Future Resonance Festival: The New Canon

Featuring:

• Aiyun Huang —Chair
• Jason Young —J. Alex. Young is a Cree-Settler Composer from Northern Ontario. He holds degrees from Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, and a Ph.D. in Composition from the University of Calgary, based on research of his Cree culture, storytelling, ceremony and song as inspiration for creative work. He is currently a dedicated member of the Canadian Music Centre’s Accountability for Change and Indigenous Advisory Councils. The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra premiered his piece ᓵᑯᐦᑖᐤ - šâkohtâw for Tom Jackson’s digital series The Bear and the Wild Rose. He is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Brandon University. J. Alex Young feels that the unity of self, community, land and spirit must be maintained to reflect a musical concord between his Indigenous Cree and Western settler heritage. His compositions are a combination of Western sonic orchestrations and Cree-based narrative explorations of his connection to home, family, story and spirituality.
• Rena Roussin — Rena Roussin is a scholar of classical (“art”) music’s relationships to concepts of equity, embodiment, and social justice in historic and current contexts. She has particular research expertise on changing concepts of disability and gender in eighteenth-century Austro-German music, as well as Indigenous-led classical music initiatives in twenty-first century North America. She holds a doctorate in musicology from the University of Toronto, and is currently a postdoctoral associate at Western University, where she is working on her first book, Identities, Indigeneities, Intersectionalities: Positioning Contemporary Opera in Canada. A committed public musicologist, Rena serves as musicologist-in-residence for the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir and on the Canadian Opera Company’s Circle of Artists. Rena is especially interested in ways music might contribute to Indigenous equity on Turtle Island, musical repa/matriation, and community-led research, interests shaped both by her settler ancestry and her experiences as a reconnecting Indigenous person with heritage from the Haida and Métis communities.
• Dr. Charlie Wall-Andrews —Recognized as a Billboard Canada Power Player, Dr. Charlie Wall-Andrews is a composer, educator, scholar, and creative industries leader dedicated to using creative interventions to elevate society. Her compositions have been performed internationally and recognized for their emotionally immersive contemporary sound. She teaches at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music and in the Professional Music Program at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Canada Council for the Arts and leads the SOCAN Foundation, advancing national initiatives that support music creators across Canada. Learn more: www.charliewallandrews.com
• Rashaan Allwood —Rashaan Rori Allwood is a multitalented musician based out of Toronto, currently pursuing a PhD in Composition. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance and a Master's degree in Organ Performance. Rashaan is the recipient of the 2022 Marilyn Mason Award in Organ Composition from the American Guild of Organists, who commissioned him to compose a new piece for solo organ to be premiered in Washington in 2022. Rashaan was also one of the ICOT winners for Piano works by Canadian composers in 2020. Rashaan is now director of music at St. Ansgar Lutheran Church, Toronto where he regularly premieres new works, directing choirs and various ensembles. As a soloist, he has toured across Europe, and performed at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, UK, St. Nikolai-Kirche in Leipzig, Germany and St. Pierre’s Cathedral in Geneva, Switzerland.