biography

Canadian composer jef chippewa is particularily interested in questions of cultural awareness and identity in regards to the composer’s responsibility in inheriting or appropriating cultural heritage. Understanding the impossibility of definitive articulation or comprehension of cultural identity does not justify conscious ignorance of any of its aspects. Nor does it excuse irresponsibility in cultural appropriation, and this applies equally to the appropriation of one’s “own” culture (cultural heritage) as to that of another culture or sub-culture (“external influences”).

Although chippewa has pursued formal studies at the Université de Montréal and Concordia University, personal research has made an important contribution to his musical education.

His compositions have been performed in such concert series and festivals as EuCuE (Montréal), Darmstadt Ferienkurse, FUTURA and the International Society for Contemporary Music’s World New Music Days (Stuttgart, 2006) by groups such as ensemble recherche, asamisimasa and Ensemble contemporain de Montréal. His work can be heard on CD, notably on Cache 2000, a compilation of the top-placing works in an annual competition organised by the Canadian Electroacoustic Community (CEC). He is currently working on a new composition commissioned by Trio Nexus and a string trio.

In 1999, chippewa founded shirling & neueweise, a company specialised in New Music notation, which collaborates with composers, ensembles and publishers (Sebastian Claren, Bernhard Lang, ensemble recherche, PEER Music-Classical). The excellent quality of his work is recognized internationally by his peers, and examples of scores he has prepared appear in Notations 21 (Theresa Tisano, ed., 2009).

Since 2005, he is the Administrative co-Director of the Canadian Electroacoustic Community, Canada’s national association for electroacoustic music, and Coordinating Editor for the CEC’s quarterly electronic journal, eContact!.