Robert Hackborn
Drummer, Robert Hackborn played with Michael Snow in The Ken Dean Band, a New Orleans Jazz Revival group. They met at Ontario College of Art (now OCAD) in 1948, while both studying art and design. Their adventures range from playing in Toronto at fine establishments such as the St. Regis to the seedy Warwick Hotel. In 1953 they hitch-hiked through Europe with a drum kit, a trumpet and 300 dollars. Hackborn became an art director, set designer and special effects designer for CBC television and the National Film Board.

John Tchicai
Saxophonist, John Tchicai was part of the ground breaking free-jazz soundtrack of Michael Snow's 1964 film New York Eye and Ear Control. Tchicai recorded with both John Coltrane's "Ascension" and John Lennon's "Life with Lions" and founded ensembles like the "New York Art Quartet" and the "New York Contemporary Five". A touching interview was captured in April 2012 at Tchicai's good friend, filmmaker Alan Roth's place. Fields of Snow is proud to honour Tchicai in this film. John Tchicai passed away peacefully on October 8, 2012.

Roswell Rudd
Trombonist, Roswell Rudd is a pioneer in the free-jazz scene of the 60's. Rudd played trombone on the soundtrack of Snow's New York Eye and Ear Control film, along with Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Tchicai, Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray. Known as "The Incredible Honk" Rudd was voted "Trombonist of the Year" in the Downbeat Critics' Poll. When Snow moved to New York in 1962 he bought a piano from Rudd which led to Snow hosting free jazz sessions in his New York loft. "You blow in this end of the trombone and sound comes out the other end and disrupts the cosmos." - Roswell Rudd

Evan Parker
Soprano Saxophonist, Evan Parker was a central figure in the emerging free-jazz scene of the 60's in London, England and continues to be highly regarded in improvising scenes. He is most recognized for his continuing exploration of techniques such as circular breathing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering. Snow and Parker shared a close friendship with poet/writer Paul Haines and have shared the stage together with CCMC. "Evan Parker . . . one of the modern era's most original voices" - The Wire

Lee Ranaldo and Leah Singer
Musician and poet, Lee Ranaldo is a founding member of "Sonic Youth". Visual artist, Leah Singer's primary signature is performance with live altered projections of her films. For more than a decade, they have been collaborating in multimedia performances. Michael Snow's work has beem honoured in their own work. CCMC performed with Sonic Youth in 1998. Lee Ranaldo has performed and recorded with CCMC member and sound singer, Paul Dutton. Lee Ranaldo was voted #35 of the top guitarists in Rolling Stone and #1 along with Thurston Moore in Spin magazine.

Christian Marclay
Visual artist and composer, Christian Marclay's innovative works extend "found" sound/image contexts in performance art, multi-media installations and collage. As a turntable improvisor, his collaborations include John Zorn, Christian Wolff, Lee Ranaldo, Alan Licht and CCMC. Michael Snow performed Marclay's Shuffle at The Whitney, 2010. Marclay recieved "The Golden Lion" at the Venice Biennale for his film, The Clock. He was voted top 100 most influential people in Time Magazine, and The Clock was voted Number 1 in ARTINFO's "100 most iconic artworks of the last 5 years".

Gordon Monahan
Musician, composer and media artist, Gordon Monahan has exhibited sound art internationally for over 30 years. With studies in physics, musicology and masterworks with John Cage, Monahan's work combines acoustic phenomena, natural environments and technology. Monahan and visual artist, Laura Kikauka have been supporting experimental sound with venues such as "Schmalzwald" in Berlin and the annual "Electric Eclectic" festival in Meaford. Monahan has recently recieved the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, 2013. "Whenever I get stuck on a project I think, what would Cage, Duchamp or Snow do?" - Gordon Monahan

 

Don Owen
Don Owen has been a key Canadian filmmaker since the 1960's, creating dramatic features such as the legendary Nobody Waved Good-bye (1964) winning The Robert Flaherty Documentary Award and his film The Ernie Game (1967) winning two etrogs, (now Genies). Some of Owen's films feature the artistic community of Toronto. Michael Snow is featured in Owen's film Toronto Jazz 1964 and Snow in Venice 1971. Owen was honored with a retrospective of his films at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005.

