CMC Congratulates R. Murray Schafer

Canadian Music Centre Associate Composer
R. Murray Schafer honoured with
Governor General's Performing Arts Award

 

MARCH 2, 2009, TORONTO, ON – The Canadian Music Centre congratulates Associate Composer R. Murray Schafer on being a recipient of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award, Canada's most prestigious lifetime achievement award for the performing arts. 

 

Over the course of his career, Schafer has achieved an international reputation as a composer, an educator, environmentalist, scholar and visual artist. His compositions are performed by soloist and ensembles across the country and around the world making Schafer a true icon of Canadian contemporary music.

 

Schafer's honors include two Fromm Foundation prizes (1968, 1972), the Canadian Music Council Medal (1972), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1974), the William Harold Moon Award (1974), the Composer of the Year Award from the Canadian Music Council (1976), the Prix Jules-Léger pour la nouvelle musique de chambre (1977, for String Quartet No. 2, 'Waves'). He has also received the Prix Honegger (1980, for String Quartet No. 1), the Glenn Gould Prize for Music and Its Communication (1987), the Canada Council Molson Prize (1993), the Louis Applebaum Composer's Award (1999), and the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts from the Canada Council for the Arts (2005).

 

The Canadian Music Centre is proud to count R. Murray Schafer, one of Canada's most celebrated composers, among its Associates.

 

To learn more about R. Murray Schafer and his work, click here and check out the CMC Centrediscs recording and documentary in the Canadian Composer Portraits series.

 

The Canadian Music Centre (CMC) celebrates its 50^th Anniversary in 2009 and is the primary resource for musical works, parts, recordings and information on Canadian contemporary music and its creators.  Since 1959, the CMC has promoted the works of its Associate Composers through encouraging the performance and appreciation of Canadian music, and making its collection of more than 18,000 works available worldwide.  Centrediscs was created in 1981 as Canada's foremost label of Canadian contemporary concert music, recording the works of composers associated with the CMC.  Visit www.musiccentre.ca for more information.

 

Le Compositeur agréé du Centre de musique canadienne

R. Murray Schafer

reçoit le Prix du Gouverneur général pour les arts de la scène

 

LE 2 MARS 2009, TORONTO, ON – Le Centre de musique canadienne félicite le Compositeur agréé du CMC, R. Murray Schafer, qui a reçu le Prix du Gouverneur général des arts de la scène, la plus haute distinction accordée aux artistes canadiens de la scène.

Au cours de sa longue carrière, Schafer s'est acquis une réputation internationale comme compositeur, pédagogue, environnementaliste, chercheur et artiste visuel. Ses œuvres sont interprétées par des solistes et des ensembles de partout au pays et dans le monde, de sorte que Schafer est un véritable symbole de la musique canadienne contemporaine.

 

Parmi les distinctions décernées à R. Murray Schafer figurent deux prix de la Fondation Fromm (1968, 1972), la Médaille du Conseil canadien de la musique (1972), une bourse Guggenheim (1974), le Prix William Harold Moon (1974), le Prix du Compositeur de l'année du Conseil canadien de la musique (1976), le Prix Jules-Léger pour la nouvelle musique de chambre (1977, pour String Quartet No. 2, « Waves »). Il a également reçu le Prix Honegger (1980, pour String Quartet No. 1), le Prix Glenn-Gould pour contribution à la musique et à sa communication (1987), le Prix Molson du Conseil des Arts du Canada (1993) et le Prix Walter-Carsen d'excellence en arts de la scène décerné par le Conseil des Arts du Canada (2005).

 

Le Centre de musique canadienne est fier de compter R. Murray Schafer, l'un des compositeurs les plus réputés du Canada, au nombre de ses Compositeurs agréés.

 

Pour en savoir davantage sur R. Murray Schafer et sur son œuvre, cliquez ici et allez voir l'enregistrement et le documentaire parus chez Centredisques, l'étiquette du CMC, dans la série Portraits de compositeurs canadiens.

 

Le Centre de musique canadienne (CMC), qui célèbre en 2009 sont 50^e anniversaire, constitue la source la plus importante d'œuvres musicales, de matériel d'orchestre, d'enregistrements et d'information sur la musique canadienne contemporaine et ses créateurs. Depuis 1959, le CMC fait la promotion des œuvres de ses Compositeurs agréés en encourageant l'exécution et l'appréciation de la musique canadienne, et en mettant à la disposition du public partout dans le monde sa collection riche de plus de 18 000 œuvres. Centredisques, créée en 1981, l'étiquette canadienne la plus importante vouée à la musique de concert canadienne contemporaine, enregistre les œuvres des compositeurs membres du CMC. Visitez www.centremusique.ca pour plus de renseignements.

