Canadian Art Song Project

In 2007, after the sudden death of the General Director of the Canadian Opera Company (COC), Richard Bradshaw, Wiliford and Liz Upchurch, Music Director of the COC Ensemble Studio, organized a commission in Bradshaw's honour from British-Canadian composer Derek Holman. The resulting work was a song cycle, Four Seasons, which premiered at the new Four Seasons Centre in the spring of 2009.^[7][5] Philcox was in the audience, and described the experience as having had "a profound impact" on him. Wiliford subsequently approached Philcox with a proposal for an organization to promote Canadian art song, leading to the founding of CASP in 2011.^[5]

CASP has commissioned Canadian composers including James Rolfe, Christos Hatzis, Ana Sokolović, and Cecilia Livingston, Canadian poets including Anne Michaels, André Alexis, and Christian Bök, and performed and recorded with Canadian classical singers including Measha Brueggergosman, Brett Polegato, Krisztina Szabó, and Emily D'Angelo.^[6][8] Since 2022, CASP has also begun producing short film projects based on their commissions and prior Canadian art song repertoire.^[9]