GroundSwell presents the best new music from Winnipeg and around the world.

 

 

WHO WE ARE

GroundSwell is a Winnipeg-based new music organization that presents work in three related series: GroundSwell Live (live concerts of new music from around the world); GroundSwell-Learn (a wide range of outreach and educational activities); and GroundSwell-Linked (radio and online events).
For over three decades, GroundSwell has presented innovative public events combining new music, dance, and theatre.  GroundSwell commissions new work from Canadian and international composers, hires artists from across Canada, the USA and Europe, and engages with its audience through innovative outreach and educational initiatives. 
GroundSwell’s Permanent and Guest Curators collaborate every year to craft seasons with diversity and aesthetic variety. GroundSwell’s mission is to present, create and advocate for a wide range of contemporary music in innovative and exciting ways.

LIVE

in person concerts

LINKED

Digital Content

LEARN

Educational Collaborations

What's coming up!

All Classes

National Composer Winner:

GroundSwell's 2025 composer winner Takuto Fukuda (Japan/Canada). Takuto's piece will be premiered at GS3: Vestigial Structures with Quasar. They will also be performing on March 5th, 2026 at the free-noon hour recital at Eva Clare Hall at University of Manitoba on March 4, 2026.

GS3:Vestigial Structures

GroundSwell presents saxophone quartet, Quasar, curated by Gordon Fitzell. March 5, 2026 at the Winnipeg Art Gallery

North/South Full Concert Video

Now available! Relive GroundSwell and WAG-Qaumajuq's co-presentation North/South, a unique gallery concert featuring throat songs performed by Chasity Swan and Aleatra Sammurtok, as well as music for violas and percussion played by Melody McKiver, Jennifer Thiessen, and Ben Reimer.

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Visit our Archives for over 30 years of New Music

ARCHIVES

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Composer Competition 2025-2026

GroundSwell is pleased to announce its biennial Emerging Composers Competition. The 2025-26 competition features Montreal’s Quasar Saxophone Quartet, an ensemble of the highest calibre that has been committed to championing new Canadian music for the past 3 decades.