What was normal won’t be again, and the only “new normal” is no normal at all.
Welcome to a new year of The No Normal! New Music Edmonton is happy to return with Season Three of our iconic podcast. We have some great interviews with amazing people from Edmonton and around the world lined up for the coming months, and we’re looking forward to sharing their work and their words with you! The podcast will also include feature stories, conversations with friends in other organizations, and much more. Scroll down for details about each episode.
Our podcast is free, but please consider donating to New Music Edmonton to help support contemporary sound art in Edmonton! You can make a secure one-time or monthly donation through Canada Helps.
Episode 3.4 (August 2023). Back in February 2023 New Music Edmonton presented an extraordinary event, the premiere of a new composition by Mike McCormick, performed by Edmonton vocalist, and long-time friend of Mike, Jessica Wagner. The work, under: went is a powerful, very personal artistic gesture, a work and performance unlike anything I have ever experienced in a concert hall. We were honoured to have present at the show staff and volunteers from The Canadian Mental Health Association. They led us through a post-performance discussion group focused on the topic of suicide, and of the ideas brought forth by the composition. In the following conversation, we caught up with Mike and Jessica only a few days after the event, and we had a chance then to really get to the heart of the work, and also to get to know a little more about both of their backgrounds.
Please note this important caution: this episode includes discussion of mental health issues experienced by the artists, and including experiences of suicidal ideation and a depressive episode. Listening to this may be triggering for some listeners.
This episode is dedicated with thanks to everyone at The Canadian Mental Health Association.
Episode 3.3 (June 22, 2023). This episode’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 she was a member of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. 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.
Episode 3.2 (March 2023). This episode of The No Normal features composer and santurist Mehdi Rezania, in conversation with Ian Crutchley. Mehdi is a prolific and diverse artist who is very familiar to audiences in our city. From his early teen years studying santur in Iran, and later compositional studies at York University, and current doctoral studies at The University of Alberta, Mehdi Rezania has developed a unique and compelling approach to creative music making. At home with traditional Persian music, composition, improvisation, and more, he regular performs and records as both a soloist, and as a much sought-after partner for artists from a unique array of practices.
Episode 3.1 (December 30, 2022). To get things going, we are delighted to present composer Sointu Aalto, in conversation with Suzette Chan. Born in Helsinki, raised in Edmonton, Sointu Aalto is a composer and ‘cellist, who has emerged as one of the most compelling emerging artists, with a formidable output of uncompromising instrumental and audio-visual works. In June, 2022, Aalto and her colleagues in The JAMS Quartet performed in the Now Hear This Festival in Edmonton, where they gave a rare, full-length performance of works by Aalto and other composers.
Composer Sointu Aalto, in conversation with Suzette Chan. Born in Helsinki, raised in Edmonton, Sointu Aalto is a composer and ‘cellist, who has emerged as one of the most compelling emerging artists, with a formidable output of uncompromising instrumental and audio-visual works. In June, 2022, Aalto and her colleagues in The JAMS Quartet performed in the Now Hear This Festival in Edmonton, where they gave a rare, full-length performance of works by Aalto and other composers
Compositions by Sointu Aalto included in this episode:
2:34 THINK THINK THINK THINK THINK (Excerpt) – Audio portion of audio-visual work, commissioned by New Music Edmonton for the Summer Solstice Series, 2021.
6:09 Mass Extinction (Excerpt) – Performed by The JAMS Quartet: Jessica Ortlieb, Anna Vlasova, Mora Clarke, Sointu Aalto, with Kauri Aalto, tam-tam
13:22 super(ficial) (Full Length) – Performed by Bergamot Quartet at MATA Jr., Music at the Anthology Festival, NY, 2021
18:10 The Pizza Man Is Real (Full Length) – Performed by The JAMS Quartet: Jessica Ortlieb, Anna Vlasova, Mora Clarke, Sointu Aalto, with Kauri Aalto, pizza
34:01 THINK THINK THINK THINK THINK (Full Length) – Audio portion of audio-visual work, commissioned by New Music Edmonton for the Summer Solstice Series, 2021.
