Laura Risk
Biography
Laura Risk is Assistant Professor of Music and Culture in the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at the 澳门六合彩开奖接口, with a graduate cross-appointment at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. Her research proactively builds out public archives in order to amplify unheard voices and critically interrogates the notion of tradition, with a focus on traditional music historiography in Quebec. She has published in the Journal of the Society for American Music, Ethnomusicology, MUSICultures, and Critical Studies in Improvisation, as well as The Globe and Mail, The National Post, and Strings Magazine. Dr. Risk is the recipient of the 2014 Prix Mn茅mo for her co-production of the CD Douglastown: Music and Song from the Gasp茅 Coast. She is also a fiddler and in 2024 her album Traverse was awarded Quebec鈥檚 prestigious Prix Opus for Album of the Year in the category Traditional Qu茅b茅cois Music.
Education
Ph.D. in Musicology, McGill University (2017)
Affiliations
Chercheuse collaboratrice, Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur la litt茅rature et la culture qu茅b茅coises (CRILCQ)
Member, Institute for Music in Canada
Teaching Interests
Community music; Foundations of musicianship; Inclusive musical histories; Music and genre; Community-engaged music archiving
Research Interests
North Atlantic fiddling cultures; Qu茅b茅cois traditional music; music & genre; diffusion and variation in aural musical communities
Awards and Grants
School of Cities Urban Challenge Grant, University of Toronto, for the project 鈥淪ustainable pARTnerships: Collaboration and Reciprocity in Creative Cities,鈥 with Nasim Nikfas and Ely Lyonblum (2022-2023)
GRAMMY Museum Preservation Implementation Grant, 鈥淧reservation Implementation for National Collection Recordings of French-Canadian Music, 1965-1975鈥 (2021-2023)
SSHRC Insight Development Grant, co-investigator, 鈥淟a vie musicale au Qu茅bec: pour un d茅cloisonnement de l鈥檋istoire, 1919-1952.鈥 PI: Sandria P. Bouliane, Universit茅 Laval (2020-2022)
Connaught New Researcher Award, 鈥淪ustaining Community Music-Making in Quebec through Historical Inquiry and Mobilization of Audiovisual Archives鈥 (2020-2022)
Explore and Create Grant, Canada Council for the Arts, for the project 鈥淐anuck Fiddle Collective: In the Beginning [Portage]鈥 PI: Anne Lederman (2020-2022)
Publications
Risk, Laura. 鈥淚mperfections and Intimacies: Trebling Effects and the Improvisational Aesthetics of Pandemic-Era Livestreaming.鈥 Critical Studies in Improvisation / E虂tudes critiques en improvisation vol. 14, no. 1, 2021.
Journal article
Fischlin, Daniel, Laura Risk, and Jesse Stewart, editors. 鈥淚mprovisation, Musical Communities, and the COVID-19 Pandemic.鈥 Critical Studies in Improvisation / E虂tudes critiques en improvisation vol. 14, nos. 1-3, 2021.
Triple special issue in two volumes.
;
Risk, Laura. 鈥淕inger Smock: First Lady of the Jazz Violin.鈥 Strings Magazine, November/December 2020, pp. 28鈥34.
Cover story
Risk, Laura. 鈥淐ome Together, Right Now, Over a Livestream: The Power of Music During a Pandemic.鈥 The Globe and Mail. March 25, 2020.
Op/Ed
Risk, Laura. 鈥淭he Chop: The Diffusion of an Instrumental Technique Across North Atlantic Fiddling Traditions.鈥 Ethnomusicology vol. 57, no. 3, 2013, pp. 428鈥454.
Journal article
Risk, Laura. 鈥Le bon vieux temps: The Veill茅e in Twentieth-Century Quebec.鈥 Contemporary Musical Expressions in Canada, edited by Anna Hoefnagels, Judith Klassen, and Sherry Johnson, McGill-Queen鈥檚 University Press, 2019, pp. 43-86.
Book chapter
Patterson, Glenn, and Laura Risk. 鈥淒igitization, Recirculation and Reciprocity: Proactive Archiving for Community and Memory on the Gasp茅 Coast and Beyond.鈥 MUSICultures vol. 41, no. 2, 2015, pp. 102鈥132.
Journal article
Risk, Laura, and Glenn Patterson, co-producers. Douglastown: Musique et chanson de la Gasp茅sie. Douglas Community Centre DOUG001, 2014.
Compact disc and booklet (60 pp.)
Performances
Laura Risk performs with Portage at the 鈥淕ala Fiddle Night across the Atlantic.鈥
North Atlantic Fiddle Convention, Irish World Academy of Music and Dance
Limerick, Ireland (online due to COVID)
June 25, 2021.
Collaborators: Anne Lederman and Erynn Marshall (fiddles), Christina Smith (fiddle, cello), Jean Hewson (guitar)
Laura Risk performs with Portage for 鈥淪ummer Music in the Garden at Home.鈥
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto (online due to COVID)
August 2, 2020
Collaborators: Anne Lederman and Erynn Marshall (fiddles), Christina Smith (fiddle, cello), Jean Hewson (guitar)
Laura Risk performs pianist Rachel Aucoin at the Festival Les Rendez-vous 猫s TRAD
Th茅芒tre Petit Champlain, Qu茅bec City, QC
October 11-13, 2019
Laura Risk performs with Voices of Music for the show 鈥淢usical Crossroads.鈥
Berkeley, California
January 25鈥27, 2019
Collaborators: Hanneke van Proosdij and David Tayler (directors), Alana Youssefian (baroque violin), Peter Maund (frame drum), Hanneke van Proosdij (harpsichord), William Skeen (baroque cello) David Tayler (archlute)