John Rea
Orchestrator

During every musical season for the last number of years now, John Rea brings forth new and imaginative compositions. In 2008, he wrote incidental music for two theatrical productions. The year 2007 saw the premiere of Singulari-T (Tombeau de Ligeti), for chamber ensemble. While in 2006, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra presented his violin concerto, Figures hâtives, a commission of the MSO; in 2005, first performances of Accident: Tombeau de Grisey took place in Paris and Montreal; in 2004, Lent Chagrin, for voice and piano.

In January 2003, his orchestration of Seven Early Songs by Gustav Mahler premiered in Montreal, commissioned and performed by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. As to his re-orchestration for 21 players of Alban Berg’s operatic masterpiece, Wozzeck - three separate productions occurred: autumn 2002, Vienna; winter 2003, Victoria (BC), and summer 2003, Princeton (NJ). Other productions of the chamber version of Wozzeck have taken place in Orford, Québec (2004), Buenos Aires (2005), Montreal (2006), Lille, France (2007). Future productions are scheduled in 2009 at Meiningen, Germany, and in 2010 at San Francisco.

Recipient of many awards, John Rea has been frequently commissioned and has written works in several genres: chamber music, music-theater, electroacoustic music, and compositions for large ensemble such as orchestra, ballet, choral, and opera.

In 1979-80, he lived in Berlin, and later in 1984, was composer-in-residence at Mannheim. Elsewhere in Germany, performances of his music have occurred in Cologne and Stuttgart. His compositions have also been presented in a number of important events around the world such as the New Music America Festival in Philadelphia; at L'Itinéraire, Festival Musica, and the “Présences” Festival in France; in Japan and in Hungary; the Festival de Liège in Belgium; at the Holland Festival; and the Festivals of the Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) in Denmark, Canada, and Sweden.

Besides his activities as a composer, John Rea has lectured and published articles on twentieth century music and, since 1973, has taught composition, music theory and music history at McGill University where he served as Dean of the Faculty of Music (1986-1991), today the Schulich School of Music. Rea was also a founding member of the Montreal new music society, Les Événements du Neuf (1978-1989). Currently he sits on the editorial board for the French-language new music journal, Circuit : musiques contemporaines, and recently completed a long tenure on the artistic/programming committee of the Montreal concert organization, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.