38:20 Yosinfonia (2020) (Full Length) 0 Performed by Daniel Aalto, piano, Eija Aalto, soprano. Text: Yösinfonia, 1, by Kirsi Kunna
ARTIST
Sointu Aalto is a cellist, composer, and high school student currently based in Montreal, studying mathematics and composition at McGill University. She is interested in the connections between mathematics, science, art, and philosophy. Their original music has been presented by Kymi Sinfonietta, MATA Jr Festival/Bergamot Quartet, New Music Edmonton, Continuum Contemporary Music, Alkali Collective, and others.
INTERVIEWER
Edmonton-based Suzette Chan has written or spoken about performing, literary, visual, and comics arts for newspapers, magazines, websites, radio programs, and podcasts. Her most recent work can be found on the No Normal Podcast and in LUMA Quarterly.
This episode of The No Normal features composer and santurist Mehdi Rezania, in conversation with Ian Crutchley. Mehdi is a prolific and diverse artist who is very familiar to audiences in our city. From his early teen years studying santur in Iran, and later compositional studies at York University, and current doctoral studies at The University of Alberta, Mehdi Rezania has developed a unique and compelling approach to creative music making. At home with traditional Persian music, composition, improvisation, and more, the regular performs and records as both a soloist, and as a much sought-after partner for artists from a unique array of practices.
Compositions by Mehdi Reznia Included in this episode:
Mehdi Rezania, born in Abadeh, Iran is a composer, santur player, and researcher. He started music at age 13 and studied the advanced method of santur playing under Ardavan Kamkar in Tehran. He co-founded Baarbad music in Toronto with Toloe Roushenas and has performed numerously with many local and international musicians including Salar Aghili, Keivan Saket, Hossein Behroozinia, Sinfonia Toronto. His music projects have been supported by grants from Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Edmonton Arts Council and Canada Arts Council. He has been music advisor to Iranian Heritage Day at the Royal Ontario Museum and artistic advisor to Tirgan Festival in Toronto. He has a BFA and MA in music composition from York University and an MA in ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta. He is pursuing his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Alberta supported by Social Science and Humanities Research Council. His interest is in contemporary classical music of Iran inside and abroad the country; the impact of politics, migration and globalization on its performance, composition and dissemination.
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.
Compositions by Alissa Cheung Included in this episode:
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)
The Artist
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).
Please note this important caution: this episode includes discussion of mental health issues experienced by the artists, and including experiences of suicidal ideation and a depressive episode. Listening to this may be triggering for some listeners.
This episode is dedicated with thanks to everyone at The Canadian Mental Health Association.
Back in February 2023 New Music Edmonton presented an extraordinary event, the premiere of a new composition by Mike McCormick, performed by Edmonton vocalist, and long-time friend of Mike, Jessica Wagner. The work, under: went is a powerful, very personal artistic gesture, a work and performance unlike anything I have ever experienced in a concert hall. We were honoured to have present at the show staff and volunteers from The Canadian Mental Health Association. They led us through a post-performance discussion group focused on the topic of suicide, and of the ideas brought forth by the composition.
In the following conversation, we caught up with Mike and Jessica only a few days after the event, and we had a chance then to really get to the heart of the work, and also to get to know a little more about both of their backgrounds.
Music included in this episode:
02:11 Underwent (excerpt 1) performed by Jessica Wagner, soprano. Composed by and with electronics by Mike McCormick
6:11 Regnevejr (excerpt) performed by Jessica Wagner, soprano/ Natalie Dzbik, violin. Composed and with electronics by Brandon Chow.
08:22 Duo 1(excerpt) Performed by Jessica Wagner, soprano. Composed and with electronics by Nicolás Arnáez.
14:02 Rootpat (excerpt) Composed by Mike McCormack
25:40 Underwent (excerpt 2)
43:33 Underwent (excerpt 3)
58:58 Underwent (excerpt 4)
ARTISTS
Soprano Jessica Wagner and artist/programmer Mike McCormick are a performing duo dedicated to creating and presenting new works that broach complex themes within the context of contemporary music performance. Drawing on their diverse experience within a variety of music genres and their personal friendship that has lasted over a decade, their collaboration allows them to use the vocabulary of contemporary music to explore taboo or challenging subject matter in a way that challenges and expands the definition of “virtuosic” performance.
