Episode 3.3 (June 2023) We are back with another episode of New Music Edmonton’s The No Normal. Today’s guest is an artist familiar to many people in many places. Composer and violinist Alissa Cheung. Her compositions have been performed often in Edmonton and for several years she was a key part of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s violin section. More recently, Alissa moved to Montréal to take up a position in the mighty Quatuor Bozzini, and since then has continued to build her career as a composer while also taking part in the quartet’s almost constant schedule of performing, recording, and working with emerging artists. It’s always fantastic to chat with Alissa, and we hope you enjoy sitting with us while we do so! And so here we are, in a wide-ranging conversation recorded in early spring, 2023.
Program:
20:45 – ZWISCHENTÖNE (excerpt 1)
Performed by Alissa Cheung and Ewald Cheung, C’mon Festival Edmonton, 2022
25:27 – ZWISCHENTÖNE (excerpt 2)
38:10 – CHEMINS DE FER
Composed by Alissa Cheung, 2018
48:04 – DU NORD (excerpt 1)
Performed by Quatuor Bozzini, Montréal, 2021
54:15 – DU NORD (excerpt 2)
60:32 – EUPHORIA (excerpt 1)
Performed by Continuum Contemporary Music HATCH, 2021
65:02 – EUPHORIA (excerpt 2)
70:15 – DU NORD (excerpt 3)
Artist Bio:
Alissa Cheung’s works have been performed at the Winspear Centre (Edmonton) by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, at Salle Bourgie (Montréal) by Quatuor Bozzini, at the University of Michigan by Arx Duo, percussion duo, at New York and Chicago by Instruments of Happiness electric guitar quartet, in Jordan Hall (Boston) by the Boston and Turtle Island String Quartets, in Australia by Duo Myburgh-Feakes, and in Switzerland by Duo Luce. She is regularly featured as composer-in-residence at C’mon Festival in Edmonton. In recent works she experiments with improvisational aspects and open forms, resulting in a co-composed piece that differs from performance to performance. Latest projects include a co-composition with Duo d’Entre-Deux saxophone duo, and an outdoor installation project based on whale songs with visual artist Alain Lefort.
Alissa Cheung is also a violinist of Quatuor Bozzini, based in Montreal, QC. Her solo and chamber performances have taken her throughout Canada, USA, Europe and Asia, and her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Guardian UK, Le Devoir, the Edmonton Journal, and has been broadcast on British Broadcasting Corporation (UK), Österreichischen Rundfunks (Austria), Schweizer Radio und Fernsehn (Switzerland), Nederlandse Publieke Omroep (Netherlands), and CBC Radio (Canada).
For More Information
- Alissa Cheung: www.alissacheung.com/
- Quatuor Bozzini: quatuorbozzini.ca/en
- Continuum Contemporary Music: www.continuummusic.ca/
- Continuum Contemporary Music Euphoria video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAmEW6CQsNE
- C’mon Festival: cmonfestival.ca/
