In the mid-1990s a community of composers and performers came together at Montreal’s McGill University, loosely centered around composer Michael Oesterle and pianist Marc Couroux...

In the mid-1990s a community of composers and performers came together at Montreal’s McGill University, loosely centered around composer Michael Oesterle and pianist Marc Couroux (who together went on to form the influential Ensemble KORE). This group included many of today’s leading Canadian composers such as Rose Bolton, Paul Frehner, Nicole Lizee, Scott Godin, and Brian Current, and dedicated performers from McGill’s Contemporary Music Ensemble (led by Bruce Mather and, later, Denys Bouliane), the members of the Bozzini Quartet and violist Pemi Paull. It was a transitional generation: the composers were moving away from avant-gardism and re-embracing popular forms, looking away from academia and creating their own groups while still dependent on the local institutions for support and recognition. It was a unique time of intense creation and collaboration that has had a lasting effect on the Canadian new music scene, as the composers’ lives and careers spread them to communities coast to coast, introducing their work to new audiences and a new generation of students. The three works presented here were selected to represent this Canadian voice in new chamber music. The works were championed by Music in the Barns from 2011-2015 as part of their vision to advance this voice within the international musical community.