SFU Woodwards, Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre
149 W.Hastings Street, tickets $20 (general), $15 (students/seniors)
Buy tickets here: www.ticketstonight.ca or phone 604.684.278
For more info: www.hardrubber.com or phone 604.683.8240

On Saturday, May 14, 2011 at the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, the 18-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra will be premiering edge-cutting commissioned works for jazz orchestra by San Francisco resident and former National Arts Centre composer-in-residence Linda Bouchard, and Vancouver Symphony composer-in-residence, Scott Good, soloing on his own work.

San Francisco’s Linda Bouchard composes in an energetic and brash style that compliments the unusual aesthetic of the Hard Rubber Orchestra. She will be guest conducting her own music. Scott Good, as well as being one of Canada’s top composers and the current Vancouver Orchestra composer-in-residence, is a highly-active classical and improvising trombonist from Toronto. He will perform as soloist for his work for jazz orchestra, trombone and electronics.

Completing the evenings’ program will  be guest conductor Alan Matheson presenting works by Fletcher Henderson from the 1920’s, and Leonard Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs (1949), a concert work for jazz orchestra featuring special guest François Houle on clarinet.

]]> http://www.hardrubber.com/2011/11/08/revolutionary-riffs-for-jazz-orchestra-from-1922-to-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.hardrubber.com/2011/11/08/hard-rubber-20th-anniversary-concert-2/ http://www.hardrubber.com/2011/11/08/hard-rubber-20th-anniversary-concert-2/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 02:01:25 +0000 Hardrubber http://www.hardrubber.com/?p=420  

SFU Woodwards, Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre
Saturday, November 13 2010, 8pm
149 W.Hastings Street, tickets $20 (general), $15 (students/seniors)

John Korsrud, director

Special guests:
Veda Hille
Joe Keithley
Hugh Fraser

Musicians:
Chris Gestrin, piano/ moog
Ron Samworth, guitar
Andre Lachance, bass
Kerry Galloway, bass
Dave Robbins, drums
Dylan Vanderschyff, drums
Jack Duncan, percussion
Cameron Wilson, violin
Bill Runge, soprano sax
Saul Berson, alto sax
Steve Kaldestad, tenor sax
Chad Makela, bari sax
Derry Byrne, trumpet
Kent Wallace, trumpet
Henry Christan, trumpet
Rod Murray, trombone
Dennis Esson, trombone
Jeremy Berkman, trombone
Brad Muirhead, bass trombone

HARD RUBBER ORCHESTRA

Celebrating the music of Louis Andriessen

Sunday April 5, 2009, 8pm
Roundhouse Performance Centre, 181 Roundhouse Mews (Davie & Pacific)
Tickets: $20/15 through Tickets Tonight (604 684 2787 / www.ticketstonight.ca)

“the hippest, sassiest, most savvy composer we have” – The Los Angeles Times

Hard Rubber Orchestra is celebrating the 70th birthday of iconic Dutch composer Louis Andriessen with this exciting multi-media concert. Andriessen is one of today’s most influential composers, a central figure in the international new music scene. Andriessen @ 70, a Vancouver festival celebrating the music and ideas of Louis Andriessen takes place April 3-8, 2009 (for complete festival info see www.musiconmain.ca).

As its contribution to the celebration, Hard Rubber Orchestra will present a lively multi-media program featuring Passeggiata in tram America e ritorno (with a film by Marijke van Warmerdam) and Andriessen’s score for the Peter Greenaway film, M is for Man, Music and Mozart. The Orchestra will perform the scores live to the two films. The program will feature Andriessen’s Very Sharp Trumpet Sonata as well as work by Hard Rubber New Music’s artistic director, John Korsrud. Korsrud studied with Andriessen at the Royal Dutch Institute from 1995-1997. Guest artists and leading performers of Andriessen’s repertoire, vocalist Cristina Zavalloni (Italy) and violinist Monica Germino (Netherlands), will perform with the Orchestra.

The Hard Rubber Orchestra, formed by composer and trumpet player John Korsrud, performs music influenced by jazz, pop, world, contemporary classical, and improvised music. Since its debut in 1990 the Hard Rubber Orchestra has toured to Europe and across Canada including concerts at the BIMhuis in Amsterdam and the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Quebec. Described by the Georgia Straight as the “Godzilla of the Vancouver jazz scene, a big, goofy monster that stomps through complex charts with the swagger of big swing band and the heat of a thermonuclear explosion,” the Hard Rubber Orchestra has commissioned many of the finest composers from Vancouver and across Canada, including Brad Turner, Fred Stride, Hugh Fraser, Peter Hannan, Paul Dolden, Tony Wilson, Bill Clark and Montreal’s Jean Derome and René Lussier. In March 2008 and February 2009 Hard Rubber presented sold out performances of the three-night multi-media extravaganza Drum & Light Festival, with a groove orchestra, dancers and eye-popping visuals.

