McGill University Records

McGill University Records

McGill University Records. Record label established in Montreal in 1976 by its director Paul Pedersen, then dean of the faculty of music of McGill University. Abe Kestenberg succeeded him in 1990. The first record, Concrete and Synthesizer Music, released in 1976, contained electroacoustic works by Bengt Hambraeus. In 1991, there were nearly 38 titles in the catalogue, covering such varied fields as jazz, chamber, symphonic, electroacoustic and contemporary music. Works are found by John Beckwith, Brian Cherney, Henry Cowell, Jacques Hétu, Kelsey Jones, Bruce Mather and John Rea. Among the performers featured are the viola da gamba player Mary Cyr, the Gerry Danovitch Saxophone Quartet, the pianist Louis-Philippe Pelletier, the organist John Grew and the fiddler Jean Carignan. Several records have won awards, including one Juno Award, a Down Beat Award, a Noah Greenberg Award and a Canadian Music Council award. At first released on LPs, the McGill records have been produced on CD starting in the 1990s. Cassettes are also available.