, receiving numerous awards, grants and commissions from such agencies as The Canada Council, The New Brunswick Arts Board, and SOCAN. In May and June 2007 he was a resident artist at the Leighton Artist Colony, Banff, Alberta.

In addition to a series of highly successful chamber compositions, Dr Crutchley’s major works include a series of solo pieces with and without electroacoustic component, such as Nativitas (piano) for Barbara Pritchard, White Dove I (flute and electronic media) for Chenoa Anderson and Pinocchio, featuring Helen Pridmore in the lead role with animations by Tara Wells. Avid educator, Dr Crutchley has also created a series of compositions for young performers.

 

 

PIOTR GRELLA-MOŻEJKO, computers

Born in Poland and living in Canada since 1989, composer, educator and pianist Piotr Grella-Możejko holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, AB; an M.Mus. in Composition degree from the same university; and an M.A. degree in Political Sciences from the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland.

Described by the German press as demonstrating “uncompromising honesty” (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik), praised for his unorthodox aesthetics (Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung), and whose work is called “brawny, high-contrast… full of rich counterpoint and compelling textural changes” (The New York Times), “strikingly individual” (The Toronto Star), and “wonderful-sounding” (The Buffalo News), Piotr has written on commissions from, among others, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as Polish Radio, Canadian Music Centre, and The Flanders Festival.

Presented in major international centres, Piotr’s music has been commissioned, played and recorded by over a dozen symphony and chamber orchestras in Canada and abroad as well as by many outstanding chamber groups and soloists.

 

 

JERRY OZIPKO, violin & electric violin

Music has always been the passion and life of Jerry Ozipko, a native Edmontonian, who began his musical career with violin lessons from the age of seven. A graduate of the University of Alberta (B.Mus. in Violin Performance, 1968) and Truman State University (M.A. in Education, 1970), he has been a supporter of contemporary music from his student days at the UofA, where he was involved in performances of New Music very early on. Referred to as “…the first advocate of the avant-garde in our province…” (AlbertaViews), Jerry enjoys reputation as an improviser, highly respected writer, educator, and arts administrator.

His unique repertoire includes works by Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Otto Joachim, Anestis Logothetis, Anton von Webern, as well as numerous pieces by Canadian and inter-national composers, also created especially for him.

 

 

CHRISTOPHER PAYNE, visuals

Christopher Payne obtained a BFA Specialization in Film Production from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in 2007 (Montréal) and a certificate in Arts and Cultural Management from Grant MacEwan Community College in 2008 (Edmonton). As a media artist Christopher is particularly interested in film, video, custom programmed video installation, digital and analogue photography and brief forays into robotics.

The majority of his film based work focuses on camera-less animation where images are created by manipulating directly the surface of the film. Also active as a promoter, Christopher was employed as Production Coordinator at FAVA (the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta) until his move out East, where he currently lives and works, dividing his time between Ottawa and Montréal.