Bradyworks - "Traces": "My 20th Century": May 21, 2008 / Bradyworks

The Team:
Tim Brady - artistic and general director
Emily Hall - producer, social media
Morris Apelbaum - technical direction and sound
Clément Topping - administration
Pier-Luk Bouthillier / François Turcotte - graphic design/web
Nicholas Ryan - production manager (100 gtrs), production assistant

Artistic Vision and Current Projects
Bradyworks was created in 1989 as a vehicule for the music of composer Tim Brady, a music that brings together elements of contemporary chamber music, jazz, rock and electroacoustics in a unique and innovative musical language.  Brady and the group are primarily interested in the evolution of the electric guitar in creative music making and contemporary chamber music.  Since 1997 the group has enlarged its repertoire to include music by other composers, especially those who have a similar artistic vision, and who share a passion for the development of the electric guitar.

Since 2014 most of the group's productions have been presented under the banner of Instruments of Happiness, a name which brings together several diverse electric guitar projects of Bradyworks. These include an electric guitar quartet, a 20-guitar ensemble, and the large-scale spatialised music projects for 100 to 150 guitars.

The quartet has released three albums (2016, 2019, 2021) and presented tours and concert across Canada (2017, 2018, 2022) and in the USA (2019), in addition to producing regular events in Montréal.  The large-scale 100 guitar projects have had success across Canada, notably in Montréal (Festival MNM, Festival international de jazz de Montréal),Vancouver (Modulus Festival), Toronto (Luminato) and Stratford (Stratford Summer Music). It's most important success to date was the 150 guitars project at the St. Joseph's Oratory concert in February 2019, given to an audience of 3,200.

Bradyworks is also very interested in the place of the electric guitar in contemporary opera creation. With the financial support of the National Arts Centre, they produced the opera "Backstage at Carnegie Hall: an opera about racism and the electric guitar" at the Centaur Theatre in Montréal. The world premier of another chamber opera, " Information : Montréal – oct. 1970" will be presented with Chants libres in April 2024 in Montréal.

In April 2023 Brady released the album "Symphony  in 18 Parts for Solo Electric Guitar", which has recieved excellent reviews, notably in the New York Times (July 2023).

History
Bradyworks made its début with two performances of the music/dance project Inventions, created in collaboration with choreographer Julie West in 1989. The ensemble's first major festival performance on the was at the 1990 Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville. In 1991 it undertook a successful 12-city North American tour, including a New York debut, and it released its first CD, Inventions. In 1994 Bradyworks presented a 6-concert Canadian tour, featuring the premiere of Brady's major song cycle, Revolutionary Songs, as well as performances from the 1994 CD release Scenarios.

From 1995 to 1998 the ensemble presented several concerts of both acoustic and electronic music in Montreal including a music/dance collaboration with choreographer Jo Leslie entitled Strange Attractors, for electric guitar, live electronics and tape. In April 1996 the ensemble released its second CD - Revolutionary Songs - and was featured in performance at the Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville where it performed excerpts from the new CD as well as the premiere of a new work entitled The Time of Drumming, in a concert recorded for Radio-Canada.

In 1999 Bradyworks added a full string quartet to the group, bringing the total to 9 musicians and creating exciting new possibilities for the ensemble in terms of orchestration and timbre. In the fall of 2000 Bradyworks performed its third major Canadian tour with guest artist mezzo-soprano Anne-Marie Donovan, premiering Brady's new song-cycle The Knife Thrower's Partner. The 2000 - 2001 season also included a concert of vocal music, recorded for Radio-Canada, featuring music by Claude Vivier, R. Murray Schafer, Serge Garant and André Ristic, and a concert of new music for saxophone, piano, percussion and tape, with guest composer / jazz pianist François Bourassa. The 2001 - 2002 season saw Bradyworks perform at The Kitchen in New York, presenting a concert in collaboration with the Société québécoise de la recherche en musicologie (a concert of music for strings, with electronics), as well as producing a joint concert with Vox 21, one of Ireland's leading chamber ensembles. In 2003 the group released its third CD, entitled Unison Rituals, on the Ambiances magnétiques label.

In the fall of 2003 Bradyworks undertook its first European tour with concerts in England, Scotland and Ireland, including a live concert broadcast for BBC Radio 3 recorded at the Maida Vale studio in London. Following a successful premiere in October 2003 in Montreal, the group presented Brady's chamber opera Three Cities in the Life of Dr. Norman Bethune in Toronto for two nights in January 2005. In the spring of 2005 the ensemble changed its instrumentation to its current line-up, including clarinet and viola, in order to perform the music for Brady's 2-act chamber opera The Salome Dancer at the Open Ears Festival in Kitchener. In the 2005 - 2006 season Bradyworks released the opera Bethune on CD (Ambiances magnétique) and in 2006 - 2007 they released  3 Solos - the Music of R. Murray Schafer on Centrediscs, the latter being a CD/DVD Audio release in 5.1 surround sound.

Recent productions include the "Shostakovitch@100 years" project at the Théâtre la Chapelle in September 2006, John Oliver's opera "Alternate Visions" at Usine C in May 2007, the 5 concerts of the "Voyages" project with New York in April 2008, and, in May 2008, the group undertook an ambitious 5-city tour of Québec with the multi-media project "My 20th Century", including a performance at the prestigious Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville. Their most recent major production was a very successful 10-city cross-Canada tour of "My 20th Century", including a performance at the acclaimed Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra New Music Festival in February 2010. In March and April 2014 they undertook a 7-city tour of the USA and Australia, including a radio broadcast for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, in collaboration with American baritone Thomas Buckner.

The group's most recent major success was the production of "Atacama: Symphony #3", a new work by artistic director Tim Brady. This impressive 55-minute work for 11 musicians and 20 singers was premiered in Montreal in June 2012 to a standing ovation, was awarded the PRIX OPUS for "Best new composition of the year" in 2013, was released on CD on ATMA Classique and which was opening concert at the prestigious Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville in May 2013. The company's most recent project is the electric guitar collective: Instruments of Happiness.  The group had several very successful performances of the innovative their innovative 100 guitar projects in 2015, 2016 and 2017, and released it's first CD, "Instruments of Happiness electric guitar quartet" in March 2016 on the American Starkland label.

The Bradyworks Large Ensemble was featured at the 2017 Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville, and released a major new CD in November 2018 - "Music for Large Ensemble", featuring Brady's works "Désir: Concerto for Electric Guitar and Large Ensemble" and "Eight Songs About : Symphony #7", on the US Starkland Records. The CD won the American Global Music Award for Best CD and Best Compostion in 2019.

Bradyworks (BW Musique) is funded the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, the SOCAN Foundation, and private donations.