artsongLAB (Fall 2023)

Welcome to ECM's artsongLAB

Our 6-week artsongLAB comprises of writing a new song collaborating with our ensemble-in-residence and mentor (with an online video premiere).
See below for full details on lectures, guest speakers and more!


Dr. Mark Wilkinson
Canadian Baritone and Leading Voice Pedagogue

Valerie Dueck
International Solo and Collaborative
Pianist

Dr. Vincent Ho, Guest lecturer
Multi-award winning composer

Dr. Ho has taught at the University of Calgary and currently serves as Artistic Director to Land’s End Ensemble and New Music Advisor to the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. His works are published and managed by Promethean Editions Ltd and Peters Edition.

Dr. Bekah Simms, Guest lecturer
Lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Electroacoustic 

Juno-nominated Canadian composer with specialty in electroacoustic approaches, transcription-based composing and composing using sampling.

Dr. Matthew Emery
Lecturer at Carelton University  & University of Toronto

Dr. Emery has received over thirty awards and prizes for his compositions and his work has been included on nineteen albums, including a Juno nominated disc. His over sixty publications are published by G. Schirmer, Boosey & Hawkes, Hal Leonard and many others.

Guest lecturer: Ronald Royer
Composer & Music Director with the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra

Performed by over 70 orchestras.

With Career talk, working with an orchestra, studio recordings and copyright, communicating with an orchestra including commissions and the logistics on composer-in-residence positions

Dr. Daniel Mehdizadeh, Mentor`
Composer-in-Residence

Mentorship throughout the festival. Lectures on composition techniques, orchestration, idiomatic writing, notation standards and career guidance.

artsongLAB (Fall 2023)

About the Festival

Our festival is a 6-week mentorship and ensemble collaboration program. 4-6 composers will be selected to produce new works for our ensemble-in-residence, this round being works for Baritone and Piano duo (without electronics), with an online video premiere release. During this workshop, readings and mentorship is offered by both our Ensemble-in-Residence and our Composer-in-Residence, preparing each composer's work for its premiere. All video premieres will be posted on ECM's YouTube channel and may be shared and re-posted publicly. All shareable links will be given out.

Accepted participants will be expected to write a 5 minute art song using the selected poem (see below).  This festival is intended to further the compositional and collaborative skills of emerging and early-career composers as well as to provide them with an opportunity to have their music reach audiences across the globe. At the festival, composers will have a chance to connect with high-profile musicians, opening up possibilities for future commissions and collaborations. Guest lecturer, Dr. Vincent Ho, speaks on finding your unique voice and on incorporating your identity into your music. Guest lecturer Dr. Bekah Simms talks about electroacoustic approaches, and Dr. Matthew Emery speaks about vocal wirting, as well as working with living poets, securing copyright use and more. Guest artist, Ronald Royer from the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra, will give talks on career opportunities, becoming composer-in-residence, receiving commissions, studio recordings and much more.  

Please keep in mind that this festival is a collaborative process between the composer, mentor and the ensemble. Therefore, no previously written works will be considered. 


Schedule (all meetings will be virtual using Zoom): all times are Eastern Time (ET)

Composers begin writing for the duo (start sketches) and in contact with Mentor





Poem to be used: 

Application

Composers should send a google (or other cloud) link to a shared folder containing 1 pdf resume, 2 pdf scores and 2 recordings (MIDI files are acceptable) and a portrait photo of the applicant. PLEASE DO NOT SEND FILES DIRECTLY AS ATTACHMENTS - only  links to pdfs and audios will be accepted. Youtube and SoundCloud links are also acceptable.  Please make sure the access to the links are not set to private, and that multiple emails can access the files.
Scores should showcase the ability to compose for solo or small chamber ensemble. 

Application fee: none
Tuition: $950 CAD

Submission deadline: September 15th, 2023 by 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
Send everything to: music@eastchamber.com
Email Subject line should read: artsongLAB

Have questions? Send us an email: music@eastchamber.com

We are proud to announce our production parnternership with the Ottawa Pianos

More about our Mentors

Dr. Mark Wilkinson

Baritone
Actor
Conductor
Vocologist and Voice Scientist
Voice Pedagogue


D.M.A. - The Ohio State University
M.Mus. - University of Alberta
Diploma - Franz-Schubert-Institut
B.Mus. - Université d'Ottawa

Canadian baritone Mark Wilkinson is a vocal musician and actor whose eclectic career has expressed a versatility of artistry founded in a gift for dramatic truth-telling and sumptuous vocalism in a vast array of repertoire.


