Nic Caloia with the Upstream Ensemble

Upstream Music Association presents the music of Montreal composer Nicholas Caloia in Halifax NS on October 30th 2015.   The music will be performed by the Upstream Ensemble – A Love Upstream, our nonet comprised of experienced performers of both written and improvised music.  

The performance will take place at the Halifax Music Co-Op, a new venue which features excellent acoustics and has a laudable mandate of hosting diverse musics and music educational opportunities in an accessible environment.  

The members of the Upstream Ensemble – A Love Upstream,  are all professional musicians who represent a variety of traditions, who hold in common a respect for traditional notation with a willingness to explore innovative approaches to composition and a fearless approach to improvisation. The Upstream nonet includes Rosanna Burrill, Dave Burton, Jackson Fairfax-Perry, Dawn Hatfield, Steven Naylor, Lukas Pearse, Jeff Reilly, Jeff Torbert and Rick Waychesko.

Caloia's Ratchet Orchestra has long held many parallels to the priorities of the Upstream Music Association in that it explores the creative challenges of written composition for improving musicians, valuing the tradition of music literacy and the role of the composer while at the same time honouring and indeed requiring the individual artistic voices of the performers.