Alan Licht and Aki Onda
Improv guitarist and writer Alan Licht has emerged as a seminal figure in New York's art music scene. He is also in the band Text of Light with Lee Ranaldo tributing classic avant garde cinema. Electronic musician, composer, and visual artist, Aki Onda creates compositions with field recordings from a walkman. In performance he electonicallly manipulates a multitude of cassette recordings for a unique texture of "sound diary"/ambient sounds. Licht and Onda have performed and recorded with Snow since 2004.

Ben Portis
Ben Portis is the curator of the MacLaren Art Centre in Barrie, Ontario. From 2002 to 2009, he was an assistant curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In 2000, as an independent curator, Portis organized "Christian Marclay: Cinema" at Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Ontario, the publication for which includes a conversation between Marclay and Michael Snow. From 1998 to 2003, Portis created and directed the No Music Festival in London, Ontario and New York City, an international celebration of noise music in honour of the Nihilist Spasm Band. The 1999 edition of the festival included a duet between Michael Snow (on Fender guitar) and guitarist Alan Licht. The 2001 edition included a performance by CCMC and Christian Marclay that was recorded and released by Art Metropole and non musica rex.

Nobuo Kubota
Multi-media artist, Nobuo Kubota practiced architecture before turning to the arts in 1969. His work often combines sound, music, installation and film, a practice that he labels 'intermedia'. Some of his sculptural and sound work is based on waveforms, mathematics, motion and chance. Snow and Kubota we're part of the first improvising ensemble of Toronto, The Artists Jazz Band and they are both founding members of CCMC. Kubota received a Governor General's award in 2009, and is in numerous collections including The National Gallery of Canada.

John Oswald

Paul Dutton

John Kamevaar
Drummer, composer and sound artist, Kamevaar has recently re-joined forces with CCMC adding a texture of electonic/ambient/percussion sampling. He was in CCMC's evolving line-up of Snow, Sokol, Kubota, and Mattes recording and touring from 1981 to 1994. Kamevaar has created soundtracks for the experimental films of Carl Brown, Mike Holbloom and Michael Snow. He founded the electrnoic/noise trio Kaiser Nietzche in 1987, currently a duo with video artist Zev Farber. His works in mixed media and sound art are often interactive, collaborative and live performance based.

Casey Sokol
Pianist, composer and professor, Casey Sokol has been teaching piano, improvisation and musicianship at York University since 1971. His productions include Cagewake, a music-circus with 150 performers marking the passing of composer John Cage. Snow and Sokol have been good friends since 1974, as the sounding fathers of CCMC. Their shared virtuoisity and freedom of expression often ended a CCMC set with a dual piano force of improvisational mastery. Sokol is the recipient of an OCUFA Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2001.

Al Mattes
Bassist, and research biologist, Mattes is an original member of CCMC. He founded the Music Gallery in Toronto with Peter Anson. Since 1976 The Music Gallery continues to promote innovative musicians across all genres. Mattes was the executive and artistic director from 1975-87. He also managed the CCMC tours across Canada, Europe and Japan. As a biologist, Mattes has successfully restored acid damaged soils by using phytostabilization techniques. Results of his work have been presented at major conferences in Canada and the US.

Peter Anson
Musician, composer, poet, editor and engineer. Published poetry in Promethean, Fiddlehead, Writ and TO Now (Anansi, 1969), Crossing Lines (Seraphim, 2008) and elsewhere. Edited Canada First (Anansi 1970). Original member of the CCMC and co-founder of the Music Gallery. Wrote about music and culture in Impulse and other arts publications. Involved in early work in computer music. In 1984 co-founded Lotek Wireless Inc., where he served as Vice President of Technology, retiring in 2007. His research interests include digital signal processing and algebraic coding theory. He holds a US patent (radio positioning using a random antenna array). He has served on the boards of both Lotek Wireless and Toronto's New Music Concerts organization. Since 2007 he has been working on applications of finite field algebra to music composition.

Phil Minton

Bruce Elder

Eugene Miller