Biography
Described
on
Bravo TV News as a national treasure, Diana
McIntosh has
a very active career as a distinctive, original,
witty, and innovative composer/pianist/performance artist. She has a
dynamic stage presence, and has performed throughout Canada, widely in
the USA, and in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Portugal and in
October, 2002, she gave 3 performances in Nairobi, Kenya.
In
recent
years she has attained a high profile for her one- woman,
inter-disciplinary creations, in which she has explored singular ways
of working with voiced texts in a theatrical relationship with music.
As well as her own original texts, she also uses texts of well-known
authors (Diane Ackerman, Gertrude Stein, Beryl Markham, Jon Whyte, Joy
Harjo, Liliane Welch, and others). Her eclectic style ranges from the
evocative and
provocative to eccentric humour. Her repertoire also includes
many works of other composers, particularly, though by no means
exclusively, those of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Among her
commissions for new music are works for orchestra, chamber
ensemble,
choral, vocal and instrumental soloists, dance, mime, electronic tape,
and
theatrically oriented music. Two of her best known orchestral works - 9
Foot Clearance (for
piano and orchestra), and Through the Valley:
Milgaard (for
pianist/narrator and orchestra), both
commissioned by
the
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for its New Music Festivals, have received
standing ovations for all her performances. McIntosh was guest
soloist for the premiere performance of both these works and she has
been billed by the WSO as a "Festival Favourite". She has been the
subject of several TV profiles on CBC and Bravo. 9
Foot Clearance
was
chosen for the imposed work in the Canadian Concerto Competition of the
Orchestre symphonique de Québec, for their March 2002
competition.
McIntosh
has
been at the forefront of contemporary music in Winnipeg for over 20
years. In 1978 she, together with Canadian composer Ann Southam,
organized Music
Inter Alia,
western Canada's first contemporary music
series, and was its Artistic Director for 14 years, until it joined
with Thira and IzMusic to create
GroundSwell,
of which she is a
co-artistic director and, currently, President. She was for many years
Composer-in-Residence for the Faculty of
Music, University of Manitoba.
Diana
McIntosh is probably the only composer/performer who has performed in
the cargo bay of a Bristol Freighter aeroplane (at the Western Canada
Aviation Museum); on top of an airport control tower - per photo - (at
Old Warden
Aerodrome, England); in the Royal Canadian Mint, (Winnipeg Branch); in
the Scottish National Aviation Museum (East Lothian, Scotland); in The
Canadian Aviation Museum (Ottawa); in The Aero Club of East Africa, and
the Karen and Muthaiga Clubs (in Nairobi, Kenya); as well as at the
Copall Equestrian Centre (in Winnipeg).
McIntosh
is well known for her creative imagination
and originality, and she has written several works of unusual
instrumentation, such as , Four on the Floor,
for 4 pianos, 3 brass
and 2 percussion, with creative coloured lighting, (this work was
commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for its New Music
festival), several works for toy piano and mouth percussion, and a work
for food processor and spoken text.
More about Diana (click
here)
Two
CDs - The
Original McIntosh and Another
Byte
of McIntosh,
and a
video, Serious
Fun With McIntosh, all feature
McIntosh's work
exclusively, and many of her works are included on other CDs.
The Halifax
Chronicle-Herald said, "Virtuoso composer, pianist,
show-woman - Winnipeg's Diana McIntosh - is one of the wonders of the
Canadian contemporary music world. Contemporary music is not often so
engaging, entertaining and delightful."
"An
individual but genuinely poetic atmosphere.".................. New York Times.
"Diana
McIntosh is a
national treasure. She is a leading light for any
composer, particularly for female composers, and she also brings a very
welcome sense of humour and creativity to the concert stages of Canada."..................................................................................................Bravo TV News
Diana
McIntosh is high-profile Canadian musician with a long
history in performance and composition. She is outstandingly
original and
innovative. She has excelled in a unique multi-faceted career as a
composer, pianist, performance artist and founder and artistic director
of new music concerts. She has given numerous solo concerts, and still
tours regularly, throughout Canada, the USA, Britain, Ireland, in
France and Portugal, and in 2002 a did a 3-concert tour in Kenya,
Africa.
She has
been commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, CBC Radio, The
Roseberry Orchestra (London, England), New York New Music Ensemble,
Rivka Golani, Patricia Spenser, Beverley Johnston, Victor Schultz, the
Royal Canadian College of Organists, and many others. She has been
twice commissioned by choreographer Rachel Browne to write music for
Contemporary Dancers. In one of them, Dream Rite (1993), McIntosh
performed her music live, on stage with the dancers, using her voice,
percussion and electronics. She toured with the company to other
cities, including Toronto - review attached.
In 1972, upon
graduation from the School of Music, University of Manitoba with a
Bachelor of Music (performance), she was asked by the Continuing
Education Dept. of the University to give weekly courses on music
appreciation. She did so for 7 years, and her classes were multimedia
events, McIntosh often performing the music as soloist or in chamber
ensembles, and relating music, visual art, dance and theatre. Several
of the courses were devoted to Canadian composers. The attendees became
the nucleus of future new music concert audiences.
