NEWS
SOCAN Foundation announces winners of 2024 Young Canadian Composer Awards
“The SOCAN Foundation is proud to announce that this year, 22 honors, totaling more than $45,000, are being awarded to SOCAN member composers aged 30 and under who’ve distinguished themselves through their composition talent in the Young Canadian Composer Awards.”
“As a previous winner of the SOCAN Young Composer Awards, it was my honour to be on the other side of this competition, and to observe the work of the next generation of Canada’s composers,” said Anna Pidgorna, composer and jury member. “I was happy to see them working in different directions and aesthetics, contributing to the development of a diverse musical culture, in Canada and beyond.”
Solo and Duet Category
2nd Place: Liam Ritz (ON) – Nine Forgotten Variations
30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30, 2024 edition
“Last September, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra opened its season with Liam Ritz's Scherzo. "As a Hamilton native, I've had a lifelong love for this amazing organization and I'm incredibly fortunate that they've been so supportive of my artistic work throughout the years," he says. It kicked off a busy season for this U of T grad: his work Three Inventions, for violin and cello, received its Japanese premiere in Osaka; his Four Folkless Songs, for harp and violin, were premiered in June during the National Youth Orchestra of Canada's Chamberfest; and Duo Holz (Michael Murphy and Aysel Taghi-Zada) performed his newly commissioned piece From Earth, to Seeds, for violin and shō.”
Liam Ritz Is Named As Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s RBC Affiliate Composer
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra has named Liam Ritz as the next RBC Affiliate Composer. The position comes with a two year term, incorporating the 2024/25 and 2025/26 seasons. As Affiliate Composer, Liam will be working alongside TSO Music Director Gustavo Gimeno, TSO Composer Advisor Emilie LeBel, the artistic staff, and the musicians of the TSO.
Starting this season with Liam Ritz
Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra: Blog Post (September 2023)
“Recognize the name Liam Ritz? The Hamilton-born composer was our inaugural Composer Fellow back in our 2018-19 season. Now, his work Scherzo has its world premiere at the top of our 23-24 season! We are ecstatic to reunite with him and showcase his talent here in his hometown. Keep reading for the backstory on this premiering work, Liam’s current life in the orchestral world and a time capsule from his days as our Composer Fellow.”
HPO celebrates 50 golden years of First Ontario Concert Hall/Hamilton Place
Just as the hall’s opening was marked by a Canadian premiere, so too is the HPO’s season opener, in this instance, “Scherzo” by Hamilton native Liam Ritz.
‘In my final season as music director of the HPO, I felt it was important to celebrate our beautiful relationship with Canadian music,” said New. “To start the season with a new piece by Liam is very special”
HPO Launches 23-24 Season!
“Hamilton, ON – Under the artistic leadership of Music Director Gemma New in her final season as Music Director, the HPO is thrilled to announce our 23-24 concert season. […] This season begins with Gemma New conducting Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” Symphony, Schumann’s Piano Concerto with Canadian soloist Tony Siqi Yun, and a world premiere from Hamilton native and the HPO’s first composer fellow (2018/19), Liam Ritz.”
lEON Bernsdorf: dOCTORAL recital
Sunday, Jan 29, 2023, 5:30PM
Leon Bernsdorf, piano
Program information:
PIOTR ILICH TCHAIKOVSKY Dumka, Op. 59
KAROL SZYMANOWSKI from Mazurkas, Op. 50
MIECZYSLAW WEINBERG Piano Sonata No. 4 in B minor, Op. 56
LIAM RITZ Nine Forgotten Variations
IGOR STRAVINSKY (arr. Guido Agosti) Three Movements from "The Firebird"
2023 Winnipeg New Music Festival: COMPOSERS INSTITUTE
“Maestros Daniel Raiskin and Julian Pellicano are joined by RBC guest conductors Jaelem Bhate and Dmitri Zrajevski as they lead your WSO through a set of world premieres of new works by nine gifted composers, including three winners of the Canadian Music Centre’s annual Emerging Composer Competition. Mentor composers Kelly-Marie Murphy and Eliot Britton join WSO composer-in-residence Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis in introducing this year’s featured young artists as the 2023 Winnipeg New Music Festival lifts off.”
COMPOSERS IN PLAY: Piano Lunaire Season Opener
PIANO LUNAIRE launches a new performance series: "Composers in Play." Join us in New York this season as we play music by living composers, pursuing their best works from the keyboard.
