Welcoming Lauren McCall to Music

by | Sep 23, 2024 | Faculty, Research, School of Music

The School of Music is thrilled to welcome Dr. Lauren McCall as assistant research professor in composition and music technology. Dr. McCall will join our school on Jan. 1, 2025.

A composer and music educator from Atlanta, Georgia, McCall received her PhD in Music Technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology and her MFA in Music Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her compositions have been performed around North America and Europe, including her piece for chamber ensemble and mobile phone orchestra, Contour Unveiled, and her composition Rain Musicfor baritone and piano. Along with composing, McCall plays classical music and jazz on woodwind instruments and piano.

With specializations in music and computer science education platforms, extended reality interactive systems for music, as well as graphic and digital music notation, McCall will bring exciting new and creative energy to the School, with the skills to make pedagogical and research contributions across disciplines. “Dr. McCall will enrich our programming with her creative compositional work, her research in virtual and augmented reality, her inclusive approaches to pedagogy, as well as her commitment to making music technology more accessible,” says UVic Music Director Alexis Luko. “Lauren is an exciting addition to our faculty.”

McCall is looking forward to working with students in UVic’s community and fostering new collaborative relationships with colleagues. With her diverse background, she hopes to help “spur on new forms of creativity within each discipline for the students and UVic’s program.” In her practice and teachings of how these different areas connect in interesting ways, McCall strives to “encourage exploration of the research, methods, and interconnectivity between these areas and how we can continue growing in knowledge and creativity with them.”

Current projects include a short opera with collaborator, Catherine Yu. The opera adapts Cate’s play Lizard for a variety of formats, from two vocalists and one pianist to two vocalists and a small chamber ensemble, so that it can be promoted to opera organizations with varying instrumentations.

We look forward to welcoming Dr. McCall in 2025!

Estate gift highlights All-Steinway anniversary

by | Sep 12, 2024 | Award, donor, Graduate, School of Music, Undergraduate

Minsoo Sohn giving a masterclass at the School of Music (Beth Bingham photo)

Fifteen years ago, the School of Music was named Canada’s first All-Steinway School and, while there are now over 200 All-Steinway schools globally, UVic is still the only one in Canada — a significant designation currently being celebrated with both a new $300,000 estate gift and a signature concert series.

“Steinways are recognized worldwide for their excellence and are by far the most preferred concert piano in the world,” says piano professor Arthur Rowe.

But keeping 63 pianos ready for daily student use also requires constant tuning and repairs, which makes the new Martha Cooke Fund so important. Named for the late Public Archives Canada curator, Cooke’s legacy earmarks $200,000 for essential piano maintenance. “These pianos are now 15 years old, so this gift comes to us at a critical time,” says Rowe. “Maintaining our excellent instruments is crucial, so these funds will help ensure the longevity and excellence of our Steinways.”

The Martha Cooke Fund also sets aside a further $100,000 for at least three years of annual concerts and masterclasses with internationally renowned Korean-American pianist Minsoo Sohn, who performed at UVic in both fall 2023 and spring 2024, and offered masterclasses with our students.  

Known for his musical intelligence and masterful virtuosity — qualities that have earned him worldwide acclaim — Sohn’s readings of the works of Rachmaninoff, Bach and Beethoven have placed him among the elite in this repertoire, and the inspired ingenuity of his performances of orchestral repertoire have earned him many accolades.

As the winner of many prestigious competitions and a teacher of renowned pianists himself, Sohn’s concerts and masterclasses demonstrate his own pursuit of musical excellence for the benefit of UVic students. This continues to be an extraordinary partnership that transports audiences to a realm of emotion, virtuosity and musical brilliance.

Minsoo Sohn returns to UVic with a public performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on Oct 7, followed by his latest masterclass on Oct 8. 

“solastalgia” exhibit closing panel talk

by | Sep 5, 2024 | Award, climate, Events, Graduate, School of Music, Writing

Don’t miss the closing night panel talk for solastalgia [soon to be what once was] — the new exhibit by current School of Music Master’s student in music technology & Ocean Networks Canada artist-in-residence Megan Harton. This event will feature fascinating insights and lively discussion from artists and experts in melding art with science, and environmental activism.

Join us at 7pm Friday, Sept 6, in room 103 of the Fine Arts building, with a guided tour of the exhibit to follow. Panelists include Megan Harton (2024 ONC Artist in Residence), Neil Griffin (2023 ONC Artist in Residence), Pieter Romer (Filmmaker & ONC Indigenous Community Liaison) and Dwight Owens (ONC Associate Director of Learning and Community Engagement).

