Ensembles

A Love Upstream

A Love Upstream is Upstream Music's current houseband. It is: Rick Waychesko – trumpet, Jeff Reilly – bass clarinet/clarinet, Paul Cram - tenor sax/clarinet, Dawn Hatfield – baritone and alto saxes/flute, Lee Park – violin, Lukas Pearse – contrabass/electric bass/electronics, Jeff Torbert – guitar/electronics, David Burton/drums. Recent guests: Marilyn Lerner, Erin Costello, and Lori freedman.

Upsteam and Lerner CD
The Upstream Ensemble w/ Marilyn Lerner recorded LIVE
by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 01/12/08
Witwork / Marilyn Lerner / 4:55
Internal Combustion /Jeff Reilly/ 13:52
Revolutions / Paul Cram / 7:35
Iskower Phenomenon / Marilyn Lerner / 8:07
Dissassociation / Lukas Pearse / 11:21
Balance / Marilyn Lerner / 10:04
and Ground (piano solo) / Marilyn Lerner / 7:12

The original UPSTREAM ENSEMBLE was formed in 1990 . The original members were Don Palmer, Steve Tittle, Paul Cram, Jeff Reilly, Bob Bauer, Sandy Moore, Steven Naylor and Tom Roach. Instinctually, the group embraced improvisation and composition in equal measure to ensure its survival. Over the years Upstream’s musicians have upheld this founding energy and continued to write for each other’s strengths.In the early years the ensemble performed an average of 4 concerts a year in Halifax. In 1993 they toured to Music Across America in Toronto and released a CD entitled Open Waters. The group collaborated quite successfully with Symphony Nova Scotia from 1994 to 1998 and disbanded in 1999 in favour of the 22-piece Upstream Orchestra: an ensemble incorporating symphony musicians wishing to participate in Upstream's process. The millenium saw the consolidation of Upstream as an Association with a broader purpose. From there the Upstream Ensemble has re-emerged with new members: musicians who grew up alongside the original Upstream who bring new energy to the party. Recently re-branded as A Love Upstream the new band brings together R&B, contemporary classical and avant jazz in the moment.

The Upstream Orchestra

The Upstream Orchestra is a 21st Century orchestra with an elastic attitude that embraces improvisation as central to its process. As such, it has as its antecedents such groups as The Vienna Art Orchestra, The New York Jazz Composers Orchestra, The Ensemble Moderne of Frankfurt, The AACM Orchestra (Association for the Advancement of Creative Music in Chicago) The London Jazz Composers Orchestra,, The Willem Breuker Collective, The Instant Composers Pool, The Scratch Orchestra, Hemispheres of Toronto, NOW Orchestra of Vancouver and many other similar ensembles that are cropping up al over the world: ensembles with high professional standards that are taking improvisation in all its forms very seriously: ensembles that are exploring new compositional, notational and conducting techniques to consistently achieve a high level of excitement in performance by involving the performers intimately in the actual creation of the music. As the 19th Century military model of orchestral music is becoming less relevant in the creation of a brave new world, the 23-piece Upstream Orchestra embraces open-minded musicians from the classical orchestral, jazz and world music traditions by creating contexts where we can all play together