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WSO’s composer-in-residence Vincent Ho. (HANS ARNOLD)

Winnipeg is about to get a little more culturally similar to the most frozen of its sister cities: Reykjavik, Iceland.
   
The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra will pay homage to some of the most celebrated contemporary Nordic works at its 21st annual New Music Festival, Jan. 28 to Feb. 3 — something WSO’s music director and conductor Alexander Mickelthwate says is as much a privilege for the performers as it is for the host and the audience.
   
"What people in Winnipeg may not know is that we are one of the only cities in the world with a classical contemporary music festival connected to an orchestra. Composers all over the globe know about us," Mickelthwate says.
   
Mickelthwate says it’s that "international limelight" that helped him get some of Iceland’s most innovative composers to Winnipeg for the sixth NMF he’s been a part of.
   
"(Iceland’s) two musical icons are Björk and Sigur Rós," Mickelthwate says. Though the WSO couldn’t secure the one-woman show or the prolific band, it was able to get composers with one degree of separation from each. NMF’s bill includes a piece by Valgeir Sigurdsson, the producer at Reykjavik’s Greenhouse Studios behind most of Björk’s discography and, more recently, Feist’s 2011 album, Metals, as well as a 20-minute orchestral-choral piece by Sigur Rós keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson.
   
"I’m very excited about those new sound worlds that came out of (Iceland). It’s something that you don’t get anywhere else," Mickelthwate says. "The Sveinsson piece is very meditative, very renaissance kind of writing. It’s half ambience, half new age."
   
Mickelthwate says he was enraptured with Icelandic composition after a colleague with ties to the University of Winnipeg’s Icelandic department introduced him to it. When the German conductor went to Reykjavik in May, his fascination was solidified.
   
"In Germany, you’re not allowed to write a major chord," Mickelthwate says. "Contemporary music — there’s a certain way of writing it. If you breach that contract, you’re out. Iceland has a very different approach."
   
Composer-in-residence Vincent Ho says that approach was largely the inspiration for the Nordic focus in the first place.
   
"The thing with Iceland that’s unique is that Iceland is a small, secluded community. In order for (their artists) to survive, they need to work together," he says. "They don’t see music as we do — like you’re either a classical composer or you write for pop. All the composers work together. Their music styles cross over all the time. It’s that kind of thinking that we found fascinating, so we wanted to bring that to the festival. They represent different backgrounds and styles, but they’re coming from an angle where they don’t care what style it is, as long as it’s good music."
   
It’s this spirit of daring and creativity that has garnered NMF international attention and made it a major avenue for composers to premiere their work. This year’s festival includes four world premieres, among them, Ho’s own City Suites: concerto for Cello and Orchestra, performed by bona fide Canadian cello superstar Shauna Rolston.
   
"Once the New Music Festival started up, it put us on the map, globally," Ho says. "Publishers all over the world want to be a part of it because they have all these composers to represent, and they need an outlet. Suddenly, we became an artery for the wealth, the repertoire that everybody in the world wants to be a part of."
   
Ho, who is in his fifth year as composer-in-residence, says the phrase ‘contemporary classical’ isn’t the oxymoron one might think it is; it refers more to a shift in creative process and thinking about art rather than a rigidly defined genre of music — an idea he hopes Winnipeg, with relative isolation and a collaborative music community similar to Iceland, will be receptive to.
   
"There’s something about that principle that these composers have: there is no distinction between musical styles," Ho says. "For us, I feel that’s closer to the heart of what new art is. You have no rules. You have no distinctions for where you’re supposed to go or to follow a certain lineage. They’re completely open, and anything goes. There’s something very creative and refreshing about that. They’ve got a youthful, enthusiastic, healthy approach to creativity that we want to bring to the festival. That’s what we want to convey."
   
With NMF 2012 still to commence, Mickelthwate and Ho are almost finished booking composers and performers for next year’s lineup. They haven’t forgotten what they’ve learned from this year’s festival: it’s with a bit of that characteristic Icelandic flexibility that they’re moving ahead.
   
"Every festival is like starting with a blank slate and you just have to see what happens," Ho says. "We start with an idea and see where it takes us. It’s always a great adventure."
   
For more information about the WSO New Music Festival, visit www.newmusicfestival.ca/.

WSO NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL 2012
Jan. 28 – Feb. 3, various venues