About
At NMC we inspire our listeners with extraordinary performances of adventurous music.
About Us
New Music Concerts is a leader in curating, performing, and promoting innovative and cutting-edge music by Canadian and international composers
NMC is internationally renowned and unique in Toronto as the foremost champion of contemporary works for large chamber ensemble.
NMC is committed to a diversity of rigor and excellence in the programming and performance of adventurous contemporary chamber music from Canada and around the globe. In our programming, we take pride in reflecting Canada’s ever-growing diversity of musicians, listeners, composers, and guest artists.
It is NMC’s mandate to nurture a dialogue between the voices of multiple musical traditions, including those that have been less well represented in the past. These conversations allow us to better understand the needs of cross-community artistic interrelations, and offers our audience an ever-broadening range of experiential musical encounters. We are engaged in evolving and sharing our musical vocabulary through the careful juxtaposition of varying modes of composition.
NMC celebrates the work of the most creative artists across all gender and multicultural identities working in new music and related art forms today. Whenever possible, we collaborate with partner communities to be actively drawn into the current new music conversation.
NMC continually experiments with new modes of presentation, a creative selection of venues, and with its own dynamic online presence.
NMC offers its audiences engaging and transformative experiences of New Music Now!
Through the Years
- 438 Events
- 52 Years of Performance
- 310 World Premieres and Commissions
- 1000+ Collaborators
NMC Staff
Our Team
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Brian Current
Artistic DirectorRead MoreBrian Current (he/him) has conducted a wide range of contemporary repertoire and has championed over one hundred works by Canadian composers. Brian has been the main conductor of the Continuum Ensemble since 2011 and the Conductor of the Glenn Gould School (Royal Conservatory) New Music Ensemble since 2007. He has guest conducted with dozens of professional symphony orchestras, opera companies and ensembles across Canada and abroad.
As a composer, he is known for creating large-scale compositions that build community, change and power. The River of Light is an evening-length oratorio designed to bring diverse communities together through the unifying power of music. Written in collaboration with writers from many different traditions, it describes mystical journeys towards an exalted state from many diverse points of view. Missing is 90-minute opera with Dene librettist Marie Clements based on the tragedy of Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, sung in English and Gitxsan. Whirling Dervish features a traditional Sufi Whirling ceremony in front of a symphony orchestra. The Young Person’s Guide to New Music provides listening suggestions to listeners of all ages as to how to approach contemporary music while the orchestra demonstrates in real time. Upcoming projects include Infantry about the futility of soldiery, and Clarence and Anita, about systemic racism and misogyny surrounding the Clarence Thomas Senate Hearings. The impulse of these projects is rooted in inclusivity, impact and social justice, values that he brings to NMC’s activities.
Brian Current holds a PhD in music composition on full scholarship from the University of California (Berkeley) where he studied conducting with David Milnes and Michael Morgan and was assigned the direction of the UC Berkeley symphony during summer sessions. He was subsequently awarded a fellowship in the prestigious National Arts Centre conductor training program where he studied under internationally renowned conducting mentor Jorma Panula and later attended conducting masterclasses in Royaumont, France under the Hungarian conducting luminary Péter Eötvös.
His music, lauded and broadcast in over 35 countries, has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barlow Prize for Orchestral Music (USA), the Premio Fedora (Italy) for Chamber Opera, and a Selected Work (under 30) at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. Brian’s pieces have been programmed by all major symphony orchestras in Canada and by dozens of professional orchestras, ensembles and opera companies worldwide, including portrait concerts dedicated entirely to his work. -
Emily Schimp
Director of Operations and CommunicationsRead MoreEmily Schimp (she/her) is an arts manager specializing in cultural event production, and community engagement. She holds a BFA from OCAD University and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Arts Administration and Cultural Management with Honours from Humber College. Currently the Director of Operations and Communications at New Music Concerts, Emily has also worked with organizations such as the Toronto Biennial of Art, ArtsPond, Humber College's Lakeshore Grounds Interpretive Center, and others across the GTA.
In addition to her professional work, Emily is dedicated to giving back to her community through volunteer work. She sits on the Board of Management for Sankofa (formerly Yonge-Dundas) Square and has volunteered with the Harbourfront Centre, and as an Arts Facilitator with the YMCA's Newcomer Youth Leadership Development program. Emily has also been a member of the Youth Advisory Committee for Youth Rising Above. She has made a significant impact in promoting the arts and supporting youth development, education, and arts outreach. Her ultimate goal is to continue advancing the arts by developing accessible programs and promoting arts and cultural initiatives across Canada.
