Sound Symposium

NEW SOUNDS, NEW VISIONS

Sound Symposium is pleased to announce the artists who will be participating in Sound Symposium XV; the biennial celebration of sound, new music and the performance arts will be held in St. John's, Newfoundland from July 2 - 10, 2010. 

Join us for new music from contemporary classical to electronica, jazz to folk and world music, dance to captivatiing sound sculptures.

Nine days that will change the way you hear the world.!

YAEL ACHER-MODIANO  (Israel/USA)

A native of Tel Aviv, Yael Acher is an acclaimed flutist and composer; she plays music in many genres, including Classical, Modern, Free-Improvisational, Progressive electro/instrumental Jazz, Free Jazz, Funk and Electronics. She has performed throughout Europe, and in the United States and Israel.  The Paris-based JAZZ magazine has celebrated her “alert and poetic flute” and New York City’s New Music Connoisseur has stated that her music is played with “great beauty and avocation.”  ...on the web.

Joshua Fried (New York)

RADIO WONDERLAND - Percussionist Joshua Fried, performs solo live sound processing by drumming on old shoes and manipulating a vintage Buick steering wheel while turning live commercial FM radio into recombinant funk. ...on the web

Made possible with a grant from the
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation

Bageshree Vaze and Vineet Vyas with Adam Duncan

"Creating imaginary lands that lie somewhere between the old world and the new. Bageshree's voice soars above deep grooves and ancient melodic streams for a birds eye view of the future of world music." - Jowi Taylor, Global Village, CBC Radio One.    ...on the web

Evalyn Parry (Ontario)

SPIN - Part concert, part theatrical performance, 100% engaging, outspoken entertainment, SPIN is an innovative musical show that investigates The Bicycle as muse, musical instrument, and instrument of social change. The bike is "played" by percussionist Brad Hart and the amplified signals are manipulated by sound artist and Anna Friz, who works her pedals to create a richly textured, unique sonic accompaniment to Parry's guitar, poems, songs and narration.  ...on the web

Annie Dunning (Ontario)

Air time – a musical collaboration with pigeons.  Annie Dunning’s work will be installed at the Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John’s, from June 26^th to August 7^th; Sound Symposium is collaborating with Eastern Edge to include Air Time on our Visions of Sound Walk.

Dunning has built instruments based on the historic model of Chinese pigeon flutes. The flutes are lightweight, usually made of bamboo or gourds at attached to the tail feathers of pigeons. As the pigeons fly, the air passes over the flutes’ apertures creating sound. The musical flights yielded extensive video, sound and still photo documentation. Air Time is an installation with a video projection and the soundtrack of the pigeons playing the flutes. ...on the web

Moritz Eggert (Germany)

“Moritz Eggert is a multi-talent of great intensity … with a fundamental, natural and amiable connection with his audience -- a terrific performer of his music” ...Schwabischen Zeitung.   ...on the web

Diane Landry (Quebec) 

Installation of Le chevalier de la résignation infinie / The Knight of Infinite Resignation. In addition Diane will offer a performance TBA.

“In Quebec water is intimately linked to the question of energy, and thus the perpetual motion problem and fantasy. There are 237 bottles here, the liquid contents of which would apparently fill a bath--no more. The short-sightedness of human management of natural resources is made pitifully obvious by the work's evocation of cosmic time, in comparison with which the human lifespan and even the existence of the species seem simply irrelevant.”  ...Alison Syme, L'ceil de Poisson.

...on the web

Eve Egoyan and David Rokeby (Ontario)

Surface Tension is a 35 minute long collaborative interdisciplinary work for disklavier piano and interactive video created by pianist Eve Egoyan and artist David Rokeby. It was commissioned by the Open Ears Festival with a grant from the Canada Council. It was premiered at Open Ears in Kitchener in May of 2009. 

In Surface Tension, Eve’s performance at the keyboard of a disklavier (an acoustic piano with a computer interface) is transformed and interpreted by a computer into live visual images projected onto a screen rising from the body of the piano. The visuals respond to a variety of performance parameters including dynamics, pitch, the harmonic relation between pitches, the use of the sustain pedal, and the duration of individual notes. This extends the piano into a visual instrument as well as a musical one. Presented with the generous support of Yamaha Music Canada, Ltd. ...on the web

BEN GROSSMAN (Ontario)

Ben Grossman is a vielle à roué (hurdy gurdy/Drehleir/zanfoña) player, percussionist, composer and improviser based in Guelph, Ontario. His musical interests include traditional Irish, Balkan, French, Turkish and Arabic music. A busy session musician, his playing can be heard on over 80 CDs, and film and television soundtracks. He has performed live with the Toronto Consort, Oliver Schroer, Ensemble Polaris, BT, and Loreena McKennitt, among others, and in various solo and ensemble improvisational events. ...on the web.

MARYEM TOLLAR (Egypt/Ontario)

Award-winning, Toronto-based singer, instrumentalist, composer and songwriter, Maryem Tollar has performed across Canada as the leader of her own ensemble.  Her repertoire of classical Arabic vocal music, folk songs and her own contemporary compositions has been hailed by critics and audiences alike, as was her work with Maza Meze and Doula. Maryem will be performing at Sound Symposium with Ernie Tollar, Debashis Sinha, Ian de Souza and Roula Said. ...on the web.

