Concert Announcement – October 13

The Canadian Electronic Ensemble was founded in 1971. It is the oldest continuous live-electronic group in the world. As we begin our 46th year, there are some new faces, and some older ones. Here’s a chance to get acquainted and re-acquainted with the CEE.

Friday, October 13, at 8:30PM, at the Canadian Music Centre, 20 St. Joseph Street. This will be the first appearance of the Quintet in Toronto, or in fact, anywhere. Get in on some history being made in the up-close-and-personal Chalmers Performance Space.
Tickets: $10 in advance, $15 at the door.

The CEE is: John Kameeel Farah, David Jaeger, Jim Montgomery, Paul Stillwell, David Sutherland.

CEE Performing at the Arts & Letters Club March 28, 2017

We are very happy to announce that we will be performing at the Arts & Letters Club Music Salon on March 28, 2017!  Joining us will be the amazing Andréa Tyniec – solo violin, and Jonathan Krehm – Clarinet.

Beginning at 8 PM with Andréa Tyniec, followed by Jonathan Krem at 8:20 and The Canadian Electronic Ensemble at 8:30 it promises to be an amazing evening of diverse works and sounds.

Hope to see you there!

CEE to Perform at The Toronto Sound Festival

We are very happy to announce that we will be performing on September 19 at the Toronto Sound Festival!  We will also be conducting a panel discussion on our method of live electronic instruments along with the instruments we use.

The Toronto Sound Festival is Canada’s premiere 2 day festival of synthesized sound!  There are workshops, talks, vendors, a Synthesizer Petting Zoo, Synthesizers, DIY projects, etc.  The evening concert is free, however, tickets for the two day conference are  available here.

CEE to Perform at Norma Beecroft’s Book Launch

Conversations with Post World War II Pioneers of Electronic Music

Date: Saturday, September 26, 2015, 4-6pm
Location: The Canadian Music Centre, 20 St. Joseph Street, Toronto
Admission: Free

Join the Music Gallery’s Artistic Director David Dacks in conversation with Norma Beecroft as she discusses her book and her exchanges with various composers from John Cage, Pierre Schaeffer, and Iannis Xenakis, to her Canadian counterparts including Barry Truax, James Montgomery, and Bill Buxton. The launch event will include an archival exhibit displaying images and news clippings from Beecroft’s career and the Canadian Electronic Ensemble will present a special performance.

Bluffers Lookout Released Today 2014/04/22

Bluffers Lookout

 

2014/04/22

Today we are very proud to announce the release of our new studio album, Bluffers Lookout!

Almost 2 hours long, this live electronic music by the CEE is a collection of several recently composed and improvised pieces. It was recorded in the spring of 2013 with editing, mixing, and mastering taking place throughout the following year. It was a difficult time for us as Larry was sick and unable to join us on any of the sessions, however his influence is present in the creation of this music. We are pleased to share these compositions with listeners around the world.

We dedicate this album to the memory of our dear friend and CEE co-founder, Larry Lake (1943 – 2013).

You can listen and purchase at http://thecee.bandcamp.com.

Larry Lake, 1943 – 2013

Larry blows his horn

Remembering Larry Lake

By David Jaeger

Larry Lake’s life and work will be celebrated on Tuesday, the 26th of November 2013 in a public memorial at the Arts and Letters Club, 14 Elm Street in Toronto. The event will start at 7:30 pm.

I met my good friend Larry Lake in September 1970 at the University of Toronto. The day we met, we were among a group of students taking the Graduate Entrance Exam at the Faculty of Music. Larry already had three degrees from the University of Miami: a Bachelor of Music, a Master of Education, and a Master of Music in musicology, so why the U of T Faculty of Music felt he needed to be examined for graduate study is still, to me, a bit of a mystery. But I remember that he was seated in the back row of the examining room, not too far from another candidate, James Montgomery and when I entered the room Larry and Jim had already bonded. I took a seat in the front row, and I can still remember that there seemed to be a social club already under way at the back of the room.

We three were all deemed acceptable for graduate study, and soon found ourselves together in the bowels of the Edward Johnston Building, home to the U of T Electronic Music Studio, in the class of Prof. Gustav Ciamaga. Larry seemed more interested in electronic music than in the degree program he was enrolled in, which was as a PhD candidate in musicology. And he was far more intrigued by the challenges of contemporary composition than those of settings of Medieval Latin. Soon he and Jim & I were spending long hours together in the studio figuring out how to manipulate the cumbersome gear on the studio racks the way a real musician would play a proper instrument. The eventual formation of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble came nearer for us all, and the musicology doctorate receded for Larry.

In 1972 Larry was offered full-time employment as a music producer by CBC Radio. This opportunity gave him the perfect motivation to park the PhD and launch into a career that would harness two of his favourite activities: working with audio technology and communicating his passion for music with a national audience. And he was good at it. He quickly became the producer of several of CBC Radio’s flagship music programs: Musicscope, Themes and Variations and Music Alive. In the early 1970’s, network shows were still expected to run with so-called “staff announcers”; people like Ken Haslam, Lamont Tilden, Allan Maitland and Warren Davis, to name a few – but during Larry’s tenure in Radio Music, things began to change. Highly qualified presenters were sought as the Stereo Network developed. Larry was always good at spotting talent, and he easily found Karen Kieser and hired her to host Music Alive. She flourished on-air.

As Karen moved into program production, Larry made the CEE (Canadian Electronic Ensemble, established in 1971 by David Grimes, Larry Lake, David Jaeger, and James Montgomery) his focus and his main vehicle for composing. He was a gifted composer, and the CEE was an ideal outlet for his desire to mix musical technology with live performance. The CEE began touring during the mid 1970’s and we often were accompanied by an exceptional pianist, the talented, multi-tasking Karen Kieser, soon to become Larry’s wife.

I joined CBC Radio Music in 1973 and by 1977 I had convinced CBC Radio to support a national new music show for the CBC Stereo network. The new program was Two New Hours. It was originally hosted by David Grimes and Warren Davis. I could think of no better person to write for this show than Larry Lake.

The program enjoyed success, and lasted just under 30 years. Larry became the host in 1996, and was the voice of Two New Hours until 2007, when CBC cancelled the program. Larry remained with Two New Hours for its entire run because he believed deeply in the creative power of Canadian composers and musicians. His work on Two New Hours gave him a platform for developing this belief.

The fact that he was himself a gifted composer & musician, an incredibly articulate speaker & writer, and was a natural teacher made him particularly effective as an advocate for new music on air. His interviews with composers illuminated the thinking behind new compositions and helped listeners of all types to discover why composers create new music.

Larry always put a human face on these new creations. And he worked hard to introduce radio listeners to all the people that were involved in bringing the art of contemporary music to life, especially as it was practiced in Canada. He introduced CBC Radio Two listeners to the next generation of great Canadian composers as they emerged. He encouraged countless young, mid-career and even senior composers to realize their creative dreams. Larry’s life & work showed them it was possible.

This tribute originally appeared in the October 2013 edition of The Wholenote magazine and is re-posted here with permission.

Larry on Wikipedia

Blog post from CBC

Musical Toronto

A Young CEE around 1975
A Young CEE around 1975