Upstream Music Association

Corporate body

Upstream Music Association

1990 -

The UpStream Music Association (UMA) is a new music collective of performers and composers from the Halifax, Nova Scotia area. The association was inspired by a series of informal improvisation sessions in the spring of 1989 and became a non-profit charitable organization after its incorporation on April 4, 1990, shortly before the first performance of the Upstream Ensemble. The founding members of UMA were Steve Tittle, Bob Bauer, Tom Roach, Jeff Reilly, Steven Naylor, Sandy Moore, Paul Cram, and Don Palmer. The UMA is still an active arts organization in Halifax.

Halifax, Nova Scotia

UMA promotes new music composition, improvisation, and performance in the Halifax area. The association’s group of musicians, which has been called the Upstream Ensemble, Upstream Orchestra, and, briefly, in Halifax Plateau Orchestra, performs at various venues around Halifax, including St. Mary’s University Art Gallery, the Sir James Dunn Theatre, and Club Flamingo, as well as touring internationally. The orchestra has between 17 and 45 musicians at any one time. In addition to performing, the group also composes, commissions compositions, collaborates with other artists, and presents workshops (including those for Dalhousie music students). They have worked with many ensembles and musicians, including Symphony Nova Scotia; Barry Guy and the London Jazz Composers Orchestra; Maya Homberger; Hemispheres; Michiyo Yagi; and Akikazu Nakamura. Since 1998, UMA has also organized the Open Waters Festival of New and Improvised Music in Halifax.

In addition to their performing, composing, and outreach activities, UMA also has a record label, Undercurrent Recordings, established as a subsidiary of MA to produce and release recordings that support UMA’s mandate of promoting new compositional and improvisational techniques. The ensemble’s first CD, Open Waters (1992), was produced under this label, and contains compositions by Steve Tittle, Don Palmer, Jeff Reilly, Sandy Moore, and Steve Naylor.

UMA is governed by a Board of Directors whose positions have changed slightly over the years. The main positions, however, remain unchanged, with a chairperson, (co-)artistic director(s), secretary, and treasurer (the latter two positions are sometimes combined). Since its inception in 1990, the artistic directors of UMA have been Bob Bauer (1990–1998); Jeff Reilly (1990–2000); Paul Cram (1990–2015); Steven Naylor (1997–2000); Christoph Both (1998–2001); Don Palmer (1999–2001); and Lukas Pearse (2015-2017).

The association is financially supported by various sponsors, grants, and funding agencies, including the Government of Nova Scotia; Government of Canada; Halifax Regional Municipality; Dalhousie University; Lyle Tilley Davidson, Chartered Accountants; Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) Foundation; Arts Nova Scotia; Canada Council for the Arts; The Craig Foundation; Etc. Press; Symphony Nova Scotia; Atlantica Hotel Halifax; Canadian Federation of Musicians; International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation; and Canadian New Music Network.

UMA is so named to acknowledge its connection to Third Stream music, a genre that blends classical and jazz styles and focuses on the convergence of improvisation and new music composition in performance. Some of UMA’s compositions and performances also incorporate folk elements, particularly from traditional Celtic music.

Palmer, Don (1939-)

Guy, Barry (1947-)

Moore, Sandy (1944-)

Symphony Nova Scotia

Bauer, Bob (1950-)

Cram, Paul (1952-2018)

Reilly, Jeff

Adams, Norman

http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr98026702.html