It was a banner year for Canada at this year’s World New Music Days Festival! Hosted in Portugal from May 30 – June 7, a total of 11 works by composers with strong Canadian ties were presented – the most of any country other than the hosts! In addition to the two official Canadian Section works by Roxanne Turcotte and Chris Sivak, pieces by Alfredo Santa Ana, Claude Vivier, Emily Doolittle, Bekah Simms, Barry Truax, Gilles Gobeil, James Tenney, Jim O’Leary, and Dániel Péter Biró were also presented.
It was with great pride that I attended the World New Music Days 2025 acting as the First Delegate of the Canadian Section. Canada had a tremendous presence at the festival, remarked upon by the other delegates. The host country is only ever obligated to programme one work per Section, so it’s always complimentary to have more than one work selected. This year, a number of successful independent Canadian submissions combined with Miso Music Portugal’s decision to program Claude Vivier’s “Lonely Child” and James Tenney’s “Last Spring in Toronto” resulted in more presented works tied to Canada than to any other nation outside of the host country (who had a robust over-40!) I was also so pleased that the “Thirst for Change” colloquium featured Canadian icon Barry Truax as one of its keynote speakers, presenting on “Music, Soundscape and Acoustic Sustainability.”
WNMD Portugal also had a record number of presented composers in attendance, so I was fortunate enough to meet and speak with Roxanne, Chris, Alfredo, Emily, Barry, Gilles, and Jim in Porto and Lisbon after their successful performances. Our Canadian Section was well taken care of: Roxanne live-diffused “Masques et dichotomies” on Miso Music’s incredible loudspeaker orchestra, and Coro Juventus da Universidade de Lisboa choreographed a mesmerising performance of Chris Sivak’s “Alouette Meets Her Maker.”
The Canadian Section is so excited to have put forward these wonderful pieces and share the music of Canadian creators on the world stage. We hope this robust showing will inspire Canadian composers and sound artists to consider submitting their works to our call for World New Music Days 2026 in Romania.
-Bekah Simms, President, ISCM Canadian Section
