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Past events:
Spring 2015:
Vancouver Pro Musica’s Further Series: on May 24 we premiered 9 works written specifically for our adventurous musical outlook in concert at Pyatt Hall in the VSO School of Music.
Pro Musica said: VPM is proud to feature Vancouver’s exciting and innovative ensemble, Ethos Collective, in a one-night concert devoted to the exploration of sound and colour. This concert will feature nine new works that incorporate elements of improvisation and visual scoring, creating music that is truly engaged, unique, and will never be heard in exactly the same way ever again. Come out and hear music that ventures to the very limits of the imagination and celebrates the excitement of discovery, while showing your support for our talented local artists!
Ethos said: For the spring of 2015 we have been participating in a series of events as part of a call for scores administered by Vancouver Pro Musica. We gave a open workshop for composers and performers in January, and a reading of the selected works in March. The works that we are performing are a mix of graphic scores, partially notated and more traditionally notated music. More info on the composers here. We’re looking forward to bringing these new works to life!
Fall 2014:
Vancouver New Music Festival: on October 17 we performed works by John Luther Adams and Georg Friedrich Haas as part of the Vancouver New Music Festival. For this concert we were joined by Ken Lin on violin and Liam Hockley on clarinet and bass clarinet.
Premiere of new commission: on Sunday, September 14 the Redshift Music Society presented the Ethos Collective in On the Echoing Green at the VanDusen Botanical Gardens. A musical celebration of the Gardens’ – and indeed Vancouver’s – place at the forefront of progressive environmental action, the event featured recent works and world premieres.
Main Concert: 7:00 pm, BMO Great Hall, VanDusen Visitor Centre
Canadian soprano Camille Hesketh joined Ethos in the world premiere of Graham Flett’s The Duke of Green, inspired by green architecture and written for the VanDusen’s award-winning Living Building. For the first half of the concert Ethos presented their own Garden Music, a series of improvised pieces inspired by the VanDusen Gardens and the current Touch Wood Sculpture Exhibition.
Outdoor Event: 5:00 pm, Hedge Maze
Stroll through the Elizabethan Hedge Maze and encounter hidden musicians performing Thomas Albert’s classic A Maze (with Grace) and other works.
Graham Flett’s The Duke of Green was made possible by a Canada Council Commissioning Grant.
The musical content and location for this event were decided in consultation with Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020 Action Plan.
VanDusen Gardens’ Visitor Centre
Spring 2014:
On May 15 Ethos presented Impulse, our major collaborative project of the season. 
An evening of music that is both evocative & energetic, and a concert that blends works new to Vancouver with works that have local connections.
For this concert Ethos collaborated with the Nu:BC Collective (Paolo Bortolussi, flute; Corey Hamm, piano; Eric Wilson, cello; Mark Ferris, violin; Cris Inguanti, clarinet) to present the Western Canadian premiere of Steve Reich’s Double Sextet, and with clarinetist François Houle to present the Canadian premiere of UK composer Graham Fitkin’s dynamic & driving work Ardent and the BC premiere of Anthony Genge’s cool & contemplative Strata. There was also a focus on local composers, with performances of a work written for Ethos by rising composer Ava Grayson (recently of Vancouver), a playful & rhythmic quartet by North Vancouver’s Jordan Nobles newly arranged for Ethos, two works by Victoria’s Anthony Genge, as well as improvisation by Ethos.
Programme:
Mandala (2013) – Ava Grayson
Improvisation (2014) – Ethos Collective
Canon for Three and Strata (2006) – Anthony Genge (with guest François Houle)
Ardent (1993) – Graham Fitkin (with guest François Houle)
Shattered Mirrors (2001, revised 2013) – Jordan Nobles
Double Sextet (2007) – Steve Reich (with guest François Houle and the Nu:BC Collective)
Poster & visuals by Angie Nguyen; see more of her work at Visual Soundings.
This event has been made possible by the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the SOCAN Foundation.
Winter 2014:
On February 1 2014 we were presented in concert at Open Space in Victoria, as part of our collaboration with their Concrete Scores exhibition. The programme included graphic scores by Randy Raine-Reusch and Ryan Keebaugh, and sonic interpretations of works in the gallery’s exhibition and by local Victoria artist Tony Van Den Boomen.
Fall 2013:
We were a featured ensemble in Chambercon, a joint presentation between the Redshift Music Society and Vancouver New Music held at the Orpheum Annex on November 17. More details and information on the entire event can be found on Redshift’s past events page. We were honoured to have received a mention in the Georgia Straight’s Fall arts preview music critics’ picks for this event.
