Art Connects | New Music at the Gallery

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Join us for this special Art Connects introducing the Vancouver Art Gallery’s new live concert series, entitled New Music at the Gallery, which will debut on May 27, 2022. Find out more »

Presented in partnership with the Canadian Music Centre BC, New Music at the Gallery will draw on contemporary art themes and highlight a selection of twentieth- and twenty-first-century music compositions.

In this talk, Melissa Karmen Lee, Director of Education and Public Programs, will be joined by musicians Jack Campbell, Mark Takeshi McGregor and Rodney Sharman to contemplate their separate musical practices. They will discuss music compositions by John Cage, Morton Feldman and Philip Glass, composers famed for a long history of collaboration with visual artists. Sonata for Solo Violin: Rauschenberg (2021)—a new work by Campbell that was inspired by the Vancouver Art Gallery’s collection of works by celebrated American painter and graphic artist Robert Rauschenberg—will also be a featured part of the conversation.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jack Campbell is a composer, violinist and guitarist based in Vancouver, BC. Campbell’s musical process is inspired by an interdisciplinary approach to creativity. He has worked with a wide array of arts organizations, including the Vancouver Art Gallery, Chali-Rosso Gallery, CMCBC, CMC Ontario (Activate Composers Program), Vancouver Pro Musica, Redshift Music, 100.5FM Radio, Vancouver Women’s Musical Society, Vancouver Chamber Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (Day of Music and Jean Coulthard Readings) and UBC String Orchestra. He is a recitalist, new music soloist and a member of two contemporary music chamber ensembles. Campbell has commissioned and debuted pieces for solo violin by Canadian composers, and in 2021, he released an album of his own solo guitar music. He was the Composer-in-Residence at the CMCBC in the summer of 2020. Campbell is an award recipient at the UBC School of Music, where he is pursuing a degree in Advanced Violin Performance. Campbell currently works as the music and concert production consultant at the Vancouver Art Gallery, assistant producer at Redshift Music Society and an archivist for the CMCBC.

Mark Takeshi McGregor drinks rosé, tells stories that barely cling to the truth, and plays the flute. While the first two activities have yet to bring him due recognition, his fluting has been described as “mind-blowing” (Times Colonist) and “incredibly physical” (Stir), so at least there’s that. He has sipped, chatted and performed his way across five continents, including engagements with Innovations en Concert (Montreal), GroundSwell (Winnipeg), Ding Yi Chinese Chamber Music Festival (Singapore), Museo Leonora Carrington (San Luis Potosí, Mexico), Melos-Ethos International Festival of Contemporary Music (Bratislava), Núcleo Música Nova International Symposium of New Music (Curitiba, Brazil), and the ISCM World New Music Days in Vancouver. He has performed as concerto soloist with the Victoria Symphony, the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra (Taiwan), the Vancouver Intercultural Orchestra, Music on Main Allstars and the Aventa Ensemble. He has also worked with many emerging and established Canadian and international composers. A prolific recording artist, Takeshi McGregor co-founded the award-winning Redshift Records label in 2007 and, in 2020, was the recipient of the Western Canadian Music Award for Classical Artist of the Year. He has served as co-artistic director of Redshift Music Society, artistic director of Powell Street Festival and, in October 2021, was named artistic director of the Pride in Art Society, which produces the Queer Arts Festival each summer in Vancouver. marktakeshimcgregor.com

Rodney Sharman lives on traditional Musqueam territory in Vancouver, BC. He is Composer-Mentor in Residence of the Victoria Symphony. He has been Composer-in-Residence of Early Music Vancouver’s “New Music for Old Instruments,” Victoria Symphony, National Youth Orchestra of Canada and Vancouver Symphony, as well as Composer-Host of the Calgary Philharmonic’s Festival, “Hear and Now.” In addition to concert music, Sharman writes for cabaret, opera and dance. He sings, conducts and plays recorders and flutes. Sharman was awarded First Prize in the 1984 CBC Competition for Young Composers, the 1990 Kranichsteiner Prize (Darmstadt), a 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Award (Toronto), and the 2017 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. rodneysharman.com