"Lori Freedman. Born Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1958. Residence: Montréal, Québec. Composer, Performer (clarinet, bass clarinet)

Qualified as "a musical revolutionary in the front ranks of the avant-garde" by Alex Varty of the Georgia Straight (Vancouver), Lori Freedman (clarinets) is internationally recognized as one of the most creative and provocative performers. She is a member of a select group known as "renaissance musicians" as her artistic activities cover many fields: performer of written music (well over one hundred works have been written for or premiered by her), composer, improviser, teacher, and on occasion, writer. While managing a full performance schedule of more than 75 public appearances a year, Freedman has been receiving commissions to write music for ensembles such as Orkestra Futura, Arraymusic Ensemble, Ensemble Transmission, Continuum Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble SuperMusique, Ensemble Paramirabo, Upstream Orchestra, Queen Mab Trio, Crowbar Trio, Lott Dance, Oberlander Films, Foresite Theatre, Cooke Productions and Autumn Leaf Productions. Her current discography comprises over 59 recordings, the most recent of which include Greffes (Empreintes digitales), On No (Mode Records), Bridge (Collection QB), Plumb (Barnyard Records), 3 and À un moment donné (Ambiances Magnétiques), Huskless! (Artifact), See Saw and Thin Air (Wig). Highlight collaborations include work with Rohan de Saram, Barre Phillips, Helmut Lachenmann, Frances-Marie Uitti, Monique Jean, Joëlle Léandre, Axel Dörner, George Lewis, the Jack Quartet and Richard Barrett."

"An active soloist, chamber musician, vocal accompanist and teacher, my repertoire covers all periods from the invention to the deconstruction of the piano. A proponent of 20th and 21st century music, I have commissioned and premiered more than fifty works for solo and prepared piano, various chamber ensembles and larger conducted ensembles. My touring have brought me accross Europe and North America.

Aside from playing solo repertoire, my collaborations have shaped an important part of my life. My faithful collborators include the doublebassist Ali Yazdanfar, singers Ingrid Schmithüsen, Andréanne Brisson-Paquin and Vincent Ranallo, pianist Jean Marchand, as well as the members of Ensemble Transmission : Jocelyne Roy, flute, Stéphane Fontaine, clarinet, Alain Giguère, violin, Julie Trudeau, cello , and Julien Grégoire, percussion.

Having recorded more that a dozen commercial Cds, my most recent achievements include: Folklore imaginaire music by Ana Sokolović with Ensemble Transmission (Naxos) and Pierrot lunaire with Ingrid Schmithüsen (Atma).

I teach contemporary literature to pianists at the Schulich music School of McGill University and contribute to the conducting classes at Université de Montréal as a teaching assistant. In my private studio, I teach pianists of all ages and levels, classical, romantic and modern repertoire. I am regularly called upon to adjudicate Arts Councils grant proposals as well as Canadian Music Competitions, and performance exams. I am as well a member of the Summer Academy of the Domaine Forget since 2001."

"Paul r. Harding was born in New York and attended college in Buffalo, NY, where he was tutored by saxophonists Archie Shepp and Charles Gayle. He moved to the West Coast, where he got to know bassist Michael Bisio in the mid-1980s. They did many performances in galleries, bars, and performance spaces."

"Paul r. Harding was born in New York and attended college in Buffalo, NY, where he was tutored by saxophonists Archie Shepp and Charles Gayle. He moved to the West Coast, where he got to know bassist Michael Bisio in the mid-1980s. They did many performances in galleries, bars, and performance spaces."

"Georges Aperghis was born in Athens in 1945. He lives and writes in Paris since 1963. His work is notably characterized by a questioning about languages and the meaning. His compositions, wether instrumental, vocal or for stage, explore the borders of the intelligible, he likes to create twisted tracks which allow him to keep active the listener (stories emerge but are suddenly refuted).

Aperghis' music is not strictly linked to any dominant musical aesthetics of the contemporary musical creation but follows on his century by a dialogue with other forms of art and an extreme open-mindedness to intellectual, scientific and social fields. This otherness is combined with innovation when he includes electronics, video, machines, automatons or robots to his performances. Aperghis works closely with group of interpreters who are entirely part of the creative process. They are comedians (Edith Scob, Michael Lonsdale, Valérie Dréville, Jos Houben), instrumentalists (Jean-Pierre Drouet, Richard Dubelski, Geneviève Strosser, Nicolas Hodges, Uli Fussenegger) or vocalists (Martine Viard, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, Lionel Peintre). From the 90's he shared new artistic collaborations with danse (Johanne Saunier, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker) and visual arts (Daniel Lévy, Kurt D'Haeseleer, Hans Op de Beeck). The main european contemporary music ensembles have developed a working relationship with Aperghis through settled commissions that are now part of their repertory (Ictus, Klangforum Wien, Remix, Musikfabrik, Ensemble Modern, Intercontemporain, Vocalsolisten, the SWR choir).

Recently Georges Aperghis received the Mauricio Kagel Prize in 2011 and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement - Venise Biennale Musica 2015. The BBVA Foundation Award " Frontiers of Knowledge " goes to Georges Aperghis in 2016 (category contemporary music)."

"Lori Freedman. Born Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1958. Residence: Montréal, Québec. Composer, Performer (clarinet, bass clarinet)

Qualified as "a musical revolutionary in the front ranks of the avant-garde" by Alex Varty of the Georgia Straight (Vancouver), Lori Freedman (clarinets) is internationally recognized as one of the most creative and provocative performers. She is a member of a select group known as "renaissance musicians" as her artistic activities cover many fields: performer of written music (well over one hundred works have been written for or premiered by her), composer, improviser, teacher, and on occasion, writer. While managing a full performance schedule of more than 75 public appearances a year, Freedman has been receiving commissions to write music for ensembles such as Orkestra Futura, Arraymusic Ensemble, Ensemble Transmission, Continuum Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble SuperMusique, Ensemble Paramirabo, Upstream Orchestra, Queen Mab Trio, Crowbar Trio, Lott Dance, Oberlander Films, Foresite Theatre, Cooke Productions and Autumn Leaf Productions. Her current discography comprises over 59 recordings, the most recent of which include Greffes (Empreintes digitales), On No (Mode Records), Bridge (Collection QB), Plumb (Barnyard Records), 3 and À un moment donné (Ambiances Magnétiques), Huskless! (Artifact), See Saw and Thin Air (Wig). Highlight collaborations include work with Rohan de Saram, Barre Phillips, Helmut Lachenmann, Frances-Marie Uitti, Monique Jean, Joëlle Léandre, Axel Dörner, George Lewis, the Jack Quartet and Richard Barrett."