Dr. Mark's interest lies in representing the uniquely challenging space that singers occupy in being both musicians and actors -- he chooses artistic collaborations that embrace the voice as a musical instrument and lyrics as a legitimate tool for expression. As such, he has worked with myriad colleagues around the world in the most traditional and avant-garde settings. From singing J.S. Bach on national Canadian airwaves to stealing the show with P.D.Q. Bach himself, and from descending into madness in black-box theatres to leading the North American premiere of a Margaret Atwood play, Dr. Mark's multiple talents and professionalism bring assured artistry to any setting.


As an expert in chamber music, theatre, early music, and new compositions, Dr. Mark enjoys intimate collaborations in venues both big and small. He has been featured on CBC Music, Radio, and Television throughout his career, and is an engaging voice-over artist, narrator, master of ceremonies, and public speaker.


Dr. Mark also brings his career as a voice scientist and voice health specialist to masterclasses, clinics, and workshops across North America. He is one of Canada's leading voice pedagogues with a singular ability to habilitate and rehabilitate both professional and aspiring professional voice users. In addition to his rare background in clinical voice therapy and laryngology, he is known as an expert in educational psychology, curriculum design, and the neuroscience of learning.


A graduate of The Ohio State University, Dr. Mark continues to be inspired by his colleagues from whose generosity he has learned so much over the years. He is currently a proud French-speaking resident of Ottawa, Ontario, the traditional and unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg.

International Solo & Collaborative Pianist
https://www.valeriedueck.com

Valerie Dueck

International Solo & Collaborative Pianist
Has taught at the International School of Geneva, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, the Manitoba Conservatory of Music and Art, and Haileybury Astana.

Pianist Valerie Dueck grew up in Kleefeld, Manitoba on a street that housed an internationally renowned soprano and two leading vocal conductors. Given the neighbourhood, a career in vocal accompanying seemed an entirely rational choice. 

Now an internationally active pianist, Valerie has distinguished herself as a solo and collaborative performer while living on three continents. She has prepared both young singers and professionals in roles for such companies as Opera NUOVA, Opera Lyra, Wiener Volksoper, Wiener Staatsoper, Seattle Opera and Houston Grand Opera. She has been employed by the Grand Thèâtre de Genève, Thirteen Strings in Ottawa, Schlosstheater Schönbrunn in Vienna and the Conservatoire de musique de Genève, and has been invited to perform in the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Music and Beyond festival in Ottawa, the Five Boroughs Music Festival in New York and three successive tours of China. Her performances have been broadcast by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Kazakh National Television. 

Engaged as piano professor for the Conservatoire de musique de Genève, Valerie has also taught piano at the International School of Geneva, the University of Ottawa, Carleton University, the Manitoba Conservatory of Music and Art, and Haileybury Astana. Her formative piano teachers at university were David Lutz, Stéphane Lemelin, Judy Kehler Siebert and Garth Beckett. Intensive studies with Dalton Baldwin and Rena Sharon were influential in her training as a vocal coach. 

Valerie’s collaborative endeavours include the Air, Strings and Keys trio with thereminist Thorwald Jørgensen and violinist Marc Djokic.  In 2020, Valerie created the online live interview series Well-Tempered Bernadette: A Piano’s Tale of 5 Cities, where she hosted guests such as Joyce El-Khoury, Julie Nesrallah, David Stewart and Paule Préfontaine, and for which she received a Canada Council for the Arts grant. Valerie and her piano Bernadette are currently living in Ottawa.

Guest lecturer
https://vinceho.com

Dr. Vincent Ho

Multi award winning composer

Vincent Ho is a multi-award winning composer of orchestral, chamber, vocal, and theatre music. His works have been described as “brilliant and compelling” by The New York Times and hailed for their profound expressiveness and textural beauty, leaving audiences talking about them with great enthusiasm. His many awards and recognitions have included three Juno Award nominations, Harvard University’s Fromm Music Commission, The Canada Council for the Arts’ “Robert Fleming Prize”, ASCAP’s “Morton Gould Young Composer Award”, four SOCAN Young Composers Awards, and CBC Radio’s Audience Choice Award (2009 Young Composers’ Competition).

During the period of 2007-2014, Dr. Ho has served as the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s composer-in-residence and had presented a number of large-scale works that have generated much excitement and critical praise. His Arctic Symphony has been described “as a beautiful work that evokes the Far North in a very special way” (John Corigliano), and “a mature and atmospheric work that firmly establishes Ho among North American composers of note” (Winnipeg Free Press). His percussion concerto, titled The Shaman, composed for Dame Evelyn Glennie was hailed as a triumph, receiving unanimous acclaim and declared by critics as “Spectacular” (The New York Classical Review), “A powerhouse work” (The Winnipeg Free Press), and “Rocking/mesmerizing…downright gorgeous” (The Pittsburgh Gazette). His second concerto for Glennie titled From Darkness To Light, Ho’s musical response to the cancer illness, was  lauded as “a lasting masterpiece of sensitivity and perception” (Winnipeg Free Press).  His cello concerto, City Suite, composed for Canadian cellist Shauna Rolston, has received similar praise with critics calling it “Thrilling” (Windsor Star) and “Overflowing with striking ideas…The most successful piece heard at this year’s Festival” (Classical Voice America).