TWO NIGHTS IN SEPTEMBER: our Season Opener runs Friday the 9th and Saturday the 10th, featuring Adam Sherkin, Timo Andres and Emmalie Tello performing works by faculty composers from the Mannes School of Music, plus a world premiere by rising star, Liam Ritz.
* * *
PROGRAM:
Chain by Chain (2018) by David Fulmer
Tagish Fires: Two Etudes, Op. 21 (2015) by Adam Sherkin
Nine Forgotten Variations (2021) by Liam Ritz *world premiere*
An Open Book (2022); Honest Labor (2021) by Timo Andres
Peace (2020, verison for clarinet) by Jessie Montgomery
Elegy (Monsters are Real, 2016) by David T. Little
Three Impromptus, Op. 68 (2000) by Lowell Liebermann
the Royal Conservatory of Music: 2022 piano syllabus
As one of the newly added works in 2022 RCM Piano Syllabus, Liam Ritz’s Drei Klavierstück is included in the 20th-21st Century Repertoire List (pg.113-115) of the Licentiate Diploma (LRCM) in Piano, Performer.
“The mission of The Royal Conservatory—to develop human potential through leadership in music and the arts—is based on the conviction that music and the arts are humanity’s greatest means to achieve personal growth and social cohesion. Since 1886 The Royal Conservatory has realized this mission by developing a structured system consisting of curriculum and assessment that fosters participation in music making and creative expression by millions of people.
The Licentiate Diploma (LRCM) in Piano, Performer is intended for candidates who wish to further refine their artistry and seek additional performance and evaluation opportunities beyond the Associate Diploma (ARCT). The examination is evaluated as a professional concert performance. Candidates are expected to demonstrate a masterful command of the instrument and communicate an understanding of the stylistic and structural elements of each repertoire selection with interpretive insight and a mature musical personality”
Cecilia Concerts Presents: TSO Chamber Soloists featuring violinist Jonathan Crow - Bach Concerti
“For his first appearance as the Cecilia Concerts 2021/22 Musician-In-Residence, JUNO Award-winning violinist and Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jonathan Crow is joined on stage by ten of his colleagues from the TSO for a spectacular celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach concerti. One of the most magnificent baroque-era composers, Bach is revered through the ages for his work's musical complexities, stylistic innovations, and sheer beauty. We filmed this performance at Longboat Hall within Toronto's Great Hall. This outstanding festival-launching concert program includes the much-loved Brandenburg Concertos Nos. 2 and 4, the Concerto for Violin and Oboe in C minor, and an arrangement of the lovely Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by Liam Ritz. Presented as part of Baroque Fest. “
TwosetViolin: “The BEst Orchestra Pranks Ever”
Featuring the Toronto Symphony Orchestra performing Happy Birthday (arranged by Liam Ritz) for Sir Andrew Davis’ 75th birthday.
Announcing: SOCAN Foundation/NYOC Emerging Composers’ Mentorship Program
Katrina Gimon (“Ice Forms”), Stephanie Orlando (“riptide”), and Liam Ritz (“Chamber Dances”) have been selected for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada’s mentorship program. They will be invited to attend an NYOC rehearsal reading of their orchestral composition.
Katerina Gimon (left), Stephanie Orlando (centre), and Liam Ritz (right)
2022 Winnipeg New Music Festival: COMPOSERS INSTITUTE
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s fifth annual WNMF Composers Institute will be held at the Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall during the 30th Anniversary Winnipeg New Music Festival, Jan. 22–28, 2022.
2022 WNMF Composer Participants:
The composers selected to participate in the 2022 WNMF Composers Institute and to have their pieces premiered at the 2022 Winnipeg New Music Festival are:
Rebecca Adams – Lion’s Den
Nolan Hildebrand – ArtDiesSoundsRepeat
Eliazer Kramer – Fantasy for Orchestra
Jessica MacIsaac – Thirteen
Liam Ritz – Kaleidoscope
Darren Xu – To Liberate
Also participating in the Composers Institute this year are the winners of the CMC Prairie Region and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s 2021 and 2022 Emerging Composer Competition:
Isaac Zee – Day of Judgement
Thomas Joiner – Dawn
Eliot Britton, Harry Stafylakis, Jocelyn Morlock
Announcing the 2021 SOCAN Foundation Awards Recipients
SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers
Liam Ritz
Chamber Dances
Ontario
3rd Prize: Large Ensemble
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Three Inventions
Ontario
3rd Prize: Solo and Duets
Announcing the 2020 SOCAN Foundation Awards Recipients
SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers
Liam Ritz
TURN:SPIN
Ontario
1st Prize: Solo and Duet
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Colour Palette #1: Images of Gros Morne
Ontario
2nd Prize: Chamber Ensemble
Listen to TSO’s Clarinet and Bass Clarinet Miles Jaques play ‘Hanson Place’
“In 1864, in the midst of the American Civil War and with an epidemic raging through Brooklyn, New York, Robert Lowry, a Baptist minister of the city’s Hanson Place Church, sat down and wrote a hymn. He called it “Hanson Place,” after his church, but it became famous under the title “Shall We Gather at the River.