“Hard Rubber is, no question, consistently the best Vancouver band event you can see.”

Discorder Magazine

Article from Cultural Olympiad site

Orchestral dance music?

Feb 9, 2010 – Although a one-night show doesn’t usually earn the term “festival,” Hard Rubber’s Drum and Light Festival undoubtedly deserves the moniker.

For its upcoming February 11 show as part of CODE Live Night Life, the 14-piece funk-jazz-new music orchestra will invite electronic DJs, contemporary dancers, frenetic drummers and colourful visual artists onstage for this one-night-only super performance.

“It’s just kind of a crazy atmosphere,” says Hard Rubber Orchestra’s founding artistic director John Korsrud.

“It’s an all-star ensemble of the best funk and groove musicians in one room. Then compile that with great visual artists, projection artists and great dancers and it makes a really unique event.”

While Hard Rubber’s musicians create eclectic, high-energy music, artists will project visuals on a screen behind the orchestra and Vancouver-based modern dance crew the Tomorrow Collective will show off their contemporary choreography.

“I have a hard time thinking small, so I get a little carried away. I’m not very good at understatement,” says Korsrud.

In addition to his work on the Drum and Light project, Korsrud is also preparing a skating-themed variety show on ice (featuring champion figure skater Emanuel Sandhu) for the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad and a commissioned orchestra piece for Carnegie Hall, which he says is the “biggest feather in the career cap.”

The inspiration to mix orchestral music with electronic sounds came to him after attending several large-scale dance events that featured DJs and visual art.

“I’ve always been interested in DJs and electronic music and thought, ‘Why not get a huge band of all-star musicians and see if we can get a high-energy two-hour dance set?’” he says from Vancouver, where most of the performers are currently based.

Although it would be fun to take his Hard Rubber “festival” on the road, Korsud says that, logistically, it would be too hard to tour with such a big group. But despite the obvious challenges that arise when coordinating such a massive event, he says the performers make his job pretty easy.

“When you just get a bunch of talented people all in one room together, it just takes care of itself. I try to create the atmosphere where people have a lot of freedom and can do whatever they want to do. I just try to make sure all the elephants are running in the same direction.”

“Hard Rubber: Drum and Light Festival” is February 11 at 10:00pm at CODE Live 1; Great Northern Way Campus, 577 Great Northern Way, Vancouver. Tickets $20.

More information on Hard Rubber: Drum and Light Festival – CODE Live Night Life

March 20, 7:30
Harry Jerome Rink, North Vancouver (23rd & Lonsdale)

Emaunel Sandhu
“An Ice Show Like No Other” featuring Zamboni choreography, hockey, curling, ringette, The 18-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra, 3-time Canadian champion Emanuel Sandhu, many of Canada’s top figure skaters including Katherine Kang and the dance pair of Tarrah Harvey/ Keith Gagnon. Also on hand will be CBC’s
Kevin Sylvester as host, Bob Robertson of CBC’s Double Exposure, DOA’s Joe Keithley, and new commissioned compositions by Peter Hannan, Brad Turner, Bill Runge, Tony Wilson and many others.

Canada’s most powerful and exciting, all-star ensemble is back! On Wednesday, April 10 at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, the Hard Rubber Orchestra will perform the eclectic, high energy music of John Korsrud, Jean Derome and Brad Turner. This concert celebrates the release of the Orchestra’s second CD, Rub Harder and the launch of its coast-to-coast tour.

As well as being three incredible musicians, Korsrud, Turner and Derome are excellent craftmen in music composition. Highly regarded in their respective scenes, each draws on a wide variety of influences: world, contemporary classical, jazz, pop, improvisation, and other genres to create great and really groovy music.

The Hard Rubber Orchestra, consisting of 17 of the finest jazz soloists on the West Coast, will also be appearing in concert in Halifax on April 19 and in Montreal on April 20.

