Nicole Lizée
Called “a brilliant musical scientist” (CBC), “breathtakingly inventive” (Sydney Times Herald), and “utterly inspiring” (I Care If You Listen), multi-award winning composer and filmmaker Nicole Lizée explores themes of malfunction, glitch, turntablism, rave culture, urbex, film theory, psychedelia, game culture, experimental fashion, and thrash metal to create a new kind of expression.
Nicole’s compositions range from works for turntablist featuring turntable techniques fully notated and integrated into a concert music setting, to other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, vintage board games, omnichords, stylophones, Simon™, Ouija boards, pop rocks candy, and karaoke tapes. In the broad scope of her evolving oeuvre she explores such themes as malfunction, reviving the obsolete, and the harnessing of imperfection and glitch to create a new kind of precision.
Awards include a JUNO Award for Classical Composition of the Year, a Music Critics Association of North America Award for Best New Opera, a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Opera, a Prix Opus for Composer of the Year, a SOCAN Award, the Canada Council Jules Léger Prize for Chamber Music, and the Canada Council Robert Fleming Prize for achievements in composition.
Her works are regularly performed worldwide to international acclaim. Her commission list of over 60 works includes the Kronos Quartet, BBC Proms, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Bang On A Can, National Arts Centre Orchestra, l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Ligeti Quartet, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, Donaueschingen Festival, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and Tapestry Opera.
Photograph by Richmond Lam
