Artist Biographies

James Bailey

I began theremining in the early-'90s after the acquisition of a basic little unit made by SWTP. In 1993 I developed a pedal style of playing, when using it to control a synthesizer, and this has been my preferred technique ever since. The sound is often modified by effects devices. It can also be picked up using a radio.

Lori Beckstead

Lori Beckstead is a professor in the School of Radio & Television Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto, teaching radio, audio and digital media. She spent ten years as a community radio broadcaster and has done freelance work for the CBC producing and reporting for radio and the web. She recently completed studies at the University of Technology, Sydney (Australia) where she found a new interest in interactive art that incorporates and highlights sound as the central focus.

Robert C. F. Mulder was born in The Hague, Holland in the last century. After much probing he will admit to being an independent interdisciplinary artist with a passion for the real-time interaction of light, sound and imagination. This passion has resulted in a long exploratory path of discovery in the domain of live media arts ˜ the integration of visuals, music, and drama ˜ in performance utilizing new means.

He was (and still is) inspired by the interdisciplinary ideas/works of Le Corbusier & Edgar Varèse, Louis-Bertrant Castel, Thomas Wilfred, Bulat Galeyev, and Leon Theremin. Among his major commissions are new media and integrated arts commissions for the Canada Pavilion of Expo 1986, Ars Electronica Festival, (Austria 1992), the Berlin Music Biennale (Germany,1997), and New Music Concerts (1992 & 2000). He has won awards/prizes from the Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition and Prix Ars Electronica. His works have been staged, screened or exhibited in Brazil, Canada, Europe, Estonia, USA, and Russia.

Rose Bolton

Rose Bolton has been working as a composer in Toronto for ten years, producing chamber and orchestral works, as well as performing with various improvising groups. As a composer, she has received numerous commissions and prizes, including the 2006 Norman Burgess Fund award, and the 2002 Toronto Emerging Composer award, and an Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Professional Development grant in 2003.

Her work has not only been in the area of composing orchestral, chamber music and voice, but has also involved working with electronics, improvisation, and studying a large array of fiddle music from Canada and the British Isles.

During this time, her goal has always been to reach the listener on a basic emotional level. Often her works are intended to lead the listener into a delicate “sonic landscape”. She has lately been focusing her attention on the voice, writing in a simple, yet expressively charged way. She has created a number of works that combine speech and singing, both in the instrumental and electro-acoustic media.

Her compositions have been performed by Tapestry New Opera, Continuum, the Esprit Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony, MATA and numerous other prominent new music interpreters, and her music has been performed throughout Canada, the United States and Europe.

Christian Calon

Christian Calon is a sound artist who lives in Montreal. His projects include sound installation, radio and concert works. Performed worldwide, he is renown for his original approach to sound shapes and narration. He has been honored in major international competitions. His works can be found on the emprientes DIGITALes label.

Hector Centeno-Garcia

Hector Centeno-Garcia was born in Mexico where he obtained a bachelor in music composition at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His career as a composer includes performances at various festivals and concert halls in Mexico City and other places within the country. He received a year long grant from the Mexican Culture and Arts National Council. His long time practice of Buddhism and meditation which led him to move into a Zen temple in Toronto where he lived and trained as a monk for a year. After such experiences, and in combination with his interest in computers and in sound recording, he began to explore the possibilities of sound creation and expression using digital technology, and found that this media offers possibilities of using a mix of rational planning and intuition; a process much closer to the experience of plastic arts creation where there is an intimate and immediate interaction with what is being created. One of his electroacoustic pieces was performed as part of the Sounds Electric '05 festival at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland.

Monica Clorey

Monica Clorey (b.1984) is an emerging composer from Nine Mile Creek, Prince Edward Island. After completing her Bachelor of Music at Mount Allison University with a concentration on piano, she moved to Toronto to pursue a Masters of Music in Composition. Her composition teachers include Ian Crutchley, James Code and Alexander Rapoport. She strives for her compositions to be full of life - to support themselves on their own, and to breathe with musical feeling. Her influences include Olivier Messiaen, Arnold Schoenberg, Yann Tiersen, Matthew Herbert and Nathan Richards.

Chantal Dumas

Chantal Dumas is an audio and radio artist who uses sound to explore new possibilities for narration. Since 1993 she has produced over 23 works for radio as a freelancer; her "stories" have been widely broadcast on public radio and at festivals. She has received awards including EAR International Competition (Hungary) and Phonurgia Nova International (France). Her works can be found on OHM editions and on 326music.

