Composer Sandeep Bhagwati Highlights the 58th Season at the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec

Composer, poet, teacher, researcher, media artist, conductor, director, theater director... Sandeep Bhagwati transcends all boundaries: musical, artistic, cultural, natural, technological, and geographical. His repertoire is vast and diverse, ranging from compositional music for orchestra to "comprovisation", multimedia concert-installations, music-theatre works, operas, chamber music and computer-assisted music. His works are performed worldwide by leading orchestras and music ensembles.

 "The role of the composer has evolved over time. Today, his aim is to find new listening possibilities, to be an inventor of new traditions. I invite the public to discover my music, which melds people and genres in a decompartmentalized vision in symbiosis with our living world."  Sandeep Bhagwati

This fall alone, some 20 events celebrating the composer will be offered to the public, with 16 concerts, an exhibition and youth activities.

Discover the program: smcq.qc.ca/smcq/en/hommage/2023

Three events, lots of music

Amitiés et étrangetés (Sunday, September 24 at 3pm), which kicks off the Series in Montreal, will bring together soloists from different musical and geographical backgrounds, each with their own tradition (popular, baroque, jazz, experimental, interdisciplinary) and context (Vietnam, Sweden, Canada, Quebec) rediscover and reimagine their instruments and traditions by immersing themselves in various musical situations conceived by the composer.

À la croisée des pianos is a marathon presented on the weekend of November 3 to 5, with 8 high-flying recitals exploring the infinite possibilities of this instrument. The event will bring together 7 outstanding soloists: Daniel Áñez, Viktor Lazarov, Brigitte Poulin, Philippe Prud'homme and Pamela Reimer from Canada, as well as Erik Bertsh from Italy and Moritz Ernst from Germany.

Rasas et autres sentiments on Thursday, January 26, 2023, will bring together under the direction of Cristian Gort a choir and the musicians of the Ensemble de la SMCQ to perform Bhagwati's Rasas. An unforgettable experience guided by nature and human emotions, two themes around which composers Sophie Dupuis, Daphné Hejebri, Thierry Tidrow, R. Murray Schafer and György Ligeti will shine.

Partners from here and abroad

In addition to the SMCQ concerts, a number of partners are joining the Homage Series to give the spotlight to this exceptional artist. Among them, the renowned Ensemble Klangforum of Vienna will be performing a commission for the composer at the prestigious Musik Protokoll festival in Graz, Austria (Exercices d'étrangeté no II, October 6). Very soon, on September 8, as part of the CiMa International Music Festival in Manizales, Colombia, SMCQ resident conductor Cristian Gort will lead the Ensamble de Música Contemporánea Universitdad de Caldas (Contemporary Music Ensemble of the University of Caldas) in a concert dedicated to our homaged composer. 

Thanks to our collaboration with Toronto's New Music Concerts, three events featuring works by Bhagwati will be presented in the Queen City. In addition to a concert by the excellent Ensemble Made in Canada in June 2024, the Turning Point Ensemble will make a stopover here after its performance in Vancouver, but before the one in Montreal in May. In April, a concert-installation with musicians from Canada and Germany (from Berlin's Śabdagatitāra Ensemble) will be performed for a day at Toronto's Aga Khan Museum following a two-day performance at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Also in Toronto, the University of Toronto Percussion Ensemble under the direction of Aiyun Huang will reprise Anti-Kairos, which was presented at the last MNM (Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques) festival.

Among our Quebec partners, Chants Libres will present the Aichinger Lieder Remix in October at La Chapelle. In winter and spring, the Quasar saxophone quartet, les Plaisirs du Clavecin, Productions SuperMusique, Productions Fiolûtröniq and the Oktoécho ensemble will each be offering musical experiences as out of the ordinary as our composer.

An inspired and inspiring exhibition

As in previous Series, a multidisciplinary exhibition entitled Comprovisations for Sandeep Bhagwati will give a pictorial echo to his music from September 24, presented by curators Élisabeth Dupond and Julianna Joos.

A strong presence in schools from coast to coast

As with every edition of the Homage Series, children across the country will discover Sandeep Bhagwati's music through classroom activities inspired by his approach. The handout of an educational kit by the SMCQ (including a comic book on his life, a guide to educational activities, scores, karaoke, etc.) to teachers will reach several thousand children from preschool to high school across the country. Au-delà de l'horizon, a work composed for the youth sector, will enable thousands of schoolchildren to sing and play Sandeep Bhagwati's music. - In Germany, a music school ensemble from Oberursel will offer Insektenkonzert, a walking concert for its students.

Concerts of the Homage Series: smcq.qc.ca/smcq/en/hommage/2023/concerts

Short biography

In 1963 Sandeep Bhagwati was born in Bombay (India) to a German mother and an Indian father. When he was 5 his family moved to Germany, but he regularly returned to India during the holidays. As a young man he took piano lessons, founded a rock band and quickly realized his attraction for music composition.

After studying music at Salzburg's Mozarteum University, he left to study composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Music (Munich Conservatory). He went on to develop a number of bold and innovative projects, while forging fruitful artistic collaborations. In 1995, he was invited by the renowned IRCAM (Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique) to Paris, where he also connected with composers, as well as poets, painters and film-makers. Then he undertook a succession of residencies and trips, becoming, in effect a “composer-adventurer.” In 2001, his family moved to Berlin, but this did not stop Bhagwati from disseminating his work around the world through a multitude of musical, theatrical and other projects and events. In 2006. he put down roots in Montreal, with his appointment as Canada Research Chair in Inter-X Art at Concordia University. He remains active on the international scene, working with musicians from a variety of traditions.