Formed by in 1990 by John Korsrud, the 18-piece Hard Rubber Orchestra has been one of Canada’s most active and unpredictable ensembles of creative music. Over the years they have collaborated with an incredibly diverse spectrum of local and international artists. HRO has released three CDs, recorded numerous CBC broadcasts, toured to Europe in 2003 and across Canada several times, and received the 2005 Alcan Arts Award – the largest arts award in Canada for creation. They have pushed the boundaries of the concert experience, creating several large multi-media shows such as The Ice Age ice shows (2010, 2000), the arts rave Drum & Light Festival (2010, 2009, 2008), The Elvis Cantata (1996, 1994), the Alcan awarded Enter/ Exit (2005). In 2005 they produced a special for CBC television called Cantata for the King. HRO is one of Canada’s leading ensembles to commission new compositions, commissioning forty new works by thirty Canadian composers from jazz and classical fields such as Kenny Wheeler, Darcy James Argue, Rene Lussier, Scott Good, Howard Bashaw, Phil Dwyer, Brad Turner, Michael Blake, Tony Wilson, Fred Stride, Paul Dolden, Peter Hannan, Linda Bouchard, Marianne Trudel and Hugh Fraser.