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Teagan McCanny
Development & Communications CoordinatorRead MoreTeagan McCanny (she/her) is an arts manager, artist and photographer. She has worked with various arts organizations across Toronto helping to create programming, marketing and developing fundraising strategies. Teagan is dedicated to helping promote new voices, create inclusive spaces and tell stories through art. In her artwork Teagan explores the play of light and dark in both photography and painting. She is interested in exploring various mediums and disciplines to broaden her own artistic pursuits. Teagan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from OCAD University and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Arts Management from Centennial College.
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Quinn McGlade-Ferentzy
Digital ArchivistRead MoreQuinn McGlade-Ferentzy (they/them) received their B.A. honours in philosophy from Trent University and an M.A. in philosophy from The University of Guelph. Their years of experience as a campus community organizer, playwright, and researcher have given them a powerful appreciation for documentation and preservation. They are especially interested in preserving the organizational history of activist movements, performance art, and marginalized groups. Having completed an LIT diploma from Seneca College, they are excited to pivot and begin a new chapter in their career.
Their goal is to make information and archived material accessible to as broad a user base as possible and relish the challenge and impossibility of capturing the ephemeral nature of live music performances.
NMC Board
Board of Directors
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Doina Popescu
PresidentRead MoreDoina Popescu (she/her) has worked across the arts for the past 40 years. From 1980 to 2008 she was Curator and Deputy Director of the Goethe-Institut Toronto, nurturing cutting edge programming and dialogue locally, nationally, and internationally. In 2008 she became the Founding Director of The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University (then Ryerson U.), establishing the centre as a widely recognized exhibitions, collections and research venue for photography. Having since retired, she remains active as a writer and member of multiple arts boards.
Doina has collaborated with New Music Concerts since the early eighties and joined the board in 2008.
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George Bulat
Secretary-TreasurerRead MoreAfter a career devoted to the ever-changing ICT market, George Bulat (he/him) brings a deep familiarity with music in all it’s forms, and Art broadly, to his long-standing role on the Board of NMC. Closely collaborating with the NMC staff and other Board members on various committees. George holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto, with a major in Philosophy.
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Erica Russell
DirectorRead MoreErica Russell (she/her/elle) is a Canadian-Gabonese arts administrator, currently based in Toronto working as a Bilingual Program Manager at the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Previously, she worked as the Donor Programs Officer at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery after working for over three years as the Executive Associate in the Director’s Office. Erica holds a Master’s of Science in Modern and Contemporary Art from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and an Honours Bachelor’s degree in History and Arts Administration from the University of Ottawa. Erica is also a Board Member at Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue (BAND) gallery and cultural centre, Mercer Union: a centre for contemporary art, New Music Concerts (NMC) and a Council Member on The Drake Hotel's Black Community Council.
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David Jaeger
DirectorRead MoreDavid Jaeger is a music producer, composer and broadcaster, who created "Two New Hours", an important contemporary music series in Canada which was heard on the national CBC Radio Two network from 1978 to 2007. During that time he commissioned over 250 original musical works for presentation on air, and broadcast more that 3,000 world premiere performances. From 1974 to 2002 he served as the CBC Radio coordinator of the CBC/Radio-Canada National Radio Competition for Young Composers, encouraging the establishment of a new wave of Canadian composers.
In 2002 Jaeger was elected President of the International Rostrum of Composers, and was the only non- European ever to be named to this post. He served as President for six years.
David Jaeger was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2018.
See davidjaeger.ca
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Sheree Spencer
DirectorRead MoreSheree Spencer (she/her) finds creative balance as a Producer, Stage Director and Performing Artist with a strong passion for interdisciplinary art expression. Born in Toronto with Barbadian heritage, Sheree is currently based in New York City working with contemporary opera & vocal theatre producing company, Beth Morrison Projects (BMP) as a 2024 Mellon Foundation Producing Fellow.
Recent producing credits include TD Emerging Producer for Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival (2016), Associate Producer of Luminato Festival's 2022 Artists In Residence Program, Lead Producer on Scott Joplin's Treemonisha with Volcano Theatre (2023) and the Associate Producer on Aportia Chryptych by the Canadian Opera Company (2024). With BMP, Sheree has worked as the Associate Producer on Next Gen with National Sawdust (2024) and Black Lodge in LA with The United. Sheree is currently preparing for the NYC premiere of Black Lodge at Village East with Prototype Festival (2025).