Born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1975, Vincent Ho began his musical training through Canada’s Royal Conservatory of Music where he earned his Associate Diploma in Piano Performance. He gained his Bachelor of Music from the University of Calgary, his Master of Music from the University of Toronto, and his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California. His mentors have included Allan Bell, David Eagle, Christos Hatzis, Walter Buczynski, and Stephen Hartke. In 1997, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Schola Cantorum Summer Composition Program in Paris, where he received further training in analysis, composition, counterpoint, and harmony, supervised by David Diamond, Philip Lasser, and Narcis Bonet.

In his free time, he enjoys running, reading, traveling, dancing, hiking, playing chess, and learning the keyboard works of Bach, Beethoven, Ravel, and Ligeti (among many others). He is also an enthusiast of old-time radio shows, photography, crime noir, Zen art, jazz, Jimi Hendrix, graphic novels, and Stanley Kubrick films.

Dr. Ho has taught at the University of Calgary and currently serves as Artistic Director to Land’s End Ensemble and New Music Advisor to the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. His works are published and managed by Promethean Editions Ltd and Peters Edition.


Dr. Matthew Emery

Choral & Vocal Writing

Dr. Matthew Emery is a Canadian composer who “writes with an honesty which enchants” (Vancouver Sun), and whose music is “profoundly beautiful and moving” (CBC Music).  His music has been performed in twenty-eight countries, and recent performance venues include the Great Wall of China, the White House and the Musikverein. Matthew has received over forty commissions and his music has been performed by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Elmer Iseler Singers, National Youth Orchestra of Canada, National Youth Choir of Canada, European Union Youth Orchestra, Orchestra London, the Art of Time Ensemble, Rolston String Quartet, Dennis Wick Canadian Wind Orchestra, Erin Wall, Susan Platts, Rena Sharon, Simone Osborne, Leslie Fagan, Tracy Dahl, and the Bach Music Festival of Canada Orchestra.


Dr. Emery studied at the University of British Columbia (B.Mus) and the University of Toronto (M.Mus, DMA). Matthew has received over thirty awards and prizes for his compositions and his work has been included on nineteen albums, including a Juno nominated disc. His over sixty publications are published by G. Schirmer, Boosey & Hawkes, Hal Leonard and many others. Dr. Emery currently teaches at Carleton University, and the University of Toronto. 

Dr. Bekah Simms

Electroacoustic composer
Juno-nominated

Composer Bekah Simms hails from St. John's, Newfoundland and is currently based in Glasgow after nine years living and working in Toronto. Her varied musical output has been heralded as “cacophonous, jarring, oppressive — and totally engrossing!” (CBC Music), “visceral contemporary music that enfolds external inspirations with dazzling rigor and logic” (Peter Margasak), and lauded for its "sheer range of ingenious material, expressive range and sonic complexity" (The Journal of Music.) Propelled equally by fascination and terror toward the universe, her work is often filtered through the personal lens of her anxiety, resulting in nervous, messy, and frequently heavy electroacoustic musical landscapes. Recent interests in just intonation and virtual instruments have resulted in increasingly lush and strange harmonic environments.


Bekah's music has been widely performed across North America and Europe. She has worked with some of the top interpreters of contemporary music internationally, including Crash Ensemble - with whom she is currently an artist-in-residence - Riot Ensemble, Eighth Blackbird, and l’Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal. Bekah has also been the recipient of over 35 awards, competitive selections, nominations, and prizes, including the 2019 Barlow Prize. The resulting work, "metamold," was nominated for the 2022 Gaudeamus Award. Works from her debut album “impurity chains” were nominated in both 2019 and 2020 for the JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year. Her music has thrice been included in the Canadian Section's official submission to World Music Days (2016, 2019, & 2021), and in 2016 the CBC included her among their annual 30 hot classical musicians under 30.


Bekah is a Lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, following previous academic positions at the University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario. She holds a D.M.A. and M.Mus in music composition from the University of Toronto, and a B.Mus.Ed. and B.Mus in theory/composition from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Her principal teachers during academic studies were Gary Kulesha and Andrew Staniland, alongside significant private study with Clara Iannotta and Martin Bédard.

Mentor

Dr. Daniel Mehdizadeh

Composer-in-ResidenceDoctor of Musical Arts,  University of Toronto

Harmony | Counterpoint | Composition | Orchestration


There is something vividly distinct about Mehdizadeh's music. This Canadian composer is revered for his intricate, unpredictable and haunting works. The sound and gesture of his pieces bury themselves deep in complex imagination, participating you in an exploration of uncertain visceral implications. His unique musical language is perceived as complex yet engaging, bringing together a hybrid of musical expression including contrapuntal textures and the Mehdizadeh Modes.