Christine Duncan

A musical chameleon with a near five octave range, Christine Duncan uses her voice as an instrument, exploring its full tonal, timbral and textural range. She is involved in everything from jazz, R&B, gospel, improvised music, sound poetry, to new music and musique actuelle. She is involved with many musical groups and projects, most notably Hugh Fraser’s VEJI (Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation) and Barnyard Drama with drummer/electronic artist Jean Martin. Christine also teaches voice in the jazz programs at Humber College and the University of Toronto.

Mei Han

Mei Han is a groundbreaking virtuoso propelling the Chinese zheng into radical new dimensions of musical expression. Presenting music deeply rooted in over two thousand years of Chinese culture, Han is transforming this stately instrument into a powerful tool for the contemporary international concert stage. She is a consummate performer, appeared with leading artists around the world in a multitude of musical genres from symphonic, chamber and New Music to traditional and World music, or from Creative Improvisation to electronic.

Han studied with China’s top zheng masters Zhang Yan and Gao Zicheng, and performed as a featured soloist for over ten years with the prestigious Beijing Zhan You Ensemble, the premiere ensemble of its type in China. Han went on to become a rare blend of performer and scholar with two Master’s degrees in ethnomusicology, from the Musical Research Institute of the Chinese Arts Academy in Beijing (1995), considered internationally the most prestigious institute for Chinese music studies, and from the University of British Columbia (2000). Han wrote the zheng entry for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the premiere music reference book, and has published articles in numerous music journals in both English and Chinese. Han is the director of the Chinese Music Ensemble at the University of British Columbia, founded the Chinese Ensemble at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and has lectured on Chinese music in many universities and music institutes around the world.
A dynamic performer and innovator, Han has been exploring new directions for solo zheng and unique combinations of zheng with other instruments in a contemporary experimental aesthetic. Works written for, and premiered by, Han include the world’s first work for zheng and harpsichord by Janet Danielson performed at the Open Ears Festival 2005; the first work for zheng and string quartet by John Oliver, premiered at the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival 2004 with the Borealis String Quartet; and the first original zheng concerto by Dr. John Sharpley, performed with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing, 2003. A commanding virtuoso, Han regularly performs challenging new works by contemporary international composers including compositions by Minoru Miki, Yuji Takahashi, and Barry Truax amongst others.

Tony K.T. Leung

Tony K.T. Leung is a Toronto-based composer whose music has been performed and broadcast in Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Hong Kong, Korea, Luxembourg, the USA and Canada by leading contemporary music ensembles. Recordings of works by the composer include CD releases from Luxembourg Sinfonietta, ERMMedia, and Canadian Electroacoustic Community. Although he primarily composes acoustic concert music, his electroacoustic works have been presented at Seoul International Computer Music Festival and Festival Synthèse Bourges. His is an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

Rob Piilonen

Rob Piilonen is a flute player and composer who has been active in the Toronto music scene since 1996. Rob's flute playing spans many styles, lending his unique sound to folk, pop, latin, electronic, new music, jazz and creative improvising in many settings. He has scored music for films and dance projects, and worked with a number of Toronto's leaders in various fields of the arts, music, and production, and is a member of the Board of Directors for AIMToronto (Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto). Dedicated to pushing the flute beyond the standard expected from the instrument, Rob is most proud when told by someone, "I don't usually like the flute, but I like the way you play it!".

Barry Prophet

Barry Prophet is a composer, percussionist, and sculptor whose music has appeared in galleries and theatres in Canada, United States and Europe. Creating unique sounds since 1979, he has exhibited and performed on his percussion sculptures 'Glass Box', 'Revolving Tone Door' and 'TransparentTone Arch' at the Art Gallery of Windsor (1986), Bloomsburg Theatre (1989) Bloomsburg, USA, the Art Gallery of Algoma (1989, 1991, 1992) Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder Bay Art Gallery ((1989, 1990, 1991), White Water Gallery (1989) North Bay, McMichael Canadian Art Collection (1994) Kleinberg, Pekao Gallery, (1997) Toronto and the Canadian Sculpture Centre (2002) Toronto. Barry's micro tonally tuned glass lithophones have been featured in performance venues throughout the country and his 1997 recording 'Crystal Bones' (CD) has been choreographed to by international dance artists. Barry has led traditional and experimental percussion programs for students and educators across Canada since 1983.

Randy Raine-Reusch

Randy Raine-Reusch is an improvisationally based composer / concert-artist specializing in New and Experimental Music for world instruments. An innovator interested in extending the boundaries of music, he has created distinct new performance styles on a number of world instruments from his collection of 700.

Raine-Reusch has spent over thirty years exploring the relationship of music to psychology, philosophy, and spiritual or religious practices. He studied at the Creative Music Studio in the 70's with artists such as Fred Rzewski, Jack Dejohnette and Karl Berger, before going overseas to study with master musicians in Australia, Malaysia, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma and the Philippines, as well as with "National Treasures" in Korea and Japan. As a result his music now contains clear influences from a variety of indigenous cultures and is heavily influenced by Taoism and Zen.

