biographical info
The Array Ensemble is Arraymusic’s principal program, a chamber group that draws primarily on the orchestral families of instruments, but includes instruments from other traditions and new media. Each season, Arraymusic presents its ensemble, along with guest artists, in an annual season of concerts based in Toronto.
The expertise of its group’s members is fundamental to the high standards of interpretation and performance evidenced in Array’s concerts and recordings. To utilize and develop the skills of young creative music artists, Array’s ensemble involves emerging professional performers whenever it can and participates in youth-based educational and mentorship work, as well as cooperates extensively with other organizations to this end. Each year, Array’s Young Composers’ Workshop (commenced in 1985 by then chair Linda Catlin Smith) gives four up-and-coming composers the opportunity to work with Array’s professional group in the creation of new works for a public performance.
Array’s repertoire is eclectic and unique, and includes pieces written for its group by the world’s most distinguished composers, including Ann Southam, John Cage, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, James Tenney, and Claude Vivier. An extensive body of contemporary Canadian work, Array’s library encompasses over 200 original scores and 800 pieces of music.
In addition to its concert season, Array is actively involved in interdisciplinary work which has resulted in the production of several repertory programs, in addition to the full-length works Big Pictures by Michael J. Baker, Personal History by Henry Kucharzyk, nostalgia by Robert W. Stevenson and Chemin de ronde: music/dance collage (a collaboration between composers from Lyon, France and Toronto). In 2006/07, Arraymusic participated with the National Arts Centre/NAC in the presentation of The Wrong Son, a musical thriller in the film noir tradition written by Allen Cole and performed by the Array Ensemble at the NAC over three weeks in Ottawa.