THE STANDING WAVE SOCIETY

Standing Wave's 2023-2024 season began with 'Compocon ' out annual student composer workshop in August. We worked with nine outstanding emerging composers who worked intensively with the band and our 3 mentor composers Jeffrey Ryan Edward Top and Rita Ueda. Over the next few months the students continued to craft their pieces which we then presented at our 'Compocon Presents: The Works of Compocon 2023' concert on February 29 2024. As a side note in September 2024 Danial Sheibani’s piece Trepidation Lake won the 2024 Socan Award for Chamber Music- a testament to the importance of nurturing the talents of young composers and to Compocon’s mission. Standing Wave was honoured to perform the closing night concert of Music on Main’s 2023 Modulus Festival in November of 2023 which took place at the Roundhouse. We were thrilled to showcase no fewer than three world premieres: new commissions written for us by Nancy Tam Dorothy Chang and Giorgio Magnanensi. We also performed works by Brian Current and the late Jocelyn Morlock. As with previous Modulus Festivals this concert was a co-production with Standing Wave paying artist fees and Music on Main paying for all venue and marketing related costs. This seems to be a very successful model as Music on Main has an excellent marketing department and is consistently able to pull in large and enthusiastic audiences- this one being no exception. We heard many very positive comments after the performance with more than a few audience members mentioning that it was their favourite concert of the entire festival. We look forward to future collaborations! On Sunday May 19 2024 at the Annex Theatre Standing Wave presented Bloom an exploration of landscapes physical metaphysical and musical. We were thrilled to perform two world premieres (Rita Ueda’s Poppies Still Bloom and Grow and Bekah Simms’ Metamold (Flute Feature Version) as well as to collaborate with three exceptional artists: Lani Krantz on harp Geling Jiang on Liuqin and Ali Razmy on the Tar. This concert also featured works by Toru Takemitsu Linda Catlin Smith and Claude Vivier. This program was very well-received by an enthusiastic audience.