New Music Edmonton’s mission is to contribute to an accessible, healthy, and vibrant artistic ecosystem through support and professional-level presentation of music and sound-oriented art by creatives at diverse career stages who represent the diversity of Amiskwaciwâskahikan ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ / Edmonton, and to further engage the public through inspiring community outreach programs.

 

About New Music Edmonton

Our Story 

New Music Edmonton (NME) was founded in 1985 by local composers at the suggestion of their teacher, composer Violet Archer. The group began a new concert series in 1985 under the name The Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society. In the nearly four decades since, New Music Edmonton (its name since 2012) has evolved into a multi-faceted presenter and regional hub for diverse, sound-oriented artistic practices. New Music Edmonton’s mandate is to professionally support this creative work through commissioning, professional presentations, and outreach initiatives. Ensuring that these events are as accessible as possible is one of our chief priorities.  

Sonic Creativity

Contemporary composition and chamber music, free improvisation, electronic music, sound art, and interdisciplinary projects are among the practices that New Music Edmonton highlights. A careful balance between innovative local and visiting artists informs our programming and commissioning of new work. Each season offers a rich combination of artists and practices, introducing local audiences to unfamiliar, visiting artists, and offering local artists both live performance opportunities and international exposure via digital dissemination.

Collaboration is a high priority with us: we are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to work with collaborators in other disciplines whose perspective might foster new ideas and creative cross-pollination. New Music Edmonton enjoys a growing list of partner organizations across the city and beyond. Increasingly, our seasons reflect the benefits of collaborative practices, including those that transcend discipline, and which are at the creative heart of our fast-growing city. 

Community

NME is the only publicly-funded organization in this region whose sole purpose is to advocate and support the always-intriguing and ever-evolving categories of sound-inclusive art production. As a result, we have the privilege of working within a uniquely dynamic, fast-changing community of creatives. As such, we are keenly aware of our responsibility to accurately represent the diversity of the artistic community, and the community as a whole, and to honour the Indigenous heritage of the Treaty Six region. Through direct actions, policies, and consultations, NME will continue to contribute to these areas, moving steadily and sustainably towards the goal of reflecting both the creative practices and the demographics of our region.  

Equity

New Music Edmonton recognizes that treating all people equally does not guarantee fairness, but can instead reinforce extant biases. As such, in contributing to a reliably equitable environment in our own presentations, the arts generally, and society as a whole, we endorse and have adopted policies whose outcomes promote fair distribution of opportunities. 

Structure

New Music Edmonton is an artist-driven, member-based organization headed by a volunteer Board of Directors, who are elected for a 2-year term by The Membership. For the sake of continuity, we hold elections for half of the board positions each year. The Board elects from within itself an Executive, and The President appoints committees. All votes of the Membership are conducted electronically to ensure maximum participation. The Board plans all areas of operation in consultation with our staff and Membership. 

We hold monthly, minuted meetings. An Annual General Meeting is held once a year, and members may initiate an Extraordinary General Meeting. Membership is open to anyone, and costs $10/year.

Our Staff comprises five part-time, full-year contracted employees, including Artistic Director, General Manager, Production Manager, Social Media Coordinator, and Podcast Editor/ Co-producer.

Photo of Ben Whittier

Ben Whittier

President

Ben Whittier is a saxophonist with a deep love of learning. Originally from Denver, Colorado, Ben is pursuing a Doctorate of Music degree at the University of Alberta where he plays and studies solo and ensemble music, exploring diverse music and sounds. Ben is excited to be serving as Vice-president, on the New Music Edmonton board this year after attending events since his arrival in Edmonton in 2017.

Photo of Darren Kooyman

Darren Kooyman

Vice-president

Darren Kooyman is an Alberta born artist who works in abstract acrylic painting, musical composition, screen-printing, and digital imaging. Musically, Darren works with his long-time collaborator Clay Blacker as they continue to refine and combine their brand of Rural Noir and Prairie Chug into improvisational soundscapes. Similarly his painting practice is improvisational, inspired by the urban surroundings in which he lives, the body-human and the prairie landscapes of his youth.

Photo of Diana Tayler

Diana Tayler

Treasurer

Diana Tayler is a harpist, composer, and choral singer. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in Slavic Linguistics with a specialization in Russian Discourse Analysis, and is in the first year of a Master of Music with a Specialization in Composition. Diana performs as a soloist and with other ensembles and artists, and sings with i Coristi Chamber Choir and Kappella Kyrie Slavonic Chamber Choir. Diana draws much of her creative inspiration from nature, and uses her compositions as a vehicle for storytelling. She is thrilled to be serving on the NME Board as Treasurer, and to work towards the promotion and celebration of individual artistic expression in Edmonton.

Photo of Shea Iles

Shea Iles

Secretary

Shea Iles is a guitarist who is currently studying Composition at MacEwan University. After having been raised on pop, rock, folk and jazz in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Shea came to Edmonton for school in 2016 and was promptly introduced to classical music through his studies. Some of his first experiences with classical music had been at NME events, so he is thrilled to be joining the effort this year.

Photo of Emilie LeBel

Emilie LeBel

Canadian composer Emilie Cecilia LeBel specializes in concert music composition, the creation of mixed works that employ digital technologies, and intermedia concert works.  Described as “writing music that reflects her intelligence and audaciousness” (Sir Andrew Davis); “restrained and beautifully coherent from beginning to end” (barczablog); and “impressively subtle and sensuous” (ConcertoNet), her work inhabits sonic worlds that are primarily concerned with textural landscapes, resonance, and variances in colour.

Emilie is Section Head of Composition at MacEwan University, and Affiliate Composer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.  Emilie completed a Doctorate in Composition at the University of Toronto in 2013, under the guidance of Gary Kulesha and Robin Elliott.

