New Music Festival - Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

PERFORMER/ARTIST BIOS
Michael Matthews, composer (Canada)
Michael Matthews’ music has
been performed in countries
around the world. He has been
the recipient of numerous
commissions and awards; in
2000, he held a Rockefeller
Foundation residency at the Bellagio Center in
Italy. His orchestral work Two Interludes was
awarded third prize in the 1997 du Maurier
Arts Ltd. New Music Festival Canadian
Composers Competition. He has also received
Canada Council and Manitoba Arts Council
grants, the Winnipeg Rh Institute Award for
interdisciplinary research, a residency at the
EMS computer music studios in Stockholm,
Sweden, and a prize in the Premio Musicale
Cittá di Trieste, Italy for his orchestral piece
The Wind Was There.
Diana McIntosh, composer &
performer (Canada)
Bravo TV called Diana
McIntosh a national treasure.
With a dynamic stage presence,
she has an active career as a
distinctive, provocative, and
innovative composer, pianist
and performance artist, having performed
throughout Canada, widely in the U.S., in
Europe and Nairobi, Kenya. She has been
commissioned by many soloists, ensembles,
and by the WSO and CBC. Most recently,
CBC commissioned a piano Prelude and
Fugue for their Glenn Gould celebration
concert in Toronto, and Prodigies of the Nose
for percussion and piano. In October 2009,
she performed in the premiere of her
theatrical The Rehearsal’s the Thing for four
speaking/playing musicians.
David Moroz, piano
Winnipeg-born pianist David
Moroz enjoys a career as one
of Canada's most versatile
artists. He has performed in
every major Canadian city and
appears regularly in recital with
Canada's most distinguished musicians. Mr.
Moroz was awarded a doctor of music degree
from the University of Montreal, and holds
both bachelor and master of music degrees
from the celebrated Juilliard School in New
York City. He has been artistic director of The
Winnipeg Chamber Music Society since 1987,
and was appointed to the University of
Manitoba's Faculty of Music in 1999, where he
is coordinator of the Piano Department.
Nico Muhly, composer (U.S.A.)
The music of New York–based
composer Nico Muhly has been
played by such ensembles as
eighth blackbird, the Britten
Sinfonia, the Chicago Symphony,
and the New York Philharmonic,
and sung by soloists including David Daniels,
Mark Padmore and Jessica Rivera. In addition
to numerous recordings of his own music
(available on Decca and Bedroom Community
Records), he has collaborated on projects with
Antony and the Johnsons, Björk, Bonnie
"Prince" Billy, Grizzly Bear, Jónsi of Sigur Rós,
and Teitur Lassen. His first opera, Two Boys,
premiered at the English National Opera in
June 2011. Dark Sisters, commissioned by the
Gotham Chamber Opera, Music-Theatre
Group, and the Opera Company of
Philadelphia premiered in November 2011 in
New York City.
Jesse Plessis, composer (Canada)
Jesse Plessis is currently working towards a master
of music degree in piano performance at Brandon
University. His own arrangement of Sgt. Pepper's
Lonely Hearts Club Band, the seminal album by
The Beatles, received an acclaimed premiere in
August 2011. He has been featured in concert
programs at the Casalmaggiore Festival in Italy, as
a guest artist with the Lethbridge Symphony, the
Musaeus String Quartet, the Land's End
Chamber Ensemble, the International Piano
Ensemble, and has worked with composers John
Corigliano and Marcel Bergmann. In May 2011,
he was a prize winner in the Women’s Musical
Club of Winnipeg Scholarship Competition. He
is also active as a conductor and his compositions
have been performed in Canada, Europe, and
broadcast on CBC Radio 2.
January – February 2012 I OVERTURE 35