As part of the Piano 2024 edition of the Concours musical international de Montréal ( Montreal International Music Competition), either with CMIM artistic director Shira Gilbert and jury president, cultural grandee Zarin Mehta, chat with PAN M 360’s Alexandre Villemaire.
After serving as jury president in 2018, following the death of André Bourbeau – co-founder of the CMIM with Joseph Rouleau – and presiding over the Piano 2021 and Voix 2022 editions, Zarin Mehta, former general director of the OSM in 1981, recognized worldwide as a seasoned consultant and manager in the cultural milieu will be back for this edition where he will preside over the international jury for the 2024 edition.
Made up of performers and career teachers who are experts in their fields, Louise Bessette, Robert Levin, Dmitri Alexeev, Hélène Mercier, Lydia Artymiw, Jan Jiracek von Arnim, Ronan O’Hora and Minsoo Sohn will have the task of deciding which of the 24 candidates will advance to the competition.
PAN M 360 caught up with him at his home in Chicago, along with CMIM Artistic Director Shira Gilbert, to hear from them just days before the start of the competition, as well as to discuss some of the new additions to the events, including the chamber music component.
One of the major annual classical music events in Montreal’s cultural ecosystem kicks off on Sunday, May 5. Recognized as one of the most important and prestigious international competitions for the new classical generation, the Montreal International Music Competition (MIMC) will see 24 young pianists from 12 countries showcase their expertise and talent.
Through various elimination rounds, over the next two weeks the public will be able to witness a heightened competition where, well, it’s anyone’s guess who will be able to predict which of these young musicians will stand out when only 6 of them will advance to the final where they will be accompanied by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its guest conductor, the Chinese-American Xian Zhang.
With its well-established reputation for excellence, the competition’s identity has always been marked by the spirit of open camaraderie and conviviality of its community. Once again this year, competitors will have the opportunity to receive instruction from exceptional mentors in various master classes and – new this year – to take their music to a wider audience with The MIMC on the Road.
With just a few days to go before the start of the competition we talk to Chantal Poulin, General Manager of the Competition to get a glimpse of what the Piano 2024 programming has in store.
For an Arab, what is the experience of immigration to North America? Lebanese-Montreal avant-pop duo Wake Island explore this question in a vast 3-part artistic intervention, scheduled to take place at Centre Phi. It’s a sort of triptych, consisting of an immersive live performance with Radwan Ghazi Moumneh (Jerusalem In My Heart, Hotel2Tango studio, Asadun Alay label, etc.), a “spatial audio” listening experience and a role-playing video game. Over the past two years, Wake Island has seen the universe of the album Born to Leave grow, a collection of oriental synth pop released in 2021, now accompanied by a video game, centered on the themes of immigration and Arab identity. The result of close collaboration with a team of Lebanese creative minds in Montreal, this ambitious project is a pop work that has become multifaceted and experimental at the Centre PHI. On May 3, we’ll be treated to a live musical performance of the game’s soundtrack by Wake Island and Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, featuring a video installation by Giotto remixing the game’s 3D visuals. All week long at the Centre PHI, from May 1 to 7, you’ll also be able to discover and play the game in the Galerie 1 showcases, and visit the Habitat Sonore listening room for an exclusive look at the album’s spatial mix.
Alex Henry Foster, the orchestral post-rock provocateur, came back from the dead, literally, after a close call with his heart left him unable to talk, sing, or strum a guitar. During his recovery, he dove into his archives from multiple trips to Japan and found he had the basis for a film. Using his poetry, journals, and interviews from Japan, he also began writing music and sought the aid of producer, Ben Lemelin, his musical partner for a number of years, and vocalist Momoka Tobari. Together they created Kimiyo, a gorgeous, orchestral post-rock odyssey that is light and heavy simultaneously.
Foster was unable to speak in the studio and had to use hand signals and pure emotion to conduct the musical passages while Momoka adapted and sang her passages in Japanese, completely reacting to the music in real time. In Foster’s words, Momoka channeled several different perspectives while singing her parts in Kimiyo. We spoke to Foster about Kimiyo, his artistic revelations, and some of the sounds found on the album.
