Friday October 26, 2018
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
TMA Offices, A1 Auditorium, First Floor
15 Gervais Dr, Toronto, ON
Ample parking at location, payment required at machine
TTC: 25 and 185 buses (Pape Station) or 34 Eglinton East Bus (Eglinton Station)
Lunch provided and $20 per member (to offset parking or other expenses)
At the age of nineteen, Lawrence Cherney was invited to perform with the CBC Symphony under Igor Stravinski. For nearly fifty years, he has been at the forefront of Canadian music. Frequently referred to as “Canada’s Ambassador of New Music”. his paramount role in the commissioning, developing, producing, performing, touring and recording of new Canadian music is legendary.
It has been his destiny to be a pioneer in Canadian music: charter member of the National Arts Centre Orchestra (1969-72); Founding Member of the York Winds (1972-82); Founding Artistic Director of the summer festival Music at Sharon (1981-1994);and Founding Artistic Director of Soundstreams (1982-present).
He has commissioned over 150 new Canadian works for the oboe, and has collaborated with most of contemporary music’s giants. He has toured throughout North America, Europe, and Israel as recitalist and guest artist with major orchestras and string quartets, and has recorded for numerous labels and European radio networks, gathering five Juno nominations and prizes at the European Broadcasting Union. In 2003, he was invested in the Order of Canada.
Lawrence’s passion for excellence in the pursuit of Canadian music inspired him to expand his horizons beyond performing. Music at Sharon was renowned as a showcase for Canadian music and was the most broadcast festival in the country on CBC Radio 2. Under his leadership, Soundstreams has grown to become one of the most dynamic organizations of its kind in the world, ans has commissioned 170 new Canadian works in all genres. It produces an eclectic MainStage series, the Ear Candy series in more intimate venues, and a new monthly outreach/performance series, Encounters. The organization has a state-of-the-art web platform, including its innovative SoundMakers project. The annual Emerging Composers Workshop provides high quality mentorship to gifted young composers.
Lawrence has forged bold new directions in this, SoundStreams’ 35th anniversary season. The organization recently gave the world premiere staging of Claude Vivier’s Musik fur das Ende. Attended by thirteen international artistic directors, it received a rave full-page review from The New York Times. Tours to major venues and festivals in the USA and Europe are now projected for 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Canada continues to produce some of the finest composers in the world, but they merit greater recognition at home and abroad. Lawrence Cherney has dedicated an entire career to providing a national and international platform for their talents as means of creating a lasting legacy for their work. For these efforts, and for his lasting impact on musical life in Toronto and across the country, the Toronto Musicians’ Association is proud to present Lawrence Cherney with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
“Definitely not. This is way out of my comfort zone.”
A graduate of the Glenn Gould School, where he studied with John Rudolph and David Kent, Kristofer Maddigan is principal percussionist of the National Ballet Orchestra, and performs with a wide range of groups including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Hannaford Street Silver Band, and the Esprit Orchestra. But he had never written a three-hour big band score for a video game – until two long-time friends aked him to do just that. They persisted, he relented, and the resulting game, Cuphead, was a major hit that sold a million copies within two weeks of its release and was one of the top new games of 2017.
Cuphead received many nominations for its score, including most recently being named Best Music at the BAFTA Games Awards. But there’s no doubt that it’s more than a typical game soundtrack; it was released as a deluxe four-LP vinyl box set, spent thirteen weeks on the Billboard Jazz charts, and received a Juno nomination for Instrumental Album of the Year.
Visually, Cuphead is inspired by cartoons of the 1930’s, and the score echoes the same era. Its Ellington and Joplin-inspired tracks feature some of Canada’s top jazz musicians – a total of 42 musicians performed on the soundtrack, including featured soloists John Johnson, Alex Dean, Mike Murley, Steve McDade, and Al Kay. Kris credits the assistance of John Herberman, saying, “He taught me everything I know,” and says of game developers Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, “It was they who quit their jobs and remortgaged their homes to finance the making of the game, and it was also they who shared (importantly) paid for our dream of hiring real musicians.”
The Toronto Musicians’ Association salutes Kris for his remarkable accomplishments and is delighted to name him our Musician of the Year for 2017.
