History
2022
2021 and 2022 are intense years for the ensemble. No fewer than 3 new works are on the program, and more than 15 performances of the children's show L'Archipel aux mille sons are already on the agenda, not forgetting the retirement of one of our founding members, Julien Grégoire, which will provide the opportunity for a tribute concert.
In 2022, we've taken advantage of the 100th anniversary of Iannis Xenakis' birth to rethink his Polytope concert and offer an XXI version. Also in 2022, we presented our “6 marimbas” program in 4 Montreal venues during the CAM tour, took part in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra's Virée Classique and Le Vivier's Semaine du Neuf.
2021
Activities are gradually resumed, interspersed with bans on access to theatres. Sixtrum is able to build up a real artistic season, with 3 major productions including a program by Carmine Emanuele Cella and an exceptional collaboration with the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan of Toronto which will sell out in Montreal and Toronto. The ensemble collaborates with another percussion ensemble, Architek, and reprises its program ''D'aure et de pluie'' originally created for a cycle organized by Le Vivier. Sixtrum also collaborates with the SMCQ and creates a street show mixing theatrical and musical improvisation. Finally, the show ''L'archipel aux mille sons'', created during the pandemic, is finally presented to the public and takes off in several theaters in the province.
2020
In February, Sixtrum presents its ``6 marimbas`` program just before the COVID pandemic hits the cultural world with full force. The ensemble recruits for the first time a permanent person for administration and communications. It takes advantage of the pandemic to revise its entire visual identity as well as its website. In this context of reduced performances, Sixtrum creates its most recent show for young audiences, ''L'archipel aux mille sons'', a co-production with Le Vivier and participates with this same presenter in a cultural cycle dedicated to water. The ensemble created the program ''D'aure et de pluie'' which was later performed outdoors.
2019
In the context of the ''Tribute to Serge Provost'' concert, Sixtrum is commissioning two composers from the Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal, a concert dedicated to three generations of composers from this institution. In collaboration with the Overseas Chinese Association, Sixtrum invites the famous Taiwanese ensemble Ju Percussion to present a large-scale performance in Montreal (first presentation of Ju Percussion in Canada).
The Nouvel Ensemble Moderne asks Sixtrum to collaborate on the concert event organized to celebrate the ensemble's 30th anniversary, a concert that receives an Opus Prize for Concert of the Year.
2018
Sixtrum collaborates with the Orchestre Symphonique de Laval by presenting an original piece on recycled instruments (Garbage concerto by Jan Jarvlep).
The year 2018 also marks the success of the Rythmopolis event, a music and digital art happening at Place des Arts around urban music that brings together some thirty Canadian percussionists and visual artists. This event was awarded the Prix Opus ''Event of the Year''. During this event Sixtrum invites other Canadian ensembles (percussion and others) such as TorQ, EP4, Architek, VideoPhase and the Karel Ensemble.) Rythmopolis is a great excuse for Radio Canada to organize the first live webcast in 360 audio in Canada.
The show Angélique is the subject of a reading in French at the Théâtre d'aujourd'hui on the occasion of its 50th anniversary in collaboration with the BTW, always accompanied by the music of Sixtrum.
2017
Sixtrum is back with the Journées de la percussion and its ''percussive exchanges'' but also by returning to Domaine Forget.
6D is presented as part of CAM en tournée (Montreal) and Le Scorpion is part of the Montreal Nouvelles Musiques festival organized by the SMCQ.
The ensemble, always open to new artistic opportunities, dives into the world of theater and creates the soundtrack for the show Angélique, co-created by Théâtre B.T.W and Tableau d'Hôte Théâtre, a show for which Sixtrum received the Outstanding Contribution to Theatre and Outstanding PACT Production awards at the Montreal English Theatre Awards.
In 2017, Sixtrum initiated the first Sixtrum Lab, which allows composers and percussionists to create original pieces together, which are then presented to the public.
2016
In 2016 Sixtrum celebrates its 10th anniversary with three works by Pierre Michaud, Tim Brady and Alain Perron (creation of Débâcle).
A show is also created in collaboration with the ensemble Sacré Tympan (Alerte au Triton). Sixtrum presents 6D at Domaine Forget in Charlevoix and takes advantage of the opportunity to teach its expertise in the festival's master classes.
2016 also includes another collaboration with the CIRMMT, the University of Montreal, the University of Paris VIII for a co-creation with the Strasbourg percussion.