As a director, Sheree’s notable credits include: Assistant Director for Gould’s Wall with Tapestry Opera (2022), the World Premiere of Musique 3 Femmes's contemporary opera Plaything in Berlin (2022) and its Canadian Premiere at Opera McGill (in Nov 2022), Sanctuary & Storm with ReNaissance Opera & Vancouver Opera (2023) and Aportia Chrpytych in the hybrid capacity of Associate Producer/Assistant Director which is produced by the Canadian Opera Company (2024).
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Eliot Britton
DirectorRead MoreEliot Britton (he/him) integrates electronic, audiovisual and instrumental music through an energetic and colourful personal language. His creative output reflects an eclectic musical experience, from gramophones to videogames, drum machines to orchestras. Rhythmic gadgetry, artistry and the colours of technology permeate his works. By drawing on these sound worlds and others, Britton's compositions tap newly available resources of the 21st century. As a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation, Britton is passionate about Canadian musical culture, seeking new and engaging aesthetic directions that use technology to enhance expression.
Eliot Britton completed his Undergraduate Studies with Michael Matthews at the University of Manitoba and continued on to a MMus and PhD in music research and composition at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University under the supervision of Prof. Sean Ferguson. Here Britton has worked as a course lecturer, researcher and composer in residence for numerous ensembles. He is the recipient of numerous prizes, and research grants including SSHRC Bombardier graduate scholarships, Hugh Le Caine and Serge Garant awards and most recently a Canadian Foundation for Innovation award and a DORA for best composition and sound design.
Currently Britton is cross appointed between Music Technology & Digital Media and Composition at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. There he is building a media research-creation facility (Centre BPMC) and renovating the historical UofT Electronic Music Studios (EMS). As co-director of Manitoba’s Cluster New Music and Integrated Arts Festival and an independent music producer Britton continues to produce events and music in a variety of contexts. His recently completed projects include “Adizokan” a 50 minute collaboration for Orchestra, dance video and electronics for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Red Sky Performance.
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Carmen Steinberg
DirectorRead MoreCarmen Steinberg (she/her) is a Consultant at Egon Zehnder, advising clients on leadership and talent challenges. Previously, Carmen was in the Growth, Marketing & Sales Practice at McKinsey & Co. in Germany. Before McKinsey, she held leadership positions in digital marketing, including leading e-commerce for the design furniture company Vitra and as CMO for an e-commerce start-up in Berlin.
Carmen holds a PhD from the London School of Economics. She is originally from Peru, and her immigrant experience plays an important role in her passion for community engagement and DEI topics. Carmen now lives in Toronto with her husband and two young children, where they can often be found around the piano making music together.
NMC Advisory Committee
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Dahlia Borsche
Read MoreDahlia Borsche is a musicologist and curator. Her academic activities have led her to the research center for the Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of Artistic Limits at the Freie Universität Berlin, the Department of Applied Musicology of the Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt and the Chair of Transcultural Musicology at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
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Marion Newman
Read MoreMarion Newman is a celebrated Kwagiulth and Stó:lo First Nations, English, Irish and Scottish mezzo-soprano. She hosts CBC radio's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and is co-founder of Amplified Opera.
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Timothy Long
Read MoreTimothy Long is a conductor and pianist with an active career in the United States and abroad. He is on faculty at Stony Brook University, music director of the Stony Brook Opera, and assistant music director of the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He is a member of the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma and founding conductor of the Coast Orchestra, an all-Native American orchestra of classically trained musicians.
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Brandon Farnsworth
Read MoreBrandon Farnsworth works as an independent music curator, and as a research associate at the Zurich University of the Arts, where he also studied classical music performance and transdisciplinary studies. He pursued his doctoral degree in historical musicology at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber Dresden. His research focuses on the intersection of performance and curatorial studies, and strives for a global perspective.
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Sandeep Bhagwati
Read MoreSandeep Bhagwati is a multiple award-winning composer, theatre director and media artist. His compositions and comprovisations in all genres (including six operas) have been performed by leading performers at leading venues and festivals worldwide. He has directed international music festivals and intercultural exchange projects with Indian and Chinese musicians and leading new music ensembles.
He was Professor of Composition at Karlsruhe Music University and Composer-in-Residence at the IRCAM Paris, ZKM Karlsruhe, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, IEM Graz, CalArts Los Angeles, Heidelberg University, the Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, and sat as Canada Research Chair for Inter-X Arts at Concordia University from 2006-2016.