In his performances Raine-Reusch strives for a balance of virtuosity, innovation, and a contemplative depth of spirit, while retaining the essence of his instruments. His unique voice has led him to perform and/or record with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, Aerosmith, Yes, The Cranberries; Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Jon Gibson; Barry Guy, Robert Dick, Frank Gratkowski, Mats Gustafsson; Sainkho Namtchylak, Jin Hi Kim, and Issui Minegishi, the Japanese Iemoto, or Hereditary Grand Master, of Seikyodo Ichigenkin. As a solo artist, with his world beat ensemble ASZA, or with Chinese zheng virtuoso Mei Han.

David Rose

David Rose is a multiple award winning sound designer/editor for film and television who has recently rediscovered sound for sound's sake. His most recent efforts are "You Are Here", part of the Geophonobox exhibition at the Around the Coyote gallery in Chicago and "Winanga-Li: Australian Soundscapes" a collaboration with partner Lori Beckstead, released on the wanderingear.com label. This past summer he did sound design work for the acclaimed feature film documentary "Manufactured Landscapes" which explores the work of noted Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. David lives in Toronto, Canada.

Stefan A. Rose is a Waterloo-based photographer, poet, and video artist who studied both Engineering and Fine Arts at Mount Allison University. He works in various photographic formats and styles, in artistic and documentary forms. Stefan has collaborated with other visual artists in making limited-edition books, and taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions. He is also documentary photographer for NUMUS concerts, Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound, and New Adventures in Sound Art. In 2002 Stefan received the Equinox Emerging Artists Video Award from Ed Video Media Arts Centre which enabled the creation of an original video piece premiered with the performance of Annie Gosfield's composition "Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery" by the Penderecki String Quartet during the 2003 Open Ears Festival. Stefan's latest collaboration with the PSQ, a video to accompany their performance of Steve Reich's "Different Trains", has been shown in Paris, Kauno (Lithuania), and Los Angeles. Stefan worked on a multi-disciplinary collaborative artistic documentary project called "Townsend Retraced" that examined the long-term impact of failed city planning upon a farming community. Townsend retraced was exhibited in September and October, 2004, in Simcoe, Ontario.

Charlotte Scott

Charlotte Scott makes noise in Montreal. She works as a community radio producer at CKUT 90.3fm and is inspired every day by the audacity of her colleagues and the symphony of sounds they share with the city. She sings and plays bass, cello, guitar and glockenspiel in a psych-rock band called Triceratreetops. Her academic accomplishments include an MA in Communication and Cultural Studies from Ryerson University and a visit to Hirosaki, Japan for the 2006 conference of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.

Don Sinclair

Don Sinclair is a new media artist, professor, parent, and cyclist residing in Toronto. His creative work revolves around exploring interactive interfaces. Drawing from his diverse background in music, mathematics, computer science, and interdisciplinary studies, Don works in a variety of contexts including gallery installations, interactive dance, and the web. Don teaches New Media Art in the Fine Arts Cultural Studies Program at York University. In 2003 Don created Nanovideo, 10 Second OTES a series of nine very short videos exploring different locations from OTES. Oh, those everyday spaces (OTES), is a collection of 25,000 images gathered while cycling. Don also created the Interactive Art Web Site Variations / Variantes a database art interface to OTES. Also in 2003 Don collaborated with sound artist Andra McCartney to create the Installation Journées Sonores, Canal de Lachine an interactive installation at La Musée de Lachine from September to December 2003.

Barry Truax

Barry Truax is a Professor in both the School of Communication and the School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University where he teaches courses in acoustic communication and electroacoustic music. He has worked with the World Soundscape Project, editing its Handbook for Acoustic Ecology, and has published a book Acoustic Communication dealing with all aspects of sound and technology.

As a composer, Truax is best known for his work with the PODX computer music system which he has used for tape solo works and those which combine tape with live performers or computer graphics. A selection of these pieces may be heard on the recording Sequence of Earlier Heaven, and the Compact Discs Digital Soundscapes, Pacific Rim, Song of Songs, Inside, Islands, and Twin Souls, all on the Cambridge Street Records label.

In 1991 his work, Riverrun, was awarded the Magisterium at the International Competition of Electroacoustic Music in Bourges, France, a category open only to electroacoustic composers of 20 or more years experience. He is also the recipient of one of the 1999 Awards for Teaching Excellence at Simon Fraser University.