2015
Sixtrum opens the PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention) in Texas (USA) in front of hundreds of percussionists from all over the world and continues its momentum by organizing the ''Journées de la percussion'' at the University of Montreal with a series of concerts and workshops. La Grande Tortue continues to tour and the ensemble produces a first monographic recording with Philippe Leroux (CD which received the ''Coup de coeur'' award from the Académie Charles Cros). In September, the ensemble performed at the Fête de la musique de Mont Tremblant and presented K'anchat at the Festival de Lanaudière.
Sixtrum also flew to France to create the show Batèches in collaboration with the Percussions Claviers de Lyon. This show honors Gaston Miron, one of the greatest poets of the French-speaking world, through a creation combining video projections, percussions and sound recordings. The show tours in Lyon, Toulouse and Pont-Rouge.
2014
La Grande Tortue continues to travel throughout Quebec and as far away as Calgary (Calgary Pro Musica).
K'anchay is part of the Conseil des arts de Montréal's touring program and 6D is presented in a school.
For the first time, Sixtrum records a title for the general public in collaboration with Robert Normandeau for his CD ''Dômes''.
The ensemble tours Western Canada, plays for Montreal Nouvelles Musiques, the Festival organized by the SMCQ, participates in the Festival de Lanaudières with its program Autour de Xénakis and flies to France to participate in the Académie Internationale d'Été de Nice and to give a memorable series of concerts at the Festival de Valdeblore.
2013
The Drumming tour continues as Exotica is revived at the MNM festival.
Sixtrum offers a creative workshop at Timpano Percussion studio, in collaboration with composer Philippe Leroux. In May the ensemble produces <3m>Des Puces et des Drums, a concert preceded by experiments on the spatialization of sound, in co-production with CIRMMT at the Schulich School of Music.
The ensemble collaborates with multimedia artist Herman Kolgen in the Train Fragments concert at the MUTEK festival.
In August, Sixtrum takes part in the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Massachusetts with O Vertigo and SMCQ. Finally, in November, Sixtrum performed 6D before an international audience of professionals at the first International Artist Manager's Association meeting outside of Europe.
2012
After performing Drumming outdoors at the Théâtre de Verdure, the group takes the show on a tour of Maisons de la culture.
In the fall, Sixtrum plays a radio broadcast - a live CBC broadcast of John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 4.
Sixtrum takes advantage of the winter to make its first tour of Western Canada.
Sixtrum is again nominated for an Opus Prize, this time in the category of ``Best Contemporary Music Concert`` for 2011-2012.
La Grande Tortue travels in France.
2011
The year opens with Lumières! an electronic percussion video-musical show.
In collaboration with the SMCQ, the dance company O Vertigo and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Sixtrum participates in the Montreal New Music Festival.
In March, the ensemble undertakes a tour of the Maisons de la culture de Montréal supported by the Conseil des arts de Montréal en tournée.
In April, Sixtrum presents a unique concert: Ligeti de père en fils.
In the fall, the Society for Arts and Technology (SAT) hosts two concerts: Drumming by Steve Reich and Histoires de gestes, a show where rhythm is expressed through movement.
Sixtrum receives the Arrimages prize awarded by the Jeune Chambre de commerce de Montréal and the Conseil des arts de Montréal for its originality and creativity.
La Grande Tortue continues to travel in the Maritimes (New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island), in both official languages.
2010
In January Sixtrum joins CIRMMT to present Martin Matalon's Le Scorpion, based on Buñuel's surrealist film, L'Age d'or.
The ensemble is invited to the Printemps des arts festival in Monte-Carlo. In Quebec, the Elektra Festival and the Orford Arts Centre Festival welcome Sixtrum.
In September, Sixtrum performs at the Canadian Centre for Architecture as part of an exhibition on the composer Iannis Xenakis.
La Grande Tortue continues its ambitious path.
2009
In March, Sixtrum returned to France as a solo group with the SMCQ (Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec).
During the summer, the ensemble creates the youth show La Grande Tortue with director Michel G. Barette, in co-production with the Jeunesses Musicales du Canada, and then embarks on a Montreal tour.
A collaboration with the ensemble I Musici and a tribute to percussionist Pierre Béluse complete the season.
Sixtrum has been nominated for the Prix Opus awarded by the Conseil québécois de la musique, in the category ``Best Concert of the Year``.
2008
In January, Sixtrum performs works by John Cage, and in September, Kagel's Exotica. In the fall, six French cities host the Pleiades concert during the ensemble's first European tour.
2007
Sixtrum was born under the impulse of six experienced percussionists. The inaugural concert was given on October 17, when the group presented Pléiades by Iannis Xenakis. The show was listed as one of the 10 best concerts of the year by the newspaper Le Devoir.