Bok Brass

We’re excited to welcome Bok Brass in their NME début! Bok Brass will be performing the premieres of brass quintets by Emilie Cecilia Le Bel and Ben Whittier, as part of NME’s pilot creative mentorship program, as well as recent works by Edmonton composers Betty Ling, Mari Alice Conrad, and Scott Smallwood. This event is partially supported by a Connections and Exchanges grant from the Edmonton Arts Council Tickets $25/$20.

The Program (subject to change)

Counter Chronometer (brass quintet, 2024*) – Ben Whittier

burdock (brass quintet, 2024*) – Emilie LeBel

After the Rain (solo tenor trombone, 2012) – Jocelyn Morlock

Stolen Stars – Mari Alice Conrad

Aquacultures: for brass quintet and quadraphonic soundscape [ca. 20] – Scott Smallwood
i. the warming
ii. excursions
iii. beluga
iv. cove
v. shrimp
vi. farewell
vii. the depths

Snapshots of Home – Betty Ling

*commissioned by New Music Edmonton with the assistance of the Edmonton Arts Council

Program Notes

Counter Chronometer is a work for brass quintet, written for Bok Brass with support from New Music Edmonton and guidance from Emilie Lebel. The piece is inspired by the swirling and shifting of clock gears, but instead of arriving in a timely and orderly fashion, there is something wrong with this clock. I’ve seen many different broken clocks over my lifetime, and I’ve always found them more interesting than their highly accurate and functional counterparts. Using this as inspiration, this quintet features inconsistent rhythms, chime interjections, and just a little bit of chaos.

burdock for brass quintet: Arctium is a genus of biennial plants commonly known as burdock. Native to Europe and Asia, several species have been widely introduced in Alberta. Burdock plants have dark green leaves that are generally large, coarse, and ovate that are woolly underneath. Burdock’s clinging properties are an excellent mechanism for seed dispersal. Burdock in Alberta occupies a conflicting role as beautiful and useful, and problematic as an invasive species.

After the Rain: Trombonist Neal Bennett commissioned Jocelyn Morlock for a new piece for solo trombone in 2012. The resulting work, After the Rain, was inspired by Max Ernst’s surrealist painting of a devastated post-apocalyptic landscape entitled Europe After the Rain II (1941). Morlock’s handling of solo trombone could not be more different than the powerhouse fireworks of her piece for trombone ensemble with percussion, Sequoia. Rarely straying from the instrument’s middle register and exploring a handful of multiphonics, After the Rain captures the essence of Ernst’s painting: alien, forlorn, and hauntingly beautiful.

stolen stars – for brass quintet and lighting effects: In 1878, Thomas Edison and his team claimed the invention of the light bulb unaware of the impending impact it would have almost 150 years later. The light bulb could be a revolutionary metaphor representing human attempts at controlling nature, an industrial tool to extend our billable hours, or a means to reclaim our sense of safety. Unmistakably, the light bulb has changed the developing world. This same light, however, has irreverently robbed the restorative balm of the night, has stolen the stars that once glimmered like jewelry in the sky, and has disrupted the rhythm of the earth and the creatures that call it home. This composition explores the enchantment and curiosity of the night stars and the lights that have stolen them.

Aquacultures: In contemplating the word Aquaculture, which normally refers to the industry of sheries and the human consumption of seafood, I wonder about the word as a more general term for cultures who rely on water, human and otherwise. What is the culture of the creatures we refer to as seafood? How can we understand the importance of water, and all of the diverse life it cultivates?

The sounds in this piece are, in some cases, recordings of actual water and underwater environments, including the sounds of animals. These recordings were collected by the composer in Colorado and Washington in the US, the Northwest Territories and Nova Scotia in Canada, and Brisbane, Australia; Other sounds are inspired by water, its fluidity, its necessity, and its mystery.

Snapshots of Home: It recently occurred to me that I haven’t gone home to Shenzhen, China, in four years; Covid made it impossible for me to return home, plane tickets were too expensive, I had to take spring and summer classes because of my degrees, and my visa was rejected for traveling abroad. Because of these reasons, my memories of Shenzhen have been reduced to mere impressions; snapshots in time. I turned the most impressionable snapshots into an acoustic love letter to my hometown, since my now-blurry memories of it are similar to how the audience might imagine it. I captured five places within Shenzhen in this work: Nanshan Mountains, the vast and mysterious homes to Shenzhen’s wildlife; Qianhai Street, an orchestra of boisterous traffic jams; Nantou Spring Festival Market, a bustling flower market, and the frequent host of festivals; The historical building in Nanyuancun, which my friends would tell scary stories about;

Finally, Zhongshan Park, a playground for children and hot-spot for the elderly to practice Tai-chi. In this five-movement piece, tranquility meets commotion, as exuberance meets languor; tradition meets innovation, as Chinese classicism pairs with Western modernism—all to paint an auditory picture of Shenzhen as I know it.

