About Us

Our history

New Works Calgary (NWC) was created when artist John Snow commissioned a composition by Allan Rae and discovered there were no performance opportunities for the piece. 

Surprised by this, the Snow family held a concert of new music by Calgary composers and musicians in April 1984, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Music Centre. That concert, held at the Pleiades Theatre, was sponsored by John and Kathleen Snow.

The success of this concert encouraged Snow and co-founder Quentin Doolittle to start concert series that featured new works by Calgary composers. As a result, the New Works of Art Calgary society was established in the fall of 1984 and has maintained annual concert seasons ever since.

“New paintings are easily seen by everyone, even if it is only by looking in the window of an art gallery. Written works are almost as easy being available from libraries, magazines, books, and many radio programs. More difficult are works for the theatre and most difficult of all is to have the opportunity to hear new music.”

John Snow

“Our general goal has been not only to present contemporary Canadian music in all its diversity but also to explore the rich collaborative possibilities between Canadian composers and poets, writers, video and performance artists, visual artists, dancers, actors, and musicians.”

Quenten Doolittle

Rebecca Bruton
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

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rebecca bruton is a composer, songmaker, and vocalist living just north of Moh’kinsstis; the place where the Bow and Elbow Rivers converge; the place where the world began (Siksiká). She creates work that moves in the narrow space between sorrow and celebration; her interests include the pace of trekking through the Rocky Mountains, land/blood memory, the choreographic, multi-species kinship, and the malleable nature of time itself.

 rebecca creates across several musical mediums, including experimental chamber music, song, film scores, and free improvisation. Her chamber compositions are widely performed, having been commissioned by Ekmeles vocal ensemble (NYC), Quatuor Bozzini (Montréal), Quasar Quatuor de saxophones (Montréal), Arraymusic (Toronto), Ultraviolet Ensemble (Edmonton), and more. In 2023 she will premiere The Faerie Ribbon, a new work for expanded string quintet performed by Quatuor Bozzini and junctQín keyboard collective (Toronto). The Faerie Ribbon will be released as one side of a collaborative LP of music for expanded string quintet, a multi-year project she devised and co-led with Toronto-based composer Jason Doell.

rebecca is an avid collaborator, especially across disciplines. In the fall of 2021 rebecca performed in the premiere of ‘We needed to be rescued’, a collaborative movement and music work she co-created with choreographer and dancer Heather Ware (produced by Dancers Studio West). She also tends to a long-term collaborative friendship with multidisciplinary artist Angela Rawlings, having set Angela’s 2017 book si tu to microtonal music for four voices (I n s t i t u, 2021), and collaborated with Angela in the polyvocal duo Moss Moss Not Moss (Tectonics Glasgow 2016).  In Autumn 2022 rebecca premiered a shimmering ornament of silt, an electro-acoustic multi-channel installation she co-created with Halla Steinunn Stefánsdóttir (Sphere Festival, National Arts Centre CAN).

'...music that’s experimental but also simple, with a sensuousness and a weirdness to it.' - Sarah Constant, Musicworks

'All expectations were detourned by the presence of Rebecca Bruton...Positing an avant-garde tradition on the same country path k.d. lang once trod down...' - Joe Strutt, Mechanical Forest Sound

Po Yeh
General Manager

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Po Yeh has been actively involved in the arts community for over ten years in Calgary and nationally. She has demonstrated a keen interest in supporting the performance and creation of contemporary Canadian new music – as Executive Director of Prairie Debut, Ensemble Manager for Land’s End Ensemble, Manager for Calgary Youth Orchestra and board member of the Canadian New Music Network.

Ado Nkemka Marketing Coordinator Intern

Ado Nkemka is a multi-disciplinary writer and musician/teacher based in Calgary, on Treaty 7 Territory. She has a Bachelor of Sociology from Mount Royal University and course work in Digital Marketing from the University of Calgary. She has written for Avenue Magazine, Summit Magazine (forthcoming), artsUNITE, Best Health among other publications. Her writing explores identity development, neurodivergence, and arts and culture.

She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Mount Royal University’s Trico Changemakers Studio, working with The Alcove Centre for the Arts, to increase accessibility to the arts. She is also preparing for the release of her first official pop-rock project (@mybedroomstage ).

photo credit: Francis A Willey @neopictorialist

Luke Dahlgren
Production Coordinator

Luke Dahlgren is an experienced stage manager and voiceover artist, with over 20 years of planning and executing events including theatre, dance, and live music through event management, lighting, audio, and technical direction. He is currently an Instructor at the UCalgary School of Creative & Performing Arts and Stage Manager at the Rozsa Centre. Luke is also a trained voiceover artist (Vox Hero), lending his voice to animation/ADR, advertising, and narration projects. Luke holds a BFA in Drama from the University of Calgary, where he studied sound design and production.

Jesse locke
Staff Writer

Jesse Locke is a Vancouver-based writer and musician. He is the co-founder of the record label We Are Time with NYC post-punk pre-teen Chandra Oppenheim, and author of the book Heavy Metalloid Music, the biography of 1970s psych/proto-punk band Simply Saucer, published by Eternal Cavalier Press. Jesse currently writes for outlets including Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily, and CBC Music, and plays drums for bands such as Tough Age and CHANDRA. Follow him on social media! @wipeoutbeat