News

Jeu de temps / Times Play Awards 2004

The results for this year's Jeu de temps / Times Play Awards (JTTP) and the Cache 2004 CD compilation have been announced by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC).

Awards for the top five placing pieces were given to (in order of placement): Ben Wilson for Sediment; Nicolas Bernier for . . . sans quoi les imperméables jaunes existeront . . . ; Mathieu Marcoux for Information; Stefan Smulovitz for Please Hang Up; and Daniel Pruger for Symphonie für Waschmachine. Each of these composers will receive awards donated by CEC members and participating CD labels, and will be included in various concert and radio programs.

The composers of the top 10 placing pieces have been invited to participate in the CD compilation Cache 2004. In addition to the five mentioned above, this group includes Freida Abtan for lightness (and weight); Samuel Beaudoin for ékhôs; David Bednarczyk for Out of Focus; Martin Lord for Un people; and Nick Storring for (Lovesong For) White Invincible.

This year there were 33 submissions to the JTTP and 14 jury members participated in adjudicating the awards. More information on the JTTP can be found at cec.concordia.ca/jttp/.

Música Viva Festival 2004

The Música Viva Festival was held on 6–12 September in Lisbon, Portugal. Featuring renowned names sideby side with young composers and performers, the 2004 edition of the Música Viva Festival is the largest in its ten-year history, with 17 performances, 4 lectures, courses and master classes, workshops for children, and also the new "Interactive Lounge." In all, 80 works were performed (70 of them Portuguese premières), and 18 world premières (15 of them by Portuguese composers). The festival is a project of Miso Music Portugal.

Featured artists included electronic music pioneer Pierre Henry, the Smith Quartet, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, the Ensemble Pythagore from France, British pioneer Trevor Wishart, and French composer Christian Clozier presenting concerts of electronic music with the Orchestra of Loudspeakers. The Orchestra of Loudspeakers also gave many other concerts including Dutch electronic music; several works for electronic sounds and video; two concerts showcasing the music of member countries of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music/UNESCO; the Portuguese première of the original versions of Edgard Varèse's Poème Electronique and Iannis Xenakis's Concret PH, as conceived by their composers in 1958, in an reconstruction by Kees Tazelaar; and also several works by Portuguese composers. Portuguese contemporary music artists Ensemble 20/21 and Jorge Salgado Correia, with the Flute Ensemble of the University of Aveiro, were also featured. Finally, there were multidisciplinary shows by the sound poets Sten Hanson of Sweden and Américo Rodrigues of Portugal as well as an audiovisual performance-tribute to Soviet filmmaker Dziga Vertov.

Prizewinners of the Electroacoustic Composition Competition of the Música Viva Festival 2004 were announced, and the winning pieces were heard during the concert on 8 September. The jury, made up of the electronic music pioneers Christian Clozier and Trevor Wishart, and by the composer Miguel Azguime, awarded prizes to the two works Dreaming of the Dawn by Adrian Moore and Language by Joshua Goldman. Honorable mentions were awarded to Efeito dominó I: Alquimia by Rui Penha, Atropos by Nikos Stavropoulos, and Machina by Vítor Adán.

More information on Música Viva and Miso Music Portugal can be found at www.misomusic.com/mviva.html.

Fourth Electroacoustic Music Festival in Santiago, Chile

"Ai-maako 2004," the fourth Chilean Electroacoustic Music Festival, was held on 13–18 October, at the Chilean Spanish Institute in Santiago. Twelve concerts featured music by 80 composers from 20 countries. The festival was organized by CECh (La Communidad Electroacústica de Chile).

In addition to five international concerts there were seven themed programs: A concert dedicated to the international Institute of Electroacoustic Music of Bourges (IMEB), a concert of the winning works of the competition "TIME—Roma 2004: (Tribuna Internacional de Música Electroacústica" or "International Tribune of Electroacoustic Music"), a concert devoted to the music of Elsa Justel, a concert of electroacoustic music curated by Rodrigo Sigal, a concert for saxophone and electroacoustics by Miguel Villafruela, and a concert...