Showcase 2009

International Performing Arts for Youth presents the
31st International Showcase of Performing Arts for Young People, "Showcase 2009," January 21-24, 2009

PHILADELPHIA, PA - The International Showcase of Performing Arts for Young People (Showcase 2009), presented by International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY), is returning to PlayhouseSquare in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, January 21-24. This annual event, held in a different city each year since 1979, attracts more than 400 artists, agents and presenters from across North America and the world. Showcase 2009 features 15 professional performing arts companies from around the world that create dance, music and theater specifically for young people. The companies are selected by an international committee comprised of experts in the field of performing arts for youth, including accomplished artists and artistic or programming directors, arts education directors, children's festival directors, and artist managers. This year's companies come from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Israel, Republic of the Congo, Scotland, The Netherlands, and The United States. Showcasing artists include Cas Public (Canada), Compagnie Punta Negra (Republic of the Congo), Corbian Visual Arts & Dance (USA), CORONA LA BALANCE - Danish National Ensemble for Children's Theatre (Denmark), Dream Jam Band (USA), Introdans Ensemble for Youth (The Netherlands), Jessica Wilson Productions (Australia), Nephesh Theatre (Israel), Nightswimming (Canada), Off Broadway Booking (USA), Puppet State Theatre Company (Scotland), Rennie Harris Puremovement (USA), Slingsby Theatre Company (Australia), Spare Parts Puppet Theatre (Australia), and Terrence Simien & The Zydeco Experience (USA.)

"The Arrival is such a special show... so warm and heartfelt... and it is a great privilege to get to present it at the IPAY Showcase," says Cathcart Weatherly, General Manager of Spare Parts Puppet Theatre, one of Australia's leading producers of theatre for children and families. "Coming from Perth, Western Australia, the most isolated city on the planet, this is a great opportunity for [us] to show off our premier work at the Showcase and look to building a tour of North America"

Showcase features an exhibit area that provides display information and video material on touring productions. As an educational service to the field, the conference offers professional development learning communities which engage current issues and trends. Of particular significance this year, IPAY will present a plenary session led by Teresa Eyring, Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group.

"In hosting Showcase in 2005, 2007, and now 2009, I have had a unique perspective in watching the conference grow in size and scope," says Colleen Porter, Director of Arts Education at PlayhouseSquare. "With artists from more countries around the world applying and performing each year, the shows presented continue to reach new heights in artistic excellence. Furthermore, the professional development has grown from a one day event to a plethora of sessions and topics that run the length of Showcase. Our attendees' response to the performances is reflected in their dialogue during the learning communities, allowing for a truly integrated and thought-provoking conference experience."

Since 2001, International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY) has created professional and educational opportunities supporting meaningful performing arts experiences for young audiences in North America. IPAY is proud to be the only service organization devoted exclusively to the entire performing arts for youth industry, including all forms of theatre, dance, and music. It exists to serve its membership consisting of presenters, artists, and agents/managers from throughout the world by providing meaningful engagement with, and support of, the presentation and creation of new and established work for young audiences in North America.

"We are both proud and excited to host our colleagues throughout North America and indeed from around the world, in this world-class facility at PlayhouseSquare", says IPAY Board President, Boomer Stacey. "This global community meeting place provides a spark to stimulate international dialogue and collaboration, a hub for artists, presenters, educators and promoters to connect and work together, as well as creating a portal to look at what and how we produce or program for young audiences here in North America - and it all stems from the work that is happening on-stage. "

Registration for Showcase 2009 or membership to IPAY is available at www.ipayweb.org. Register to exhibit before October 1 or register to attend Showcase before November 1 and save $50. Contact Daniel Student, Administrative Director, at 267-690-1325 or daniel@ipayweb.org for any questions regarding the conference.

AGA-BOOM - An Explosion Of Surreal Silliness for the Holidays!

Show One presents

AGA-BOOM

An Explosion Of Surreal Silliness!

Bluma Appel Theatre, December 2008

"Aga-Boom, one of the most creative shows to heat Vegas in a while, is perfect for the entire clan."
Las Vegas Sun

Get ready for a big BOOM in fun! Show One is proud to announce that the critically acclaimed clown show AGA-BOOM will make its Canadian premiere in Ontario this holiday season. Created by veterans of Cirque du Soleil and rooted in the European style of clowning, AGA-BOOM is a riotous mix of bold physical comedy, sophisticated stunts and delicious disarray.