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Juro Kim Feliz
Read MoreJuro Kim Feliz hails from the Philippines and is now a Toronto-based composer and synth-pop singer-songwriter. He has collaborated with ensembles including Liminar, the Thin Edge New Music Collective, and Ensemble x.y. Winning the Goethe Southeast Asian Young Composer Award (2009) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, his creative work as a contemporary classical composer has since garnered performances across Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe.
Founding Directors
With Thanks to Our Founders
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Robert Aitken
Co-FounderRead MoreFlutist, composer, conductor Robert Aitken is one of Canada’s foremost performers, composers, and champions of contemporary music. After flute studies with Nicolas Fiore in Toronto (1955-59) he became principal flute of the Vancouver S. O. (the youngest principal in that orchestra’s history) while studying composition with Barbara Pentland at U.B.C. From 1960-64 he served as second flute of the C.B.C. Symphony Orchestra while studying at U. of Toronto in electronic music with Myron Shaeffer, composition with John Weinzweig and analysis with Oskar Morawetz whom he feels had an important influence on his artistic development.
In 1970 Aitken founded and directed until 1972 the “Music Today” series at the Shaw Festival (Ontario) and in 1971 co-founded with Norma Beecroft “New Music Concerts” serving thereafter as artistic director. In 1977 he was one of 12 instrumentalists invited by Pierre Boulez to present a solo recital at IRCAM (Paris) playing solo pieces of Takemitsu, Morthensen, Fukushima, Globokar, Sigurbjörnsson, Y. Matsudaira, Holliger and himself. He has also been very active as a conductor with New Music Concerts (Toronto), with orchestras in Canada and Japan and in 1987 conducted the first performance of Schafer’s “Patria I” for the Canadian Opera Company.
Among his many awards are the Order of Canada (1994), The Canada Music Citation (CLC 1969), the Wm. Harold Moon Award (PRO Canada 1982), the Canadian Music Medal (Canadian Music Council 1982), The Jean A. Chalmers National Music Award (1996) and “Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres” (France, 1997). In 2003 he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Flute Association (USA). Some 50 works have been written for him by noted composers including Henry Brant, George Crumb, Elliott Carter, Toru Takemitsu, Roger Reynolds, Arne Nordheim, Manuel Enriquez, R. Murray Schafer, Gilles Tremblay, Bruce Mather, John Beckwith and John Weinzweig.
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Norma Beecroft
Co-FounderRead MoreNorma Beecroft (April 11, 1934 - October 19, 2024) was a Canadian composer, record producer, broadcaster, and arts administrator. A member of the Canadian League of Composers and an associate of the Canadian Music Centre, she twice won the Canada Council's Lynch-Staunton Award for composition. She was commissioned to write works for such organizations as the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, The Music Gallery, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the National Ballet of Canada, the Quebec Contemporary Music Society, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and York Winds among others. She was an honorary member of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community and had served on the juries of the SOCAN Awards and the Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music.
She was President in 1956-7 of Canadian Music Associates (the Toronto concert committee of the Canadian League of Composers), and in 1965-8 President of Ten Centuries Concerts. In 1971, she co-founded (with Robert Aitken) New Music Concerts, and was its President and General Manager until 1989. For her service to Canadian music, in 1996 she was awarded a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa, from York University, Toronto.
Norma Beecroft's early musical studies began with the piano, taking piano lessons from Aladar Ecsedy (1950-52), then between 1952-58 with Gordon Hallett and Weldon Kilburn. At the same time she studied composition with John Weinzweig. The recipient of a bursary from the Royal Conservatory of Music in 1957-58, she began flute studies with Keith Girard as well. She continued her composition studies on scholarship at the Berkshire Music Center, Tanglewood, with Aaron Copland and Lukas Foss, and in 1959 was accepted into the Corso di Perfezionamento at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, under Goffredo Petrassi, where she graduated in 1961. The same year she was the recipient of an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs scholarship. During her three years in Europe she attended lectures given by Bruno Maderna at Darmstadt, Germany, and at the Dartington School of Music in England, and she continued her flute studies with Severino Gazzelloni. Upon her return to Canada, she attended the electronic music classes of Myron Schaeffer at the University of Toronto, and in 1964 spent the summer working with Mario Davidovsky at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York.
