Series consists of musical scores, handwritten notes and sketches, and a manuscript of the printed first version of Il divertimento barocco (“Baroque Fun” in Italian) 1999 with hand-written edits and other unique manuscript material related to the work’s revision in 2019/2020. The piece was commissioned by the Orchestre baroque de Montréal with funding from Canada Council for the Arts and completed by Sokolovic in 1999, when it was performed at the Salle Pierre-Mercure in Montréal on November 4th. It was originally written for violin, harpsichord, and string ensemble, but has also been performed by baroque flute, violin, viola da gamba, and harpsichord at the Galerie Montcalm in Gatineau, QC in 2012.

Series consists of scores, edits, correspondence, and a publication related to two compositions by Barbara Monk Feldman: The Northern Shore for Percussion, Piano and Chamber Orchestra; and, The Pale Blue Northern Sky. The Northern Shore for Percussion, Piano, and Chamber Orchestra is a 2018 revision of Monk Feldman’s 1997 work, The Northern Shore. Whereas the earlier version was written for violin, piano, and percussion, the revision is scored for chamber orchestra. Monk Feldman wrote the piece as an abstracted impression of the colors, textures, and atmospheres evoked by a specific place and time in nature, in particular the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec where the St. Lawrence River widens into the ocean. Here, the opposite shore appears across the water to Monk Feldman as a sort of mirage that is either enhanced or diminished by the intensity of light on the water during the day. It is this memory of light that Monk Feldman found inspiring, utilizing the way that differing registrations of the violin are sustained in relation to the percussion and piano as an intimation of light and horizon. The Pale Blue Northern Sky was similarly inspired by the same Gaspé location and thus acts a ‘sister piece’ to The Northern Shore. It was written in 2007 for two guitars and a mandolin.

Series consists of original drawings, scores, handwritten notes and revisions, book/booklets and other materials relating to Szlavnics’ Gradients of Detail. Gradients of Detail was composed by Szlavnics in 2005 especially for Montreal-based string quartet Quatuor Bozzini. Szlavnics compositional process is closely affiliated with her line drawings which became the graphical representation of the score. This visual score was essential to represent the slow sustains and glissandi found throughout this work. The scores are meant to be read from left to right as time (in seconds) and from up to down as the high to low frequency range of pitch, though she cautions against reading this visual representation as exact pitches. These visual artworks must also serve to be art in and of themselves, as that would guarantee that the musical score translated out of it will be strong, according to Szlavnics. She says the forms in Gradients of Detail line drawings are related to the seed pods of the milkweed plant which she drew in Canada in the fall of 2004 just after her father passed away.

Series consists of original graphic scores, conductor's score, working templates, notes, art prints, and photographs related to the work ‘slippages’ by Montréal based composer and interdisciplinary artist Deborah Carruthers. In 2017, Carruthers served as the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia (UBC). Deborah teamed up with science researchers at the institution as well as the UBC School of Music to find a way to creatively combine sound, science, and visual art for the purpose of increasing public awareness of the climate crisis. Carruthers conducted field work for the project in the Columbia Icefield along the border of British Columbia and Alberta. Inspired by the threatened glacial landscape, Carruthers returned to her Montréal studio and completed a series of paintings, 27 of which were selected and arranged to produce a graphic score. Graphic scores use visual symbols to represent music rather than traditional music notation. Because of their emphasis on the visual, graphic scores are frequently considered works of art in and of themselves. Moving from sight to sound is accomplished through the creation of a geography of the orchestra on a sheet of transparent plastic which is then used to map over Carruthers’ art works and determine which instruments take responsibility for which parts of the images. ‘Slippages’ premiered Friday, October 5th, 2018, at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts with the UBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the symphony’s Director, Dr. Jonathan Girard. Project documentation includes a notebook holding hand-written texts revealing assimilation of glacial theory, inspirational preliminary sketches, and unique inserts; an audio/video recording of the premier; and a copy of a video component to be shown above the orchestra as it performs the work.

Series consists of final scores, edited scores, notes, and a musical program related to Dorothy Chang’s composition Gateways: Double Concerto for Erhu and Piano. Gateways was commissioned by Nicole Ge Li and Corey Hamm of the Piano-Erhu Project (PEP). Players of the erhu and piano, respectively, they began PEP as a means of exploring the tonal, musical, and cultural blends between two iconic Eastern and Western instruments. For her addition to PEP’s mission, Chang reflected on how she might address the issue of ‘east meets west,’ especially given the solo instruments’ highly distinct and disparate sonic characteristics, performance practices, and musical traditions. Gradually, the piece evolved as a patchwork of musical fragments, moments, and memories gathered from her own multicultural experiences as a first-generation Chinese American, a Western expatriate living in Taiwan, and now an immigrant to Canada. Woven into the three movements are references to a 90’s Chinese pop song, a children’s rhyme, opulent Romanticism, American minimalism, and other influences both subtle and not. The title refers to a Tang Dynasty poem that depicts a gateway as both an opportunity and a barrier, reflecting a deep yearning for a faraway time, place, or memory. The work premiered April 14, 2018 at the VSO Annex Theatre; Ge Li and Hamm served as soloists; William Rowson conducted members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Series consists of compositions by composer Elizabeth Raum. Contents include: handwritten notes, sketches, handwritten and typewritten scores with handwritten notations and edits, and descriptions of the compositions by Raum. Pieces included in the series are: The Man Watching; Olmutz Concerto; Legend of Heimdall; River Rhapsodie; Victims of Eagles; First and Gracious Sight; and Carol in Three-Three Time.

Series consists of musical scores, notes, sketches, concert programs, DVDs, and audio CDs pertaining to three distinct pieces composed by Lori Freedman: Reimsix, To The Bridge, and Concerto Now and Then. Each piece is unique and pertains to a specific era during Freedman’s long musical career. Reimsix was composed by Freedman in 2011 for the flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion and piano. To The Bridge was composed in 2014 for bass clarinet (clarinet in B-flat) and voice. This piece is composed of five miniatures connected by four bridges, hence the naming of the song. The bridge is where the miniatures arrive or depart from a place. Freedman explains her perspective as, “playing music is equally about composition as it is about interpretation and the spontaneous combination of the two — improvisation.” With this piece, Freedman wants to focus on the interconnection between the composer, the performer and the audience. Concerto Now and Then was composed in 2020 for any five musicians. It has previously been performed with a violin, clarinet, cello, alto saxophone, and double bass.

Series consists of scores, sketches, notes, edited drafts, correspondence, inspirational materials, and photographs related to Zosha Di Castri’s composition Sprung Testament: Duo for Violin and Prepared Piano. The work is a collaborative piece between composer/pianist Di Castri and violinist Jenny Koh. Koh was planning a series of concerts for National Sawdust, an innovative arts institution located in Brooklyn, New York, and reached out to various composers/performers to participate. Koh set the theme of the concert, asking each composer to engage with the idea of rebirth and evolution. In response, Di Castri wrote Sprung Testament which encapsulates the concepts of spring and rebirth. In their conversations, the two musicians questioned the journey one goes through in life to transcend personal struggles. Di Castri used sticky mounting putty to modify the piano, thereby creating unique sounds and highlighting Koh’s theme of transformation. Print photographs of the prepared piano can be found in the "Images" file of the fonds. Koh and Di Castri premiered Sprung Testament at National Sawdust on March 15th, 2018.