"Masterly clowning." New York Times

Clever, messy and outrageously fun, AGA-BOOM cuts through the barriers of language and culture to dazzle audiences of all ages.

Taking its name from a play on boomaga (the Russian word for paper), AGA-BOOM begins and ends with scenes about paper, starting with a small piece stuck to someone's hand and escalating into an huge paper fight. In between is joyful chaos that features inflated garbage bags, juggling suitcases, enormous rubber balloons and lots of audience participation.

"The kids in the audience were on cloud nine, but hardly more so than the adults." Los Angeles Times

AGA-BOOM combines physical comedy, mime, poetry, circus arts and experimental theatre to create a kooky, kinetic entertainment experience. AGA-BOOM is the brainchild of creator/director DIMITRI BOGATIREV who, together, with wife and co-star IRYNA IVANYTSKA, and cast mates PHILIP BRIGGS, ELENA NEKRASSOVA and ANTON BOGATIREV, are true masters of mayhem!

"Disorderly conduct is the order of the dayŠ in a show that is pure family fun." New York Times

Show One presents

AGA-BOOM

Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - Saturday, January 3, 2009

Show Times: 1pm & 7pm (December 31 @ 1pm only, dark January 1)

Bluma Appel Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts

27 Front Street East, Toronto, ON

Tickets: $39/$49/$65 o Family Four Pack: $189 (plus applicable service charges)

Box Office: 416.366.7723/1.800.708.6754 or online at www.Ticketmaster.ca/ShowOne

Thanks to Alex Shnaider's generous contribution,

a portion of the proceeds will be donated to The Hospital for Sick Children

AGA-BOOM will also play in Hamilton at Hamilton Place, December 26 & 27, 2008
For more info visit www.showoneproductions.ca or www.agaboom.com

Cirque du Soleil returns to T.O. September 2009!

In the wake of its great success with KOOZA and Saltimbanco

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL RETURNS TO TORONTO IN SEPTEMBER 2009

An entirely new touring show will be premiering next fall

Montreal, October 20, 2008 - After its most recent successes in Toronto, KOOZA (2007) and Saltimbanco (Arena Tour 2008), Cirque du Soleil is delighted to announce it will return to the Port Lands at Cherry Street in Toronto with an entirely new touring show, beginning in September 2009. Toronto will mark the last stop of the Canadian leg of its journey before the troupe continues on to the United States. The tour will be sponsored by Desjardins Group.

As fate would have it, Cirque 2009 (working title) will be Cirque du Soleil's 25th show in 25 years, i.e. since the company came into being in 1984. The year 2009 is thus an important year for Cirque du Soleil, and this all-new performance will be one of the highlights of the celebrations.

Dates and tickets
Cirque 2009 will be playing at Toronto's Port Lands starting September 3. Tickets for all performances can be obtained from Cirque du Soleil's website at www.cirquedusoleil.com.

Price of tickets (taxes included):

$65 to $125 for adults;

$45.50 to $87.50 for children 2 to 12 years old, inclusively;

$58.50 to $112.50 for children 13 or older (with valid I.D.) and seniors on weekdays only.

There is also a TAPIS ROUGE Package available. This includes a seat in one of the best sections of the big top, a pass for the TAPIS ROUGE lounge an hour before the performance and during intermission, and an exclusive multimedia presentation in the TAPIS ROUGE lounge. The cost for this package (taxes included) is $250 for adults and $175 for children aged 2 to 12 inclusively.

For group reservations of 20 or more, call the Cirque du Soleil box office at 1-800-450-1480. You can also make reservations through the Cirque du Soleil website at cirquedusoleil.com/tapisrouge.

Sponsors
Cirque 2009 is a presentation of Desjardins Group. CGI, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Infiniti, Panasonic and Delta Air Lines are the official sponsors.

Cirque du Soleil
From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a major Quebec-based organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has close to 4,000 employees from over 40 different countries, including 1,000 artists.

Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to almost 80 million spectators in over 200 cities on five continents. In 2008, Cirque du Soleil will present 17 shows simultaneously throughout the world. The company has received such prestigious awards as the Emmy, Drama Desk, Bambi, ACE, Gémeaux, Félix, and Rose d'Or de Montreux. Cirque du Soleil International Headquarters are in Montreal, Canada.

For more information on Cirque du Soleil, visit www.cirquedusoleil.com.

