New and Contemporary Music: An Invigorating Season Begins

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The autumn of 2025 promises to be a rich one for new and contemporary music throughout Quebec. The season is shaping up to offer a diverse landscape where established institutions, innovative collectives and specialized festivals intersect.

Le Vivier: An Autumn Synonymous with Density and Intensity

Ensemble Paramirabo. Photo: Brenden Friesen

True to its mission of bringing together the driving forces of musical creation, Le Vivier opens the season with a series of daring concerts that, over the course of a month, offer a veritable compendium of contemporary experimentation. On Sept. 16, Paramirabo ensemble kicks things off with Bad Trip, an electroacoustic concert focusing on the work of Fausto Romitelli. Two days later, the saxophones of Quasar join forces with the Zukan Trio for a Chambre d’écoute (Listening Room) where members of the audience are invited to immerse themselves in sound as if it were a moving substance, with works by Miguel Matamoro and Émilie Girard-Charest, among others.

Gabo Champagne

October begins with a generous collective breath. Gabo Champagne presents Yvern, with the Treffpunkt Saxophone Quartet. This unexpected encounter between voice and brass is a reflection on how winter has shaped Quebec’s identity. The following day, composer Raven Chacon, the Bozzini Quartet, the E27 ensemble and the Oktoecho collective will come together for an evening at the crossroads of esthetics and tradition, featuring compositions by Chacon, Tanya Tagaq and Katia Makdissi-Warren. The abundance continues with the arrival of legendary drummer Andrew Cyrille, joining forces with the 5ilience project, which will remind us how improvisation and rhythm are fundamental to avant-garde music.

Other explorations will follow: Audrey Lauro, Tour de Bras and SuperMusique combine breath, strings and improvised movements to blur the boundaries between the written and the spontaneous. British pianist Joseph Houston then presents his project Quietly Rising, an introspective journey highlighting a new generation of performers attuned to the poetry of sound.

Then, on Oct. 15, composer Roozbeh Tabandeh collaborates with Chants libres and Paramirabo to explore the relationship between voice and electronics in a dialogue between tradition and modernity. Finally, Quartet Bozzini celebrates its 25th anniversary on Oct. 18, followed by Composer’s Kitchen the next day, where audiences can take a look behind the scenes of the creative process. This concentration of events perfectly illustrates the role of Le Vivier: to provide a space for visibility and encounter, where each concert opens a door to new imaginations. www.levivier.ca

Bourgie Hall: Refinement and Openness

Kent Monkman

At the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Bourgie Hall continues its commitment to contemporary music, in constant dialogue with history and the visual arts. On Sept. 24, their season of contemporary works opens with Les veilleuses, a creation by Simon Renaud and Romain Camiolo that combines music and dance in an intimate atmosphere where choreography responds to the breath of the instruments. A few days later, on Sept. 30, artist Kent Monkman makes an appearance with excerpts from his new opera The Miss Chief Cycle. Known for his visual works questioning colonial history and Indigenous identity, Monkman transposes his concerns into the musical realm, offering a rare moment where visual art and opera meet, set to music by Dustin Peters.

Roomful of Teeth. Photo: Cecilia Poupon

Autumn continues in November with the OSM and Ravel immortel, presenting a rarely heard work, Le tombeau de Ravel by Rudolf Escher, as well as a new piece by Caroline Lizotte.

On Dec. 2, Bourgie Hall welcomes the American vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth. Blending traditional overtone singing techniques, experimental explorations and polyphonic rigour, the ensemble offers a rare experience that opens up new physical and sonic dimensions to the listener. Bourgie Hall thus confirms its vocation of forging links between tradition and modernity, between the visual arts and music, in an architectural setting that dialogues with history. www.mbam.qc.ca

Akousma: The Immersive Electroacoustic Experience

From Oct. 29-31, Akousma returns to Usine C for its 21st edition. Entirely devoted to electroacoustic, mixed and digital music, Akousma features an orchestra of loudspeakers that envelops the audience in a totally immersive experience. The program features composers from Canada and abroad, reaffirming Montreal’s reputation as the world capital of electroacoustic creation. A unique opportunity to experience music as a true sensory and spatial experience. www.akousma.ca

Codes d’accès

Although Codes d’accès has not yet announced its program, the organisation remains a key player in contemporary music. Founded in 1985 by and for young composers, Codes d’accès has a clear vision: to create a space for creativity and empowerment for young artists. www.codesdacces.org

SMCQ

SMCQ will announce its 60th anniversary program in September. It’s a safe bet that it will be rich and varied! www.smcq.qc.ca

This new season of contemporary and current music reflects a vitality, an effervescence and a shared desire to promote music as a living, multifaceted and essential art form. Montreal and Quebec are once again asserting themselves as places where contemporary music is constantly reinventing itself and being shared, offering the public an autumn and winter rich in discoveries, emotions and sonic adventures.

Translation: Lilian I. Liganor

This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
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