Assistant Professor Georges Dimitrov was selected as finalist for the Accès Arkéa composition contest. A public concert featuring the nominated works will take place on January 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Chapelle historique du Bon Pasteur, where the winner will be announced.
We took the opportunity to congratute Dimitrov on his nomination, and to find out more about his work at Concordia.
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What are you working on right now?
I'm presently composing a piece comissioned by the Orchestre Metropolitain for their "Youth Spirit" concert. It's a musical adaptation of the children's album "Le Lion et l'oiseau" by local writer and illustrator Marianne Dubuc. The book won almost every possible prize for children's literature in 2014, including the Governor General literary prize. It's a wonderful story about friendship and the passage of time.
What has your attention?
My focus in the recent years has been on the notion of time in music. All my recent compositions have explored various ways in which the perception of time in a musical piece could be altered and play a significant role in the construction of meaning. I play with immobility, silences, deconstructions and reconstructions of the musical narrative, a domain which still has much to offer which hasn't been covered. I have also written a paper on the subject which I hope will be published soon in an academic journal.
What communities do you feel most connected to?
The classical music scene in Montreal is very active and dynamic, and I have many talented friends who work in contemporary music as well as video game music. In diversifying my own interests, I'm very invested as well in the more underground electronic scence here, dabbling in minimal synthetic music and post-punk. I'm currently co-hosting Guerre froide, a weekly radio show dedicated to these musical genres. I'm also composing electonic music in the "rock" domain and this work and my contemporary creation influence and nourish each other.
How did you get here?
When choosing my field of undergraduate studies, I decided to become a composer (my second choice was mathematics), but once I started teaching, I discovered I had a passion for it. After a master's degree and a doctorate in composition at Université de Montréal with Isabelle Panneton and Jean-Jacques Nattiez, I began teaching at Concordia. Six years later, I'm still loving it - the music department here is vibrant and so alive with dynamic students and ideas.
What are your students working on?
So many things in so many genres! They are very open, and blend contemporary techniques, jazz, electroacoustics, hip-hop, metal - everything, really. There is a great interest in film and video game music, plus a growing market in the city, and there are some very talented students who are already earning their keep, professionally.