HARD RUBBER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA

PERFORMING BRAD TURNER, JOHN KORSRUD &

NEW WORK BY KEITH HAMEL

Thursday, June 7, 8pm
Vancouver East Cultural Centre, 1895 Venables
Tickets: $16/12 through Ticketmaster (604 280 3311/www.ticketmaster.ca)
Info: www.hardrubber.com / 604 683 8240

On Thursday, June 7, the Hard Rubber Chamber Orchestra, known for their highly entertaining multimedia events, will present an evening of cutting edge new music and visuals, featuring media artists jamie griffiths, Brian Johnson, Rena del Pieve Gobbi, eddie d. and Chris Cunningham; compositions by Brad Turner and John Korsrud; and the premiere of a new work by Vancouver composer Keith Hamel for interactive computers and guitar. The Hard Rubber Chamber Orchestra is a smaller ensemble based on the Enter/Exit ensemble, featuring musicians Bernie Arai, Sal Ferreras, John Korsrud, Andre Lachance, Finn Manniche, Bill Runge, Ron Samworth, Brad Turner, Stefan Smulovitz, Rebecca Whitling and Marguerite Witvoet.
Composer Keith Hamel is known both as a composer and a music software developer. His works have been performed by many of the finest soloists and ensembles both in Canada and abroad. Many of his recent compositions focus on interaction between live performers and computer-controlled electronics. As a software developer, Hamel is recognized as one of the foremost authorities on music notation software.
The Hard Rubber Orchestra has been described as the only ensemble of its kind on the planet. Under the direction of composer, conductor and trumpeter John Korsrud, the company has delighted local and international audiences. Previous large-scale works include Alcan Award-winning Enter/Exit; The Ice Age: The World’s Worst New Music Ice Show, performed at Kerrisdale Arena and featuring the talents of hockey players, curlers and figure skaters; White Hot Core, a collaboration with Kokoro Dance; and The Elvis Cantata, which took an irreverent look at pop icons. The all-star ensemble features the finest of Vancouver’s jazz community and performs music that is influenced by jazz, pop, world, contemporary classical, and improvised music. Since its debut in 1990 the Orchestra has toured to Europe and across Canada including concerts in Amsterdam and at FIMAV in Quebec. The Hard Rubber Orchestra has commissioned many of the finest composers from Vancouver and across Canada, including Brad Turner, Fred Stride, Hugh Fraser, Peter Hannan, Paul Dolden, Tony Wilson, Bill Clark and Montreal’s Jean Derome and René Lussier.

“A SONIC SHAKEDOWN” (Discorder Magazine)

HARD RUBBER ORCHESTRA

In Concert with guest violinist Cameron Wilson

Performing new works by
Howard Bashaw and Cameron Wilson

Saturday, March 14, 2009, 8pm
The Dance Centre, 677 Davie Street
Tickets: $16/12 through Tickets Tonight (604 684 2787 / www.ticketstonight.ca)

________________________________________

The Hard Rubber Orchestra is one of Canada’s leading ensembles to commission new compositions from Canadian composers. On Saturday March 14, 2009 the 17-piece orchestra will premiere compositions by two of Canada’s most distinctive composers, Howard Bashaw and Cameron Wilson. Each has been commissioned to write a Concerto for violin and jazz orchestra. Uber-violinist and Vancouver string icon Wilson will perform as the violin soloist for both premieres.

These are two contrasting composers. Howard Bashaw is considered one of Canada’s top composers of concert music and is notorious for his energetic brash style. His concerto for Piano and Hard Rubber Orchestra was one of Hard Rubber’s most successful commissions to date and the group is excited to premiere another work by this composer.

Cameron Wilson is a talented composer who writes in a playful, highly entertaining style, often parodying pop songs performed in the styles of famous classical composers such as Strauss and Vivaldi. Wilson is a virtuoso violinist, a member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Joe Trio among others. He’s been a member of the Hard Rubber Orchestra since 1992. This will be a fantastic evening of music featuring Wilson’s violin talents in what promises to be two brilliant new compositions.

The Hard Rubber Orchestra, formed by composer and trumpet player John Korsrud, performs music influenced by jazz, pop, world, contemporary classical, and improvised music. Since its debut in 1990 the Hard Rubber Orchestra has toured to Europe and across Canada including concerts at the BIMhuis in Amsterdam and the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Quebec. Described by the Georgia Straight as the “Godzilla of the Vancouver jazz scene, a big, goofy monster that stomps through complex charts with the swagger of big swing band and the heat of a thermonuclear explosion,” the Hard Rubber Orchestra has commissioned many of the finest composers from Vancouver and across Canada, including Brad Turner, Fred Stride, Hugh Fraser, Peter Hannan, Paul Dolden, Tony Wilson, Bill Clark and Montreal’s Jean Derome and René Lussier. In March 2008 and February 2009 Hard Rubber presented sold out performances of the three-night multi-media extravaganza Drum & Light Festival, with a groove orchestra, dancers and eye-popping visuals.

“Hard Rubber is, no question, consistently the best Vancouver band event you can see.”
Discorder Magazine