1966-67 / 2016-17: 50 years of musical creation!
The Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) invites you to join us in celebrating half a century of musical creation during its Montréal/New Music international festival, through temporal explorations which see us looking back on the vision we had 50 years ago of the musical future. In so doing, by going back and forth — we return to the present and take several inquisitive looks at what the "new" future holds for the next 50 years and more. Truly “Back to the Future” — the official theme of our 50th anniversary — is at the centre of all our activities, in particular for this 8th edition of our biennial festival. Keep in mind that no one can really predict the future and we can also learn from what we’ve inherited from the past!The works slated for MNM 2017 — each in its own way — demonstrate the ceaseless renewal of the composers, at times featuring some “over the top” works that maintain "the" musical traditions, inherited from a not so distant past. Concert music has gone through explosive upheavals, its foundations pushed aside by the radical revolution of the post-war years, the emergence of concrete and electronic musics, followed by the advent of the minimalism, computing as well as extra-European "exoticisms," to mention several …Thus, the SMCQ, composers, performers, musicians, artists, and all those who have closely or remotely contributed to the brilliance of this new music have profoundly changed our cultural panorama for 50 years. We truly hope that all have benefitted. The Société de musique contemporaine du Québec salutes its founders, pioneers from the outset, whose vision has set up conditions favourable for the exceptional development of unique contemporary music in Quebec. And in record time!Finally, the SMCQ especially thanks the community of composers for their music, the entire professional and artistic environment, the government bodies and the media, for their essential and indispensable role in the evolution of the SMCQ — and we cannot forget to mention — our ever-growing general public, loyal, curious and at the heart of all our activities.
Enjoy the festival and happy 50th!
Aïda Aoun, General Director
Walter Boudreau, Artistic Director