On April 27 and 28, guitarist and composer Tim Brady will present a brand new opera entitled Information: Montréal Oct. 1970 at the Espace Orange du Wilder in Montreal’s Quartier des spectacles. To my knowledge, this is the first Quebec opera to be set during the October ’70 crisis.
With a libretto by Mishka Lavigne, the opera will feature Tim Brady himself on electric guitar, as well as Pamela Reimer on keyboard, Jean-Marc Bouchard on saxophone and Chloé Domingue on cello. On the vocal side, a fine cast including Marie-Annick Béliveau, Pierre Rancourt, David Menzies, Jacqueline Woodley and Clayton Kennedy.
After Backstage at Carnegie Hall, premiered at The Centaur in 2022, Information is the second opera in a tetralogy planned by Brady, entitled Hope (and the Dark Matter of History). The next operas will take us to Mars and a future infused with artificial intelligence.
Jonah Guimond, better known in the music world as P’tit Belliveau, sent ruptures through the Francophone music industry last year when he announced that his upcoming third release would be independent and that he would be leaving the label, Bonsound.
Now, almost a year since that announcement, P’tit Belliveau is back with his third album, a self-titled epic that switches from hyper pop, bro-country, nu-metal, and more. Guimond let it be known that he made this album for himself and knows it will be polarizing among some of his fans.
At the same time, P’tit Belliveau has always been an artist who throws convention out the window, so some of the weirder moments on this album; like the wacky frog song trilogy, shouldn’t completely shock his fans.
We spoke to Guimond from his home in Clare, Nova Scotia, about his newfound independence, his love of frogs, working with FouKi on the song “Comfy,” and of course, Income Tax.
Photos by Sacha Cohen
As a key figure of the Montreal independent music scene for almost twenty years, Annie-Claude Deschênes (PYPY, Duchess Says) is still driven by a constant need to create outside her comfort zone, to renew and grow through improvisation and provocation. Fuelled by a spontaneous creative impulse in her kitchen and hungry to take unplanned risks in her musical laboratory, the songs from her debut solo album, entitled LES MANIÈRES DE TABLE (released on Bonsound and Italians Do It Better), were conceived during the confinement to fill the void of inactivity, without initially being intended for public release. In the face of increasing digital surveillance, perhaps they should have been kept enclosed… Because everything seems hopeless when randomness starts to offend.
Using rhythms constructed from samples of utensils, the theme of the table has become a source of inspiration for looking at robotic alienation and the absurdity of social conventions that sometimes drive us to excessive politeness and precaution. By merging these rhythms with her new fascination for surveillance cameras and other supposedly innovative technologies, Annie-Claude reveals humanity in its constant struggle against its own programmed obsolescence in the face of the increasing dematerialisation of our time. Part of the same coldwave movement as Automelodi, Xarah Dion and Essaie Pas, this radical and masterful album, inspired by the pioneers of electronic music, will be transformed on 26 April at Centre Phi into a live experience combining minimal pop and culinary performance art improbably and experimentally. The audience will be invited to interact with the artist.
PAN M 360 spoke to Annie-Claude Deschênes to find out more about the motivations behind this new artistic vision. Careful, it’s hot. Bon appétit.
Opening photo by: Lawrence Fafard
PAN M 360: You are known above all as the frontwoman of the Montreal bands Duchess Says and PYPY, and you’ve just released your first solo album LES MANIÈRES DE TABLES on Bonsound. These tracks were written during the pandemic because you were bored in your kitchen. What motivated you to release them and share them?
Annie-Claude Deschênes: Well, these songs would obviously never have left home… In 2022 I was asked to do a show at the Centre Phi for HEAVY TRIP, to improvise and experiment to create a twenty-minute performance. I decided to use these songs because the show was scheduled three months later. I didn’t have the time to compose a lot so I took those songs. I enjoyed doing that performance. Then I had a residency at the Phi Centre, where I was able to develop the rest of the album.
