Les Événements du neuf

Les Événements du neuf

Les Événements du neuf. Concert society dedicated to avant-garde music, founded 1978 in Montreal by José Evangelista, John Rea, Lorraine Vaillancourt and Claude Vivier. Denis Gougeon, Rémi Lapointe, and Léon Bernier were also members of the board of directors. The society's purpose was to explore the various tendencies and genres of contemporary music, including multi-media performances, while at the same time removing barriers between historical periods and musical categories. The word 'neuf' has a double meaning, designating in French both the number nine and also something new. Each concert took place on the ninth day of the month at nine o'clock in the evening.

An ad hoc instrumental ensemble was conducted by Lorraine Vaillancourt. The society featured many soloists and guest ensembles, among them Tango X 4, Guy Nadon, Geoffrey D. Madge (who gave a rare performance of Kaikhosru Sorabji's Opus Clavicembalisticum), Pauline Vaillancourt, Marc-André Hamelin, the Tudor Singers, Marie-Danielle and Yolande Parent, and Lise Daoust. Concerts centred on a theme such as electroacoustic music, tango, new music, early music instruments, jazz from Stravinsky to Guy Nadon, and 'sound games'. Les Événements du neuf performed Claude Vivier's opera Kopernikus in concert four times: in Montreal in 1986, 1988, and 1989, and in Paris in 1989. It also presented works by Quebec composers Marcelle Deschênes, Francis Dhomont, José Evangelista, Michel Gonneville, Denis Gougeon, Michel Longtin, John Rea, Myke Roy and Alain Thibault. The society established a National Tribune for Young Composers (1985, 1987, 1989). The Événements du neuf ensemble recorded Gougeon's Voix intimes with Marie-Danielle Parent and Yolande Parent, conducted by Lorraine Vaillancourt (Centrediscs CMC-2085), and Rea's Mediator, with the composer conducting (RCI 570). Other organizations with similar objectives appeared in the 1980's, and the society ceased its activities in 1990.