Emilie’s compositions have been performed/recorded across North and South America, Europe, and the UK.

Photo of Clayton Blacker

Clayton Blacker

Director

Clay Blacker is a guitar player and composer based in Edmonton, Alberta. With training and backgrounds in various styles of music including classical, jazz, bigband, blues and rock, Clay endeavours to bring elements of all of those into his playing and composing. Currently working with longtime collaborator Darren Kooyman on fine tuning an improvisational composition format they call “Prairie Chug” and “Rural Noir”, Clay continues to push the boundaries of both his own musical development and the concept of music being a tangible representation of raw emotions, always fluid and always open to the listeners interpretation. Clay is also working on developing his abilities in production, sound development and arranging.

Photo of Afarin Nazarijou

Afarin Nazarijou

Director

Afarin Nazarijou, an Iranian Qanun player, started music by playing Piano at five and expanded Qanun (traditional Persian string instrument), which became her primary instrument. She also started to play the Tombak (Persian percussion instrument) in the Tehran Music School, where she graduated with a high school diploma.  Afarin graduated from the University of Tehran with a bachelor’s and master of Performing Iranian music. 

To expand her multicultural perspective of music, she decided to go abroad. She was accepted into the master’s program of Contemporary Improvisation at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and graduated in 2021. In the same year, she got accepted into the master’s program at the University of Alberta. 

She played in many music festivals around Europe and North America in the last decade. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge and passion for music with different cultures globally, playing Iranian Classical music, free improvisation, composing, and arranging for mixed ensembles.

Photo of Maryam Soufisiavash

Maryam Soufisiavash

Director

Maryam Soufisiavash is an Iranian pianist and a multidisciplinary artist. She holds B.A. in English Literature and M.M. in Solo Piano Performance. She is a current D.M.A candidate in Piano Performance at the University of Alberta.

She is a co-founder of University of Tehran Contemporary Music Ensemble. She is interested in Experimental Music and has performed in various contemporary music festivals in Iran. She also performed Wiegenmüsik by Helmut Lachenmann for the first time in Iran as a part of her thesis project. Maryam won the fellowship in Sound and Music Database from Ingenium – Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation. She also participates as a research assistant at RISM project at the University of Alberta.

She is fluent in Farsi, English and French.

Photo of Reid Contreras Woelfle

Reid Contreras Woelfle

Director

Reid is a Canadian composer and educator. Over the past 5 years, he has been
providing percussion, drumline and film scoring education in schools across Edmonton. Additionally, he has been composing for and performing with the Edmonton Elks Drumline and Dirt City Samba. Recently, his artistic practice was recognized by MacEwan University in awarding Reid the Wind Energy Commission Award in Music Composition. As a composer, Reid continues to experiment with different styles and techniques, and is always striving to create a new and exciting musical experience for his audience.

Photo of Chenoa Anderson

Chenoa Anderson

General Manager

Chenoa Anderson is a flutist who has been commissioning and performing new repertoire for over 25 years. Current collaborations include UltraViolet, a mixed chamber group specializing in composed and improvised repertoire; Mixtur with composer Ian Crutchley, performing experimental repertoire for flutes, electronics, video and found instruments; and improvising with damn magpies. Chenoa has been the General Manager of New Music Edmonton since 2012, and in 2014 was nominated for the Syncrude Award for Excellence in Arts Management. She has a large garden and small orchard, too many knitting projects, and an expert-level cat. Photo credit: Levi Manchak

Photo of Ian Crutchley

Ian Crutchley

Artistic Director

Ian Crutchley is Artistic Director of New Music Edmonton as well as a former President of The Board of Directors. He works closely with members of the organization as well as colleagues in the community to help develop NME’s seasons of live events and outreach, and to build and evolve the organization’s equitable approach to programming. Ian’s ongoing education in creativity and in life have been informed by phenomenal teachers, students, and a remarkable menagerie of wise, sharing and loving people he has known at work and at play. A classical composer by training, his practice has broadened in recent years to include improvisation and performances with dancers and other artists.

Photo of Ryan Hemphill

Ryan Hemphill

Production Manager

Ryan M. Hemphill is a Canadian composer based in Edmonton, Alberta. His music explores the mechanical nature of musical instruments, the incidental musicality of machines, and the contemplation of contemporary soundscapes; combining live musicians, algorithmic composition, and electromechanical devices. Thanks to grants from the Edmonton Arts Council and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, he has been able to conduct research on the collaborations of Seattle-artist Trimpin and American composer Conlon Nancarrow, and the digitization of Nancarrow’s Studies for Player Piano.

Hemphill has worked for several arts organizations as an artistic manager, and is currently the production manager for New Music Edmonton. Recently, he has become impassioned by ceramic arts, and has been enjoying his time refining his skills as a potter at Studio 72 in Edmonton.

Photo of Autumn

Autumn

Social Media Co-ordinator

Autumn is a neurodiverse artist, musician, and designer who focuses on her mind, body, and trauma for inspiration. She likes long walks on the beach, snowboarding, and conjuring ideas to dispel ableist points of view.

Photo of Oskar Zybart

Oskar Zybart

NME No Normal Podcast Series Emcee and Senior Producer

Oskar Zybart is a musician and broadcaster, born and raised in Edmonton. A
concert performer since the early 1990s, he continues to work with other artists
as a player and mentor – both on stage and in the studio. His history in radio
began as a volunteer DJ at the University of Alberta’s campus station CJSR, and
progressed to working as a broadcaster for the CKUA Radio Network. He has also
worked as a translator, writer, archivist, and concert promoter. Oskar’s musical
tastes range from the popular and traditional, to the experimental and abstract.
He drinks a great deal of tea.