Canadian Music Centre Offers Online Access to Scores and Audio Archives

A few days ago, the Canadian Music Centre launched a major online initiative to release a large part of its archives via streaming audio.  From a recent press release:

The Canadian Music Centre (CMC) is pleased to announce the launch of its newest online initiative – CentreStreams. Designed to provide music enthusiasts across Canada (and abroad) with online streaming access to a catalog of over 8,000 contemporary classical works by Canadian composers, CentreStreams once again positions the CMC as a leader among international music information centres.

Prior to the launch of this initiative, performers, conductors, researchers, teachers and students were required to visit one of the CMC’s five regional offices to access the extensive collection in its Ann Southam Audio Archive. CentreStreams will now provide countless more Canadians with access to this material – which truly is a national treasure.

CMC is especially proud of the timing of this launch as it serves as a kick-off to the organization’s 50th Anniversary celebrations which begin in January 2009.

The CentreStreams portion of the site is easily accessible via the CMC front page. To access the CentreStreams content you'll need to create a free account, after which you can search or browse recordings in the CMC archive, view samples of scores, and hear samples of CD's, all of which can be ordered online.

In addition to CentreStreams, there are also a number of other online initiatives for those interested in the world of Canadian contemporary music:

• The Sounds New podcast, available either through iTunes/RSS or Flash.
• Influences of Many Musics, where you can explore the lives, locations, and works of numerous Canadian composers
• Sound Adventure, an interactive mini-site for kids
• New Music in New Places, the CMC initiative to bring Canadian music to entirely new audiences and performance spaces, recently relaunched as a social network on Ning (I'm a member--look me up there)

Canadian music is alive and well--take advantage of these many online opportunities to sample the vast scope of music that is created here.