About Continuum
Formed in 1985, Continuum 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 over 100 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 and it was for championing new work in this area and commissioning extensively for then
Continuum member, soprano Barbara Hannigan, that Continuum won the 1994 Jean A. Chalmers Award. Increasingly
the group engages in collaboration 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, formed the
recording ensemble for a Centrediscs release of works by Chris Paul Harman and is soon to record 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 John Oswald, noted French flutist and
conductor Patrick Gallois, and the Royal Ontario Museum in presenting 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 2006 Continuum was instrumental in organizing soundaxis,
a Toronto festival of music and architecture focusing on the work of Iannis Xenakis.
Through 2006, Artistic Director Jennifer Waring was engaged in a residency at the Gaudeamus Foundation in
Amsterdam. The experience spawned 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 November 2008 and later 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. The
2009-2010 season includes performances at the Music Gallery, The Royal Conservatory and the Four Seasons
Centre’s Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre; a workshop for emerging composers at Gallery 345; and a new
recording for Centrediscs featuring the works of James Rolfe. In May, 2010, Continuum celebrates its 25th
anniversary.