While the hymn’s lyrics are of uncertainty and grief, the hymn itself is based on the Christian concept of the anticipation of restoration and reward after death.”
home sweet home contest - Jeunesses Musicales Canada
Awarded Prix Artistique as one of the top 10 competition finalists
“Concerned and attentive to the needs of musicians in these difficult times, the JM Canada Foundation (FJMC) has decided to help artists by creating the Do Mi Si La Do Ré (Home Sweet Home) Contest . While these few notes protect us from being infected by COVID-19, they become a source of inspiration for artists who, more than ever, are eager to perform and be heard by the public.”
2020 city of hamilton arts awards
Music Award Recipients
Abigail Richardson-Schulte (Established)
and
Liam Ritz (Emerging Artist)
Hear TSO principal cello play Catalan folk song ‘Song of the Birds’
“In this week’s Musical Moment, Joseph Johnson, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra’s principal cello, contributes a Catalan folk song called “Song of the Birds.
A solo version for cello was brought to international attention by the legendary cellist and humanist Pablo Casals in 1971 when he played it at the United Nations after being given the Peace Medal. As Casals described it in his powerful speech, the song is about how birds flying overhead sing for peace.”
Earmark/liam ritz
New Associate Composer interview with the Canadian Music Centre
“This Earmark installment features Associate Composer Liam Ritz discussing bucket-list concerts, childhood record collections, and what to do when you’ve been commissioned to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th birthday (it happens).”
Announcing the 2019 SOCAN Foundation Awards Recipients
SOCAN Foundation Awards for Young Composers
Liam Ritz
Drei Klavierstücke
Ontario
Pierre Mercure Award (3rd prize)
postlude with liam ritz
Interview with the Canadian Music Centre
“This past year, CMC Ontario was able to work with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra on the first edition of their Composer Fellowship Program. Composer Liam Ritz was selected for the role, spending several months writing a new work while also being embedded in various aspects of the orchestras operations—from artist talks to education programs.
Back in August, I sat down (in different rooms in the same city) with Liam to message one another about the experience, and what he gained through the process!”
SIR ANDREW DAVIS PRANKED BY TORONTO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
“What happens when a conductor is pranked by the orchestra? The audience in Canada’s Roy Thompson Hall found out on the weekend when the musicians of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra prepared a special birthday surprise for their former Music Director (and current Conductor Laureate and Interim Artistic Director) Sir Andrew Davis.”
HPO Composer Fellowship // An Interview with Liam Ritz
“Earlier this fall the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra announced the composer who was selected for their newly established Composer Fellowship program. Liam Ritz, originally from Hamilton and currently living in Toronto, was selected for the 2018-19 fellowship. During the program Liam will receive mentorship from HPO artistic staff, he will participate in various outreach activities, and also writing a new piece to be featured at the HPO Intimate & Immersive concert In the Groove on May 23, 2019.
We at the CMC are delighted to partner with the HPO on the facilitation of the program, and we took some time on a Friday morning to learn more about Liam, his musical history, recent activities, and (as always) assorted trivia.”
HPO Announces the Winner of 18-19 Composer Fellowship
HAMILTON, ON – The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra announces Liam Ritz as the 18-19 HPO Composer Fellow. After a month-long application period and a jury process, Liam is the first to win the title in the inaugural year of the HPO Composer Fellowship Program. The program aims to connect early career composers with professionals in the orchestral world to support their education and development as artistic leaders in their field and community. The program was designed in collaboration with the Canadian Music Centre (CMC) and generously supported by the RBC Foundation through the RBC Emerging Artists Project.