The Artists

Founded in 2014, Bok Brass has taken the Edmonton music scene by storm, performing a wide variety of music from Baroque to The Beatles, Renaissance to Ragtime, and Classical to Contemporary. We have performed dozens of recitals, concerts, events, ceremonies, and educational shows all over the province. Our members are all busy freelance musicians and music educators.

Bok Brass is: Joel Gray, Russell Whitehead, Lucy Nesbitt, Alden Lowry and Hannah Gray.

Saxophonist Ben Whittier is a performer, composer, teacher, and improvisor located in Edmonton, Alberta. After graduating with a Doctorate of Music degree in saxophone performance from the University of Alberta, Ben has spent his time teaching saxophone lessons and music theory in Edmonton, performing in concerts with various collaborators, working administratively with the Edmonton Jazz Festival Society, and volunteering with New Music Edmonton. This mentorship project has provided Ben the opportunity to explore his interest in composition, and in particular writing music for performers other than himself. Ben hopes to continue composing music (for himself and others) after the completion of this recital.

Canadian composer Emilie Cecilia LeBel specializes in concert music composition, and the creation of mixed works that employ digital technologies. LeBel’s artistic practice has been recognized through several significant awards and appointments, including Affiliate Composer with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2018–2022), Composer-in-Residence with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (2015), SoundMakers Composer in Residence with Soundstreams Canada (2015–2016), Land’s End Ensemble Composers Competition (2016), Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award (2015), Canadian Music Centre Toronto Emerging Composer Award (2012), and Canadian Federation of University Women Elizabeth Massey Award (2012). LeBel’s work appears on twelve commercial recordings, including her debut album of chamber music, field studies. Released on Redshift Records in May 2023, field studies received a JUNO Award Nomination for Classical Composition of the Year (2024), and a Western Canadian Music Award Nomination for Classical Composer of the Year (2024). Based in Treaty 6 Territory (Edmonton Alberta) since 2018, LeBel is presently Composer Advisor with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a faculty member at MacEwan University.

Mari Alice Conrad is an award-winning, emerging composer in Alberta, Canada completing her doctorate in composition at the University of Alberta. She specializes in concert works for soloists, chamber ensembles, choirs, and large ensembles. Recent compositions have been performed by the BBC Singers (UK), musica intima vocal ensemble (Vancouver), The Canadian Chamber Choir, Standing Wave Ensemble (Vancouver), Edmonton Winds, Ottawa’s SHH!! Ensemble, Ensemble ArtChoral (Québec) and Luminous Voices (Calgary).

Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in 2022, Mari Alice travelled to the Canadian High Arctic and Greenland in the creation of a large-scale composition project for musical youth exploring the effects of climate change. Her current creative research examines the perception, interpretation, and expression of personal history and geography by exploring the sonic potential of objects alongside acoustic instruments to create new timbres and sonic colourings. Mari Alice’s compositional practice shines an exceptional light on the human condition, finding meaning in the mundane by fostering curiosity, authenticity, connection, and collaboration.

Betty Ling is a Chinese composer and visual artist studying at the University of Alberta. She enjoys experimenting with all that the instrument has to offer, all while mixing the East and West within her compositions.

The late Jocelyn Morlock (1969–2023) was one of Canada’s leading composers, who wrote compelling music that has been recorded extensively and receives numerous performances and broadcasts throughout North America and Europe. Born in Winnipeg, she studied piano at Brandon University, and later earned a master’s degree and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of British Columbia, where she was recently an instructor and lecturer of composition. The inaugural composer-in-residence for Vancouver’s Music on Main Society (2012–14), she took on the same role for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 2014 to 2019.

“With its shimmering sheets of harmonics” (Georgia Straight) and an approach that is “deftly idiomatic” (Vancouver Sun), Morlock’s music has received numerous national and international accolades, including Top 10 at the 2002 International Rostrum of Composers, the Mayor’s Arts Award for Music in Vancouver (2016) and the JUNO award for Classical Composition of the Year (My Name Is Amanda Todd, 2018).

Scott Smallwood is a sound artist, composer, and performer who creates works inspired by discovered textures and forms, through a practice of listening, field recording, and improvisation. In addition to composing works for ensembles and electronics, he designs experimental instruments and software, as well as sound installations and audio games, often for site-specific scenarios. Much of his recent work is often concerned with the soundscapes of climate change, and the dichotomy between ecstatic and luxuriating states of noise and the precious commodity of natural acoustical environments and quiet spaces. He performs as one-half of the laptop/electronic duo Evidence (with Stephan Moore) and teaches as a professor of composition at the University of Alberta, where he also serves as the director of the Sound Studies Institute.