Despite having one of the most important chamber music festivals in the world, Ottawa is not a hot bed for creating new music, according to Gary Hayes, president of the Ottawa New Music Creators.
“If you look at some of the new music scenes in Toronto or Montreal, or some of the smaller cities like Winnipeg, they have very active new music scenes,” said Hayes. “Ottawa hasn’t much of that and it needs to be developed.”
The ONMC is an association of musicians and composers who came together almost two years ago out of a concern that there was not a lot of new music being created in Ottawa.
Yesterday, Chamberfest audiences got a small sampling of the type of music created by Ottawa composers like the late Patrick Cardy, Colin Mack and Deirdre Piper.
Texas-based Canadian born pianist Michelle Schumann played two pieces yesterday, one of them composed by Hayes.
Schumann, who was performing for the first time in Ottawa, was surprised that around 200 people turned out to see the concert on a Tuesday afternoon.
Heading into the final weekend of Chamberfest, co-artistic director Roman Borys said a Thursday noon-hour concert of seven viols playing Henry Purcell’s Complete Fantasias for the Viols is one of the highlights leading up to the grand finale.
