BRP 59 | Jienan Chen & Nicholas Ryan Kelly

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This week we welcome to the Band Room the two winners of the 2021 Canadian Band Association Howard Cable Memorial Prize in Composition: Jienan Chen and Nicholas Ryan Kelly. Dylan and Cait chat with the composers about their award-winning pieces, their musical journeys, how they each came to writing band music, and more!
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Music used in this episode
BRP Theme Music: Skyline by EKR Hammell
Performing Ensemble: University of Toronto Wind Ensemble
Dr. Gillian MacKay – Conductor
Lake Superior Suite - Pancake Bay by Cait Nishimura
Performing Ensemble: University of Toronto Wind Ensemble
Dr. Gillian MacKay – Conductor
Episode Links
CBA Howard Cable Memorial Prize
https://www.canadianband.org/howard-cable-prize-in-composition

Nicholas Ryan Kelly
https://www.nicholasryankelly.com/about.html
Night Highway by Nicholas Ryan Kelly
https://www.nicholasryankelly.com/night-highway.html

About Jienan Chen
Jienan Chen (b. 2001) is a largely self-taught composer from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He learned to compose mostly from looking at and listening to the music of other composers, and from playing in wind ensembles from the elementary up to the post-secondary levels. His music seeks to emphasize the structures found in Classical-era music while creating intrigue with harmony, counterpoint, or borrowings from the musical styles from his homeland China.
Jienan has composed music for various solo instruments and ensembles, as well as electronic music. Additionally, he has created several arrangements of Chinese music, in his pursuit to make it more accessible in Canada and to widen the repertoire of world music arrangements in the wind ensemble and orchestral repertoire.
Currently enrolled at the University of Alberta pursuing a major in marketing and a minor in music, Jienan devotes his time outside of classes and composing to various activities, such as writing, gardening, cycling, photography, promoting the use of alto clarinet in wind ensembles, pondering the revival of the harmonium, as well as talking about Chinese history.

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