Calling all composers and art-song enthusiasts!

In the spirit of MacEwan’s long history of artistic collaborations, Bent River Records (BRR) is offering an opportunity to have your collaborative original work recorded.

This competition honours the continued support of MacEwan’s Provost and Vice-President, Academic, Dr. Craig Monk. His generous contributions to Bent River Records have made student opportunities like this possible. This contest is open to all currently enrolled (fall 2021) MacEwan Department of Music students.

Thank you to everyone who submitted lyrics in the first round of the competition. We are pleased to announce that Esther Forseth has been selected! Please see an excerpt below of “Preacher’s Daughter” :

“You’re the creature in the water
I’m the preacher’s youngest daughter
Find me swimming with the fishes
Free from breathing old traditions”

ABOUT THE COMPETITION: We will be selecting two original compositions that incorporate and feature the winning lyrics. Instrumentation will be a vocalist and string quartet. 

To protect the anonymity of the composition adjudication process, please do not include your name on the file – please only include that information in the google form. Happy composing!

Submission Category 1: Open to any currently enrolled (fall 2021/winter2022) students. We are asking for a lead sheet with a vocal melody set to the lyrics of “Preacher’s Daughter” and chord changes.  Please submit the lead sheet in PDF format. Mp3 demos are optional. If your work is selected, it will be arranged, performed, and recorded by a professional string quartet and vocalist.

Submission Category 2:  Open to any currently enrolled (fall 2021/winter 2022) BMUS students with experience writing for string quartet and voice. Please submit a fully notated score with 32 bars or 30 seconds of music for string quartet and voice set to the lyrics of “Preacher’s Daughter.” (* with the understanding that the full score will be completed before January 30th if your piece is selected).  The Score should be in PDF format.  

A downloadable PDF of “Preacher’s Daughter” is available below:

Visual artists and designers stay tuned! We will be announcing the cover art design competition soon!

PRIZE: $750.00 honorarium for the winner of each category!

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: 4:00 pm MST on January 7th, 2022 – extended to January 28th, 2022.

The call for entries is now closed.

Submission Link: https://forms.gle/LtXPjQvSMRuzEJGd9

TERMS & CONDITIONS: For recording purposes, BRR reserves the right to select performers for the winning pieces. The author will retain all intellectual property, and BRR will only have the right to print a limited run for the music department CD as well as a single version, both of which will be for promotional purposes only.

Adjudication will be done by a panel of jurors selected by BRR, and will contain members of the department of music and representatives of BRR. The anonymity of entrants will be maintained; judges will not know the identity of the composers they are evaluating until after adjudication is complete.

Bent River Records values, promotes and prioritizes diversity, equity and inclusion in all of its work. We recognize the systemic barriers that have led to many artists being underrepresented and will continue to do work to amplify and uplift voices that reflect Edmonton’s diverse communities. We are committed to fostering an inclusive culture that represents diverse backgrounds.

Please contact bentriverrecords@macewan.ca if you have any questions.

Hi Everyone!

We wanted to take a moment to highlight something a couple of our team members worked on over the summer.

Alexa Cable (one of our interns) got together with Paul Johnston (Head of Recording at MacEwan University) to discuss the future of recording and recording education. Paul explains how staying employed is the most important skill in the recording industry.

Please show the video some love! 

Have you ever thought about the importance of an album cover when promoting artists? When we think about Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, we automatically come up with their respective album covers. It is no doubt that an album’s design plays a big part in making it memorable, recognizable, and iconic.

Bent River Records has partnered for five consecutive years with MacEwan’s Design Program professor, Constanza Pacher, to produce artworks for the label’s releases through an album design contest. This project has led to impressive creations by MacEwan’s design students, guided by Constanza.

Constanza Pacher is an Associate Professor in the Bachelor of Design at MacEwan University. She is a visual communication designer from Argentina with more than twenty years of experience in the design industry. In 2004, she received a master’s degree in Visual Communication Design from the University of Alberta. She has been teaching design, typography, and information design at MacEwan for sixteen years. Her current research focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning, and the use of experiential learning in the classroom to improve student engagement. Constanza was honoured with the MacEwan University Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016, and an Honourable Mention for the RGD2021 Design Educator Award for Western Canada.

We have interviewed Constanza to get to know more about the album design contest and her role in this partnership with Bent River Records.

1- How long has the album design contest been going, and how did you get involved in this project?

The collaboration between MacEwan’s Bent River Records and Design Studies started in the spring of 2017, when I was contacted by Rose Ginther and Paul Johnston seeking help in the coordination of the design and production aspects of the label. In the true spirit of BRR — which is engaging students and faculty in the complete creation of music products — I decided that the best way I could contribute to this innovative learning lab project was by involving my students in it through a collaborative project in the Typography II class.

