Sonic Boom Music Festival 2016 Set for 3/17-20

The Sonic Boom Festival returns for its 29th year of contemporary classical music (new music). Year after year, Vancouver Pro Musica continues to bring artists and new music together for 4 brilliant evening performances that are not to be missed. This truly unique musical experience will run from March 17-20th, in three acoustically beautiful venues in Vancouver - the Orpheum Annex, Western Front and Pyatt Hall.

Sonic Boom Festival 2016 showcases original compositional works of some of British Columbia`s most interesting composers, being performed by some of the best musicians of the Lower Mainland. This 4 day musical event is comprised of 4 evening concerts with a Student Composer Master Class. This year, the festival features Composer-in-Residence Edward Top, Ensemble-in-Residence Standing Wave and Featured Artist Jeremy Berkman & David Brown, and an eclectic mix of ensembles of one to four players. Sonic Boom 2016 Composer-in-Residence Edward Top's piece Together is being world premiered at the Featured Artists Concert by Jeremy Berkman & David Brown on Saturday, March 19, 2016; and his piece Duel is being world premiered at the Ensemble-in-Residence concert by Standing Wave on Sunday March 20, 2016.

Composer-In-Residence, Edward Top (www.edwardtop.com)

was born in The Netherlands, and studied composition with Peter-Jan Wagemans at the Rotterdam Conservatory where he also majored in violin. He has worked with composers Pierre Boulez, Luciano Berio, Wolfgang Rihm and George Benjamin, and continued studying musicology at King's College London. Between 2011 and 2014 Top served as Composer-in-Residence with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra who performed the commissioned work Totem on a USA West Coast tour in 2013. Edward has won a number of international composition prizes, most recently for Totem at the Val Tidone "Egidio Carella" Competition in Italy, and for My Skeletonized Portrait for violin and orchestra at the "2 Agosto" Bologna, also in Italy. He has received commissions from groups including the Schoenberg Ensemble, Vancouver's Standing Wave, Holland Symfonia, Raschèr Saxophone Quartet, Vocaal LAB Netherlands, Doelen String Quartet, and performances by Dutch Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Tokyo Sinfonietta, and conductors Bramwell Tovey, Peter Eötvös, Fabrice Bollon and Peter Rundel.

Ensemble-in-Residence, Standing Wave (www.standingwave.ca) is made up of six of Vancouver's most sought-after musical multitaskers, and is dedicated to commissioning and performing contemporary chamber music by Canadian and International composers The ensemble ventures into a wide array of musical worlds with passion and assurance, bringing an audaciously intimate aesthetic to the most complex and ground-breaking music. In its 24 year history, the Standing Wave has commissioned and premiered over 75 works, has toured across Canada, and has released 3 CDs, including Liquid States (2013), which was recorded live in CBC Studio One and nominated for two Western Canadian Music Awards. The group's fourth CD, New Wave, is scheduled to be released in April of 2016.

Recent highlights include opening night performances at the 2014 and 2015 VSO New Music Festivals, an appearance at Ottawa's Chamberfest in August of 2015, an 8-night run of Jeffrey Ryan's Book of Love with Kokoro Dance, premieres of works by Nicole Lizee, Alfredo Santa Ana, Jennifer Butler, and Michael Oesterle, as well as collaborations with composer Vincent Ho, and filmmaker Mina Shum. Since 2003, Standing Wave has been ensemble in residence at the UBC School of Music.

Jeremy Berkman (som.sites.olt.ubc.ca/person/jeremy-berkman)"turns phrases into characters with eloquent tone and smooth line in Underhill's stunning Trombone Quintet..." - Elissa Poole (Globe and Mail) A graduate of Juilliard School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory and College (with degrees in music and economics) trombonist, Jeremy Berkman currently plays with and leads the education and community engagement efforts of Vancouver's award winning Turning Point Ensemble (TPE). He performs with the Vancouver Opera Orchestra, A Touch of Brass Quintet, and the Jill Townsend Big Band. With TPE, Jeremy has co-led a number of large-scale collaborations and in 2011 was honoured with Vancouver's Mayor's Arts Award (Music). He has contributed to over 30 commercial recordings, and is featured in Still Image (music of Owen Underhill on Centerdisc). With The Peggy Lee Band he has recorded five CDs, toured nationally and internationally, and been nominated for a Juno Award.

Bassist David Brown (www.vancouversymphony.ca/artist/david-brown) has been a member of Vancouver's professional music community for thirty years. He has performed with almost all the musical organizations (Masterpiece Music, Curio, Music in the Morning, Vancouver New Music, Vancouver Children's Festival, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Festival Vancouver, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Cantata Singers, UBC Recital Series, Vetta Chamber Music, Turning Point Ensemble, VSO) in existence during this time. In addition to live performance David has extensive film and commercial recording experience. He has toured with The Three Tenors and the Winnipeg Ballet. A committed teacher he instructs both privately and has taught at most of the music performance departments (UBC, Capilano College, Kwantlen, VCC) in the lower mainland. During the summers he has performed at the Grand Teton, Sitka, Hornby Is. and Courtenay Music Festivals. A recipient of two Canada Council Arts Grants, which enabled his studies at the Juilliard School, David has been a member of the Vancouver Symphony since 1978 and Principal Bass of the CBC Radio Orchestra since 2004. David enjoys a wide variety of musical opportunities and has a particular interest in small ensemble settings of a chamber music or improvisational nature.

Pro Musica Society of Vancouver (aka: Vancouver Pro Musica) was founded in 1984 and is a non-profit organization of BC composers mandated to promote and foster musical life in the Province of British Columbia. In particular, the society supports growth and collaboration between composers and performers by sponsoring, promoting and producing concerts that showcase original, contemporary classical music created by BC composers and feature BC musicians performing such works. Vancouver Pro Musica's three main yearly productions are the Sonic Boom Festival, Electroacoustic Festival, and the Further concert series. To experience some of Vancouver Pro Musica's past musical events, please visit: www.soundcloud.com/vancouver-pro-musica.

Sonic Boom Festival 2016 | March 17-20, 2016 |

March 17: 7:30 pm - Mixed Ensembles concert #1 at WESTERN FRONT

March 18: 7:30pm - Mixed Ensembles concert #2 at PYATT HALL

March 19: 7:30pm - Featured Artists Concert - Jeremy Berkman & David Brown at PYATT HALL

March 20: 10:00am - Student Composer Master Class w/Composer-in-Residence Edward Top at the Martha Lou Henley Classroom at VSO School of Music

March 20: 7:30pm- Ensemble-in-Residence Concert - Standing Wave at ORPHEUM ANNEX

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2495045

VSO School of Music's Pyatt Hall (843 Seymour Street, Vancouver). Map: http://goo.gl/maps/80ytm

Orpheum Annex (823 Seymour Street, Vancouver). Map: http://goo.gl/maps/9ptff

Western Front (303 - 8th Ave E, Vancouver, BC). Map: https://goo.gl/OzuWsh

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