Vancouver’s cutting-edge chamber ensemble, Standing Wave is dedicated to commissioning and performing works by composers from Canada and abroad.
Made up of six of Vancouver’s most sought-after musical multi-taskers – Standing Wave ventures into a panoply of musical worlds with passion and assurance. From the intricate complexities of the music of Howard Bashaw and Chris Paul Harman, to the bold avant-garde jazz of Tony Wilson, and the anarchic electro-acoustic imaginings of Giorgio Magnanensi, the ensemble has commissioned and premiered over 80 works in its 26 year history.
Since its formation in 1991, Standing Wave has presented an annual season of concerts in Vancouver, has toured across Canada, collaborated with Kokoro Dance, Ballet BC, Redshift Society, Rumble Theatre, and Vancouver New Music Society. They’ve been featured as part of the PuSh Festival, Vancouver New Music Festival, MusicFest Vancouver, the Victoria Symphony’s New Currents Festival, Vancouver Pro Musica’s Sonic Boom Festival, and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival. In 2014, 2015 and 2016, Standing Wave performed the opening concerts of the annual VSO New Music Festivals; the ensemble performed the festival’s closing concert in 2017.
Other recent highlights include the April 2013 premiere of Edward Top’s Pots ‘n Pans Falling, which was made possible through the endeavors of Acoustic Panel, a grassroots commissioning initiative. In 2012, the ensemble presented Raven Tales, a collaboration with First Nations Artist and Dancer Mike Dangeli, which featured the Git Hayetsk Dancers, as well as the premiere of a work by award-winning Vancouver composer Marcus Goddard inspired by Dangeli’s art. In January 2011, Standing Wave was featured over three nights at Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, performing ALL, the ensemble’s mixed-media collaboration with award-winning filmmaker Mina Shum which featured music written by six Vancouver composers including Bramwell Tovey, Veda Hille, and Alfredo Santa Ana.
Standing Wave’s latest recording, New Wave (2017), features works by Nicole Lizée, Justin Christensen, Michael Oesterle, Edward Top and Marcus Goddard. New Wave has been nominated for three Western Canadian Music Awards: Classical Ensemble of the Year (for Standing Wave) and Classical Composition of the Year (for Edward Top’s Pots ‘n Pans Falling and Marcus Goddard’s Raven Tales). Recorded live at CBC Studio One, and released in 2013, Liquid States is Standing Wave’s third CD of contemporary chamber music. The recording, nominated for two Western Canadian Music Awards, features works, all commissioned and premiered by the ensemble, by Canadian luminary composers Linda Bouchard, Rodney Sharman, Jocelyn Morlock, and Jeffrey Ryan. The ensemble also has a self-titled recording released in 1991 and Redline, released in 2007.
Standing Wave has been recorded many times for CBC Radio programs including Two New Hours, and Westcoast Performance and The Signal and, since 2003, has been an active Ensemble in Residence at the UBC School of Music.
OUTREACH
Standing Wave has been an ensemble in residence at the University Of British Columbia School Of Music since 2004. Working with members of the Composition Faculty, we provide readings of student works, offering feedback and suggestions from our standpoint as a conductorless chamber ensemble, as well as open rehearsals and workshops on writing for our individual instruments. Ensemble members also perform for, teach, and give workshops and clinics for students at various other post secondary institutions in the Vancouver area, such as Capilano University and Vancouver Community College.