John Oliver, composer

News Archive before 2017

Oliver new work with Cassius Khan October 4, Massey Theatre

GreatPairings Read More...

Flight 182 Meditations premiere and CD launch with poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar

Saklikar-Oliver poster New West 400x618

Join award winning poet Renée Saklikar and renowned composer John Oliver for the Vancouver premiere of Flight 182 Meditationsan immersive experience of soundscapes interwoven with poems from Saklikar's long poem children of air india: un/authorized exhibits and interjections. about the bombing of Air India Flight 182. The raw voice of the poet is the instrument for a new sonic journey.

These performances and CD launch mark the 30th anniversary of the Air India bombing, which is June 23, 2015.

CD Launch and 2 performances

June 3, 2015 - 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.
Shiloh Sixth Avenue United Church,
1111 Sixth Ave, New Westminster, BC V3M 2B7

June 13, 2015 - 1:00 to 4:00 pm
Vancouver Public Library, Central Branch
Alma VanDusen and Peter Kaye Rooms, Lower Level
350 West Georgia St.
Vancouver V6B 6B1
Phone: (604) 331-3603

Available in the soundshop.
Poetry available at Harbour Publishing.


Learn about the bombing of Air India Flight 182 by watching this documentary Read More...

"Little Music Box" receives first performance, a work from 1981!

Screenshot 2014-10-13 21.53.41

My minimalist period from 1981-83 produced several works, the most famous of which is …like the sea at sunrise…. So imagine my surprise when the UBC Contemporary Players programmed my Little Music Box for their upcoming concerts this Friday Nov. 21 at 2:00pm at the Belkin Gallery

Read More...

Paolo Bortolussi performs "Birds of Paradise Lost"

a work for flute and computer

Wednesday October 15 at noon.
Free Concert.
John Oliver at the computer

Kwantlen College School of Music,
20901 Langley Bypass
Langley B.C.
Map here.

Screenshot 2014-10-13 23.29.15 Read More...

Children of Air India and conducting the BC Chinese Music Ensemble

John Oliver has been busy pursuing two quite different creative interests this past week. “I am creating a new poetic soundscape with BC poet Renée Sarojini Saklikar – a setting of the “Elegy” from her book length poem, Children of Air India (Nightwood Editions, 2013) about the bombing of Air India Flight 182 – and we’ll perform the work this Saturday night as part of the City of New Westminster’s NewWest LitFest. And Sunday night, I will conduct the BC Chinese Music Ensemble – my intercultural piece Eagle Flies to Mountain – at the Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver, a CD launch event.” --- Read More...

Up Wind second performance a hit with musicians and audience

My composition UP WIND, originally commissioned and performed by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in 2004, got its second performance during the recent VSO New Music Festival. The orchestra was conducted by Maestro Bramwell Tovey. Read More...

Canadian Premiere of Oliver work "Meditation" for bowed piano

Boston-area pianist Barbara Lieurance will perform the Canadian premiere of John Oliver’s Meditation for Barbara for bowed piano as part of a recital of contemporary music for bowed piano on Wednesday October 9, 2013 at 12 noon at Roy Barnett Recital Hall at the University of British Columbia

Meditation excerpt Read More...

Nation Youth Orchestra of Canada harp students premiere "Trembling Aspen"

Harp students Antoine Malette-Chénier and Ellen Gibling premiered my composition Trembling Aspen on July 5, 2013 at the Maureen Forrester Recital Hall at Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Listen to the youtube video here (but realize that the audio is mono so you won’t hear the separation of the two instruments, which is one of the engaging aspects of the piece). Read More...

BC poet Renée Saklikar and Oliver collaborate - World Premiere at New West LitFest

Poet Renée Saklikar has teamed up with John Oliver to create new soundscape performances in real time. World premiere performances at New Westminster LitFest on Saturday April 13, 2013, 7 pm at the Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre at Douglas College, 700 Royal Ave., New Westminster, BC. Read More...

BC Chinese Music Ensemble to record live concert, Oliver conducting

2013 Spring poster

BAMBOO SHOOTS IN SPRING Tea Party and Concert
 
IN CELEBRATION OF CHINESE NEW YEAR AND 10TH ANNIVERSARY
 
February 3 and 16, CBC Studios (700 Hamilton Street)
 

In celebration of the Chinese New Year of the Snake, the British Columbia Chinese Music Association (BCCMA) presents a Concert and Tea Party, Bamboo Shoots in Spring, performed by the BC Chinese Music Ensemble featuring new music and arrangements by conductor and composers Rui Shi Zhuo, John Oliver, and producer Mark Armanini.

Oliver will conduct his composition
Eagle Flies to Mountain, a work Georgia Straight reviewer Alex Varty said “deserves to become an intercultural standard.”

Read More...

Meditation for Barbara Lieurance fall performances

American pianist Barbara Lieurance performs Oliver's "Meditation for Barbara", a work for bowed piano, in the Greater Boston area in 5 performance this summer and fall. See her web page here. Read More...