About Continuum
Formed in 1985, Continuum Contemporary Music presents concerts featuring the core ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion, as well as unusual instrumental combinations. The organization has been responsible for commissioning and premiering close to 150 new works from emerging Canadian and international composers in the first stages of significant careers and also established composers charting new territory.
Early on voice was a focus; it was for championing new work in this area and commissioning extensively for soprano Barbara Hannigan that Continuum won the 1994 Jean A. Chalmers Award. Increasingly the group engages in collaborative and interdisciplinary work.
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Continuum has appeared in Canadian festivals and series in Banff, Brandon, Kitchener, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Winnipeg; touring twice to Europe, it has appeared in Aberdeen, Amsterdam, Ghent, Huddersfield, Leeuwarden, London, and 's-Hertogenbosch. The group has recorded two CDs on its own label, formed the recording ensemble for a Centrediscs release of works by Chris Paul Harman and recently released Raw, a CD of works by James Rolfe, also for Centrediscs. Interdisciplinary projects include SHE!, with choreographer Conrad Alexandrowicz; Distillation, with Montreal video installation artist Ramona Ramlochand; and Souvenir, with filmmaker Gary Popovich. Continuum has also collaborated with composer John Oswald, French flutist and conductor Patrick Gallois, philosopher Mark Kingwell, and actor RH Thomson, and with institutions such as the Royal Ontario Museum and TVOntario. Special projects have included l'Oreille Fine, a festival of concerts and a symposium of philosophers, poets, critics and a psychologist dealing with the subject of contemporary expression in a classical art form; in the 2008-09 season, Continuum mounted SHIFT, a festival of Canadian and Dutch music, film and literature involving roughly 40 Canadian and 40 Dutch artists that took place at the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam, in Toronto at Harbourfront, the Music Gallery, Gallery 345 and the Isabel Bader Theatre, and across Canada with a tour of the acclaimed Ives Ensemble of Amsterdam.
In celebrating its 25th anniversary season in 2009-2010, Continuum presented, among other pieces, a new work by Juliet Palmer on text by native author Thomas King, and was joined by soprano Carla Huhtanen, actor RH Thomson, and a host of Continuum friends, past and present. The 2010-2011 season featured the release of the critically acclaimed CD Raw, Chamber Music by James Rolfe; a collaboration with OCAD University; and the commissioning of a suite by multiple composers based on the Baroque dance form.
Continuum embarks on the 2011-12 season with the ensemble's percussionist, Ryan Scott, joining Jennifer Waring in artistic direction. Projects in the coming season include a concert for ensemble and street organ, and a multi-performance run of Contes pour enfants pas sages, 8 cautionary entertainments by Christopher Butterfield, for soprano, tenor, choir and ensemble.
Continuum is proud to be a member of the Canadian New Music Network.
