Composer

One of the most acclaimed composers writing in Canada today, Hong Kong-born Alice Ping Yee Ho has written in many musical genres and received numerous national and international awards, including the 2022 Nova Scotia Symphony’s Maria Anna Mozart Award, 2022 Barlow General Commissioning Award, ​2019 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, 2016 Louis Applebaum Composers Award, 2014 Prince Edward Island Symphony Composers Competition, 2014 Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Friendship Orchestral Composition Competition, 2013 Dora Mavor Moore Award “Outstanding Original Opera” for her opera The Lesson of Da Ji, 2013 Boston Metro Opera International Composition Competition, K.M. Hunter Artist Award, du Maurier Arts Ltd. Canadian Composers Competition, MACRO International Composition Competition, Luxembourg Sinfonietta International Composition Prize, and International League of Women Composers Competition.

Critics have called her music dramatic and graceful, while praising its “organic flow of imagination,” “distinctly individual” style", "colourful orchestration", and "emotive qualities". Influences evident in her proudly eclectic approach include Chinese folk and operatic idioms, Japanese Taiko , jazz, pop culture, and other contemporary art forms. Her ongoing goal is to explore new musical styles that are provocative to the ears.

“Colors and tonality are two attractive resources to me: they form certain mental images that connect to audiences in a very basic way.” [AH]

Composer

is an emerging, award-winning composer currently finishing her BMus in Composition in Edmonton, Alberta with Dr. Emilie LeBel and Kent Sangster. For fifteen years she was active in classical piano pedagogy, accompanying, and community programming and has recently devoted time to hone her compositional skills. She actively seeks opportunities to develop her compositional capacities and has participated in enriching programs offered by the Canadian Music Centre and Babɛl Choral Composer Mentorship Program in Toronto, Canada, and the Standing Wave Ensemble, of Vancouver, British Columbia. Prior to formal undergraduate studies, she received associateships and diplomas in piano performance, accompanying, and teaching from the Victoria Conservatory of Music and Camosun College and holds an ARCT from the Royal Conservatory of Music. She is a registered music teacher, a member of the Kodaly Society of Canada (Level I certification), and a committee member of the Contemporary Showcase Music Festival in Edmonton, Alberta. Her scope of musical skill and passion for mentoring young musicians has presented opportunities to conduct and develop inclusive and impactful community music programs. With her life perspective, authenticity, open mind, and desire to learn, she brings enthusiasm and depth to her compositional practice. Mari Alice will be attending graduate studies in composition at the University of Alberta in the fall of 2021.

Composer

is a Malaysian composer currently based on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil- Waututh peoples. She obtained a BMus in Music Composition from the University of Oregon and is now in the 2nd year of her graduate degree in Music Composition at the University of British Columbia. Her music has been performed at the Eugene Concerts at First series, Oregon Bach Festival, Oregon Composers Forum, and the Music Today Festival. Her most recent work was premiered at the West Coast Student Composers’ Symposium by UBC’s Contemporary Players. Her involvement with The Score Research Cluster has encouraged her to diversify her approach to writing music and hearing sound as a whole. Her music is inspired by the desire to understand processes, especially how things come to be. She draws from a variety of human experiences surrounding emotional states, memories, belonging, and even food. She also strives to understand where and how her background and upbringing fit into the Western world of contemporary art music. In the future, she hopes to see more representation of minority BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+ artists throughout the arts and hopes to provide access to the arts across all social classes in her home country, Malaysia.