Our repertoire for our solo set at Chambercon was inspired by composers with a history with Vancouver New Music, and most included improvisational elements. Works performed:
Slow Rant Boogie – Rudolf Komorous (adaptation)
Trance – Barbara Pentland (adaptation)
Irrealis I – John Burke (premiere)
Responsive Improvisation – Ethos Collective
Mandala – Ava Grayson (premiere)
plus new works by Rita Ueda, Giorgio Magnanensi, and Jordan Nobles for large ensemble.
Videos of our performance can be found on our vimeo page.
Spring / Summer 2013:
As part of our upcoming collaboration with Open Space‘s Concrete Scores exhibition in winter 2014, we travelled to Victoria on Sunday July 7 to give a workshop on graphic scores at Open Space. We performed December 1952 by Earl Brown, Towards an Unbearable Lightness by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, “Swallow” from Birds by John Fodi, and Chris Morano performed Of Pine and Silk by Randy Raine-Reusch. Workshop participants created a graphic score that we interpreted together, and then we ventured outside to interpret Open Space’s back alley and Victoria’s inner harbour in musical form. Recordings from this event will be used for a companion app to the gallery’s future exhibition. Open Space’s event description can be found here.
On May 29 we once again performed as part of the Canadian Music Centre’s Composer in the Classroom program, working with composer Edward Top and the students of Marlborough Elementary in Burnaby.
On April 13 we performed a set of improvised music at Tapestry‘s UBC residence as part of the Mozart School of Music’s monthly recital series.
Winter 2013:
Series: UBC School of Music’s Wednesday Noon Hours
Date: February 6 2013
Location: Barnett Hall, UBC School of Music / 6361 Memorial Road, Vancouver
Repertoire: Improvisation, Ethos Studies – François Houle, somewhere and somewhen – Daniel Brandes, Improvisation
Series: Douglas College’s Arts at One
Date: January 24 2013
Location: Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre, Douglas College / 700 Royal Ave, New Westminster
Repertoire: Improvisation, Parallax – Doug Smith, On a Mote of Dust Suspended in a Sunbeam – Jordan Nobles, Improvisation
Violinist Alana Lopez joined Ethos for both these concerts.
Fall 2012:
The first concert of our new season was on September 15, 2012. We collaborated with several fantastic local musicians to present the music of Bob Becker, plus premieres of works written for us by Jordan Nobles, François Houle, and Stefan Hintersteininger. We also improvised.
Event details:
Location – Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour St, Vancouver, BC, Canada)
Date – September 15, 2012
Time – 8 pm
The highlight of the evening was Bob Becker’s recent work Preludes for string quartet, percussion quartet, and piano, in its second performance. We also performed his works Prisoners of the Image Factory, Unseen Child, and Never in Word.
Our collaborators for this concert were: Bob Becker, percussion & composition; Daniel Tones, percussion; Vern Griffiths, percussion; Domagoj Ivanovic, violin; Marcus Takizawa, viola; Leanna Wong, bass; Melanie Krueger, soprano; Leslie Dala, conductor.
This concert was made possible due to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council. Bob Becker’s residency in Vancouver was supported by the SOCAN Foundation‘s Concert-Music Composer Outreach Residencies program. We also acknowledge the support of Yamaha Canada in their loan of a pedal glockenspiel for this concert & our rehearsal period.
Our media contact for this event is Angie Nguyen at Diane Kadota Arts Management. Email: Angie@dkam.ca | Tel: 604.683.8240
She is also the visual artist who designed the concert’s print materials including the poster displayed above. See more of her work at Visual Soundings.
Spring / Summer 2012:
June 25, 2012 – in concert at the Vancouver Art Gallery, presented by the Redshift Music Society. Premieres of new works written for us by Kathleen Allan, Daniel Brandes, and Iman Habibi, a performance of a work by Jordan Nobles, all linked by our own improvisations. Photos are here; audio is here.
May 31, 2012 – a concert at Gilpin Elementary in Burnaby as part of the Canadian Music Centre’s Composer in the Classroom program. We performed with the students after they had spent several weeks developing their own graphic scores with composer Edward Top.
April 29, 2012 – in concert at the Western Front: we spent the afternoon working with Ron Samworth and Dylan van der Schyff of Barking Spinx, and then performed an hour-long improv set that evening. Audio available here; photos here.