At the 6th International Electroacoustic Music Contest of São Paulo (CIMESP 2005, Brazil), David Berezan won the First Prize for Styal and Francis Dhomont won an Honorable Mention for Vol d’Arondes. Mathew Adkins and Robert Normandeau also saw their work selected for the finals. Serendipities and Synchronicities by Pete Stollery and Rojo by Hans Tutschku were selected for concert presentation at the 6th BIMESP (International Biennial for Electroacoustic Music of São Paulo) in 2006.

Robert Normandeau is twice nominated at the 12th “Soirée des masques” (the annual prizes given by the Association québécoise du théâtre) to be broadcasted on December 18, 2005 on ARTV and Radio-Canada Télévision. The jury selected the music composed for the plays La cloche de verre (The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath) and Médée-matériau (Medea Material, Heiner Müller). The composer was nominated in 2003 for Antigone (Sophocles), and won with Malina (Ingeborg Bachmann) in 2002. All of these plays were directed by Brigitte Haentjens.

Last September, composer Francis Dhomont was president of the jury for the 2005 Phonurgia Nova Competition (Arles, France). On October 19, 2005, he was the keynote speaker at the EMS-05 conference in Montréal. On October 27 and 28, 2005, he took part in the festival Klang Raum Illusion: 18 Tage neuer Musik in Weimar (Germany) with Frankenstein Symphony and Vol d’Arondes; the latter spatialized on a 192-loudspeaker orchestra by Hans Tutschku. Dhomont gave a concert in Saint-Étienne (France) on November 5, 2005, a concert and a master class in Århus (Denmark) on November 10, 2005 and another concert in Copenhagen (Denmark) on November 11, 2005.

Joseph Petric presented 25 years of works for accordion and electroacoustics on October 30, 2005 at the Music Gallery in Toronto (Ontario). The concert featured the Toronto premiere of Yves Daoust’s composition L’Entrevue (1991).

A second pioneer of electronic / concrete / electroacoustic music passes away this week. French composer Luc Ferrari died yesterday (August 22, 2005) in Italy at 76.

The pioneer and inventor of one of the first modular analog synthesizers, Robert Moog, passed away on August 21, 2005 at the age of 71. His family has set up The Bob Moog Foundation for the advancement of electronic music.