The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) Canadian Section is pleased to announce the six works that will comprise our submission to the 2026 World New Music Days in Bucharest, Romania. The festival will take place from May 23 to May 31, 2026.
The selected works are:
Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth I: SKY (2023) for orchestra, by India Gailey
the sediments (2021, rev. 2024) for orchestra, by Emilie Cecilia LeBel
Gone For Eggs (2024) for multi-channel fixed media, by Philippe Macnab-Séguin
The Stockhausen Menagerie (2022), for flute and clarinet, by Anna Pidgorna
Breathing Room (2022) for alto flute and electronics, by Steven Webb
Like Water (2025) for medium ensemble, by Darren Xu
Selected from over sixty submissions from across Canada, these works span five out of the fourteen categories laid out by this year’s festival organisers. The pieces were chosen by a jury composed of Cris Derksen, Pierre Michaud, Rebecca Whitling, and William Kuo. The jury was chaired by Bekah Simms, President of the ISCM Canadian Section, and facilitated by August Murphy-King, General Manager of the Canadian League of Composers.
“The ISCM Canadian Section would like to thank the generous community of composers and sound artists working in Canada for submitting their works to our call. Our jury had tough decisions to make, but were overall thrilled with the abundance of great choices and the vibrancy of artistic practice evidenced in the submitted pieces. We’re proud to submit to Romania a set of dynamic, varied works of exceptional artistic calibre and look forward to sharing Romania’s programming in the new year.”
– Bekah Simms, President, ISCM Canadian Section
