SMCQ to Celebrate 50th Year of Music Creation in Montreal

This year the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) celebrates the 50th year of its foundation in a grand way. This anniversary is particularly important as it also marks the official recognition of contemporary music in Canada.

The SMCQ will take advantage of its 2016-2017 programing to explore half a century of musical creation. The year will so be highlighted by five major concerts with the Ensemble de la SMCQ, taking us on a voyage back through time.

Truly, the SMCQ revisits some key pages of its repertoire, from past visionaries to history-making composers and founders. Not to omit the avant-garde of today and tomorrow while proposing a program bursting with its customary eclecticism.

SMCQ Artistic Director Walter Boudreau elaborates: "Above all I wanted a festive season. The program which I have put together is inspired by what we have really enjoyed during these last fifty years, and also works that are being created today. "

Of note: two of these events are within the framework of the Montreal/New Music festival (MNM) from February 23rd through March 4th, 2017, with the theme Back to the Future which echoes throughout the SMCQ season.

Broadway Boogie-Woogie
Friday, September 30, 2016
Free

We are making the most of the SMCQ's 50th anniversary by revisiting several key works from our repertoire. The program highlights the richness of wild rhythmic composition (Andriessen, Nancarrow) while inviting you to discover our founding composers (Papineau-Couture, Pierre Mercure.) A concert that crosses influences, for example, Andriessen's masterpiece De Materie with its jazzy tones and boogie-woogie tempos inspired by Mondrian's painting Broadway Boogie-Woogie. Essentially, a unique event which sees brass instruments dancing, voices swirling and a celebration of culture in all its forms!

Chants d'amour
Thursday, November 10, 2016

The SMCQ revives a major work from one of its founders and directors Serge Garant. The texts from his love songs are taken from age-old sources words (Petrarch, Shakespeare, Ronsard) from definitions of the word "love" taken from French, English and Spanish dictionaries, from modern graffiti and ... "classified ads!" The renowned Quebec composer will be accompanied by one of Karlheinz Stockhausen's works, whose piece Kontakte marked a significant stage in contemporary music by using percussion coupled with the electronics for the first time.

Berliner Momente (I-II)
Thursday, February 23 and Friday, February 24, 2017

Opening of the Montreal/New Music festival (MNM!) On this occasion, the McGill Symphony Orchestra presents two movements from Berliner Momente, the immense cycle of orchestral works composed by the iconoclast Walter Boudreau in homage to the German capital. The work, tinged with the shades of Wagner and Haydn, presents Berlin in the form of a musical odyssey. A meeting with history which illustrates the festival theme (Back to the Future,) following on the example of the eloquent modernity of Bartók's famous Concerto pour orchestre.

De Lennon à Pink Floyd
Friday, March 3, 2017

Relive the glorious years of progressive rock! From Lennon to Pink Floyd via Genesis, Yes, King Crimpson, Emerson, Lake and Micrometer and Frank Zappa, the Ensemble de la SMCQ interprets works from 70's Post-rock groups. An avalanche of psychedelic melodies immerse you into legendary rock under influence, in the hands of famous classic instrumentalists. A musical fresco tinged with nonconformism and the singularity which reverberates through new music.

Niemandslandhymnen
May 2017

An exceptional multidisciplinary event: Sandeep Bhagwati - Composer, poet, director - combines theatre, dance, the circus, multilingual poetry, and new technologies in a potpourri of experimental song, Iranian setâr, Western African kora, Indian khayal (song) plus more ... This "trans-traditional" and "trans-sensory" hymn " explores the echos of our globalized lives and invites the audience to roam, to listen, to imagine and commune in a wondrous space that reflects on our world at once so strange - yet so familiar.

Founded in 1966 at the initiative of the Ministe`re des affaires culturelles, the SMCQ was the first Canadian institution dedicated to the dissemination of contemporary music. In accordance with its mandate, the SMCQ began by presenting a series of annual concerts. Over the years of its remarkable development it has put together various activities. Taking to heart its lead position in the genre, the SMCQ has demonstrated its ability to run events, often involving diverse partnerships. Today, the institution plays a key role in the Canadian cultural milieu.