Upon moving from
Calgary to Winnipeg about 40 years ago, McIntosh began to give, and
still gives, free house concerts for up
to 50 people, in her home. Originally these were solo concerts of
her
own performing, but later they developed into chamber concerts which
were mainly of contemporary music, particularly Canadian. The other
musicians were singers and instrumentalists, most of whom have become
prominent in their fields with universities and symphony orchestras.
The programs were in the form of lecture concerts. One of these house
concerts was recorded for broadcast on CBC's "Sunday Morning" radio
broadcast.
These
concerts opened
the way for McIntosh to give public concerts, and, together with her
friend Ann Southam, (whom she met at summer sessions at The Banff
Centre, in master classes with Boris Roubakine), she founded Music
Inter Alia in 1977. It was the first Western Canadian new music
series,
and as its name implies, it featured mixed media, and as well as
presenting the 20th century's classics, it promoted Canadian music in
particular. During its 14 years, 42 new works were commissioned from
Canadian composers, across the country, through The Canada Council and
the Manitoba Arts Council. During that period a total of 286
contemporary music works were performed on Music Inter Alia programs,
and of these, 188 (66%) were Canadian.
A great many of the
Music Inter Alia concerts were recorded by CBC and broadcast nationally
on "Two New Hours". In 
1981
Music
Inter Alia began an annual competition for emerging composers in
Manitoba, with a $500.00 prize, a critique by a Canadian composer, and
a performance of the winning work. In 1992 Music Inter Alia joined with
two smaller groups to form GroundSwell, Winnipeg's current new music
series, and McIntosh is one of its Co-Artistic Directors, and is at
present its President. She performs regularly on these concerts, both
as a soloist and in ensembles.
In
the early 1980s
Chris Hurley of The Manitoba Puppet Theatre commissioned McIntosh to
create music on tape for his puppet creation Kiviuq, an authentic Inuit
legend. This show was toured widely, and when performed for the Inuit
in Northern Manitoba, they told Hurley that, "the music brought their
legend to life". In 1985, CBC Radio commissioned McIntosh to write a
chamber music work, and she used the same Kiviuq legend and titled her
work, Kiviuq - An Inuit Legend.
In 1986 McIntosh was
Composer-in-Residence at the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound,
Ontario. She gave a concert, workshops and a discussion for the
audience with Lister Sinclair, about the creative process.
McIntosh has
performed solo concerts, and as a soloist with the orchestra, in most
of the WSO New Music Concerts. To date, the Festival has commissioned
three works from her, and she performed in all of them - 9 Foot
Clearance (piano concerto), Four On The Floor (4 pianos, 3 brass and
percussion), and Through the Valley: Milgaard (pianist/narrator with
orchestra on the David Milgaard story) (flyer attached.) She has since
performed the Milgaard with the Regina and Saskatoon orchestras. All
three performances of this work received standing ovations. 9 Foot
Clearance was chosen by the Orchestre symphonique de Québec for
its imposed Canadian concerto on its festival in March 2002.
McIntosh has given 8 concerts in New York City. One of
these was as a guest pianist playing a work which was commissioned by
New York flutist Patricia Spencer. She and McIntosh performed the work,
Luminaries for flute and piano in Carnegie Recital Hall, New York. Her
other New York concerts were mostly solo concerts in Merkin Hall,
Symphony Space, The Knitting factory and Carnegie Recital Hall (now
called Kurt Weill Hall). Reviews attached. In 1997 McIntosh did a 13
solo concert tour of Toronto, Ottawa and 11 places in the Maritimes.
(Halifax review attached.)
In 1982 she won the
Woman of the Year in the Arts award, in Manitoba. And in 2003 she was
featured on the Women With Vision series, in Winnipeg, in which she
gave an illustrated talk about her career as a composer/performer. She
has received two
major
arts grants and many other grants from the Manitoba Arts Council, and
several from The Canada Council, including two Exploration grants.
Enclosed is a more detailed list of Awards, Residencies and
Publications.
CBC - TV and Bravo
TV have each done profiles on McIntosh, as a performer/composer. Bravo
referred to her as a "national treasure". These profiles may be viewed
on her website - www.dianamcintosh.com. She has been heard on numerous
CBC radio broadcasts over many years, both locally and nationally (Two
New Hours), and in some cases wrote the script. In a program called
Music to See, on CBC-TV, McIntosh was the featured pianist and wrote
the script for a program that featured the relationship between music
and painting. She commissioned several Manitoba artists, including
Robert Bruce and Don Reichert to paint a picture to express a specific
piece of music she performed on the program.
She
has given many
creative workshops in places such as Mount Allison University; Queen's
University; University of Manitoba; University of Nevada, in Reno;
University of Texas, at Austin; Conservatory of Music in Guimaraes,
Portugal as well as in many schools in Manitoba and in the USA.
She has two commercial
CDs of her own music, The original McIntosh and Another Byte of
McIntosh, and a professional video - Serious Fun with McIntosh which
was telecast on CBC. She is also included in a video presentation of
the Banff Centre, called "Angles of Incidence". Many of her works
are on CDs of other artists, including Rivka Golani, and Christina
Petrowska and on CDs of the Canadian Electronic Community.
Diana McIntosh has
served on juries for the Manitoba Arts
Council, the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canadian
Music Centre. She has served on the Board of the Association
of Canadian Women Composers, representing Manitoba.