PAN M 360: For this album, you used sequencers and drum machines to play around with sounds created with kitchen utensils. Can you tell us more about this particular creative process?
Annie-Claude Deschênes: I opened the kitchen drawer and suddenly had a flash! (laughs). I thought it was beautiful. I don’t know… I started sampling a knife and a spoon. I looped it, dephased it, added a kick to it and that made the first song. I played the keyboard over it. It slowly built up. As the album wasn’t conceived with conventional structures there are a lot of instrumental parts. I improvised it without any purpose.
PAN M 360: You apparently familiarised yourself with drum machines during the creation of that album. Was it something new for you?
Annie-Claude Deschênes: Not in that way. In my bands, drum machines were added afterwards, in the studio. But this time I was on my own. I had no choice but to replace the drummer with a drum machine and the bass with a sequencer. That’s how the album became an electronic project.
PAN M 360: Precisely, you draw your inspiration from the pioneers of electronic music. On this album we can hear Kraftwerk, New Order or Simple Minds. We can also recognise the influence of the Montreal groups Automelodi, Essaie Pas and Xarah Dion. And then there’s the experimental, left-field feel of Born Bad Records’ ‘Des Jeunes Gens Mödernes’ compilations.
Annie-Claude Deschênes: In fact, all these influences were crushed together on this album. I wasn’t so much trying to sound like New Order, even though the album sounds very danceable.
PAN M 360: The subject of this album revolves around table manners, surveillance and the omnipresence of technology. This work has enabled you to deconstruct certain social codes. In the song ‘LES MANIÈRES DE TABLE’, you even say ‘Your table manners may offend’. Could you tell us about the reflections you’ve had around this work?
Annie-Claude Deschênes: I developed them because of the performance I had to do at the Centre Phi. It was a performance that involved interaction with the audience, with tables and objects, where the guests wondered what they could or couldn’t eat. For example, a USB stick made of marzipan. I wrote that song to speak to the audience in the context of that show. Of course, I’m always reacting against things that are a bit too ‘rigid’, if I can put it that way, but it was really just to have fun. I was also disconnected from the music scene for quite a while. When I came back, I really tried to get to grips with social media, to understand where we’d got to. I found it really strange to watch other people’s lives, I found it absurd. When you think about it, surveillance cameras may represent something technological, but they’re already outdated. There’s nothing really futuristic about it for me.
PAN M 360: And yet, with the emergence of facial recognition, cameras are going to become more sophisticated, aren’t they?
Annie-Claude Deschênes: Yes, of course. But it happens so quickly, you think you’re holding something that’s hyper-technological and innovative in your hands, and suddenly, in two seconds, it’s already obsolete. It also allowed me to reflect on my own existence. We can apply this thought to our own lives. As we grow older, we ourselves become obsolete. I don’t claim to be a great philosopher, but that’s how I felt as I tried to adapt.
PAN M 360: In the song ‘Y ALLER’, you even talk about a ‘digital gaze that uninstalls me’.
Annie-Claude Deschênes: Yes, everything is linked. At the same time, it’s absurd for me to have to explain any of it. It’s abstract. I find it interesting to try, but it’s something that is unconscious … It’s hard to try and explain what I really wanted to say. I just said it.
PAN M 360: You’re launching your album on 26 April at the Centre Phi. Your previous show combined performance art with music. What can we expect from your launch?
Annie-Claude Deschênes: I don’t want to say it’s an immersive experience, because it’s not an immersive experience as such. But we’re trying to create a certain aesthetic. There’s going to be a lot of food… There are going to be projections by Anthony Piazza and guest musicians. Lola 1:2 will be opening. I’m in the process of building a more danceable show, punctuated by three or four performances that leave room for improvisation depending on the audience’s reaction. These moments can end up going in any direction, as I’ve always done with PYPY or Duchess Says. I like to keep things open. This show is actually really dangerous for me (laughs). I really get myself into an uncomfortable situation. I’ve got my turntables, I’ve got my beatboxes, I’ve never done the song order, I’ve never played these songs with the musicians. I have no idea if the show will turn out the way I imagine. At the same time, I find it exciting, given that I don’t really take it that seriously. It’s just going to be funny at worst.
