Manitoba Composers Association

Manitoba Composers Association

Manitoba Composers Association. Founded in 1982 as a non-profit organization intended to promote the creation, performance, and appreciation of contemporary music and in particular, the music of Manitobans. The founding members included Peter Allen, William Pura, and Blakeman Welch. With a general membership of 49 in 1991, of which 34 are composer members, the assn is the voice of Manitoba composers professionally active in various genres, including jazz.

An executive director carries out decisions made by the eight member board of directors. Funding has come from various agencies, including the MAC, the Manitoba Arts Gaming Fund Commission, the city of Winnipeg, the Canada Council, and the federal Dept of Communications. A collection of scores and tapes by Manitoba composers known as the Manitoba Music Centre, originally housed in the MCA office, was moved in 1990 to the School of Music Library, University of Manitoba.

Projects of the MCA have included Satori Festival, a week-long festival of contemporary music in Winnipeg in 1986; a series of bio-bibliographical brochures on Manitoba composers published in 1988; a cultural exchange with the Union of Ukrainian Composers in Kiev in 1989; a monthly Newsletter 1984-9; a CD recording of Manitoba music, Jéte: Music for Violin, (1989, Manitoba Composers' MCVS-5001) featuring violinist Victor Schultz; and ongoing music publication projects, typeset using desk top computer equipment. By 1990 the assn had published Eight Pieces for Solo Piano at junior level in conjunction with the Manitoba Arts Festivals (1988), a set of five choral pieces, Choral Music by Manitobans (1989), and Music for Solo Piano, a set of five piano pieces for advanced performers (1990). In 1991 there were plans to publish music for chamber ensemble for the university level music student. In addition, the MCA has sponsored several concerts of new works by members 1982-9. Several of the jazz concerts were recorded for broadcast by CBC and CKND TV (Winnipeg). In 1991 the association began to co-sponsor, with other Winnipeg arts organizations, concerts or concert series of contemporary music from Manitoba and elsewhere.

Members of the Manitoba Composers Association have included Peter Allen, Stefan Bauer, Remi Bouchard, Bruce Carlson, Chester Duncan and his son Laurie Duncan, Gerhard Ginader, Knut Eide Haugsoen, Jim Hiscott, the jazz pianist Marilyn Lerner, the guitarist Greg Lowe, Michael Matthews, Diana McIntosh, Bob McMullin, the pianist and percussionist Rick Mosdell, Kenneth Nichols, Ron Paley, Michael Patton, Randolph Peters, Sid Robinovitch, Linda Schwartz, David Scott, Bruce Shavers, Robert Turner and his wife the percussionist and composer Sara Scott Turner, and Blakeman Welch. Compositions by Bruce Carlson (b Toronto 1944) have been performed by the Winnipeg Singers, the Festival Quartet of Canada, the Purcell String Quartet, and the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir. Founding member William Pura (b Winnipeg 19 Dec 1948, BFA Manitoba 1970, MFA Indiana 1973), a print-maker by trade, is also a founding member of the IZ MUSIC concert society and a member of the CLComp. David Scott (b Rochford, England 1962, B MUS Manitoba 1988), won a BMI award for At A Quiet Surface in 1986, a Music Inter Alia award for Five Short Songs in 1987, and a PRO Canada composition award in 1990 for Archipelago and was a participant in the MCA's 1989 cultural exchange to Kiev. Bruce Shavers (b Brandon, Man, 7 Feb 1958; B MUS Dalhousie 1980, M MUS Western 1983), was winner of the 1985 Music Inter Alia Young Composers' Competition and a founding member and co-artistic director of New Music Manitoba.