Dr. Daniel Mehdizadeh (DMA, University of Toronto) is currently based in the Greater Toronto Area and has served as Composer-in-Residence for the Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra for three consecutive seasons (2020-23). He has been involved in both national and international festival series. He is regularly commissioned and holds numerous performances in Europe and North America. His works have had global exposure and have been broadcasted across Canada and the US including guest appearances on CBC and Classical Jukebox Radio. 


To read more, visit https://www.danielmehdizadeh.com

Ronald Royer

Composer & Music DirectorScarborough Philharmonic Orchestra

With numerous performances, commissions and commercial recordings, Ronald Royer is a prominent Canadian composer who strives to connect with audiences.  Justin O’Dell of The Clarinet magazine writes: “Ronald Royer’s music is beautifully appealing and communicative”, while Stanley Fefferman of Showtimemagazine.ca contributes, “These masterful and witty pieces live up to Royer’s reputation for music that is both entertaining and imaginative.”

His concert music has been performed by more than 70 orchestras, including the international iPalpiti Orchestra in Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles, USA), Sinfonia Finlandia (Finland), Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic), Athens La Camerata (Greece), Joensuu City Orchestra (Finland), and Members of the Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra (Germany). Canadian performances have included the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Victoria Symphony, Hamilton Philharmonic, Orchestra London, Niagara Symphony, Thunder Bay Symphony and Symphony New Brunswick. The Ontario Festival Symphony Orchestra performed his composition Exuberance on tour in China (available on YouTube). He has served as the composer-in-residence for Sinfonia Toronto, Mississauga Symphony (supported by the Canada Council for the Arts), Toronto Sinfonietta, Scarborough Philharmonic and the Brantford Symphony. 

His music has been performed by such notables as French flute soloist and conductor, Patrick Gallois, Hungarian viola soloist and former Principal Violist of the Berlin Philharmonic Máté Szűcs, Canadian cellist Shauna Rolston, as well as ensembles such as the Gryphon Trio, St. Lawrence Quartet, and The Elmer Iseler Singers.

Mr. Royer has worked in film and theatre, and this includes (with co-composer Kevin Lau) the score for Gooby, starring Robbie Coltrane and Eugene Levy. He composed music for the theatrical production (and commercial recording) of The Storyteller’s Bag. He was commissioned to write a work for Canada Day celebrations at Niagara Falls. His work, Water and Light for live orchestra with fireworks was heard on July 1, 2006 by over 20,000 people.

Mr. Royer’s music is featured on 14 commercial recordings, with 6 on the Cambria Master Recordings label (distributed by Naxos). He has consistently received positive and enthusiastic reviews for his music. Performers on recordings include the Los Angeles Studio Orchestra (Jorge Mester, conductor), Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, (Tomas Koutnik), iPalpiti Orchestra (Eduard Schmieder), Sinfonia Toronto (Ronald Royer), 13 Strings of Ottawa (Simon Streatfeild), Toronto Sinfonietta (Matthew Jaskiewicz), HornPipes Duo, Chamber Music Society of Mississauga, Triofus, flutists Louise DiTullio and Nora Shulman, oboist Sarah Jeffrey, clarinets Tibi Cziger, Kaye Royer and Jerome Summers, violinists Conrad Chow and Aaron Schwebel, cellists Coenraad Bloemendal, Yves Dharamraj and Simon Fryer, trumpeters Brunette Dillon, Barton Woomert and Steven Woomert, hornist Gabriel Radford, and pianists Aaron Dou, Rachel Kerr and Lydia Wong. His commercial recordings and live performance recordings are regularly heard on radio, including the CBC and The New Classical FM in Canada and a number of NPR stations in the USA.

Born in Los Angeles into a family of professional musicians, he began his career as a cellist, performing with such ensembles as the Toronto Symphony, Utah Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, as well as working in the Motion Picture and Television Industry in Los Angeles during the 1980’s. Having been inspired by working with a number of concert and film composers, Mr. Royer began serious studies in composition in the 1990’s, receiving a master’s degree in composition from the University of Toronto in 1997. His principal composition teachers were Alexander Rapoport, Walter Buczynski and Lothar Klein. Mr. Royer has received commissioning grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Toronto Arts Council, the Laidlaw Foundation and more. He is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

In addition to composing, Mr. Royer is presently serving as the music director and conductor of the Scarborough Philharmonic and has guest conducted a number of orchestras. For 21 years, he worked as an Instructor of Music for the University of Toronto Schools. He continues to teach private lessons and be an advocate for music education. Mr. Royer is married to clarinetist Kaye Royer and has composed several works for her.