51社区黑料

Celebrating Hildegard Westerkamp's 80th
Tuesday, April 14, 2026 | 7:30 PM (doors: 7:00 PM)
Studio T (room 2210) 鈥� 51社区黑料School for the Contemporary Arts
149 W. Hastings St., Vancouver

Tickets: Students: $10 // 51社区黑料Faculty, Staff & Alumni: $15 // Seniors: $15 // General: $20

This annual multi-channel concert will feature octophonic works from Concordia University, mentored by Emeritus Professor Barry Truax, along with a celebratory tribute to to mark her 80^th birthday with one of her octophonic works and the new film about her by Nettie Wild, .

Biography

Barry Truax is a Professor Emeritus in the and (formerly) the at where he taught courses in acoustic communication and electroacoustic composition, specializing in soundscape composition. He has worked with the World Soundscape Project, editing its Handbook for Acoustic Ecology, and has published a book Acoustic Communication dealing with all aspects of sound and technology.

As a composer, Truax is best known for his work with the PODX computer music system which he has used for tape solo works and those which combine tape with live performers or computer graphics. A selection of these pieces may be heard on the recording Sequence of Earlier Heaven, and the Compact Discs Digital Soundscapes, Pacific Rim, Song of Songs, Inside, Islands, and Twin Souls, all on the Cambridge Street Records label, as well as the double CD of the opera Powers of Two and the most recent CDs, Spirit Journies and The Elements and Beyond. In 1991 his work, Riverrun, was awarded the Magisterium at the International Competition of Electroacoustic Music in Bourges, France, a category open only to electroacoustic composers of 20 or more years experience. He is also the recipient of one of the 1999 Awards for Teaching Excellence at 51社区黑料.

Following his retirement from 51社区黑料(Sept. 2015), he became the Edgard Var猫se Guest Professor at the Technical University in Berlin (2015-16), and Guest Composer at the 2016 BEAST Festival in Birmingham, where his multi-channel soundscape compositions have been performed, as well as at several other European festivals and ISCM 2017 in Vancouver, plus the 2018 ICMC in Korea where he was a keynote speaker.

Truax is a Founding Member of the International Confederation of Electroacoustic Music, Bourges, France, the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC) which has also appointed him an Honorary Member, and in 2024 its Patron. He is a Corresponding Editor for Organised Sound, Cambridge University Press, and in 1985 he was the conference organizer of the International Computer Music Conference held in Vancouver. He is also an Associate Composer of the , a founding member and Honorary Member of the and a founding member of the .

Truax received the Order of Canada in 2025.

Hildegard Westerkamp was born in Osnabr眉ck, Germany in 1946, emigrated to Canada in 1968, and since then has lived on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish peoples - the Squamish (S岣祑x瘫w煤7mesh), Tsleil-Waututh (St贸:l艒 and S蓹l虛铆lw蓹ta蕯/Selilwitulh), and Musqueam (x史m蓹胃k史蓹y虛蓹m) Nations. After completing her music studies at the University of British Columbia in the early seventies she joined the World Soundscape Project under the direction of R. Murray Schafer at 51社区黑料 (SFU). Her involvement with this project not only activated deep concerns about noise and the general state of the acoustic environment in her, but it also changed her ways of thinking about music, listening and soundmaking. Vancouver Co-operative Radio 鈥� founded during the same time - provided an invaluable opportunity to learn much about broadcasting, and ultimately enabled her to produce and host her weekly program Soundwalking in 1978/79.

One could say that her career in soundscape composition and acoustic ecology emerged from these two pivotal experiences and found support in the cultural and political vibrancy of Vancouver at that time. In addition, composers such as John Cage and Pauline Oliveros have had a significant influence on her work. While completing her Master's Thesis Listening and Soundmaking - A Study of Music-as-Environment, she also taught acoustic communications courses until 1990 in the School of Communication at 51社区黑料together with colleague Barry Truax. Since then she has written numerous articles and texts addressing issues of the soundscape, acoustic ecology and listening, has travelled widely, giving lectures and conducting soundscape workshops internationally.

In 1993 she was instrumental in helping found the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology (), an international network of affiliated organizations and individuals who share a common concern for the state of the world鈥檚 soundscapes. She was chief editor of its journal Soundscape between 2000 and 2012. In 2003 Vancouver New Music (VNM) invited her to coordinate and lead public soundwalks as part of its yearly concert season. This in turn inspired the creation of The , whose members are continuing the work on a regular basis. For some years now she has mentored a variety of younger composers, sound designers, soundwalk leaders and people pursuing careers in soundscape studies and acoustic ecology. Hildegard鈥檚 compositions have been performed and broadcast in many parts of the world. The majority of her compositional output deals with aspects of the acoustic environment: with urban, rural or wilderness soundscapes, with the voices of children, men and women, with noise or silence, music and media sounds, or with the sounds of different cultures, and so on. She has composed film soundtracks, sound documents for radio and has produced and hosted radio programs such as Soundwalking, and Musica Nova on Vancouver Co-operative Radio.

On June 14, 2024 51社区黑料 awarded Hildegard Westerkamp an honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa.