Jennifer Waring, Artistic Director
Anne Thompson, flute
Max Christie, clarinet
Ryan Scott, percussion
Laurent Philippe, piano
Carol Fujino, violin
Paul Widner, cello
Continuum originated as a collective of composers and musicians dedicated to presenting contemporary music and fostering the work of emerging composers.
Through energy, imagination and superb musicianship, we've become a vital part of the contemporary cultural scene in Canada and increasingly abroad.
Our biennial Call for Scores provides an opportunity to bring exciting new works, new composers, and even new forms of music, to the attention of a widening audience.
Continuum offers a way for people who love music and are curious about the world around them to engage as listeners, as supporters or as volunteers.
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.
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.
There are no audio files attached to this site.