Performers & composers

Ana Sokolovic

Ana Sokolovic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1968. She studied composition with Dusan Radic and with Zoran Eric. She completed a master’s degree at Université de Montréal under the direction of José Evangelista. She also attended a composition workshop with Tristan Murail and Denys Boulianne in the summer of 1997.

Her repertoire consists of works for orchestra, for piano, and several pieces of chamber music. Several works have been performed in Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and Ukraine.

She has received commissions from the Esprit Orchestra, Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec,  the dance companys Brune  and Cas Public, the Molinari  and Bozzini  String Quartets, the Orchestre baroque de Montréal  , theEnsemble Contemporain de Montréal,  the  Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal,  the Queen of  Puddings Music Theatre Co.,  the Soundstreams ,  the Manitoba Chamber  Orchestra, the Fibonacci trio, and the Arraymusic .

In 1995 and 1998 Ana Sokolovic was three times winner in the Canadian Competition for Young Composers of SOCAN.
In 1996, Ambient V  was chosen to represent Canada at UNESCO’s International Rostrum of Composers, in Paris.
In 1999, Géométie sentimentale   obtained a first prize in chamber music category and Grand Prix of 13th CBC Radio National Competition for Young Composers.
In 2005 she wrote her first opera, The Midnight Court, for  Queen of  Puddings Music Theatre Co,  which was performed at the Royal Opera House, London, England in June 2006.

In 2005, Ana Sokolovic won the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts in recognition of her exceptional talent and achievement in composition.
Ana Sokolovic lives in Montreal and is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre.

Blanc dominant

Blanc dominant for string quartet was inspired by Guido Molinari   visual world. It comprises 8 movements and is structured as a theme and variations. The theme unfolds in two parts; Part I: vertuval  
dimension (harmonic theme). Part II: horisontal dimention (melodic   theme). Each of the seven variations brings out a musical   correspondence to paintings by Molinari:

Mutation I
Tension
Space / asymetrical
Diagonal black
Mutation II / triangle
White dominant
Coda / continuum
Moninari’s paintings have triggered an autonomous musical response.  
The point here is not to try to turn the visual into the audible.  
B;anc dominant is rather the outcome of contemplation, the encounter  
of artistic sensibilities and the record of an enchanchment. How  
Molinari’s visual works resonate in my imagination, an aural tribute.

Blanc dominant was composed in 1998 for the Molinari String Quartet,  
with the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Tanzer Lider (16')

Premiered 8. february 2005, Redpath Hall, Montreal, Canada.

Written by the Austrian poet Fransisco Tanzer, this text is taken from the collection entitled Blätter. I chose this text for its poetic richness and artistic qualities, and its intimate atmosphere I wanted to explore after completing my first opera, full of extraverted tries.

The music is inspired by the words. And, because the poet wrote his poems in different languages (German, English and French), this has inspired me to use candidly the musical style associated with the country of each language, through the filter of my imaginary. (It goes without saying that the meaning of the words are also translated in the music).

In the first movement Sur une étoile, originally written in French, I tried to evoke the idea of calls and echoes in the soprano part and I wanted to create a “colorful mood” which we often associate with French music.
In the second movement, written in German, I tried to play with the word Stimmen and its different signification, in a German expressionistic music sprechgesang way.
I was inspired by the glacial and crystal mood of Dezember. The music is close to the post-romantic-free-atonal music language; The Wishing Well written in English evoke joy and a playfulness attitude with words.
For the conclusion of the cycle, I chose the poem Last Song, for its use of all three languages and its poetical power.

The work was commissioned by Trio Phoenix and Ingrid Smithüsen with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.