UNews - Banff Centre

Pianos as you've never heard, or seen, before

trevor.kenney — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 17:03:42 +0000

Hear two pianists, with very different backgrounds and styles, coming together on two grand pianos integrated with electronics and computers - a chance to see each pianist shine and to see the synergy of live collaboration.

Aaron Collier will perform a set of piano improvisations utilizing live sampling, looping and layering techniques with a computer. Jesse Plessis will play a handful of modern works, some with computer, by electronic-music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of Canada's greatest composers, Ann Southam, the young American, Nico Muhly, and one robot-inspired work by Radiohead. The duo appear in Two Pianos + Computers, Saturday, Sept. 21 at 8 p.m. in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Hall Atrium.

Two Pianos + Computers promises to be one of the more unique musical offerings to hit the stage this year.

The duo will wrap up this unique evening with what they describe as a “turbo-rad collaborative piece”.

Aaron Collier

Aaron Collier may be known as one of Atlantic Canada’s most consistently innovative keyboardists, but the Prince Edward Island native is most recently calling Lethbridge home. Collier studied the piano privately in Prince Edward Island until his graduating year of high school before embarking on 14 years of national and international touring and recording with various rock, pop and jazz artists.

In 2001, Collier became the keyboardist for international touring and recording artists The Jimmy Swift Band. In the following decade the group released four studio albums and two live recordings. In 2006, Collier along with JSB frontman Craig Mercer created the “looping madness duo” Scientists of Sound, a theatrical and high-energy electro project which continues to create intense live shows for eager audiences worldwide.

In 2008, Collier released his first full-length album of electronic music, Love, and in September 2010 he released the improvised piano+computer recording Neo.

Collier is an award-winning sound designer in theatre and recent credits include the world-premiere of Daniel MacIvor’s I Animal at the Supernova and Summerworks festivals in Halifax and Toronto, as well as Jay Whitehead and Daniel Judes’ UNSEX’d in Lethbridge, Dublin, and Halifax. He is presently creating a new show called The Myth of Canada under his alter-ego Chandelier, and is workshopping the work as one of CASA’s inaugural resident artists in November.

www.aaroncollier.ca

Jesse Plessis

Pianist and composer Jesse Plessis recently obtained a Master of Music degree (Performance and Literature) from Brandon ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ where he studied piano with Megumi Masaki and composition with Patrick Carrabre. His Bachelor of Music degree is from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge where he studied piano with Deanna Oye and composition with Dr. Arlan Schultz and Dr. Rolf Boon.

Plessis has been awarded prizes both in piano and composition. His own works have been broadcast on CBC, and he has performed as a guest artist with several ensembles including the Musaeus String Quartet, the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble, and the International Piano Ensemble. He was recently one of 12 pianists admitted to the London Masterclasses, a program held each July at the Royal College of Music.

He has had the opportunity to give the Canadian premieres of works by Marcel Bergmann, Kaija Saariaho, John Corigliano, Nico Muhly, and Kjartan Olafsson. Recent performances include those with New West Theatre, at the Casalmaggiore Festival in Italy, the Dark Music Days Festival in Iceland and at the Banff Centre.

Plessis is also one half of the Hansen-Plessis Piano Duo (alongside Bente Hansen, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge) which explores the possibilities of popular music in the concert hall alongside the classical repertoire.

A sometime conductor, Plessis has directed performances with the Brandon ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ New Music Ensemble (BUNME), the Brandon ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Orchestra and several musical theatre productions.

Tickets to Two Pianos + Computers are available by calling the Box Office at 403-329-2616 or online at www.uleth.ca/tickets.

Tidsbury helped create Olympic memories

trevor.kenney — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:33:34 +0000

It has already been one year since we came together as a nation to watch the world's elite athletes strive for glory at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. For many of us, the excitement of watching the world's top athletes compete for gold will forever be linked to the inspiring theme song, "I Believe".

For Josh Tidsbury (BSc '03), systems specialist, Creative Technology Systems with CTVglobemedia, the song represents one of the highlights of his career.

Working as a score producer and engineer as well as post-production technical lead for CTV during the games, Tidsbury played an integral part in bringing the sounds and music of the Olympics alive. Tidsbury, together with Mike Nunan, began creating the musical theme package in mid 2009, working with a composer and writer then executing the strings, brass, percussion and choir recordings before mixing and editing for the final musical score.

Alumnus Josh Tidsbury was back on campus recently, speaking to students in the New Media program about his career path.

"The entire Olympic experience was amazing, a once-in-a-lifetime experience to create the musical theme," says Tidsbury, who fondly refers to his more than 1,500 CTV colleagues as "our own little team Canada". "People have this connection between music and memory that brings them back the way nothing else does. The "I Believe" theme that the nation heard endlessly for 17 days will forever remind people of the extraordinary performances of the 2010 games. It was very humbling and inspiring to be a part of that."

Tidsbury has long been inspired by the world of music production and recording. After graduating from Calgary's Lord Beaverbrook High School, he and his former band teachers
received a provincial grant to build a recording studio and create the first high school recording program in Alberta. Despite his love of music and audio technology, however, Tidsbury came to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and entered the neuroscience program, intending to pursue a career in medicine.

"I was taken on a tour by one of the faculty members. When I got a sense of how student-centered the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ was and how many opportunities there were for undergraduates – things such as working in a lab – it was an easy sell."

Taking advantage of those opportunities, Tidsbury worked in a lab setting with
Dr. Glen Prusky for three years. Tidsbury says the experience kept him grounded in the sciences and gave him a creative outlet outside of the classroom.

"It allowed me to have a hands-on approach to the sciences. It helped shape how I approach my day-to-day work at CTV," he says. "I actually write a lot of software applications now to aid post-production flow, and I find myself taking a more scientific approach, studying what is right and wrong. I ask questions like, how do we make it better and how can we observe things and remove biases? Even though it isn't necessarily a straight line from neuroscience to what I do today, it's all interconnected."

Throughout his undergraduate studies, Tidsbury maintained a connection to music, playing in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's jazz band under the direction of Dr. Ed Wasiak, and recording and mixing music on the side to help make rent. When he graduated in 2003 with a bachelor of science in neuroscience, Tidsbury realized that, despite his love of science, his true passion was with music production and recording. He spent the following year studying and working at the Banff Centre where he earned an audio associate certificate, before being accepted into the exclusive master's of music in sound recording program at McGill ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ on a full scholarship. He graduated from McGill in 2007 and moved to Toronto to begin his career at CTV. Grateful for the opportunities and encouragement he has received over the years, Tidsbury believes in giving back.

"If it weren't for the fact that everyone from my high school band director to the folks at the U of L, the Banff Centre and McGill took the time to help me out and push me ahead, I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now," says Tidsbury, who recently returned to the U of L to talk with students about his experiences. "If there is any way I can give back and bring help, inspiration, or guidance to students who are at the point I was not that long ago, then I want to wherever I can."

GET THE FACTS

· Tidsbury engineered the orchestral soundtrack for the Canadian Film, Just Buried, at Dvorak Hall, Prague, Czech Republic.

· He mixed the musical score for Stake Land, an award winning film that debuted at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.

· Tidsbury is a member of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), and has been the lead designer of the AES online redevelopment since 2007.

· He is currently an adjunct faculty member at Toronto's Humber College, teaching courses in audio engineering and production.

UNews - Banff Centre

Pianos as you've never heard, or seen, before

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Tidsbury helped create Olympic memories

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