Nov 26, 2013
Ottawa, November 26, 2013 – The Canada Council for the Arts announced today that composer Nicole Lizée is the winner of the 2013 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music for White Label Experiment, a work inspired by renowned American composer John Cage.
“Nicole Lizée’s innovative musical creations perfectly capture Cage’s wit and inventiveness,” said Robert Sirman, Director and CEO of the Canada Council. “Our congratulations to Ms. Lizée on winning the 2013 Jules Léger Prize, and bringing a unique sound to chamber music audiences in Canada and internationally.”
Listen to the piece or download images of Ms.Lizée from the Canada Council image gallery.
White Label Experiment
The 2013 Jules Léger peer assessment committee called the piece both “unique and daring.” Jurors noted, “The work masterfully blends a wide range of timbres, from non-pitched hi-hats and typewriters, to quasi-pitched toy pianos and turntable sine waves. In White Label Experiment, Ms Lizée has created not only an engaging work of new chamber music, but also one that achieves the highest standards of innovation and excellence, almost entirely without the help of proven chamber music idioms. As such, it represents a triumph of artistic vision supported by masterful skill."
Commissioned by Soundstreams, the work premiered on the occasion of Cage’s 100th birthday, in a special tribute performance performed by Sô Percussion at Koerner Hall in Toronto on March 2, 2012.
Nicole Lizée
Montreal-based composer Nicole Lizée creates new music from an eclectic mix of influences including the earliest MTV videos, turntablism, glitch, rave culture, and 1960s psychedelia. She incorporates the glitches made by outmoded and well-worn technology into live performance and compositions. Nicole’s compositions range from works for orchestra and solo turntablist featuring DJ techniques fully notated and integrated into a concert music setting, to other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, omnichord (a vintage electronic autoharp), stylophone (a miniature stylus-operated synthesizer), and karaoke tapes.
In 2001, Nicole received a Master of Music degree from McGill University. After 15 years of composition, her commission list of over 40 works is varied and prestigious, and includes the Kronos Quartet, BBC Proms, l’Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, CBC, the Kaufman Center, Eve Egoyan, Gryphon Trio, ECM+ and Fondation Arte Musica.
Nicole is a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow (2010). This Will Not Be Televised, her seminal piece for chamber ensemble and turntables was selected for the 2008 UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers’ Top 10 Works. Her work for piano and notated glitch, Hitchcock Études, was chosen by the International Society for Contemporary Music to be featured at the 2014 World Music Days. Additional awards and nominations include a Prix Opus (2013) and the 2002 Canada Council for the Arts Robert Fleming Prize for achievements in composition.
Jules Léger Prize
Established by the Right Honourable Jules Léger, former Governor General of Canada, the $7,500 prize is designed to encourage the creation of new Canadian chamber music and to foster its performance by Canadian chamber groups. All works considered for this prize have had a premiere performance of professional quality. This annual prize is a partnership between the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canadian Music Centre, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Société Radio-Canada.
In the Jules Léger Prize competition, jury members evaluate the works without knowing the names of the composers. The 2013 peer assessment committee was composed of Paul Anton Frehner (London, Ont.), Aaron Davide Emile Gervais (San Francisco) and Lisa Cay Miller (Vancouver).
The jury made a special mention of one other work submitted for the Jules Léger Prize: El jardin de Senderos qu se bifurcan by Taylor Brook.
General information
The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s national arts funder. Its grants and payments to artists and arts organizations benefit Canadians by ensuring a vibrant arts sector in Canada. Its awards celebrate creativity by recognizing exceptional Canadians in the arts, humanities and sciences. The Canada Council Art Bank is a national collection of over 17,000 Canadian contemporary artworks – all accessible to the public through rental, loan and outreach programs. The Canadian Commission for UNESCO operates under the general authority of the Canada Council.
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