Standing Wave Bio
Made up of six of Vancouver’s most sought-after musical multitaskers, Standing Wave is dedicated to commissioning and performing contemporary chamber music by Canadian and International composers.
Standing Wave ventures into a wide array of musical worlds with passion and assurance. From the intricate complexities of the music of Howard Bashaw and Chris Paul Harman, to the bold avant-garde jazz of Tony Wilson, and the anarchic electroacoustic imaginings of Giorgio Magnanensi, the ensemble has commissioned and premiered over 70 works in its 20 year history.
Since its formation in1991, the ensemble has presented an annual season of concerts in Vancouver and has toured across Canada. Standing Wave has been recorded many times for CBC Radio and has released two CDs, a self-titled recording released in 1991 and Redline, released in 2006. Since 2003, Standing Wave has been an Ensemble in Residence at the UBC School of Music.
Known for their adventurous programming, Standing Wave presents works by emerging Canadian composers alongside established 20th and 21st Century classics. Too Strange… , their October 2009 concert, featured the premieres of Theft, a new work commissioned from visionary Vancouver composer Jocelyn Morlock and Faserungen from Amsterdam’s famed improviser/ pianist/ composer Achim Kaufmann together with the haunting George Crumb classic, Vox Balaenae and Salvatore Sciarrino’s other-worldly Lo Spazio Inverso.
True collaboration with composers and artists from other disciplines is key for Standing Wave. The ensemble’s Creator/Curator concerts have allowed for a new level of composer/musician interaction. The first concert in the Creator/Curator series took place in the spring of 2005. Standing Wave presented a programme that was entirely developed and curated by Vancouver composer Bradshaw Pack. Palimpsest was a multimedia hit with both audiences and critics alike. Pack created a full-length piece based around an aria from Monteverdi’s, Orpheo, intertwined with his own newly composed work and “curated” work by Bach, Cage and Webern.
ALL is another of Standing Wave’s collaborative highlights, premiered in May 2010. ALL, a musical and visual tribute to Vancouver, created by Standing Wave, award-winning filmmaker Mina Shum, and a very diverse group of six Vancouver composers including Bramwell Tovey and Veda Hille. This moving piece combining music, cinema and theatre will be remounted for the 2011 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.
OUTREACH
Standing Wave has been an ensemble in residence at the University Of British Columbia School Of Music since 2004. Working with members of the Composition Faculty, we provide readings of student works, offering feedback and suggestions from our standpoint as a conductorless chamber ensemble, as well as open rehearsals and workshops on writing for our individual instruments. Ensemble members also perform for, teach, and give workshops and clinics for students at various other post secondary institutions in the Vancouver area, such as Capilano University and Vancouver Community College.