KURAI MUBAIWA (Zimbabwe/British Columbia)

 Acclaimed mbira player, percussionist, singer, dancer and actor, Kurai Mumbaiwa is originally from Zimbabwe now living in Vancouver. He has toured across Europe, West Africa, southern Africa, and Canada, and has performed with or opened for such artists as Chiwoniso Maraire, Cesaria Evora, Andy Brown and Oliver Mtukudzi.  Kurai will be performing at Sound Symposium with Curtis Andrews.

MARK FEWER & AIYUN HUANG

 St. John’s-born violinist Mark Fewer enjoys one of the most varied musical lives of his generation. Known for his relaxed style and honest interpretations, he switches easily between roles as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral leader, jazz musician, artistic programmer, and teacher. ...on the web.

Aiyun Huang challenges the boundaries of percussion, theater and more. A soloist, chamber musician, conductor, producer and teacher, Huang is a founding member of Toca Loca.  She has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia.  She currently holds the Chair of Percussion at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University.  She will be performing with Mark Fewer, and also presenting a solo work “Tension Study II: Eagle Claw Wu Tsiao Chen Wins” which takes on early Kung Fu film’s use of Chinese instruments to punctuate fight moves. ...on the web.

Andrea Nann (Ontario)

Andrea Nann and the Dreamwalker Dance Company bring a special presentation of Beside Each Other to Sound Symposium XV.

This 60 minute dance work inspired by and featuring the music and poetry of Gord Downie (The Tragically Hip), from his solo projects Coke Machine Glow and Battle of the Nudes.   Beside Each Other is conceived and choreographed by Andrea Nann and created and performed by Andrea Nann and Brendan Wyatt.  The creation process was facilitated by dramaturge Guy Cools.  Creative collaborators are visual artist Elysha Poirier and lighting/production designer David Duclos. Beside Each Other is a Dreamwalker Dance Company and Young Centre for the Performing Arts presentation.

Comprised of a series of short duets, the aesthetic of Beside Each Other is intimate, direct and transparent.  The sections are everything from sexy to melancholic, joyful, fiery, wondrous, smoldering, disoriented, sensual and magical as the audience follows this couple through various stages of a long lasting relationship. 

The Black Auks (Newfoundland)

SPANNER  (Newfoundland)  

Spanner is an experimental new music duo based in St. John's, Newfoundland. Paul Bendzsa plays clarinets, saxes, toys, piano, radio, and analog synthesizers, while Rob Power plays a wide variety of percussion.

Louise Moyes (Newfoundland)

PATRICK BOYLE  QUINTET  (Newfoundland)

Well Enough Alone, composed by trumpeter Patrick Boyle, was commissioned by the CBC for fellow Newfoundlanders John Nugent (tenor saxophone), Bill Brennan (piano), Jim Vivian (double bass), and Mike Billard (drums). This co-production between the CBC, Sound Symposium, Patrick Boyle and Glen Tilley marks the first time a large-scale musical suite has been written and performed to commemorate Newfoudland joining confederation sixty years ago This work was written not just to mark this significant anniversary, but also to serve as a musical narrative  acknowledging the contentious debate that has lasted 60 years. T

FRANK  PAHL (USA)

“A true original, composer/musician/sound artist Frank Pahl spent his musical career in the underground, amassing a cult following. Whether with his groups Only a Mother, Scavenger Quartet, Little Bang Theory or playing solo, he charms his public with lovely avant-garde melodies played on an impressive array of neglected acoustic instruments and homemade automatons. His music allies a naïve simplicity and tasteful touch of amateurism (the result of using difficult-to-tune instruments). He’s received numerous commissions for theater, film and dance and is active as a multidisciplinary artist, creating strange and eye-catching automated sound sculptures.”   ...François Couture

...on the web.

The Umbrella Ensemble (USA/Canada)

Reeds is a collaboration between three organizations each specializing in a different form of artistic expression.  Canadian - American composer Emily Doolittle is currently professor of composition at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington.

Camille Renarhd, dancer and choreographer, uses dance, image, and sound as mediums that find their origin in the body. The Umbrella Ensemble is a wind reed trio featuring oboist Catherine Lee, clarinetist Louise Campbell and bassoonist Alexandra Eastley. The ensemble grew out of the desire of the three founding members to establish a creative ‘umbrella’ under which they can explore mutual artistic interests.

