The 2014 Marston LaFrance Lecture will take the form of a lecture/performance by Juno award-winning composer/percussionist and Associate Professor of Music in Carleton University’s School for Studies in Art and Culture, Jesse Stewart.
Stewart will discuss the theoretical underpinnings of his creative practice, focusing in particular on two recent large-scale compositional projects: “Gnomon Variations,” an extended work for drum set and string quartet and “Elements,” a generative compositional system based on the periodic table of elements.
Stewart will also use a new electronic instrument known as the “Reactable” to create a musical remix of his recent recording and compositional projects and of the lecture itself. He recently opened the 2014 edition of Winterlude with music on the Reactable in a live performance titled “Memories of Ice.”
“The Marston LaFrance Award is one of the best things that has ever happened to me professionally,” said Stewart. “Having time to focus on my own research allowed me to finish several large-scale compositional, recording, writing, and community music projects. I also used the time to develop an original theoretical framework and system of musical logic that will inform my compositional and performance practice for many years to come.”
The 2014 Marston LaFrance Lecture/Remix will take place on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 at 4:00 pm in the College of Humanities Auditorium, 303 Paterson Hall.
Please RSVP to nick.ward@carleton.ca
Jesse Stewart
Jesse Stewart is an award-winning composer, improviser, percussionist, visual artist, instrument builder, researcher, writer, educator, and community activist dedicated to reimagining the spaces between artistic disciplines. As a musician, he works primarily in the areas of jazz, new music, and free improvisation. He has performed and/or recorded with musical luminaries from around the world including George Lewis, Roswell Rudd, Hamid Drake, Evan Parker, Bill Dixon, William Parker, Pauline Oliveros, David Mott, Malcolm Goldstein, Jandek, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee and many others, in addition to leading several groups and performing regularly as a soloist. In 2012, he was honored with the “Instrumental Album of the Year” Juno award (the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy) for his work with Stretch Orchestra, a trio consisting of Kevin Breit on guitars, Matt Brubeck on cello, and Jesse on drums. He has been widely commissioned as a composer. His music has been featured at festivals throughout Canada, the United States, and Europe and is documented on over 20 recordings. He endorses Headhunters brand drumsticks and brushes.
His playing has been described as “truly exciting” (Musicworks 76), “exceptional” (Cadence Oct. 2002), “phenomenal” (Cadence Nov. 1999), “ingenious” (Exclaim! June 2006), and “brilliant” (Truths for Serious Drummers, 2012). Texas-based music journalist Frank Rubolino described him as “…one of the finest young drummers and percussionists on the scene today” (One Final Note Summer/Fall 2002).
After majoring in both visual art and in music as an undergraduate student at the University of Guelph, he went on to complete two Master of Arts degrees concurrently at York University in Toronto: one in ethnomusicology and another in music composition. His composition teachers included James Tenney and David Mott. In 2008, Jesse completed his PhD at the University of Guelph where he was the first recipient of the Brock Doctoral Scholarship, the University’s most prestigious graduate scholarship.
Much of his work crosses disciplinary boundaries. For example, in the year 2000, he was commissioned by the Guelph Jazz Festival to create a ‘multi-media improvised jazz opera’ entitled Passages with celebrated poet Paul Haines. In 2010, he received a joint commission from the City of Toronto and the National Capital Commission to write an extended piece for instruments that he designed and built out of ice. In 2010, he was invited to perform for His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the opening of the Tibetan Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto.
As a visual artist, Stewart has exhibited work in over a dozen solo and group exhibitions at public art galleries including the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Thames Art Gallery, the Glenhyrst Gallery, the Peterborough Art Gallery, the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, and the Karsh Masson Gallery in Ottawa. He has also curated several exhibitions of visual art including exhibitions by Governor-General’s award-winning artists Gordon Monahan and David Rokeby.
A past recipient of the Terry Fox Humanitarian Award, he is dedicated to building and strengthening communities through arts education and outreach. In 2012, he founded an organization called “We Are All Musicians” (WAAM) that is rooted in his firm belief that music is a fundamental human right, that everyone deserves to have opportunities to make music, regardless of musical training, socio-economic circumstance, and/or level of physical or intellectual ability. As a means to that end, he has facilitated dozens of improvisation workshops with musicians and non-musicians alike, including extensive work with children and individuals with special needs. Using a wide range of percussion instruments (including many of his own design) and several cutting-edge adaptive use instruments, the “We Are All Musicians” initiative creates inclusive spaces for sonic exploration.
Jesse lives in Ottawa, where he is an Associate Professor of music in Carleton University’s School for Studies in Art and Culture and an adjunct professor in the Visual Arts program at the University of Ottawa. In 2013, he received Carleton University’s Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences’ “senior award, intended for applicants with a very significant track record of outstanding research.”
More info on Jesse Stewart (including video and audio performances)
2014 Marston LaFrance Lecture/Remix Poster
Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship
Each year, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences awards the Marston LaFrance Research Fellowship to one of its outstanding faculty members, in order to facilitate the completion of a major research project that requires significant release time.
The Fellowship was established in 1979 by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in memory of Marston LaFrance, former Professor of English and Dean of Arts at Carleton University. Each year, the recipient presents a seminar or public lecture on some aspect of the research conducted while on the LaFrance Fellowship.