Composer-Performer Orchestration Research Ensemble (CORE)

The Composer-Performer Orchestration Research Ensemble (CORE) is an ACTOR project in which student composers and performers explore matters of orchestration through a collaborative research-creation process. The process is documented throughout to allow examination of the creative and pedagogical aspects of the project, creating rich data useful for a variety of research disciplines. In all the participating institutions, a theoretical framework, including terminology related to perceptual aspects of orchestration, was presented as a means of providing an orientation for composers and performers and creating space of artistic exploration. Short pieces or études for a set instrumentation were composed. Unconventional instrumentations were selected to pose unusual challenges in achieving blended sounds and smooth transitions between instruments, thus bringing collective orchestration decision-making between performers and composers to the fore. Participating institutions include McGill University, Université de Montréal, University of British Columbia, University of California San Diego, University of Toronto, and Haute école de musique de Genève.

On this page you will find:

1. Lists of composers and performers involved with each iteration of the project

2. Scores and recordings of the pieces composed for this project, categorized by instrumentation

3. Course syllabi developed at the participating institutions

4. CORE project overview, including a documentary film

Personnel

McGill University

• Performers: Alex Huyghebaert (flute), Alexander Ortins and Elia Foster (bass clarinet), Micah Kroeker and Ryan Cass (trombone), Martin Daigle and Huizi Wang (percussion), Donglai Shi (piano), Bailey Wantuch and Jeanne Côté (violin), Amelia Smerz (cello), and Frédéric-Alexandre Michaud (conductor)

• Composers: Alexander Blank, Pedram Diba, Quentin Lauvray, Jihyoung Lee, Anita Pari, and Louis-Michel Tougas

Université de Montréal

• Performers: Marie Dubois (flute), Charlotte Layec and Gwénaëlle Ratouit (bass clarinet), Zacharie Fournier Robert and Erin Sullivan(trombone), Alexandre Ducharme and Anne-Clémentine Chabot (percussion), Avril Desfeux (piano), Mattia Berrini and Daphnée Sincennes Richard (violin), and Leïla Saurel (cello)

• Composers: Joshua Bucchi, Elizaer Kramer, Snezana Nesic, and Miko Sabatino

University of Toronto

• Composers: Jack Hughes, Aida Khorsandi, Sergei Kofman, Steven Webb, and Tristan Zaba

University of British Columbia

• Performers: Sailing Wang (flute), Carlos Savall and Mar Navaro-Ivars (bass clarinet), Devon Atkinson and Dana Sullivan (trombone), Jess Guo and Kris Jautaikis (percussion), Thomas Pantea (piano), Melody Chen and Clara Sui (violin), Kimberly Kister (cello), and Paolo Bortolussi (conductor)

• Composers: Michael Ducharme, Ramsey Sadaka, Darren Xu, Mariah J.E. Mennie, and Michael Kirchmayer

University of California San Diego

• Performers: Rachel Beetz (flute), Brian Walsh (clarinet),  Mattie Barbier (trombone), Dustin Donahue (percussion), Todd Moellenberg (piano), Adrianne Pope (violin),  Ashley Walters (cello), and Nicholas Deyoe (conductor)

• Composers: Stephen de Filippo, Erin Graham, Andrés Gutíerrez Martínez, Zachary Konick, Anqi Liu, Ioannis Mitsialis, Felipe Rossi, Janet Sit, Sang Song, Alex Stephenson, Jacques Zafra, and Tiange Zhou

Scores and Recordings

Round 1: violin, trombone, bass clarinet, and percussion

Round 2: violin, trombone, bass clarinet, percussion, cello, flute, and piano

Course Syllabi

By clicking on the institutional logos below, you can access syllabi used at each institution for their respective seminar implementations of CORE Round 1 (2019–2020) and 2 (2021–2022).

CORE Project Overview and Documentary

The pilot of the project was launched at University of British Columbia (UBC) in the academic term 2018-19, followed by the first round in 2019-20. In all the participating institutions, a theoretical framework, including terminology related to perceptual aspects of orchestration, was presented as a means of providing an orientation for composers and performers and creating space of artistic exploration. From this initial phase, 22 short pieces or études for a quartet of violin, bass clarinet, trombone and vibraphone plus small percussion were composed. This unconventional instrumentation was selected to pose unusual challenges in achieving blended sounds and smooth transitions between instruments, thus bringing collective orchestration decision-making between performers and composers to the fore. Using the same instrumentation and identical recording protocols developed by Martha de Francisco of McGill University in collaboration with University of California San Diego (UCSD) colleagues allowed for direct comparison of evidence from each institution’s activities, forming a basis for more elaborate analysis and experimentation (as well as sharing pieces between institutions). Concerts and readings were held at UBC and the University of Toronto (U of T) and recordings were made at UBC and UCSD. Although the pandemic halted final concerts and exchanges of pieces across four of the universities, which were resumed in the first half of 2022, the project nonetheless has already given rise to a plethora of material for analysis.

The second round of CORE took place in the academic term 2021-22. In this second iteration, the instrumental ensemble was expanded from four to seven instruments, adding cello, flute, and piano. Due to different restrictions and limitations imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, only three institutions participated in this second round: McGill, UBC, and Université de Montréal (U de M). Eight compositions have already been gathered from Round 2 and have been performed and recorded. Round 3 was started at UCSD and U de M in the fall of 2022. In addition to the North American institutions, the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM) had initially agreed to participate in the second round, but the project had to be postponed to the fall of 2022.  The third iteration considers the inclusion of electronic sounds to explore the way composers deal with timbral interactions between acoustic and electronic sounds.

Throughout the CORE project, the creative processes of exploration, orchestrational problem-solving, and the realization of new music were recorded, documented, and archived for consideration. Sketches and scores, recordings of workshop sessions, rehearsals with transcriptions of performer-conductor-composer dialogues, and concert or studio recordings are being examined alongside transcriptions of video interviews with performers and composers and texts written by them. We have three analytical aims in mind: 1) to combine score analysis and aural analysis of recordings according to taxonomies of perceptual effects and orchestration techniques, as well as formal analysis, 2) to examine the evolution of orchestrational and compositional thinking in young composers through sketch studies, interview analyses, and the terminologies for orchestration techniques, perceptual processes and timbre perception that arise in discussing orchestration, as well as the identity and structure of the materials orchestrated, and 3) to analyze verbal interactions between performers, composers, and conductors in a problem-solving situation. For example, how do different types of orchestration affect the experience of interpretation and performance? Is the sense of “musicality” affected, restrained, or renewed by a given approach to orchestration? Text and discourse analysis of interview transcriptions and written texts are also being conducted using computer-based tools such as Nvivo.