'Writing in the in-between" by Ian Cusson

'Writing in the in-between" presented by Ian Cusson

In this talk, composer Ian Cusson discusses how his experience of straddling communities and cultures has been a source of rich imaginative creative potential. As a creative who has collaborated with some of the most important living writers and thinkers of our generation, Ian has shaped a practice and methodology of making that centres an attitude of play and a disposition of wonder as the two central pillars of his artistic process. Sharing examples from his body of work for the stage and the concert hall, he will explore the role of community in art-making and how Indigenized frameworks of understanding place and person have led to some of his most fruitful and powerful artistic work.

Ian Cusson is a composer of art song, opera and orchestral work. Of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French Canadian descent, his work explores Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures. He studied composition with Jake Heggie (San Francisco) and Samuel Dolin, and piano with James Anagnoson at the Glenn Gould School.

He is the recipient of the Chalmers Professional Development Grant, and grants through the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation, the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council.

Ian was an inaugural Carrefour Composer-in-Residence with the National Arts Centre Orchestra for 2017-2019 and was Composer-in-Residence for the Canadian Opera Company for 2019-2021. He was Co-artistic Director of Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre and the recipient of the 2021 Jan V. Matejcek Classical Music Award from SOCAN and the 2021 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. Ian is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.