Acadia New Music Society
MANDATE
The Acadia New Music Society is a non-profit organization with a mandate to foster the promotion and presentation of new and experimental types of concert music in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia. Shattering the Silence is a multi day music festival that focuses on contemporary concert music. The aim is to highlight talents of established and emerging composers alongside showcase concerts by faculty, student ensembles and visiting artists. We strive to be as inclusive as possible.
For more information please contact the co-directors:
Derek Charke (902) 585-1270
Mark Hopkins (902) 585-1244
GOALS / ARTISTIC OBJECTIVES
The Acadia New Music Society and “Shattering the Silence” exists to promote new music to the public. As with the pop-music world, concert music composers pour themselves into their works, usually in response to artistic encounters and life experiences. Yet, for a variety of reasons, it is relatively rare for the average person to hear their music performed in the world today. We present “Shattering the Silence” as a music festival designed to give voice to the music of living composers, while concurrently celebrating the creation and performance of concert music by students at Acadia University, regional maritime composers and nationally renowned composers. In the future we would like to expand into presenting concerts throughout the year.
STRUCTURE
Acadia New Music Society
Type of Incorporation: Non-Profit Society incorporated September 29, 2008
Directors: Derek Charke & Mark Hopkins
Officers: Pauline Dong, Jeff Hennessy, Sally Hopkins
Employees: None
GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION
Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia
BRIEF HISTORY
“Shattering the Silence” New Music Festival was established in the Fall of 2006 by Derek Charke and Mark Hopkins. The Acadia New Music Society was formed in 2008.
For our most recent festival, held January 20-24, 2010, we presented a series of 7 concerts with outstanding performers drawn from the Maritime region and across the country. We presented an unprecedented 19 world premieres of original works by Maritime composers including three world premieres (funded through Nova Scotia Tourism, Culture and Heritage) by Dalhousie music professor Jérôme Blais, Derek Charke and Peter Togni. Toronto Soprano Zorana Sadiq was our featured guest artist as we showcased the voice. The Canadian Music Centre, New Music in New Places funded an event at Grand-Pré Historical Site. Acadia's Singing Theatre Production Ensemble presented the Canadian Premiere of David Lang's Pulitzer Prize winning work, Little Match Girl Passion, staged for the first time. We also partnered with the Acadia Performing Arts Series in presenting the Tom Regan concert. We had the premiere performance by our Nothin’ but Gnarly Ensemble, comprised of top musicians in the region.
Our first festival was February 9-11, 2007 we included 12 world premiere performances. Our second festival was January 24-27, 2008. We presented two professional new music ensembles; Sanctuary Ensemble from Halifax, and Motion Ensemble from New Brunswick. Our resident composer was Rodney Sharman from Vancouver. We invited five student composers from across the Maritimes to write music for the silent film. Our third festival was January 28-Feb.1, 2009. We expanded to 6 concerts including a CMC New Music in New Places event, a percussion concert, a Gala concert, a student composer concert, a faculty concert and a concert featuring both faculty and ensembles. There were 2 lecture presentations by Jeff Hennessy and Russell Hartenberger, 2 composer master classes, a percussion master class with Dr. Hartenberger and a film on Elliott Carter. CBC recorded the Gala concert for a Signal broadcast and for streaming in the CBC Concerts on Demand website. for STS 2009 we received more press including a write up from the Chronicle Herald. Audience turn out was remarkable with an average attendance of 100 people.
The role of our organization within our community, and the impact of the festival on the music milieu and audience is unique. There is no other new music society in the region. We feel that our mandate and festival is critical in connecting established professional musicians with emerging voices, the great composers and performers of the future.
