Adam Scime-This Carefully Chosen Stillness (2017)- violin + electronics
Ilana Waniuk-violin
Adam Scime- electronics
Sonja Rainey-instalation design
Kai Masaoka-audio
Matthew Fava-video
Recorded Nov 11th, 2017 at the Canadian Music Centre, 20 St. Joseph Street, Toronto
“Recently I travelled to many sites of trauma throughout Europe studying narratives of xenophobia, memory, and migration. I was struck with how many of these places - the Ravensbrück former concentration camp for instance - are quite beautiful in terms of their geographical locations. Contemplating the horrors of these places while surrounded by such beauty and calmness left a lasting impression tattooed within. I decided to take a number of field recording of the resonant qualities of these sites. I then used a process known as ring modulation to combine the frequencies of the different resonances in order to create a new set of spectra that govern the harmonic language for this piece. By combining the resonances of these different places, a new pseudo-space has been created so that the ear may wander acoustically throughout. I’d like to thank the Thin Edge Collective for their ongoing effort to fearlessly present and champion of the music of our time, and especially Ilana Waniuk for whom this piece has been written and dedicated to.”-Adam Scime
As a young composer and performer living in Toronto, Adam Scime has been praised as “a fantastic success" (CBC) and "Astounding, the musical result was remarkable" (icareifyoulisten.com). His work has received many awards including the 2015 CMC Toronto Emerging Composer Award, The Socan Young Composer Competition, The Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian Music, and The Esprit Young Composer Competition. Adam was recently selected for the ECM+ 2016 Generations Project during which his piece Liminal Pathways was toured across nine Canadian cities. Recently, Adam’s piece Gradual Erasures was recorded by violinist Véronique Mathieu and pianist Stephanie Chua for their True North project and released on Centrediscs. Adam’s music has been performed and commissioned by many renowned ensembles and soloists including Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne, The Esprit Orchestra, Array Music, The National Arts Centre Orchestra, The Gryphon Trio, New Music Concerts, Soundstreams, The Bicycle Opera Project, l'Orchestre de la Francophonie, Nadina Mackie Jackson, and Carla Huhtanen among others.
In November of 2012, Adam’s work was featured in the Emergents Concert Series, a series showcasing emerging artists from across Canada and hosted by the Music Gallery. In March of 2011, New Music Concerts premiered Adam's new trio After the rioT, for a concert celebrating the music of the prominent late English composer Jonathan Harvey. New Music Concerts subsequently commissioned from Adam a piece for large ensemble and soprano Carla Huhtanen that premiered in the 2012/2013 concert season. In 2014, Adam’s piece Broken Images was toured across China to various new music festivals by a chamber group of renowned Canadian soloists. Adam has been selected for numerous composer workshops including Domaine Forget, The Soundstreams Emerging Composer Workshop, The Vocalypse Opera from Scratch Workshop, The National Arts Centre composer training program, The Canadian Contemporary Music Workshop and the Chrysalis Workshop with the Continuum Contemporary Ensemble among others. Select future works include commissions for saxophonist Wallace Halladay and chamber ensemble to be premiered by the Continuum, and projects with The Esprit Orchestra.
