Sixtrum's 2010-2011 Season - 80 concerts !

Sixtrum's 2010-2011 artistic season has been particularly rich, with 11 concerts in various venues in Montreal (Canadian Architecture Center, salle Claude-Champagne, salle Pierre-Mercure, Maisons de la Culture  Ahuntsic, Côte-des-Neiges and Outremont), 64 children's shows (Québec, Montréal and Ottawa regions). Sixtrum has also premiered 5 new works by Quebec composers, and 2 others as canadian premieres.

This past season has allowed the ensemble to develop its repertoire and gain more traction. A great part of that growth was due to collaborations with major players in the local contemporary scene such as the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec ( Halloween concert and La vie qui bat show, presented with O Vertigo dance company), le Vivier (Ligeti : Father to Son and Atlas Eclipticalis) and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (Un train pour l’enfer). Sixtrum's participation to the 2011 Montreal New Music Festival was particularly important since the ensemble took part in the opening and closing concerts.

Other promising collaborations, with artists from abroad, were also initiated during this past season: hosting the Percussions Claviers de Lyon in our concert series has allowed us to tie new bonds with this internationally renowned group. A concert devoted to the music of the Ligetis father and son has also allowd us to welcome the inspiring composer, percussionist and improviser Lukas Ligeti

Among this past season's strongest moments, the Lights! concert dedicated to video-music gave us the opportunity to collaborate in a very dense way with the composers involved in the project, Sylvain Pohu, Louis Dufort, Dominic Thibault and Jean Piché. This project was a perfect example of an artistic expression genre that allowed us to reach an audience not already familiar with our types of concerts. As such, our participation to the Arrimages program (Conseil des arts de Montréal and Jeune chambre de commerce de Montréal) for this concert was a perfect success as many of the participants came to other concerts performed by Sixtrum. The receiving of the Arrimages Prize also confirmed the relevancy of this type of outreach acttivity. Our most sincere thanks to the Conseil des arts de Motnréal and the Jeune chambre de commerce de Montréal !

The 2011-2012 Season, the story continues !

Indeed, our music explorations story will continue in 2011-2012. On the program: new concerts produced by Sixtrum and in collaboration with new partners - the Society of Arts and Technology, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and VivaVoce vocal ensemble -. a tour in wester Canada and more than 60 children's shows, coproduced with the Jeunesses Musicales of Canada for a third year.

september 21 2011, 9 pm
Society for arts and technology
Drumming by Steve Reich

After last yesr's success of La vie qui bat during the MNM 2011 festival, Sixtrum presents once more this major success by american composer Steve Reich in a particularly dynamic Montreal venue, ths Society of Arts and Technology. Composed in 1970-1971, Drumming plays with the perception of time using the obsessive repetition of short rhythmic cells, and the phasing of the cells one against each other.

A landmark of the american minimalist movement, Drumming represents the ultimate refinement of the techniques developed by Reich that has suxch a strong influence on other composers as well as numerous post and indie rock bands.
 

november 7 2011, 8 pm
society of arts and technology
Histoires de gestes

The history of percussion is one of gesture: the act of striking, of course, usually associated with percussion instruments, but also the acts of shaking, rubbing, scraping, plucking, caressing, massaging...

With these Histoires de gestes (Stories of gestures), Sixtrum is particularly interested in composers who use gesture as a basic element of their works. Oddly, some of these works play with silent gestures, or at the the limits of silence, such as Pierre qui roule n’amasse pas paraddidles gather no moss by Quebec composer Myke Roy, premiered in 2009 by Sixtrum, that stages a "sound-mime" grappling with his musical imagination. The relationship with silence is also present in Gilles Mottet's works Oxymore and Jeux de miroir « where the listener and the player fill silence with references to their own experiences with the world of sound".

Painting with Breath, by New Zealand composer David Downes, uses sound created by bamboos and bullroarers that cut through the air. Pièces de Gestes, by Belgian Thierry de Mey, choreographs the movements of five pairs of hands playing on tables, while Strings Attached by American-Autralian composer Erik Griswold maked the players experiment with different sound gestures, for instance using strings attached to the percussion sticks. Live sound sculptures!

Finally, Mémoires de peaux by French composer Bruno Giner contrastingly uses the pure and powerfull stroke movements, almost choreographic and highly virtuoso, of six percussionists playing drums.
 

january 26 to  february 1 2012
canadian tour in calgary, edmonton and victoria

After its four years of existence, and three European tous, the time has come for Sixtrum to meet with Western Canada's audiences. For this tour's repertoire, Sixtrum has chosen major percussion works that  account for Sixtrum's "classics" and all time favorites: Aikea and Pulau Dewata by Claude Vivier, Third Construction by John Cage and the Peaux movement of Iannis Xenakis's Pléiades.
 

march 2012, 8 pm
venue to be announced
Pulau Dewata, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Boulez/Eötvös

In a concert dedicated to composer Pierre Boulez, under the direction of Peter Eötvös, the OSM invites Sixtrum to present in counterpoint to Boulez's Répons and Varèse's Déserts a work by Claude Vivier. Sixtrum will perform its version of Pulau Dewata, orchestrated by Fabrice Marandola, a member of the ensemble.

This invitation marks the Quebec music scene's recognition of Sixtrum's work and will allow a new audience to discover Sixtrum's work.

may 4 2012, 8 pm
Redpath hall
Birthday Cage Happy John !

Collaborating with a vocal ensemble has been part of Sixtrum's projects since the beginning of the ensemble. Unfortunately, voice and percussion repertoire has not been much developed in québec. This new collaboration with Viva Voce (dir. Peter Schubert) has made possible the presentation of two new canadian works Chris-Paul Harman et Brian Cherney, in a concert that will also include works by John Cage such as 42 (for voice), Third construction (percussion) and Imaginery Landscapes #4 (12 radios). TKRDG, by Scelsi (1968) pour men's voices, three percussions and amplified guitar, as well as Pulau Dewata in a version for choir and percussion orchestrated by Peter Schubert and Fabrice Marandola, will complete this original program.

Peter Schubert et Fabrice Marandola will host the concert and suggest a few listeming keys to guide the audience through the presented works.
 

november 2011 to june 2012
how great turtle rebult the world

In collaboration with the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, Sixtrum presents again this year an original show for young audiences, How Great Turtle Rebuilt the World.

How Great Turtle Rebuilt the World is a musical show for children, created by Sixtrum with director Michel G. Barette. Created in the Fall of 2009 in co-production with les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, the show has already been presented to 5000 audience members in schools and theatres.

This show has been created in the form of a theatre of objects, which leads to the discovery of the diverse personalities of the percussion instruments – and their performers! – in an atmosphere that alternates between moments of quiet intimacy and frenzied rhythm. Our hero is also represented by a percussion instrument, the hang, similar in form to the actual animal.
Check our website for show dates.En collaboration avec les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, Sixtrum présente encore cette année un spectacle original pour le jeune public, La Grande Tortue.

How Great Turtle Rebuilt the World is a show for children and the young at heart that will be presented in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes.

Indeed, our music explorations story will continue in 2011-2012, but it will not be limited to our annonced concerts and shows. It will also be told through the ensenble members' interventions on social media and our website's blog

Don't hesitate to be part of our story by leaving comments, suggestions ou ideas on our website, or by writing us at  info@sixtrum.com.

Talk to you soon !