PAN M 360: It’s pretty cool to see artists like you still putting themselves at risk. It’s quite rare, there’s less and less room for improvisation these days. What do you get out of putting yourself in these kinds of situations? Does it challenge you to confront yourself?
Annie-Claude Deschênes: I’d say it makes life more complicated for me (laughs). Instead of doing what I have to do, I’m always looking for something new to surprise myself. Is it good, is it bad, is it interesting? I don’t know. But it allows me to renew myself, with good or bad results. Life goes by quickly, and even if it’s comfortable to repeat what I’m capable of doing, I don’t have the impression that it makes me grow.
PAN M 360: I just have one last weird question. Your first track is called ‘TASSEOMANCIE’. It is a divination method that interprets the patterns in tea leaves. Do you think music can be a method of divination?
Anne-Claude Deschênes: Absolutely, what I’m doing at the moment will also define my future. But first and foremost, this song has a link with the members of my family, who have a tradition of reading tea leaves in the morning, at noon and in the evening. There was also the fortune-telling dice and dream analysis. It was part of my daily life. I grew up in an esoteric environment. Even though I’ve always found it absurd, it still influences me.
The fruit of a crossbreeding of the different cultures that shaped it, the musical representation of the New World, colloquially known as America, has aroused numerous interpretations and fascinations on the part of both European composers and those who inhabited and built this territory. The Orchestre symphonique de Laval invites music lovers to discover the music of the New World in the third major concert of its 2023-2024 season. The program, led by dynamic conductor Naomi Woo, recently appointed head of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, will highlight works by two composers – one Canadian, the other Chinese-Peruvian, as well as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, with Quebec jazzwoman Lorraine Desmarais as soloist, and Dvořák’s mythical Symphony no 9. With just a few days to go before the concert, we caught up with Naomi Woo to discuss the program. Find the interview below after reading the program!
New World Music program
Jocelyn Morlock
Hullabaloo
Gabriela Lena Frank
Elegia andina
George Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue
Antonín Dvořák
Symphony no 9, in E minor, op. 95 ” From the New World “
Since their brilliant studies at Juilliard 2 decades ago, virtuosos Greg Anderson and Elizabeth Joy Roe developed unique skills and eclectism through the classical piano duo. Before their coming to Montreal at Salle Pierre-Mercure on April 21st, they give a generous interview to Alain Brunet at PAN M 360. Not only do they excel as soloists on stages the world over, but they have also played a leading role in updating the piano duo with a repertoire that embraces classical music of the highest standard, as well as works by creative pop artists and great singer-songwriters such as Freddy Mercury, Paul Simon, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Leonard Cohen. Take a look at their Montreal program to see for yourself, before viewing the PAN M 360 interview!
ANDERSON & ROE ARE PERFORMING AT SALLE PIERRE-MERCURE, SUNDAY APRIL 21ST, 3PM. TICKETS AND INFOS HERE
Program Piano Symphonique
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 Allegro con spirito Andante Molto Allegro
ANTONIN DVOŘÁK “Silent Woods” from From the Bohemian Forest, Op. 68, No. 5
JOHN WILLIAMS / ANDERSON & ROE Three Star Wars Fantasies
Ragtime Quietly luminous Toccata
– Intermission
ANDERSON & ROE Nocturne on Neptune (based on Holst’s “Neptune” from The Planets) MAURICE RAVEL / GRYAZNOV “Daybreak” from Daphnis et Chloé
ANDERSON & ROE Hallelujah Variations (Variations on a Theme by Leonard Cohen) JOHN LENNON & PAUL MCCARTNEY / ANDERSON & ROE “Let It Be” from Let It Be
Artistic direction : Irina Krasnyanskaya
Piano : Anderson & Roe
Duration : 1h30, with intermission
Photo credits : Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
With her new EP sadder but better co-produced with Félix Petit, a recording released on April 5 on the Duprince label, HAWA B reaffirms her plural expression; soul and jazz sit comfortably alongside alternative rock and electro. Like a growing number of Afro-descendant artists, the Montreal singer, songwriter and producer transgresses what is conventional for artists of color.