Composer

known for her bold approach to aesthetics and expertly crafted electronics. Her diverse artistic background is evident in her works, which implement visual art, theatrics, creative writing and improvisation. Her scores are colourful works that inspire the eye as well as the ear. Her current compositional fascination is with colour, metaphor and exploring how sound contexts can transform meaning. Holly grew up in Halifax, NS and is currently based in St. John’s, NL. Her work has been played across Canada, notably at the 21st Century Guitar Conference in Ottawa, The Newfound Music Festival, The Tuckamore Music Festival and as part of Continuum’s HATCH program. Her work Violence which explores frustrations surrounding the treatment of victims of sexual violence was recently recorded on Canadian Guitarist Ben Diamond Debut CD Prime. Her work for chamber ensemble and electronics nothing to do with explosions was recently featured on the YouTube channel ScoreFollower. Upcoming commissions include a work for percussionist Beverly Johnston and performances at Sound Symposium. Holly holds a B.Mus from Memorial University (St. John’s, NL) and a B.A. from the University King’s College (Halifax, NS). She is currently working toward a M.Mus from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC). She has studied composition under Andrew Staniland, Jocelyn Morlock, and Dorothy Chang.

Composer

Jocelyn Pook is an English composer and violist. She is known for her evocative scores for many films, including Eyes Wide Shut, The Merchant of Venice and The Wife. Allegra is thrilled to be giving the North American premier of Pook’s haunting work Hearing Voices for soprano, tape and orchestra

Soprano (Hearing Voices)

Acclaimed for her “stylistic versatility, clarity, range” (Halifax Chronicle Herald) and “gorgeous operatic power” (Vancouver Sun),

Vancouver BC-based soprano Heather Pawsey’s career encompasses opera, oratorio, symphonic, recital, chamber and contemporary music.

A First Prize winner of the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, she has performed across North America, Europe and Japan. Named an Ambassador of the Canadian Music Centre— one of only 50 performers and conductors “who have played exceptional roles in shaping the Canadian music scene and raising the profile of Canadian music”—she has premiered over 40 works, many of them written specifically for her.

Mezzo-Soprano (Labyrinth of Tears)

Korea born Canadian mezzo-soprano Yenny Yeeun Lee was recently featured at the world-premiered opera Chinatown by Alice Ho as Hoisan Singer, which was described as “simply wonderful” by Vancouver Sun. Lee was a participant in the Canadian Opera Company’s Summer Intensive in 2022 and studied at the University of British Columbia under the direction of Dale Throness and director Nancy Hermiston. With their great coaching and her passion for music, Lee competed in many prestigious competitions including Belvedere International Competition in Latvia and Concorso Viotti in Italy, and won at the Kiwanise Festival Canadian Nationals

Vancouver-based Astrolabe Musik Theatre creates compelling works of music at the intersection of theatre, dance, visual arts and film, often performed in site-specific or alternative venues. Passionate about Canadian creators and performers, we are dedicated to creating, commissioning, and performing works by Canadian artists. Since 2011 Astrolabe has presented 13 productions profiled by media across Canada. From jazz cellars, chapels and copper mines to heritage buildings, botanical gardens, art galleries and wineries, we’ve programmed the works of 23 Canadian composers (13 of them women) and world-premiered 11 works by eight Canadian composers. Our feature-length film The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ (the first Canadian opera to be shot specifically as a film) had its world premiere in March 2022 at Le FiFa International Festival of Films About Art (Montreal) and its BC premiere at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival. The Lake / nx̌aʔx̌aʔitkʷ is an inspiring documentary about the extraordinary friendship between two singers – Heather Pawsey of Astrolabe Musik Theatre and Delphine Derickson of Westbank First Nation – and the ground-breaking cultural collaboration in which they decolonized a historic Canadian opera by incorporating syilx / Okanagan perspectives. Into the Little Hill is a multi-disciplinary production that seamlessly fuses the shimmering beauty of this chamber opera by George Benjamin, one of the most significant composers in the world today, with compelling contemporary dance. It’s another first, a Canadian premiere. Astrolabe’s upcoming presentation, Hearing Voices, will be performed at the Vancouver Playhouse on June 30 at 7:30 pm in partnership with the Allegra Chamber Orchestra. Written by British composer Jocelyn Pook, Hearing Voices is an extraordinarily intimate look at women’s mental health. This will be the work’s North American premiere. Please see our website for a ticket link and further information soon.

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