*Dr. GLENN CARRUTHERS, Dean (published in International Journal of Community Music)

*PENDERECKI STRING QUARTET: Dr. JEREMY BELL, Professors JERZY KAPLANEK, CHRISTINE VLAJK, and JACOB BRAUN: Community Collaborative Projects/ Workshops/ Performances and Laurier String Academy
Penderecki String Quartet Funded Community Projects:
While firmly anchored in the Laurier community, the internationally renowned Penderecki String Quartet considers the world stage as its larger community. Their active engagement of community audiences through concerts, workshops, and lecture demonstrations provide a model of funded research that engages members of the community through creative music making.
The Kreutzer Project: A dramatic chamber concert based on Leo Tolstoy’s “The Kreutzer Sonata”
JEFF RYAN, Sonata distorta
LEOŠ JANÁČEK, Quartet No. 1 (Kreutzer Sonata)
L. v. BEETHOVEN Cello Quintet arr.of Op. 47 (Kreutzer Sonata)
"a program with clear emotional purpose articulated in verydifferent yet closely linked musical expressions.  The Pendereckis were brilliant at highlighting the tensions...delivering the emotional gusts with verve and precision."    (John Terauds, The Toronto Star)
"Tolstoy tribute is fresh, odd, and astute" (Ken Winters, The Globe and Mail)
The Kreutzer Project is a dramatic chamber concert inspired by the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy's novella, The Kreutzer Sonata.  Laurier’s Penderecki String Quartet, in collaboration with guest cellist, mixes music of Beethoven, Janácek and Canadian composer Jeff Ryan, with monologues delivered by Stratford actor Colin Fox.  Described by the Globe and Mail as "fresh, odd, and astute", the Kreutzer Project brings to life not only the horrific sides to this story, but also the ironic dark humour therein.  
Tour:  Toronto's St. Lawrence Centre, the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, and two international festivals in Italy in 2006. Between 2006-2009, the Kreutzer Project toured across Ontario (Windsor, Niagara, Guelph), to St. John’s Nfld, and in Europe to Belgrade.
Funded by Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the St. Lawrence Centre in the amount of $25,000.
PSQ+Autorickshaw
This project was an East-West musical masala.  Mixing Indo Jazz repertoire of acclaimed Toronto group Autorickshaw with the Penderecki String Quartet.
2009  Tour: 
River Run Centre, Guelph,
Maureen Forrester Hall, Waterloo (CBC Radio 2 Broadcast)
Lula Lounge, Toronto
Ottawa International Chamber Festival
Funded by Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the CBC in the amount of $20,000.
Odyssey
PSQ + Dancetheatre David Earle
With funds from the Canada Council, the Banff Centre commissioned composer Omar Daniel to write a work for string quartet, dancers and electronics.   Homer's "The Odyssey" is a tale of separation and reunion.  Odysseus, on his voyage homeward after the Trojan war, encounters many dangers but he is protected by Athena, the goddess of Wisdom.  He has been away for 20 years, and no one knows if he is among the dead, or living still.  His wife Penelope is beset by suitors, and agrees to marry when her weaving is done - but every night she undoes what has been done that day. Athena sends Telemachus, their son, in search of his father.  Odysseus returns, is reunited with Penelope and, with Telemachus, kills the suitors. The work was performed by 20 dancers from Guelph-based Dancetheatre David Earle with Penderecki String Quartet.
2010 Tour:  Banff Centre, Open Ears Festival (Kitchener), Ottawa Chamber Fest
Funded by Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Banff Centre in the amount of $50,000.
Quantifying Goethe

Program:
-Anton von Webern    Fünff Stücke for String Quartet, Op.5 (1909) with video design by Laura De Decker (2009 Premiere)
-Kotoka Suzuki    VESTIGIA for string quartet, dance, live electronic audio/video, and nuclear magnetic resonance machine (Commissioned by the Penderecki String Quartet and Perimeter Institute with funds from the Canada Council for the Arts, 2009 Premiere)
-Franz Schubert     Quintet for Strings in C Major, D.956 (1828)

Quantifying Goethe celebrates one of the most creative and influential thinkers of all time.   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s work has had profound resonance in the realms of literature, art, science, and music.  His published theories of colour, osteology, comparative anatomy, geology, botany, zoology, meteorology, viticulture, and music were essential to his attitude towards the world and important for his consciousness as poet and thinker. Performed: October 2010 at the Perimeter Institute’s QuantumFest   
Funded by Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Perimeter Institute in the amount of $30,000.
Mahler Centenary. Marking 100 years since the passing of Gustav Mahler, this project joins the PSQ with their esteemed partners the Pentaedre Wind Quintet from Montreal (www.pentaedre.com) and singers Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Christoph Prégardien. The project will be recorded for ATMA Classique discs.
Gustav Mahler       Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Forget arr.)
Richard Wagner     Siegfried Idyll 
2011 Tour:  Montreal Pollack Hall, Quebec City Palais Montcalme, Waterloo WLU
Funded by Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Conseil des arts du Quebec in the amount of $60,000.

