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Ensemble Evolution | House Program

A woman lit with an overhead blue light beats a unique drum set.

Artistic Credits

Banff Centre Staff

Nathan Medd Managing Director | Performing Arts
Kevin Tanner Managing Director | Production
Kyle Brenders Program Manager | Performing Arts
Gina Bennett Production Manager | Production
Rebecca Bruton Program Coordinator | Program Operations
Jaena Kim Program Assistant | Program Operations
Meghan Borthwick Production Coordinator | Production
Henry Ng Music and Sound Technician | Media and Production

Message from Artistic Director

Welcome to Ensemble Evolution!


The heart of EVO (as we like to call it) is the collaborative impulse. In that light, we pose the following question to ourselves, participants and faculty alike: How can we translate the experience of living fully in the early 21st century into music making? The answers to that (admittedly enormous) question vary from person to person and from concert to concert. And as we pose it to you, our intrepid audience, we imagine that you too will have varying answers. But within the healthy diversity of responses, there will be at least one important commonality. Music is the language of connection, the voice of people as they seek to relate to one another. So, in EVO we will bring the art of collaboration to center stage. Composers will work with performers; improvisers will encounter technologists; musicologists will share thoughts with interpreters. Every encounter will produce new language, new modes of working together, and new possibilities for our art. But music, as the mother tongue of humanity, also moves beyond the stage. In our three weeks together, we will speak to each other: about our hopes for a just world, about our threatened planet, about our need to see, hear and live respectfully with each other. This is music too. We welcome you to our music-making. And to our conversations. We welcome you to share in the extraordinary talents of nearly a hundred participants and faculty members. And, as we welcome you to Banff Centre and to this sacred place that has been the home of creative people for millennia, we also welcome you to share the vision of music as the living, breathing ecology of human connection. We welcome you to EVO!


Warmly,


Claire Chase and Steven Schick

 

About the Program

Featuring a faculty of performers drawn from the ranks of the International Contemporary Ensemble, along with an extraordinary group of composers, improvisers, and conversation partners, Ensemble Evolution explores the evolving range and depth of ensemble playing in the early 21st century. 

Biographies