- Michael Bussiere
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Michael Bussière has been producing new media experiments since 1987 when he shared the stage of Toronto’s Dumaurier Theatre Centre with Australian performance artist Stelarc. Bussière has become one of Canada's leading experts on telematic practices in the classroom and in performance.
From the Canadian Encyclopedia:
From the Canadian Music Centre
Michael (Robert) Bussière. Media artist, composer, researcher, teacher, producer, b Ottawa 31 May 1959; A graduate of the University of Toronto, and the State University of New York; studied with Lydia Sierhuis; with John Churchill; and with Robert Washburn and Paul Steinberg (composition, multi-media, and fine arts). He taught his first course in electronic media as a sessional lecturer in 1985, and eventually designed and taught Canada's first undergraduate fine arts program in new media in 2000. Bussière has written for both traditional instruments and electronic media, often combining the two to great effect. He won two national CAPAC gold prizes in 1987: the Rodolphe Mathieu Award for Veni Creator Spiritus (1987) for soprano and digital sounds, and the Godfrey Ridout Gold Award for Fields of Light: The Eternal Feminine (1985) for soprano, double choir, computer-generated tape, video, and multiple slide images has been performed at the Music Gallery, by the Canadian Centennial Choir, at Ottawa's Festival of the Arts, and for New Music Concerts in Toronto where he shared the stage with Stelarc.
Michael Bussière has been commissioned by performers and organizations such as Christina Petrowska-Quilico (TransAtlantic Synergies, 1986); Julie West Dance Foundation (Triad, 1987); the Canadian Electronic Ensemble (Hypothesis of Memory, 1987); Sound Pressure (Eldorado Nuclear, 1988); Martin Beaver; Jamie Parker; the CBC; the National Film Board of Canada; Pierrot Ensemble; and Harmathy Films. His music has been performed outside Canada at the Video Roma Festival, the International Festival Avant-garde in Paris, the Bourges Festival of Electro-Acoustic Music, Boston's School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and Chicago's Ravinia Festival. Within Canada, his works have been performed at The Banff Festival of the Arts, Toronto Festival of Festivals, and the Canada Dance Festival.
Since 1990, Bussière has also worked as a producer for, among others, CBC Radio, Carleton Sound, the National Film Board of Canada, Naxos of Hong Kong, Polygram, and Summit Records. In 1995, he received a Canada Council grant for travel and research in the Middle East.
Michael Bussière founded SDI Inc. (Sonic Design Interactive) to further his work in telematic performance on broadband networks. In the early 2000s SDI began work for the Canadian government and was awarded a substantial research grant from CANARIE, leading to what is believed to be the first musical work created for a multimedia broadband event: a concert combining Carleton University music students with students at Holy Heart High School in St. John's, NL, 9 Apr 2002. Bussière has continued to design and produce such events, notably at the Banff Centre in 2004, and across Canada ever since. In 2006 he was accepted into and enrolled in the Ph. D program of the Faculty of Technology, University of Plymouth UK. He has spoken at conferences on telematic performance from the UK to Singapore to Sao Paulo and has been published in such prestigious journals as Leonardo (MIT Press). His Marsville.tv project website is located below.
Awards
Bussière’s works has received over 20 commissions presented by such prestigious venues as the Summit of the Americas, Boston’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival, Bourges (France) Festival, Video Roma, The Banff Festival of the Arts, Music Toronto, the Dumaurier Theatre Centre, the Canada Dance Festival at the NAC, as well as nationwide on CBC Stereo and Radio-Canada. He won two national gold prizes awarded by CAPAC in 1987. Bussiere was a finalist in the 2001 Canadian New Media Awards. His VIP (virtual instrument paradigm) public art commission in front of Ottawa City Hall was voted "best public artwork" by newspaper readers.
External links
Categories:- Canadian electronic musicians
- Living people
- University of Toronto alumni
- Canadian multimedia artists
- The Royal Conservatory of Music alumni
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