Concerts and Events

Open Ears Festival of Music and Sound. Kitchener, Ontario. At Open Ears, auditory circuitry is rewired over five days, with all senses fired up, as festival-goers embark on a sonic quest. The 2018 edition featured the gonzo music of Frank Zappa, an electrifying Nicole Lizée world premiere, and a jaw-dropping percussion solo.  [...] Read more

Concerts and Events Coral Andrews Issue 131

Festival de International Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, 34th Edition. As spring erupts in the Centre-du-Québec region, so too does FIMAV, the festival of exploratory music that’s been running since 1984. “Eclectic” barely describes the four-day event. Its scope ranges from near-silent to deafening, from the ineffable to the ridiculous[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Stuart Broomer Issue 131

Les Transformables (V). The opening night of the sound-art exhibition Les Transformables (V) featured two live performances. Adorned with a sound-generating mask, Diana Burgoyne was a constant, awesome presence as she marched mechanically throughout the space. Alexandre St-Onge, meanwhile, was in constant motion[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Ian Crutchley

Listening To Art, Seeing Music. Listening To Art, Seeing Music, described in the media materials as a “multi-sensory journey of discovery,” and launched in early 2018 at Toronto’s Aga Khan Museum, encompasses about a dozen installations dotted around the museum within its permanent collection, in its[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Glassman Issue 130

Julius Eastman: That Which Is Fundamental. At the end of February, publisher G. Schirmer, Inc. announced that it had acquired the catalogue of Julius Eastman and would be restoring, publishing, and promoting his works, putting the composer among the ranks of Tan Dun, Terry Riley, Kaaija Saariaho, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Tom Waits.[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Kurt Gottschalk Issue 130

Sam Shalabi’s Land of Kush. Sand Enigma. Sam Shalabi’s musical worlds are a collision of the Montreal Mile End art–noise–rock–improv scene and the bona fide craziness of Cairo—a city where societal and political instability weaves a shifting sand of death and beauty. It’s easy to see how the[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Nilan Perera

send+receive: a festival of sound, v.19 For a festival of any stripe to last until its nineteenth edition suggests a deep commitment by its organizers to maintaining the attention of their audience. crys cole, director of send+receive, builds the festival around a different theme every year, going with “outside of the box[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Emberg Issue 129

ISCM World New Music Days 2017 Let’s get the complaints out of the way first, shall we? An awful lot of take-out sushi was eaten during the International Society for Contemporary Music’s annual festival, held this year in Vancouver. With up to five official concerts a day, plus secret showcases not[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Alexander Varty

2017 Guelph Jazz Festival Striding confidently towards its 2018 silver anniversary, the Guelph Jazz Festival was invigorated this year with choice concerts from U.S. and European artists—but nonetheless, two of the most notable performances were from Canadian bands.     Montreal trio[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Ken Waxman Issue 129

Something Else! Festival of Creative Music The rough, faded industrial city of Hamilton, Ontario, might seem an unlikely setting for a top-notch festival of creative music, but thanks to the efforts of Cem [pronounced Jem] Zafir, the artistic director of Something Else!, the city proved a perfect little world for the musicians and[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Mike Chamberlain

Suoni per il Popolo Festival: 17th Edition. With over 100 events across diverse musical categories, the Suoni per il Popolo Festival encompasses several thriving thematic series. While it is theoretically possible for fans of free improvisation, contemporary classical, noise, or alt-rock to attend a concert almost every evening and[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Lawrence Joseph

OBEY Convention X. “In New York, there would be twelve people here,” venerable Halifax percussionist and mentor Jerry Granelli declares. “Here we are in Halifax, and tons of people are coming out to hear weird music!”   OBEY is weird. Its programming is marked by an[...] Read more

Concerts and Events Daniel Glassman Issue 128