| “I was delighted to again travel to World New Music Days as the Canadian Delegate, this time taking place in Bucharest, Romania. This included attending the four General Assemblies of the International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM) and voting on behalf of our membership. I was also thrilled to attend an abundance of excellent concerts and reflect on the vitality of our artform and the strength of Canada’s contributions to it. The biggest news to report is the successful bid by Le Vivier to host World New Music Days (WNMD) 2029 in Montreal, supported by the Canadian Section. This was unanimously voted in at the third General Assembly (GA), which also saw a successful bid for the 2027 WNMD to take place in Lithuania. The Canadian Section was also invited to present on its selection process for its call-for-works, recognised by the ISCM Executive Committee as a successful model for reflecting the diverse practices and practitioners of composition and sonic art happening in Canada today. I was able to attend 3 of the 4 concerts featuring Canadian works at the festival, which included the chosen piece from our official Section, Anna Pidgorna’s well-received The Stockhausen Menagerie for flute and clarinet. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the performance of Zosha Di Castri’s Sprung Testament for flute (or violin) and piano, the selected work from Le Vivier’s submission. Of the 11 individual submissions programmed by ISCM Romania (from 165 submissions,) 2 were by Canadian composers: James Lowrie’s On Endless Hold for string quartet and Heather Hindman’s Seule for solo flute. Both performances were fantastic. This year’s host country chose to programme a maximum of one work per official section, so the 2 Canadian works included in the individual submissions meant that Canada was one of the most well-represented nations at the festival. I left feeling that there is a clear pattern emerging at World New Music Days: Canadian music is worth hearing – and worth programming – on the international stage.“ Bekah Simms, President, ISCM Canadian Section |