Trevor Wishart

Trevor Wishart is a Composer and performer specializing in sound metamorphosis and constructing the software tools to make it possible (Sound Loom / CDP). He has held residencies in Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, Sweden, and the USA and at various UK Universities and his work has been awarded a Euphonie d'Or at the Bourges Festival and the Golden Nica for computer music at the Linz Ars Electronica. He creates music with his own voice, for professional groups (Singcircle, Electric Phoenix etc.), or in imaginary worlds conjured up in his own studio. His aesthetic and technical ideas are described in the books On Sonic Art and Audible Design . Also involved in community, environmental and educational projects, his Sounds Fun books of musical games have been republished in Japanese. His most recent pieces include ' Globalalia' , commissioned by Folkmar Hein and premiered in Berlin 2004 and ' Memories of Madrid', one of several sound installations in Madrid bus-stops (May-Sept 2005) based on street recordings, as part of the Itinerarios del Sonidos project. He is currently Honorary Professor of Music at the University of York, UK.

New Adventures in Sound Art - personnel

Darren Copeland - Artistic Director
(website)

Darren Copeland is a soundscape composer, radio artist, sound designer and concert producer. He has studied electroacoustic composition under Barry Truax (Simon Fraser University) and Dr. Jonty Harrison (University of Birmingham). His concert works have received mentions in competitions (Vancouver New Music, Luigi Russolo, Hungarian Radio, La Muse en Circuit, and Phonurgia Nova) and appeared on compilation CD releases (Storm of Drones, Radius #3, DISContact I & II, Lieu - Non Lieu, and Soundscape Vancouver). Rendu Visible, a CD devoted to his work, is available on the empreintes DIGITALes label.

Other works combine his electroacoustic and theatrical backgrounds to break open disciplinary boundaries between electroacoustics, radio art, and theatre. Highlights include the adaptation of August Strindberg's A Dream Play (first radio drama at CBC conceived for broadcast in Surround 5.1), the soundscape documentaries Life Unseen and The Toronto Sound Mosaic, and a DORA nominated soundtrack for Samuel Beckett's That Time.

In addition to composing, he has written articles about listening and environmental sounds for Electronic Cottage, Musicworks, Contact! (CEC), Soundscape: Journal of Acoustic Ecology, and The Journal for Electroacoustic Music (Sonic Arts Network) as well as CD, concert and book reviews for Musicworks, The Whole Note, and Soundscape: The Journal of Acoustic Ecology.

Has a producer and administrator, fond memories lie with Wireless Graffiti, a live-to-air radio extravaganza in 1993 co-produced by Rumble Theatre and Vancouver Pro Musica. After active histories with Vancouver Pro Musica, the Standing Wave Ensemble, and the Communauté électroacoustique Canadienne/Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC) from 1990 to 1996, he now serves on the board of the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology (CASE) and is the Artistic Director for New Adventures in Sound Art.

Nadene Thériault-Copeland - Managing Director

Nadene Thériault-Copeland is Managing Director of New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA), Business Manager of Musicworks Magazine and Financial Coordinator for Charles Street Video. Nadene is also on the board of directors of the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology. She promotes the dissemination of new and experimental sound art through her work with New Adventures in Sound Art, and recently edited three educational booklets published by NAISA: Radio Art Companion (2002), Sign Waves Companion (2002) and Sound in Space (2003). Nadene received her B.F.A. in Music from York University in 1991 where she studied composition with James Tenney.

Carey Dodge – Technical Director

Carey Dodge is a sound designer currently residing in St. Catharines. He recently completed studies in electroacoustics and theatre at Concordia University. His sound designs and electroacoustic performances have complemented dance, film, theatre, installations, sunsets and darkened rooms. Carey specializes in live computer-based sound transformation and spatialization.

Barry Rueger - Web Master
(website)

Barry Rueger is the NAISA webmaster and helps with the RWB Publicity. Barry has worked with non-profit organizations for nearly 20 years, with a particular focus on non-commercial radio. In the past he has sat on the Board of Appalshop, an Appalachian media arts organization in Whitesburg, Kentucky, and is currently a Board member of The Association of Independents In Radio (AIR) and The Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre. Previously Barry worked at CKCU Radio Carleton in Ottawa, Canada, guiding a major restructuring and financial overhaul. He has also been involved in leadership roles at CFMU, at McMaster University in Hamilton and Vancouver Co-op Radio in Vancouver. In 1996 he managed the National Campus and Community Radio Conference in Hamilton, Ontario.

In recent years Barry has become recognized for his ongoing work with new and emerging community radio broadcasters, and received a "People Who Make A Difference" award from the Community Foundation of Ottawa. He continues to guide and shape the direction of campus and community radio in Canada. He can always be counted on by novice broadcasters to provide guidance on the business of radio.

Barry's free time is spent on his blog Three Squirrels in a Pressure Cooker.