This exhibit explores the emotional response to environmental change using soundscapes, experimental photography, and video elements alongside nostalgic retro iconography to evoke a sense of “solastalgia”—distress caused by the disruption of familiar environments. By integrating scientific data from ONC’s observatories with artistic mediums, Harton’s work invites visitors to reflect on the impact of climate change, memory and place.

A passionate composer, audio engineer and sound artist, Harton is the fifth artist-in-residence in this continuing partnership between ONC and the Faculty of Fine Arts. “My artistic practice is primarily about using sound technologies in artistic ways,” Harton explains.

For his part, Griffin will share writings developed during his time as ONC’s 2023 artist-in-residence, exploring the mystery of “whale falls” — what happens after whales die, which still remains something of a biological mystery.

“Imagine you build a new apartment building and various people live there as it ages and eventually falls apart,” Griffin says. “That’s what happens with a whale carcass: various scavengers and decomposers move in and out . . . there are even worms that take hundreds of years to burrow single-mindedly through a thick whale vertebrae to get to the marrow inside.”

A graduate student partnership between Fine Arts and ONC, previous artists-in-residence include Neil Griffin (Writing, 2023), Colin Malloy (School of Music, 2022), Dennis Gupa (Theatre, 2020) and Colton Hash (Visual Arts, 2018). 

The call for 2025’s Ocean Networks Canada Artist-in-Residence will be released this fall. 

SALT celebrates 10th festival

by | Sep 4, 2024 | Alumni, climate, Events, Faculty, indigenous, School of Music

SALT co-founder & School of Music professor Ajtony Csaba

The tenth SALT New Music Festival, founded in 2011 and organized by the Tsilumos Ensemble in collaboration with UVic’s School of Music, returns to Victoria for the first time live since 2019 with a compelling program featuring diverse and thought-provoking music from the 20th and 21st centuries—including concerts drawing attention to pressing global challenges, including social inequality and climate change.

“Like salt is essential to your food, the SALT Festival brings musical excitement to the Victoria audience,” says Ajtony Csaba, managing co-director of the SALT Festival and a School of Music professor of conducting. “This is a celebration of diverse new music performed by outstanding Canadian musicians, including premieres by contemporary composers and works by seminal ones.”

Beyond the traditional concert venue of UVic’s Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, SALT also offers the local premiere of the unique, immersive, under-the-stars performance of Stockhausen’s “Sternklang” in the serene setting of Finnerty Gardens.

The festival is thrilled to present fantastic performers with an array of exciting instrumental music by living Canadian composers and the seminal composer Stockhausen (called the “Beethoven of the 20th century”). In collaboration with UVic, the events take place in the breathtaking Finnerty Gardens and the exquisitely sounding Philip T. Young Recital Hall.

All concerts are free, with donations appreciated, but online booking is required at www.tsilumos.org/salt2024.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 I 7:30pm
Earth Sounds
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall

The first night features the premiere of David A. Jaffe’s “Northwest Passages”, a mesmerizing musical soundscape reflecting the grandeur and fragility of our ecosystem, with the SALT Festival Orchestra.  A champion for music of our time, the Emily Carr String Quartet will present commissioned compositions by Canadian composers Jocelyn Morlock and Tobin Stokes, also a School of Music alumnus, including a vocal performance by soprano and UVic Music professor Marion Newman.

Emily Carr String Quartet

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 I 7:30pm
Diverse Sounds
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall

Tsilumos Ensemble and guests showcase diversity through remarkable contemporary solo and chamber works, featuring the premieres of two pieces by Canadian composers. School of Music alumna Aliayta Foon-Dancoes returns with a commissioned composition for instruments and digital media.

Canadian composers Peter Hatch and artist Matthew Talbot-Kelly present an audiovisual collaborative composition reflecting on our environment through a novel lens, and School of Music professor emeritus Andrew Schloss and clarinetist François Houle bring an improvisational electroacoustic duo for electronics and clarinet to stage.

Aliayta Foon-Dancoes

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 I 5:30pm
Star Sound
UVic Finnerty Gardens

In a nighttime park, groups of musicians perform under the open sky, each at a distance from the others, drawing their music from the varying positions of the stars. This concept was envisioned by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in his seminal work, “Sternklang” and the SALT Festival Orchestra introduces this immersive experience to Victoria for the first time.

