Standing Wave
Jan
17
7:30 PM19:30

Standing Wave

From the playful to the profound, Deep Groove showcases the Standing Wave Ensemble in cutting edge music by six of today’s most forward-thinking composers: Indigenous Instruments by Steven Mackey (lauded by Gramophone for his “explosive and ethereal imagination”); Jared Miller’s Leviathan, evoking the oceanic depths inhabited by humpback whales; Stone’s Throw by VSO Composer-In-Residence Jocelyn Morlock, inspired by Ann Southam’s Glass Houses; Christopher Mayo’s Oh Come Now! There is a Beautiful Place!, an arrangement of Reinhold Glière’s Symphony 3 in B minor; Icelandic composer and electric guitarist Hafdís Bjarnadóttir’s Woodstock Revisited; and the world première of Marcus Goddard’s Pool of Lost Grooves.

More information here.

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Riot Ensemble at Spitalfields Music Festival
Dec
5
8:00 PM20:00

Riot Ensemble at Spitalfields Music Festival

Heart and Breath

Programme:
Richard Reed Parry Music for Heart and Breath
Nicole Lizée Black Midi 
Christopher Mayo Beast (for Hugo Ball)

The Riot Ensemble are at the forefront of the contemporary music scene, touring across Europe and regularly featured on BBC broadcasts. They return to Spitalfields Music Festival this year with a programme of work by some of Canada’s most exciting contemporary composers at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London’s only lighthouse.

Richard Reed Parry keys into the most basic of all rhythms, the human heartbeat, for his Music for Heart and Breath. Instrumentalists will be connected to stethoscopes, their heartbeats act as a metronome and their breath the downbeat of a conductor’s baton. As each individual’s body-rhythms are different, so is each performance of Music for Heart and Breath, providing a unique experience for both audience and performers. The programme will also feature Christopher Mayo’s Beast and a UK premiere of Nicole Lizée’s Black Midi.

The Riot Ensemble
Conductor Aaron Holloway-Nahum
Guest performer Richard Reed Parry

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DVSN with Members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Oct
19
10:00 PM22:00

DVSN with Members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra

New orchestrations for DVSN and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lucas Waldin.

Over the course of two studio albums, including last year’s critically-acclaimed Morning After, and collaborations with other OVO artists, Toronto duo DVSN (singer Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85) have established themselves as the new torchbearers of Canadian R&B. Inspired by the former’s upbringing singing in gospel choirs, as well as the instrumental elements which inform their most recent material, they’ll debut a cinematic, immersive set at Red Bull Music Festival Toronto featuring an orchestra performed by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and a choir. The iconic Roy Thomson Hall will be transformed into something never before realized and set the perfect backdrop for the duo’s sensual soundscapes.

More information here.

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Nuit Blanche
Sep
29
to Sep 30

Nuit Blanche

Lament is a sound and video installation that takes its inspiration from a 1969 poem of the same name by renowned Toronto artist bpNichol. Incorporating music, spoken word and video projections, the project illuminates and animates a style of writing known as concrete poetry, which celebrates visual images created by a written text, drawing attention to the shape words create on the page as much as to the meaning of words themselves.

Created collaboratively by video artist Tal Rosner and composer Christopher Mayo, the work is an homage to Nichol that will incorporate the techniques of repetition and abstraction that are at the heart of the poet's intent, both in style of writing and in performance.

Consisting of a basic repeated text that begins with "you are city hall, my people," the video and sound compositions will investigate the inherent themes of the poem: civic politics and the responsibility of each citizen for the actions of their government. The project also realizes Nichol's original ambition for the work, which was to deliver this poem over the loudspeaker system at Toronto City Hall.

More information here.

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