G20 “Down with capitalism, up with socialism!” This distorted-megaphone message is heard against a backdrop of African drumming, French resistance songs, and the constant whirr of helicopters overhead. The rally organizers direct the crowd, “Please walk slowly and peacefully[...] Read more

Sonic Geography Micheline Roi Issue 108

Joan Tan Jing Wen’s Study of Fragile Objects #1 Singaporean composer Joan Tan Jing Wen’s Study of Fragile Objects #1 was awarded third place in the 2024 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest.   Hit the PLAY button above to listen.    Tan Jing Wen shared notes with Musicworks about how[...] Read more

Featured Article STAFF

Emilie LeBel’s Field Notes For many composers, a work in progress comes with strings attached—no pun intended. There are arts councils and concert presenters to satisfy, musicians to liaise with, premiere dates that draw ever closer. Deadlines, of course, can get the juices flowing, and creative constraints ([...] Read more

In the Works Jennie Punter Issue 120

Manuella Blackburn’s Home Truths U.K. composer Manuella Blackburn’s composition Home Truths won the Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music in the 2023 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition (EMC) Contest. This donor-supported annual prize awards $300 to a self-identified female or non-binary composer with[...] Read more

Featured Article

Meet the Winners of the 2023 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition Contest TORONTO, CANADA, April 22, 2024:   San Francisco-based composer Ningxin Zhang has won first prize for her composition Kagemusha: for Pipa and Electronics.   “I am deeply honoured to have received the first prize in the 2023 Musicworks Electronic Music[...] Read more

Featured Article

The Retro Aesthetic of Le Révélateur THE OCEAN RECEDES INTO THE DISTANCE, awash in thick bands of golden-purple sunset hues. Its surface ripples in loose synchronization with a burbling synthesizer score. Suddenly, a shimmering plane materializes and obliquely bisects the scene; the plane spins and the textures of the two[...] Read more

Visions of sound Greg J. Smith Issue 123

Joëlle Léandre For Joëlle Léandre it all begins and ends with the double bass. After playing the often unwieldy bull fiddle from the age of nine and carefully studying its intricacies, she creates with it sounds so personal that defining them as free music, new music. or anything else, is[...] Read more

Profile Ken Waxman Issue 105

Tanya Tagaq Grabs The World By The Throat Watching Tanya Tagaq perform is more than just an auditory and visual experience: it’s physical. As the Nunavut-born, Manitoba-based throat singer moves around a stage, she unleashes something fierce and powerful that comes from deep within her body, yet seems positively unearthly. She[...] Read more

Featured Article Mary Dickie Issue 118

Erin Gee Sings the Body Electronic     SHOULD YOU EVER FIND YOURSELF IN A CONFINED SPACE WITH ERIN GEE, PREPARE TO BE ENTERTAINED, AND PERHAPS ALSO PUZZLED—AT LEAST BRIEFLY.   “If someone meets me in an elevator,” she tells Musicworks in a telephone interview[...] Read more

Visions of sound Alexander Varty Issue 126

Margaret Noble's Safer Is Better   With an underground club DJ’s flair for performance and a conceptual artist’s commitment to the rigorous investigation of ideas, San Diego interdisciplinary artist Margaret Noble explores in her sound work Frakture the resonance in contemporary society of George[...] Read more

Sound Bite Jennie Punter Issue 118

Giulia Regini's NeOnSound Italian composer Giulia Regini’s NeOnSound is the winner of the 2021 Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music, as selected by the jury of Musicworks’ 2021 Electronic Music Composition Contest. “NeOnSound is an audiovisual composition inspired by Dan Flavin's[...] Read more

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