New Adventures in Sound Art, and PSQ Projects present:
PSQ + DJ P-Love
The Gladstone Hotel is known internationally as one of the top art hotels in the world hosting a buzzing cultural scene.  It’s a perfect place for the Penderecki String Quartet to flex its funkier muscles.  The upcoming PSQ + DJ P-Love lounge event at the Gladstone finds a path from artsy lap-top sound manipulation to dance electronica.   The repertoire features Kotoka Suzuki’s colourful Vestigia for string quartet and live electronics (2011); Steve Reich’s pulsating classic Different Trains for string quartet and tape (1988); Nicole Lizée’s This Will Not Be Televised for 7 players and turntablist (2005-2007); and New York City’s DJ P-Love takes it into the wee hours with solo sets.     The musicians are joined by Rick Sacks, percussion; Greg Samek, drumkit; Brian Baty, double bass; and Greg Oh, conductor.  The audio will be supported via a surrounding 8-speaker high-end system with spatialization by Darren Copeland and Hector Centeno from New Adventures in Sound Art. 
Tour: Thursday April 28, 2011 10pm /Wax Club Kitchener
Friday, April 29, 9 PM, 2011 / Gladstone Hotel, Toronto
Funded by Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and the Open Ears Festival in the amount of $15,000.

*Dr. PETER HATCH, Professor, Director, Bi-annual Festival, Open Ears Festival
http://www.openears.ca
Funding, totalling about $160,000 is received from the Canada Council for the Arts, Department of Heritage, Ontario Arts Council, Kitchener-Waterloo Community Foundation, Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, City of Kitchener, SOCAN Foundation, Canadian Music Centre and private donors. Dr. Hatch prepares grant applications and is chiefly responsible for artistic programming for all 35-40 events of the festival.
Dr. Hatch founded NUMUS years ago and was co-artistic director of the Music Gallery for a year. Dr. Hatch is internationally recognized as a culture leader in our community,  especially pertaining to the integration of new music into the community. As a Research Member of LcMc, Dr. Hatch’s community music enterprises are linked to the mission and mandate of the research centre.

*Dr. HEATHER DAWN TAVES, Professor. Piano electro-acoustic improvisation project, research/teaching/technology in relation to cultural communities. (NUMUS Piano Summit, March 19-20, 2011. Public Performance). Piano performance and teaching in Canadian communities generally follows one of two approaches. The first is product-oriented and often competitive. It is characterized by the use of standardized method books and tests, a "core" repertoire of standards (whether classical or popular), and acoustic modern pianos or electronic keyboards. Community events include competitions with set repertoire and rules. Entrance into the professional music industry (whether classical or popular) tends to follow set, traditional paths. The second is process- oriented and exploratory. It is characterized by the use of improvisation, creative projects, study of social/historical context, and a wide variety of keyboards and live software. Community events include collaborations with diverse cultural communities in non-traditional venues. An independent and entrepreneurial approach is taken towards entrance into the music industry, with the industry itself called into question as boundaries between art forms are crossed.
Piano performance and teaching research at WLU investigates the relationship between these two approaches. We are creating new models that emphasize the development of high virtuosity and craft in order to carry out an intentionally imperfect, open-ended, respectful exploration of individual and community identity across cultural boundaries. This team is working at the neighbourhood community level locally, and presenting and exchanging ideas internationally. )

*Professor DANIEL LICHTI, Die Winterreise Recording Project (with Professor Les De"Ath, accompanist) recording of Schubert’s Winterreise song cycle. A CD/book preparation grant from WLU for the Winterreise project for the amount of $2000 supported the project with funds raised from personal sources.  Program notes were written by Professor Les D’Eath and the recording is on the Anekta label.  Since the recording three public performances have been given in Ontario.

*DEBBIE LOU LUDOLPH (CAS, Music, Associate Dean of Chapel, WLU Seminary) with Willingham, Sing Fires of Justice, a study of a music community focused on justice

*Professor ANYA ALEXEYEV, Music Works at the Working Centre, Kitchener

*Dr. GERARD YUN, (shakihachi studio instructor. Artistic Director, East-West Festival, Global musician, Community Music. Improvisation in Large Choral Groups (initiated by Dr. Peter Wiegold’s KNAER workshops, currently in progress with public concert on March 25.)