CURTIS ANDREWS (Newfoundland)

Percussionist Curtis Andrews strives to create music that will invigorate, stimulate and create smiles on the ears of those who experience it.  Besides leading his own award winning ensemble which plays his original compositions, he is also a world traveler and has spent the last 10 years visiting the villages and metropolises of India, Ghana, Benin and Zimbabwe, learning the traditional and classical music of those places and gaining friends and mentors along the way (and even building a school in one village!) He is happy to be bringing his wonderful friend Kurai to Newfoundland to share the wonderful music of Zimbabwe on the mbira and marimba. ...on the web

DANIEL PAYNE (Newfoundland)

Born and raised in Cow Head, on the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, Daniel Payne is a traditional singer and multi-instrumentalist, who plays fiddle, accordion, mandolin, flute, whistle and bodhran. He has collected songs and tunes from older traditional players across the province. Daniel is also an accomplished actor; he has performed in several productions of Artistic Fraud Theatre Company, most recently in “Emile’s Dream,” a celebration of renowned Franco-Newfoundland fiddler Emile Benoit. ...on the web.

 The Sound Symposium Complaints Choir
Let's Vent Together! grumble in unison, warble our whinging, groan out our grouses, expostulate while harmonizing and join the musical moaners of other nations who have also formed complaints choirs. Citizens of St. John's could be the world's best complainers...what with the weather, icy sidewalks, lack of recycling and the fact that we have to fly to Halifax to go to London!?

The Sound Symposium Complaints Choir is currently gathering complaints: the serious, silly and ultimately sing-able. Go to our Facebook Group "XV Sound Symposium Complaints Choir" or send an This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and tell us what you're complaining about. The complaints will be turned into a song by our talented composer and musician Sean Panting. Then choir mistress extraordinaire Kellie Walsh will assemble a group of singers to croon out out complaints. Artist Angela Antle will create a video of the experience to put on the international Complaints Choir website.

The XV Sound Symposium Complaints Choir will perform at various locations throughout the Sound Symposium.

CHRIS BROOKS

[HERE]Say, by international award winning radio producer, Chris Brooks, lets you, literally, "phone it in."  This audio installation project allows you to dial a number on your cell phone from various sites around St. John's to here a story about the very spot you are standing on. Just look for the [HERE]Say sign on lamp posts and buildings and dial it in!. For a sample, check out ...more on the web. Also visit Chris' BATTERY RADIO for for the best in radio documentary projects

Renowned ethnomusicologist and musician, Tran Quang Hai comes from a family of five generations of musicians. For over forty years, he worked as an ethnomusicologist for the National Center for Scientific Research in France, where his work focused on Vietnames music and Siberian overtone singing.  He’ll be offering a workshop on overtone singing during the Symposium.

...on the web

McKudo is an "anything goes" new music trio, playing largely improvised music with a sense of adventure, experimentation, and humor. McKudo is an opportunity to stretch the limits of what we think we can achieve and play not just outside the box, but off the whole freakin' planet. Past performances included a ten minute sine wave jam, washing machine karaoke, and the world's first all-paintball symphony.

RIVER CONNECTED

River Connected, featuring Ed Squires and Dan Morphy, is the newest percussion duo to come out of Canada. Together, they bring inspiration from downtown Toronto and the east coast of Newfoundland. Dedicated to improvisation as well as the playing of fresh, cutting edge compositions, the group will premiere works by Rob Power, Greg Hawco and Jennifer O’Neil at this summer’s Symposium.

The Reveille Trumpet Collective is dedicated to exploring new paths for trumpet while connecting performers, composers and audiences in innovative ways.  It celebrates its official launch with concerts around the world, from Japan to St. John's.  Aaron Hodgson, trumpet professor at Memorial University, and Adam Zinatelli, principal trumpet of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, host a concert devoted to pushing the boundaries of the trumpet.  New works by William Rowson, Clark Ross and Gabriel Dharmoo will be premiered, alongside pieces by Eric Nathan (Canadian premiere) and Denis Gougeon.  Kristina Szutor, piano, will also appear.

"We are three, four or five or six. Identical. Interchangeable. Disposable. And dead serious. We are a rock band, a sound project, a cabaret act, a synchronized rubber glove routine, a BBQ chicken washing machine, a confectionery flour Christmas jingle and Kitchen certification service."

Since it was formed in 1999, more than a dozen artists have participated in the WWKA (pronounced 'walka') collective project. WWKA has performed live in theatre and for cabarets, on radio, television, in lofts, lounges, galleries, corner stores, in bars, at festivals, in people's homes, and in their kitchens. Join the newest formation, WWKA NL, for different (perhaps louder) take on the traditional kitchen party!

Join Sound Symposium artists for a special evening performance at Cape Spear, the eastern-most point of North America. A remarkable experience, set in World War II coastal bunkers facing the ocean with the backing soundscape of crashing waves, whales and seabirds. This year German composer Moritz Eggert has been commissioned to create an experience that spans from St. John's to Cape Spear and bridges the space between performer and audience.

THE HARBOUR SYMPHONY

Sound Symposisum's signature piece, the Harbour Symphony features original music composed for ships' horns. The symphonies are written by Sound Symposium artists and performed daily at noon in the natural amphitheatre that is St. John's harbour and historic downtown.. ...more. SEE THE VIDEO

NIGHT MUSIC

When the day of workshops and sound art is over and the applause of the evening concerts fades there is still NIGHT MUSIC, the late night improv sessions at The Ship Pub. Drop by, join in!

*Artists are subject to change without notice.