What's Inside Musicworks 152? ON THE COVER Lisa Conway Lisa Conway's music bridges sound installation, improvisation, experimental composition, and song. In conversation with Sara Constant, Conway traces her creative journey across the genre and disciplinary lines of Canada's experimental music scene. She studied[...] Read more

Featured Article STAFF Issue 152

Anthony Pateras: Sonic Phenomena in Real Time The music of Anthony Pateras covers vast expanses of composition and improvisation, of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, and combinations of these. He is also a virtuosic pianist. Between 2012 and 2019 he created Immediata, an ambitious series of fifteen albums, self-released[...] Read more

Featured Article René van Peer Issue 136

Leah Reid’s Jouer U.S. composer Leah Reid’s composition Jouer won the Marcelle Deschênes Prize in Electronic Music / Prix Marcelle Deschênes pour la musique électronique in the 2024 Musicworks Electronic Music Composition (EMC) Contest. This donor-supported annual prize awards $300 to[...] Read more

Featured Article STAFF

Sonic City We presume hush because business has yet to come. People stand, the movement of feet inaudible Over the creeping perception of noise An indistinguishable hum pervading the acoustic Of suitcases’ wheels Clitter-clattering across cobbled stones Some[...] Read more

Sonic Geography Imogene Newland Issue 124

Bekah Simms’ Music of Discomfort Bekah Simms likes music that challenges. “I don't want to ever get too comfortable,” she tells me, as we sit down to talk about her work. “I don’t want it ever to be super easy to write a piece, because I feel like then I won’t be a better composer when I[...] Read more

Sound Bite Sara Constant Issue 128

Camino De Santiago De Compostela FULL-TEXT AVAILABLE IN PRINT EDITION ONLY   In the spring of 2010 we undertook a walk to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain, a pilgrimage site since the Middle Ages. It’s the traditional burial site of Santiago, or St. James, one of Christ’s apostles who[...] Read more

Sonic Geography Stuart and Cherie Broomer Issue 109

Bug Incision: Calgary’s Cross-Pollination Buzz The world of free improvisation is like a parallel universe, a global underground community of nonidiomatic soundmakers, recording with each other in every imaginable permutation, connected via a proliferation of text- and link-heavy Web 1.0 sites, DIY venues, and CD-R labels, with a[...] Read more

Sound Bite Daniel Glassman Issue 131

New Age Doom Steps Forward The day of my interview with the Vancouver experimental-metal duo New Age Doom began with the heart-sinking news that legendary dub artist Lee “Scratch” Perry had passed away. After making my way through the winding side streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, I arrived[...] Read more

Featured Article Jesse Locke Issue 141

What's Inside Musicworks 138? The final issue of 2020 is is dedicated to the art of conversation . . . in music and about music. Unable to practice, perform, or listen to music together in person in a room, music friends have been meeting each other in other kinds of venues—including the pages of Musicworks—to[...] Read more

Featured Article Issue 138

Anoush Moazzeni Weaves a New Narrative In Anoush Moazzeni’s The drops of the rain become one with me, small mechanisms move inside and above an open grand piano. Wooden structures glide across the piano strings of their own accord, hammering and pressing the instrument with mallets, while microphones pick up sounds that are[...] Read more

Featured Article Sara Constant Issue 138

Nicole Lizée I asked Nicole Lizée, newly commissioned to compose a work to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of John Cage’s birth, if she has ever before composed with that iconic artist in mind. How could she not? She is, after all, known for her nonstandard use of instruments, prepared[...] Read more

In the Works Gloria Lipski Issue 112