Fostering community by advancing the ideas, values and practice of creative improvisational music through performance, composition, collaboration, engagement, mentoring and publication.
The artistic mission of the New Orchestra Workshop (NOW) Society is to create, develop and provide a focus for original music that fuses improvisation and composition, the predetermined with the undefined. Events planned and unplanned are linked, craft and skill navigates the endless possibilities of the unkown. We are committed to providing opportunities for musicians to gain musical experience and exposure to an improvisational community of creative artists and audiences. By producing concerts and recordings, the NOW Society engages in adventurous creativity that offers composers and improvisers a context in which to develop new work and to explore their craft. Audiences experience local, domestic and international artists who are making a lasting contribution to improvisational music. The community is encouaraged to parcticipate in workshops to explore improvised music and its relationship to other disciplines such as dance, theatre, spoken word, video and film.
Under the umbrella of the New Orchestra Workshop Society (NOW), an organization presenting creative music in Vancouver for 25 years, the large ensemble has been the vehicle for a number of remarkable projects including concerts, modern dance scores, workshops, and recordings. Over the last decade they have performed with George Lewis, Barry Guy, René Lussier, and others. With Ron Samworth guitar, Bill Clark, Kevin Elaschuk trumpets, Graham Ord, Bruce Freedman, Saul Berson saxophones, Ralph Eppel, Brad Muirhead trombones, Paul Blaney, Clyde Reed basses, Kate Hammett-Vaughan vocals, Paul Kikuchi drums.
Below is a list of Artists and Resources in the database. We have worked hard to collect as many individuals and bands as possible, though we are certainly aware that this list is incomplete. There may be inaccuracies in the collected information. Please contact us if you find anything that needs correcting, or click the + sign at the top right of this page to add People and Resources who are missing from the listings.