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ONE DROP Foundation
The ONE DROP Foundation is a non-profit organization born from of the dream of Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté, to fight poverty worldwide by ensuring that everyone across the planet has access to water, now and in the future. To find out more about the One Drop Foundation, visit www.onedrop.org.

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Details of National Performing Arts Convention: June 10-14 in Denver

Registration Now Open for First Large-Scale

National Performing Arts Convention, June 10-14

• Dance, Opera, Music and Theatre All Coming Together in Denver
• Discounted Early-Bird Registration Closes March 31
• Over 60 Sessions and Presentations to Take Place: More Presenters Announced

January 29, 2008 (New York, NY) - Registration opened last week for the nation's first truly combined National Performing Arts Convention (NPAC) at www.performingartsconvention.org. Scheduled for June 10-14 in Denver, NPAC will bring together nearly 5,000 people, with a diverse range of interests in the non-profit performing arts, to shape the direction of the industry over the next decade. Attendance is open to anyone, including: actors, agents, arts administrators, businesses, composers, conductors, critics, dancers, directors, educators, fundraisers, instrumentalists, marketers, musicians, producers, singers, trustees and volunteers.

Discounted 'Early-Bird' registration rates are in place until March 31; they represent a savings of between 17 and 33 percent off full price. Full details are available at www.performingartsconvention.org. While NPAC has been designed to engage attendees in shared, multi-disciplinary content where they will learn best practices and meet colleagues from other fields, time has also been reserved for each artistic discipline's organization to convene its own members for special events and programming. During NPAC's online registration process, participants will be prompted to also enroll in discipline-specific sessions of special interest to them, at an additional cost.

NPAC is being presented by nearly 25 national performing arts service organizations that are rolling up their sleeves and coming together to develop, design, fund and facilitate the 2008 convention in close partnership with colleagues from the Denver performing arts community. "We expect this historic collaboration will more clearly communicate the importance of the performing arts to the nation's quality of life, economy and identity," said Ann Meier Baker, co-chair of NPAC and President/CEO of Chorus America. "By working together, performing arts leaders will be able to more effectively bring the value of what we do to a wider audience, not least of all to policymakers and politicians through an online Advocacy Center that will be operating through the convention," added Marc A. Scorca, co-chair of NPAC and President/CEO of OPERA America.

In addition to general session speaker Jim Collins, acclaimed author of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the LeapŠand Others Don't, nearly 100 speakers and presenters of note have been confirmed. Some of the diverse names include: Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel, Baltimore Symphony music director Marin Alsop, Venezuelan music education phenomenon Jose Antonio Abreu, Jazz at Lincoln Center executive director Adrian Ellis, current and former National Endowment for the Arts chairs Dana Gioia and Bill Ivey, contemporary American tenor John Duykers, New York Times critic and founder of the Lincoln Center Festival John Rockwell and Louisiana Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu is also tentatively scheduled - to name a few. A full list of speakers and presenters can be found at www.performingartsconvention.org.

Examples of some of the 60 planned sessions include: Taking Art Off the Shelf: Making the Arts Relevant Again; The Art of Living, or Living for Art: A Survival Guide for Individual Artists; The Value of A Seat; Design, Evaluation and Research on Arts Education Programs; Playwriting Bootcamp; Fun with Critics; The Changing Technological Universe and its Potential for the Arts Sector; Boomers: A Blooming Audience, or Fading Flowers in the Cultural Scene?; Artists from Abroad: Everything You Need to Know about Visa and Tax Issues; Opera: From Soap to Nuts; It Ain't Easy Being Green!; and, Art and Activism: Making Art, Making a Difference.

The participating NPAC arts service organizations include: American Composers Forum, American Music Center, Americans for the Arts, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Chamber Music America, Chorus America, Conductors Guild, Creative Capital, Dance USA, Early Music America, Folk Alliance, Grantmakers in the Arts, International Association for Jazz Education, League of American Orchestras, Meet the Composer, Music Critics Association of North America, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, National Performance Network, North American Performing Arts Managers and Agents, OPERA America, Theatre Communications Group, and University/Resident Theatre Association.

NPAC also expects more than 150 different companies to exhibit: ranging from artist managers and music publishers - for example - to acousticians, staging, apparel and recording companies in the convention's 100,000 square foot exhibition hall, located an escalator ride away from the majority of the programming. NPAC is made possible through the generous support of a range of donors and sponsors. A full list is available at www.performingartsconvention.org/sponsors.

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Media website: www.performingartsconvention.org/press.htm

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