Since 2017, all students enrolled in DESN231 Typography II participate as part of their course load in a design competition. This experiential project includes musician interviews, design and preparation of files for submission, and formal final presentations to stakeholders. The project culminates with the selection of a winner, and the subsequent student participation in the final steps for printing and commercial production.

2- How has the reception been for the contest so far?

The reception of this project has been overwhelmingly positive! Artists, faculty, and students alike have been delighted with the results since the start. Students find this real project engaging and worthwhile. BRR and musicians express their gratitude year after year, as the product of this collaboration is always a success. Musicians really enjoy meeting with the students and seeing the results. They find it to be such a treat to have such variety of designs to choose from, to see how their music inspired the different concepts, and how articulate our students are in presenting convincing and professional rationales for their work. 

3- What are the most challenging and the most rewarding aspects of this project?

Even though managing this project requires a considerable amount of time outside of class time, this project is all rewards! My collaboration with Rose, Paul, and Kristjan at the label has been nothing but enjoyable; it’s a fantastic group of professional and creative people that care about student experience as much as I do. In my classroom, I love stepping aside and watch the students work hard to impress the client, not me. It is a project where I know students are not working for a grade, but to earn their seat in the real world of client work.

4- What are your expectations for this year’s contest?

My expectations for this year’s contest are the same as every year: to have a positive student experience and great design. I hope the 69 students this year find the experience worthwhile, take advantage of the opportunity to meet the client, work hard to produce an original and creative concept, and dazzle the client with excellent products, great typography, and thoughtful rationales.

We are happy to announce that the 2021 album design contest is already underway. Keep following Bent River Records blog and social media accounts to get updates on this year’s winners!

Hi folks,

Brandon here! I’m pleased to be joining the Bent River Records team as an A&R Associate! I’ve had a career in music for the better part of 15 years, as both an artist and industry professional. My background is as a guitarist, songwriter, studio session musician, freelance guitarist, booking agent, venue manager, and venue concierge. The music industry has always been something I knew I wanted to be involved with, from the very first song I learned on the guitar, I knew I wanted to do this for a living.

I play in a few Edmonton-based bands such as Electric Religious, King of Foxes, Mercy Funk, and The High Powers. I have two albums released under my own project, Electric Religious, which is one of my main focuses. I also teach music lessons in St. Paul, AB, I work as the Alberta and B.C. Producer for Curbside Concerts Canada, a live music delivery service founded in Calgary in 2020, and on top of all that, I have a little 6-year old munchkin at home that keeps me busy with his Transformers and Spider Man toys. My partner and I operate a label services business called Crystal Baby Music and it’s this experience of working with artists and helping them to operate their careers at a higher level that I bring to the table at BRR. As a former music student at MacEwan University, I understand the drive and passion the students bring to their studies, and subsequently their efforts at BRR. I look forward to working with the team this year!

A few things I love to do in my spare time are to bake bread–intense kitchen projects are my favourite, though. Hello kimchi! I love to learn (and enjoy) about wine from all over the world, read books from Indigenous authors, and go for family dog walks.

My favourite part of the music industry are the people. From what I’ve seen, this community of artists and professionals is very close. Everyone wants to help everyone else succeed. Everyone keeps everyone else accountable and opens doors for those that put in the work, and commit to their art. I’m super grateful to all my mentors who expected true effort and never made anything easy for me in my formative years, it has shaped who I am today. I still can’t wrap my head around social media, but I hope that when my son is a teenager that he can help me out.

Wishing everyone a happy fall term, and a wonderful 2021-2022 school year.

—Brandon

With the success of last year’s song writing competition, we’ve decided to do it again! Bent River Records is happy to announce that we will be accepting submissions for the second edition of our art-song writing competition! The contest was conceived to honour the generous and ongoing support of one of the label’s major donors, Dr. Craig Monk, the Provost & Vice-President, Academic at MacEwan. This year’s competition is open to all MacEwan University students regardless of musical background. We want to hear from you!

We want to showcase your lyric writing abilities. If your lyrics are chosen, they will be written into an original composition created by students within the Department of Music and performed by a singer and a string quartet. Stay tuned for more on the composition competition soon.

Not only do you get to have your lyrics performed, composed, and recorded – there is also an honorarium prize of $750.00!

How cool is that!?

We encourage all contestants to submit their entries by October 30, 2021, and no later than 4:00PM MST. Please click the link below for submission details.

The call for entries is now closed.

Congratulations to Esther Forseth! Stay tuned for updates on her winning art-song lyrics, “Preacher’s Daughter.”

BRR Art-Song Writing Competition