live@CIRMMT : 9th Electro Series

live@CIRMMT - 9th Electro Series: Experience four colourful cartes blanches for saxophone quartet and electronics!

Montreal – Quasar saxophone quartet, in coproduction with CIRMMT, Le Vivier and Ensemble Flashback, presents the ninth iteration of its Electro Series on April 19 at CIRMMT's Music Multimedia Room. Inaugurated in 2003, the Electro Series explores the world of sound in the digital age by commissioning and premiering works by four composers at the very heart of the current contemporary music scene. This year, Bekah Simms, Andrew Staniland, Alexander Vert and Frédéric LeBel are rising to the challenge.

Certain audience members will have had the chance to hear a first version of the works during the public workshop presented in December 2023 at the end of a creative residency with the artists. After all, this intensive week is at the root of the series' artistic approach: a place of research, experimentation and exchange that profoundly helps the performers and composers in the creative process.

In keeping with the Electro Series concept, Quasar offers an eclectic evening program, with the four works having instrumentation as their only common denominator, and even in this aspect, the electronic device can vary. Scottish-Canadian composer Bekah Simms opens the concert with her piece Bug, which features “a hazy and smally kinetic computer-saxophone hybrid”. This is followed by Begin Again by Canadian composer Andrew Staniland, which uses the saxophone quartet as an “acoustic analog of a synthesizer”, mixed with several layers of digital sounds. Thirdly, Take me for a ride by French composer and director of the Flashback ensemble Alexander Vert takes the audience on a journey inside a “Bain de Gongs”, inspired by the artist's own experience with a healer in 2022. Finally, Quebec-based Frédéric Le Bel's SOLI will bring the evening to a close, using sound devices created in collaboration with the Société des arts technologiques, called audio-dices, to take the experience of sound spatialization even further.

The 9th Electro Series will be presented one night only in Montreal on April 19th at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Multimedia Room (CIRMMT), co-presented with Flashback, CIRMMT and Le Vivier. 

9th Electro Series
Friday, April 19th, 7:30 p.m.
Music Multimedia Room (CIRMMT)
Registration is mandatory through the form on : https://tinyurl.com/554tncah

PROGRAMME

Bekah Simms
Bug (2024)
Commissioned by Quasar

Andrew Staniland
Begin Again (2024)
Commissioned by Quasar

Alexander Vert
Take me for a ride (2024)
Commissioned by Quasar

Frédéric Le Bel
SOLI (2024)
Commissioned by Quasar

Quasar saxophone quartet

Marie-Chantal Leclair – artistic director, soprano saxophone
Mathieu Leclair – alto saxophone
André Leroux – tenor saxophone
Jean-Marc Bouchard – baritone saxophone

Known for their energy and bold innovation, the four members of Quasar have been exploring the innumerable facets of musical creation since the group's founding in 1994. The group's ventures include instrumental music, improvisation, and electronics. Whether solo or accompanied by a symphony orchestra, acoustic or plugged-in, Quasar offers its audience a unique and deeply original programming. The ensemble has been awarded 10 OPUS prizes by the Conseil québécois de la musique, including "Artist of the Year".

Quasar presents a series of concerts each season in Montreal while performing extensively across Canada, Mexico, the United States and Europe. It has been invited to international festivals including: Busan Maru (Korea), Ars Musica (Brussels), SALT Festival (Victoria), and Tonlagen (Dresden). Truly a driving force of musical creation, the quartet works closely with composers favouring research, experimentation and the proliferation of unprecedented ideas.

Quasar's aims are to contribute to the enrichment of our musical heritage and to provide a platform for new music experimentation, exploration and production. The quartet has proudly commissioned over 200 works over the course of its twenty-five years of activity.  During that time, it has performed as a solo group with, among others, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Hanzhou Philharmonic Orchestra.

Contact
Roxanne Gallant
Communications coordinator – Quasar saxophone quartet
roxanne@quasar4.com | 1.418.732.2413

Quasar's musicians are available for press, radio and TV interviews.

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