The Happening Festival of New Music and Media 2012, will be held from January 25 to 28, 2012 at the Rosza Centre on the University of Calgary Campus. Happening 2012 is four days of sonic discovery, highlighting established and emerging practices in sound and music. This year’s festival will explore the evocation of real and imagined soundscapes in music from the early 20th century with the orchestral music of Claude Debussy to the present with soundscape compositions by Hildegard Westerkamp.

The festival offers four concerts featuring new and recent works for ensembles, soloists and digital media. 2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Claude Debussy, the remarkable French composer whose fascination with sound colour and evocation of soundscapes opened the door to many of the creative developments in music we see today. The music and ideas of Claude Debussy will be woven together with contemporary instrumental, vocal and sonic art works throughout the festival.

The featured artist of the festival is composer, radio artist and sound ecologist Hildegard Westerkamp. Renowned for her immersive soundscape compositions, audiences will be able to hear several of her works in concert and participate in her daytime soundscape workshops and lectures.

This year’s festival will feature the Calgary Youth Orchestra, conducted by Edmond Agopian, who will perform the world première of Debussy’s Second Suite Bergamasque for orchestra. The dynamic percussion sextet Sixtrum from Montréal will present a concert of new and classic works for percussion ensemble bringing together traditions from Europe, North America and around the world. Other performers and ensembles include guest pianists Rohan O’Hora, Collen Athparia and Lana Henchell, UCalgary String Quartet, violinist Edmond Agopian, and soprano Edith Pritchard.

Happening Festival of New Music and Media 2012
January 25 – 28, 2012 • Rosza Centre, UC Campus
Tickets: $ 20 (adults) $ 15 (senior/student) • Festival Passes: $60 (adult) $50 (Student/Senior)
Tickets to the Sixtrum concert on Thursday, January 25 are: $25 (adults), $18 (students/seniors)
Tickets/Passes available at door.
For complete festival schedule visit www.music.ucalgary.ca