The winner of The SOCAN Foundation Emerging Composer Mentor Program  and NYO Canada’s 2022 commissioned composer is Katerina Gimon 

 Congratulations Katerina! 

Composer, improviser and vocalist Katerina Gimon‘s uniquely dynamic, poignant, and eclectic compositional style is rapidly gaining her a reputation as a distinctive voice in contemporary Canadian composition and beyond. Her music has been described as “sheer radiance” (Campbell River Mirror), “imbued…with human emotion” (San Diego Story), and capable of taking listeners on a “fascinating journey of textural discovery” (Ludwig Van), earning her several honours including two SOCAN Awards (2015, 2021), nomination for Western Canadian Composer of the Year (2021), and inclusion on the CBC’s list of Canada’s “hot 30 classical musicians under 30” (2017). 
 
        Katerina’s music draws influence from a myriad of places — from Eastern European folk music to indie rock, as well as from her roots as a songwriter. Her compositions have been performed widely across Canada, the United States, and internationally, including at Carnegie Hall, Orpheum Theatre, and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Recent commissions include new music for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the University of Montana, the Hamilton Children’s Choir, and the Orpheus Choir of Toronto. Katerina is the composer-in-residence for female vocal ensemble Myriad and is currently based in *Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. 

Katerina Gimon’s piece Ice Forms was her submission to the Socan Foundation and it blew the jury and NYO Canada completely away!  
 
Duration: 6:00 
Year of composition: 2019 
Program notes: 

One of my favourite things about the winters growing up on Lake Ontario was the sight of the frozen lake. Each year, as temperatures dropped a layer of ice would form over the water, sometimes stretching as far as the eye could see, like a lake of glass – still, cold, and unyielding. When temperatures began to warm again, the ice would crack, breaking into separate sheets which would float and drift until they melted away. “Ice Forms”, for spatialized orchestra, is inspired by this remarkable process and the boundless beauty of frozen water. 

Mirroring the seasonal arrival of cold, “Ice Forms” begins with a very still and chilling texture. Pianissimo bowed crotales are heard atop breath sounds produced through various instruments, mimicking the arrival of cold winter winds. Out of this texture, playful flurries of activity begin to emerge in the woodwinds emulating the begins of ice formation. As temperatures drop and the ice stretches outwards over the water, hollow percussive sounds begin to occur in the brass (unpitched tongue slaps) and percussion (wooden planks placed on the bass drum and are struck) simulating the unique sound of large sheets of ice shifting during formation and daily temperature changes. This texture continues to build until the ice forms a thick, solid mass over the entirety of the lake. At this moment, a solo French horn emerges atop two brass choirs who swell and decay at different times, opposing one another (like the tremendous force on a vast lake of solid ice). This particular moment is accentuated spatially with both brass choirs positioned across the room from one another. Then, suddenly, the ice gives way. The frozen lake begins to break apart and crystalize, signaling the coming of spring. Echoing the opening of the work, the crotales reprise their melody once again but now struck rather than bowed. A quiet col legno battuto is also heard in the strings emulating the breaking of ice into smaller and smaller pieces. Then, with breath sounds produced through various instruments (as in the onset of the work), the music retreats into warmer winds as the ice crystals finally melt away. 

On the horizon for Katerina this year are premieres by the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Chamber Choir, and her first-ever chamber opera co-commissioned by re: Naissance Opera and Visceral Visions.

To learn a bit more about this amazing composer click the link to visit her website!

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Follow her on Social Media:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/katgimon

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/katgimon/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/katgimon

NYO Canada is thrilled to be collaborating with you this year Katerina.  

Meet the finalists  

Katrina Gimon (“Ice Forms”), Stephanie Orlando (“riptide”), and Liam Ritz (“Chamber Dances”) have been selected for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada’s mentorship program. They will be invited to attend an NYOC rehearsal reading of their orchestral composition. 

Stephanie Orlando 
Stephanie Orlando (b.1993) has had her music has been performed by ensembles and soloists such as Esprit Orchestra (Toronto), Duo d’Entre-deux (Montreal), Femmelody Chamber Music Collective (New York City), Stereoscope Saxophone Duo (Toronto), junctQin Keyboard Collective (Toronto), Nikki Joshi (Toronto), and Gloria Yehilevsky (Chicago). Her catalogue contains works for standard ensembles to less common performing forces–orchestra, amplified pill bottles, and everything in between. Her current interests include mixed-media composition, creative coding, and using technology in combination with classical instruments. She engages with contemporary classical influences while exploring them through the lens of her own inspiration. One of her current projects is a series of works that explore mental wellness. Through this long-term project, she seeks to create honest and vulnerable works that connect with listeners who see themselves in her work and feel represented in bringing this conversation to the concert stage. 