With this in mind, HAWA B sets out “to explore in depth facets of myself that I don’t like. I wanted to transform them into songs that represent me, and that I love, to learn to accept who I am. It made me sadder, but for the better .”
Hawa B or not Hawa B? The sadder but better EP answers the question!
For those who have yet to discover this formidable artist, whom PAN M 360 welcomes here in a video interview (below), let’s remember that she has already shared the stage with Hubert Lenoir, Charlotte Cardin, Greg Beaudin, Marie Gold, Clay and Friends, Dominique Fils-Aimé, FouKi, FELP and more.
EP credits sadder but better
Lyrics, composition: Nadia Hawa Baldé (HAWA B)
Arrangements: Nadia Hawa Baldé et Félix Petit
Piano: Émile Désilets et David Osei-Afrifa
Bass: Jonathan Arseneau
Guitar: Philippe L’allier
Drums: Anthony Pageot et Félix Petit
Flute, Saxophone, Clavier: Félix Petit
Saxophone : Julien Fillion
Production: Félix Petit & Nadia Hawa Baldé
Mix: Jean-Bruno Pinard
Master: Gabriel Meunier
Prise de son: Félix Petit et Patrice Pruneau
The Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal (ONJ) and the ODD SOUND Festival welcome saxophonist and composer Donny McCaslin, under the direction of Montreal conductor, composer and saxophonist Philippe Côté.
This is in fact the opening concert of the ODDSOUND organization’s festival, whose star piece is Shades of Bowie, a piece by Philippe Côté inspired by the music of David Bowie, composed for Donny McCaslin and the Orchestre national de jazz de Montréal. The American saxophonist and composer, a Montreal regular since the late ’80s, was musical director for the recording of the extraordinary Blackstar album, David Bowie’s final offering.
Philippe Côté has known Donny McCaslin since a long stay in New York some fifteen years ago. McCaslin befriended saxophonist and composer David Binney, with whom he produced the album Lungta, released in concert in 2016 with the ONJ. The rock spirit and electro openness that Donny McCaslin’s music led Bowie to recruit him to the musical direction has taken for several years, and from the pivotal role McCaslin played in Bowie’s masterful final opus Blackstar, Philippe Côté wanted to pay tribute to Bowie as well as his influence on McCaslin’s career by interlacing his music with subtle Bowian evocations.
For the guest soloist, Shades of Bowie is an opportunity to improvise to his heart’s content on an orchestral fresco noticeably reinforced by percussion.
Opening the evening, McGill University’s Jazz Orchestra 1 will present a repertoire including Two fifteen, a piece by Philippe Côté inspired by Lee Tsang’s poem of the same title about residential schools.
So many reasons to interview the soloist and his composer by video, before the concert takes place on Wednesday April 10, an ONJ program in Place des Arts’ 5e salle.
PROGRAM
ORCHESTRE NATIONAL DE JAZZ DE MONTRÉAL
Ariste invité | Donny McCaslin
Chef d’orchestre | Philippe Côté
Saxophones
Jean-Pierre Zanella, Samuel Blais, André Leroux, Frank Lozano, Alexandre Coté
Trombones
Dave Grott, Margaret Donovan, Taylor Donaldson, Jean-Sébastien Vachon
Trompettes
Jocelyn Couture, Aron Doyle, David Carbonneau, Bill Mahar
Violinist Isabella D’Éloize Perron, former Révélation radio-Canada en musique classique 2020-2021, will embark on a major North American tour that will take her to many of the continent’s major cities (Montreal, of course, but also Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Chicago, Boston, and others). Two Quebec cities have also been added: Quebec City and Trois-Rivières. The FILMharmonic Orchestra conducted by Francis Choinière will accompany her in a programme dedicated to the four seasons, those of Vivaldi and those of Piazzolla, coloured by tango. I met the young artist just before the start of this long and beautiful journey.
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