Music flows throughout the entire garden as “sound couriers” and “light bearers” carry the sounds from one location to another. The nature- and stargazing-audience is invited to inhabit this multidimensional space, whether by walking among the groups or sitting down to the lawn.

Karlheinz Stockenhausen

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 I 7:30pm
Sounds of the Zodiac
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall

Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Tierkreis: 12 Melodien der Sternzeichen” meets four young Canadian composers who re-envision the seasons, climate change, astrology, and even Stockhausen himself through a uniquely 21st-century lens. Performed by British Columbian Duo Inquietum (Liam Hockley, clarinets, Mark Takeshi McGregor, flutes).

Duo Inquietum

The SALT New Music Festival closes with a unique workshop focused on narratives in music inspired by indigenous knowledge. Active composer and musician participants will engage in dialogue with invited storytellers and artistic knowledge keepers, initiating concepts for new works. Please join us for this at 5pm Friday, Sept 20 at the UVic School of Music. 

More info and free tickets: www.tsilumos.org/salt2024

Externally funded research (select)

by | Aug 12, 2024 | Art History & Visual Studies, Award, Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing

Heather Igloliorte (centre) speaking as part of the Distinguished Women Scholars event at Legacy Gallery’s 2024 exhibit, Latent (Beth Bingham photo)

Each year, Fine Arts faculty members receive external funding for their ongoing creative and scholarly projects. This is a current selection of grants awarded to faculty in 2023/24 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council and others.

 

  • Cedric Bomford (Visual Arts) received support from Canada Council’s Arts Abroad program.
  • Taylor Brook (Music/PEA) received funding from Harvard’s FROMM Foundation to support new work for piano and electronics. 
  • Ajtony Csaba (Music) received two Canada Council grants, a BC Arts Council grant (for the SALT New Music Festival) and funding from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. 
  • Sean Holman (Writing) received a SSHRC Connection grant for the fall 2024 Climate Disaster Project verbatim theatre project, Eyes of the Beast.
  • Heather Igloliorte (Visual Arts) received SSHRC support as the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Decolonization & Transformational Artistic Practice.
  • Sasha Kovacs (Theatre) received a SSHRC Partnership Grant as co-director of Gatherings: Archival & Oral Histories of Performance, with Dean Allana Lindgren as co-investigator.
  • Mark Leiren-Young (Writing) received a BC Arts Council Creative Writing grant. 
  • Kathryn Mockler (Writing) received a BC Arts Council Creative Writing grant. 
  • Kirsten Sadeghi-Yekta (Theatre) received a SSHRC Insight grant to support the five-year project Staging Our Voices: Strengthening Indigenous languages through theatre.
  • Suzanne Snizek (Music) received a SSHRC Partnership Grant for her work supporting Visual Storytelling & Graphic Art in Genocide & Human Rights Education.
  • Jennifer Stillwell (Visual Arts) received a UVic Research/Creative Project Grant and a SSHRC Explore Grant.
  • Anthony Tan (Music) received a UVic Research/Creative Project Grant and a SSHRC Explore Grant.
  • Paul Walde (Visual Arts) received support from the Canada Council’s Arts Abroad program. 

Snapshot of a year

by | Jul 19, 2024 | Alumni, Art History & Visual Studies, climate, donor, Faculty, Graduate, indigenous, News, Research, School of Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing

We’re excited to share with you the latest edition of the Faculty of Fine Arts Annual Review. While it’s always difficult to encapsulate an entire year’s worth of activity into a single 36-page magazine, we do enjoy the creative challenge of sharing our top stories with you!

“This past year, colleagues continued to reconceptualize the contours of arts education, creative expression and scholarly knowledge,” writes Dr. Allana Lindgren in her introduction. “The arts continue to be essential for cultivating dexterity through creative thinking and fostering the empathy needed to navigate our increasingly complex world.”

Dean Lindgren also notes the ongoing inspiration Fine Arts students provide. “Their commitment to creativity continues to inspire me and gives me confidence that the next generation of arts leaders has the temerity to transform life’s challenges into opportunities for intellectual reflection and artistic innovation.”

Inside, you’ll find a variety of stories about the recent activity of our faculty, students, staff, donors and community partners.

Education equates with action here in Fine Arts: we are committed to helping our students cultivate the skills needed to become innovative artists and engaged leaders.

Our curriculum, artistic practices, research and creative activities are rooted in our belief in the power of creativity, experimentation and the efficacy of the arts to help us to understand and address today’s most urgent and vexing issues.

If you missed a previous Annual Review, issues dating back to 2017 are archived here.