Her Socan submission: 

Title 

riptide 

Duration of work 

12 min 

Year of composition 

2021 

Program notes : 
riptide is a creative exploration of the “wave technique”–a mindfulness practice used to help navigate strong emotions or urges. This technique is based on the notion that one will experience any emotion for a maximum of 20 minutes, with the peak usually occurring around 10-15 minutes. It works by paying attention to the thoughts and sensations experienced with the emotion, surpassing this peak without acting on the emotion, and regaining control. This orchestral work sonically explores this technique in real-time, formally following the wave diagram and moving through the stages of stressor, trigger, peak, recovery, and control. The work is approximately 12 minutes in total, with the “peak” of the wave occurring about halfway through. A MIDI mockup has been provided. 

To learn a bit more about this amazing composer click the link to visit her website!

Follow her on Social Media:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.orlando.144/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/creativelystephanie/

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-orlando-3755689a/

Vimeo – https://vimeo.com/stephanieorlando

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0XMBSQr4acQHvi4egPlovQ?view_as=subscriber

Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/stephanieorlando

Liam Ritz 
Liam Ritz (b.1996) is a Canadian-born composer based in Toronto, Ontario who has collaborated with renowned musicians and ensembles such as the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Gemma New, Veronique Lacroix, and Etsuko Kimura. Ritz has received multiple SOCAN Foundation Young Composers Awards, a City of Hamilton Arts Award, and was the inaugural participant in the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer Fellowship Program. His work is supported by the Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and the RBC Emerging Artists Project. 

 His submission to SOCAN:  

Title 

Chamber Dances 

Duration of work 

7 minutes 

Year of composition 
2019 
 
Program Notes 
Although the title, Chamber Dances, may imply a set of music depicting various dance forms, the piece instead gives the role of “dancer” to the musicians and explores the visceral gestures and relationships between one another. Throughout the piece, the instruments interact in differing roles ranging from supportive, reactive, imitative, and combative. The individual instruments and families each “move” in their own unique ways, and these movements are repeated and examined in various environments. This creates a sort of musical iconography wherein the same musical gestures are juxtaposed in new situations, therefore adopting alternative functions. The material is also written in a manner in which to creates distinct physicalities in how the musicians perform, often sharing certain gestures and movements in both musical and somatic dialogue. 

Learn more on Liam’s Website  

Follow him on Social Media:

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lritzritz/?hl=eni

Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLOlIBPxlrWTv1vxtyaXJiA

Soundcloud – https://soundcloud.com/liamritz

Learn more about the SOCAN Foundation

“SOCAN Foundation believes in celebrating the achievements of young emerging artists,” said Charlie Wall-Andrews, SOCAN Foundation Executive Director. “These awards help support and foster the development of talented young SOCAN members across Canada.” 

The SOCAN Foundation has distributed nearly $75,000 among 23 awards recipients of its annual competitions. With over 350 submissions, the Awards for Young Composer and Emerging Screen Composers were evaluated by juries of esteemed music industry professionals from across the country. 

For more information on SOCAN Foundation award winners, please use this link to visit: https://www.socanfoundation.ca/awards/award-winners-2021/  

The registration deadlines for the 2022 SOCAN Foundation awards will be posted on the organization’s website in the early months of 2022. 

«La Fondation SOCAN tient à célébrer les réussites des jeunes compositrices et compositeurs canadiens émergents », a déclaré la directrice générale Charlie Wall-Andrews. « Ces concours soutiennent en encouragent le développement de jeunes membres de la SOCAN bourrés de talent d’un bout à l’autre du Canada. » 

Pour de plus amples renseignements sur les lauréats des concours de la Fondation SOCAN, veuillez vous rendre sur : https://www.fondationsocan.ca/concours/laureats-2021/ Les dates limites d’inscription aux concours de 2022 seront affichées sur le site Web de la Fondation SOCAN au cours des premiers mois de 2022.