It’s official! Sound Symposium XXI is all set. See you July 16 – 24, 2024 in St John’s for sound beyond boundaries.
Join us and experience the best in international new music and sound art. Artists and schedule coming soon!

Calling All Improvisers!

Night Music is an improvisational music series held the third Thursday of very month at The Ship Pub. Local musicians play a set of their own music, which serves as the basis for the improvisation that follows. Musicians collaborate with organizer Craig Squires to present the evening of music, both planned and impromptu. This is not an open mic, but all players are invited to come down and join the fun.

Find information about upcoming shows on our Facebook page.

Does your band want to anchor an event? Contact us!

Sponsored by the Sound Art Initiative, Inc., and presented by the Downtown Academy of Improvisers.

The Harbour Symphony is original music written for the horns of the ships in the St. John’s harbour. This signature fanfare of the Sound Symposium transforms the ships in the harbour into an orchestra on water. Each Harbour Symphony begins with a radio countdown transmitted to the bridge of the ships by the Coast Guard where players stand at the helms of tugboats, trawlers, and ocean-going freighters. At the signal, a giant, floating horn section reverberates off the Southside Hills and through the streets of old St. John’s, echoing the soul of this 500 year old seaport.

Echo Village returns to the Memorial University Botanical Garden in time for the Fall Solstice, bringing together a cornucopia of soundscape artists, folk singers, actors, and aerial dancers for an immersive, sunset wander-about. Co-presented by Sound Symposium and the Memorial University Botanical Garden, this third installment of Echo Village – Arcadia – is inspired by folk tales, mythological journeys, and the elusive search for utopia. Performers roam freely, animating the garden with layers of sound and movement which blend reality with dream, while audiences are self-guided, free to explore the village, forest, pond, and join in the action and soundscape at will.

Saturday, September 16th
5:30pm to sunset
MUN Botanical Garden

Tickets here.

 

Every year we make a noise together that stretches around the world.

Drone Day

Drone Day is an annual celebration of drone, community, and experimental sounds. Dreamed up by MCLF of Weird Canada and vibrated into existence by communities and droners around the world, Drone Day is celebrated across the country. Our version of events is presented with our friends at Lawnya Vawnya.

Presented biennially in collaboration with the MUN Botanical Garden, Echo Village is a living tableau of singers and instrumentalists who transform a stroll around the gardens, forest, and Oxen Point into a sonic journey.

Echo Village returns to the Memorial University Botanical Garden in time for the Fall Solstice, bringing together a cornucopia of soundscape artists, folk singers, actors, and aerial dancers for an immersive, sunset wander-about. Co-presented by Sound Symposium and the Memorial University Botanical Garden, this third installment of Echo Village – Arcadia – is inspired by folk tales, mythological journeys, and the elusive search for utopia. Performers roam freely, animating the garden with layers of sound and movement which blend reality with dream, while audiences are self-guided, free to explore the village, forest, pond, and join in the action and soundscape at will.

Echo Village III: Arcadia

Saturday, September 16th
5:30pm to sunset
MUN Botanical Garden

 

Sound Symposium thanks
our funders & partners

VOLUNTEER

Sound Symposium is powered by volunteers. Whether you’re looking to meet new people or spend time immersed in experimental music, your donated time is the secret sauce that makes Sound Symposium so special. We’ll thank you with some perks, too.

We need volunteers to work at the merchandise table, and to pull front-of-house shifts at concerts taking place at our various venues, including MUN, The Rooms, and Cape Spear. We need friendly faces to meet and greet attendees at workshops. If you’re good with computers, sound systems and machines of all sorts, we also need volunteers to assist the technical team.

Our team will help you find the volunteer position that’s right for your skills and your schedule.