TONUS VIVUS – Society for New Music (Formerly known as the Edmonton Composers’ Concert Society) has been in existence since 1985. It came about after a suggestion by Violet Archer that her former students mount a concert of their own works. Over the years of its activity, TONUS VIVUS has produced over a thousand pieces of New Music, including dozens of world, Canadian and North American premiere performances. At present, the Society has over 80 members–composers, performers and volunteers–in Canada, the US and Europe.
Currently, TONUS VIVUS sponsors the New Music Alberta concert series as well as several publishing and recording projects. The Society operates its own recording label, CLEF Records, distributed in Canada and world-wide by the Canadian Music Centre/Fusion III, and collaborates with the Montréal label Eclectra, distributed in by North America’s largest independent distributor, Allegro.

TONUS VIVUS has worked with some of North America’s and Europe’s most outstanding soloists and ensembles, such as the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonton Chamber Orchestra (both ensembles under the baton of Maestro David Hoyt), the Edmonton Youth Orchestra (led by Maestro Michael Massey), the Edmonton Chamber Players directed by Maestro Jacek Rogala, the Szczecin Opera Orchestra under Jacek Kraszewski, BradyWorks, Duo Majoya, Edmonton Saxophone Quartet, Ensemble De Rode Pomp, Ensemble Resonance, The Hammerhead Consort, Motion Ensemble, The Penderecki String Quartet, St. Crispin’s Chamber Ensemble, Vienna Saxophone Quartet, pianists Eve Egoyan, Barbara Pritchard, Sylvia Shadick-Taylor, Kathleen Supové, Roger Admiral, Corey Hamm, Reinier van Houdt, Stéphane Lemelin, Joachim Segger, Daan Vandewalle, flautist Isabelle Schnöller, oboist Lawrence Cherney, clarinettists Jean-Guy Boisvert, Don Ross and Harry Sparnaaij, saxophonists Laurent Estoppey, Charles Stolte and William H. Street, violist Rivka Golani, violoncellist Friedrich Gauwerky, accordionist Joseph Petric, organists Marnie Giesbrecht, Silvia Sparnaaij Castillo and Stillman Matheson, to mention just a few.

In the past, TONUS VIVUS has produced entire concerts devoted solely to electroacoustic medium, and is now committed to mixing both the acoustic and electroacoustic genres as it seems to be the most effective strategy.

The Society has actively pursued its commissioning programme, with commissions being received over the years from The Canada Council for the Arts, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton Arts Council and other channels. The composers who have benefited from this programme include Siaw Kin Lee, Linda C. Smith, Reinhard von Berg, Thom Golub, Gordon Nicholson, David Wall, and many others.

TONUS VIVUS has several associate groups: Duo Majoya (piano and organ), The Edmonton Saxophone Quartet (S, A, T, B), St. Crispin’s Chamber Ensemble (flute, clarinet, occasionally saxophone, piano, percussion, violin, violoncello), and The Warszynski Trio (violin, ‘cello and piano).

The Society has produced a cassette ECCS Live (1993) as well as the following CD titles: Northern Arch/Arc du Nord, soundland alberta: le pays sonore, Brief Confessions Brèves, Glossa, Stringtime, 9 Visions, Dark Land Black Water (Music of William Pura), Acclamations (Canadian Organ Music), Visions of Nothingness (in Memory of David Roxburgh), The Weather Inside (New Music for Clarinet), RainDances (Canadian Chamber Music), WestWind (Canadian Music for Saxophone), Cult Figures (Electroacoustic Music from Canada), Devil’s Dance (The Warszynski Trio). More CD projects are currently in the works. Also, TONUS VIVUS publishes «The Alberta New Music & Arts Review» (devoted, in fact, to any form of artistic expression, not just music) with composers and critics from Canada, the United States and Europe contributing articles.

Writing in «Neue Zeitschrift für Musik», Hans-Theodor Wohlfahrt states: “…the compositional variety and level of interpretation at the 4th annual New Music Festival…border on the miraculous,” and «Neue Musikzeitung» calls TONUS VIVUS “…the most important new music promoter in Western Canada.”

© TONUS VIVUS, January 2010