Concurrent with her composing life, Beecroft enjoyed a long association with the world of broadcasting. She was first attracted to the then-new world of television and joined the CBC in 1954 as a script assistant for music programs, and later music consultant. After her European studies, she returned to CBC, working as a script assistant 1962-3, then successively as talent relations officer 1963-4, national program organizer for radio 1964-6, and producer 1966-9. In 1969 she resigned from CBC, and began a freelance career as producer and commentator on contemporary music. She was the host of the weekly series "Music of Today" for many years, and her freelance productions included many documentaries commissioned by the CBC on major Canadian composers of the latter 20th Century, including John Weinzweig, Harry Somers, Harry Freedman, Barbara Pentland, Jean Coulthard-Adams, Bruce Mather, Gilles Tremblay, etc. In 1976 her documentary "The Computer in Music" received a Major Armstrong Award for excellence in FM broadcasting. Among her numerous freelance projects was the preparation in 1975 of 13 broadcast records "Music Canada" from tapes in the libraries of RCI and CAPAC, and she contributed numerous documentaries on her Canadian colleagues for the Anthology of Canadian Composers series. Beecroft produced electronic music for the Stratford Festival productions of Macbeth (1982) and Midsummer Night's Dream (1983), and incidental music for the TVO series "Fish On".
Most of Beecroft's compositions have been commissioned by organizations and individuals (see list), and many combine electronically produced or altered sounds together with live instruments. She regards her particular use of electronic music as an extension of vocal and/or instrumental sounds rather than a contrast of timbres. From Dreams of Brass (1963-4) is the first example of this technique, and her large scale work, the ballet Hedda (1982), is a later illustration. Her musical aesthetic was first influenced by the music of Debussy, then later by her teachers- Weinzweig, Petrassi and Maderna, and during her European years, she was impressed by the work of Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the first composers to combine electronic music with live instruments.
Organizational Statements
Statement on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
As the performing arts are in a state of reckoning, it is time that we as an organization examine our position so that we may learn and help bring about an era of transformation. Like many other arts organizations, NMC is taking action to deconstruct our past operating and performance models to create safe, inclusive, and collaborative environments for all of our future projects. With the help of our valued community members, we are committed to implementing new strategies that welcome the diverse communities and groups that make up Toronto.
Systemic racism has disproportionately impacted Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) for generations. The barriers created by artistic institutions like NMC have had a compounding effect, negatively impacting access to opportunities in the arts. We are focused on change and will commit our resources to foster rehearsal and performance spaces that are safe, inclusive, and respectful for everyone.
NMC’s transformation includes the introduction of new leadership, with Artistic Director Brian Current and Director of Operations and Communications Emily Schimp. We are aware that as an organization we need help to bring about these wide-ranging yet crucial changes. For this reason, we are creating platforms such as an advisory council, a curator in residence program, and a composer in residence program, whereby we will share our programming, operating, and decision-making efforts with members of the BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ communities. Through these positions, we will become more inclusive as an organization and treat all our partners, artists, and collaborators equitably and with dignity. We recognize that the diversity in our communities makes Toronto stronger and that it can make our organization stronger as well.
NMC is committed to creating an environment of equality regardless of race, gender identity, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, disability, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religious affiliation, level of literacy, language and/or socioeconomic status.
In order to transform our organization and achieve sincere goals for equity, diversity, and inclusion, we recognize the following:
- NMC has created barriers in the past and now must work to remove these barriers. Our musical education has encouraged a single Eurocentric mode of music-making to dominate, which is but one perspective and leaves out many musicians and audience members.
- We must hold ourselves accountable and not be afraid to fail as we work to improve our organizational behaviors.
- We must listen to community members and educate ourselves on their lived experiences.
- We must continually consider who is in our audience, who is not, and why.
- We must deepen our understanding of how to create safe, collaborative spaces for BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ artists.
- Throughout the education process, we must develop and implement a strong framework for the stewardship of knowledge so that our organization never stops learning.
We look forward to working with our community partners so that we may foster an ongoing culture of learning and stewardship toward diversity, equity, and inclusion in the arts. This is a living document and we will make changes as we continue to learn. We welcome your feedback or questions at any time. You can reach us via the Contact page with an option to be anonymous.
Land Acknowledgement
New Music Concerts acknowledges that we are on the traditional territory of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples. Today, Toronto is now home to many First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples from across Turtle Island and around the world. We also acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands.
We are grateful to have the opportunity to meet, work, and live on this island. As an organization dedicated to commissioning and performing works to inspire listeners, we are grateful to all Indigenous peoples for their valuable, past and present, contributions to the arts and music.
At New Music Concerts, we acknowledge and respect the importance of Indigenous musical traditions in advancing reconciliation and trusting relationships with Indigenous communities, and are grateful for the Indigenous artists whose sharing and knowledge continues to expand our understanding of Indigenous peoples, cultures, and arts.
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Meaningful Progressions
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ExploreSeason Lineup
NMC's 54th Season
