SONiC BOOM 1995-96
The Master Musicians of Jajouka
Jajouka is a small village in the stony foothills of the Rif Mountains of Morocco. The Master Musicians were revered first by the fifties' Beat expatriates (Paul Bowles, William Burroughs) headquartered in Tangiers, and then by the Rolling Stones for whom they have opened on tour in Europe. They were also invited to play at Mick Jagger's wedding. Their music is a thundering transporting chorale of undulating drones and shrill, ecstatic fanfares performed on an oboe-like horn called the ghaita and underscored with drum, lira (bamboo flute), guinbry (3 stringed lute) and extended vocal techniques. The 4000 year old Master Musicians are praised and honoured by the Prince of Morocco every year and continue to have a major influence on the music of today.
This first-ever appearance in Toronto (only Canadian date) will coincide with Point Record's (Philip Glass's record company) CD release of "The Pipes of Pan", originally produced by Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones in 1971.
See eye magazine
Convocation Hall (University of Toronto)
Tuesday October 17th, 8pm
Tickets: $18.50 & $24.50
(In partnership with Point Records and Polygram)
WX
Renegade composer John Oswald, whose plunderphonic renditions had Michael Jackson threatening him with a law suit and The Grateful Dead rushing to commission a 2CD plunder-retrospective of their live concerts (to be released September 15th) has conjured, in collaboration with choreographer Holly Small, an evening of coniving classics and clever contraptions for musicians and dancers. 22 international choreographers (i.e. Bill T. Jones, Margie Gillis, James Kudelka, Lin Snelling, etc.) and Toronto's own "artiste terrible" Michael Snow will participate in designing this evening of plunder-culture hailed by Wired, Eye, The Village Voice and Rolling Stone.
Seeeye magazine
du Maurier Theatre Centre
Thursday, October 25th to Sunday, October 29th 1995, 8pm
(2:30pm Sunday matinee)
Tickets: $18.00 & 22.50
(a co-production with Autumn Leaf Performance)
Chants Libres
After last season's powerful presentation of Alain Thibault and René Daniel Dubois' opera for solo voice "Ne Blâmez Jamais Les Bédouins", Chant Libres returns with a new multi-media opera created around the "The Songs of Capricorn" by Giacinti Scelsi, one of Italy's most uncompromising composers. Costumed in a lurid swath of skin, sporting a set of horns and surrounded by a set of sculpted vulvae and uteruses, Pauline Vaillancourt, "Quebec's most extraordinary diva" will "transfix us" with incantations that will plunge us into the surreality of life.
Premiere Dance Theatre
Friday, December 8th & Saturday, December 9th 1995, 8pm
Tickets: 18.50 & $22.50
Next Voice
Acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Fides Krucker, from last year's "Archaeology of the Female Voice" concert, sings the world premiere of Juhan Puhm's "Five Fall Poems" for 17 instruments. Juhan won the 1992 Pierre Boulez Competition, after which Autumn Leaf Performance commissioned him to compose this work. The second work on the programme will be the performance of R. Murray Schafer's turbulent "Arcana" song-cycle for 9 instruments. Under the baton of Dairine Ni Mheadhra, one of Canada's new wave of conductors, Next Voice will take us into the challenging and unique world of contemporary vocal composition.
The Glenn Gould Studio (CBC Broadcast Centre)
Friday, February 9th, 1996, 8pm
Tickets: $18.00
(a production of Autumn Leaf Performance in partnership with CBC's Two New
Hours)
The Anxiety of Immortality
After last year's presentation of "Artaud's Cane", a "compelling" multimedia performance-art opera, Thom Sokoloski returns with a new installation performance art opera creation. Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges' endless literary landscapes of dreams, "The Anxiety of Immortality" will lead us into the hyper-sonic imagery of one man's sexual and emotional transparency. Michael White will be composing the music for this unusual "opéra maudit".
"...not to be a man, to be the projection of another man's dream, what a feeling of vertigo!"
Other Media:
The Royal Ontario Museum Theatre
Thursday June 13th to Saturday June 15th, 8pm
Tickets: $15.00
(a production of Autumn Leaf Performance in cooperation with the Royal Ontario
Museum)
Archaeology of the Voice
A series of free vocal concerts presented by Autumn Leaf Performance in cooperation with the Royal Ontario Museum in the Eaton Court. These concerts will present and focus on new works by contemporary composers and singers who are metaphorically "digging" into diverse vocal traditions for new compositional and performance techniques.
The Eaton Court (at The Royal Ontario Museum)
Dates TBA ,Time TBA
Tickets: Free
Works-in-Progress
"Electric Flesh" is an elecro-acoustic multi-media opera by composer Wende Bartley and writer/director Thom Sokoloski, featuring Fides Krucker and Richard Armstrong.
"Homeless" is a opera for four prepared electric guitars, two singers and one child by composer Rainer Weins and writer Victoria Ward.
"War" is a music-theatre work for constructed instruments and actors and singers by composer Jean-Jacques Lemétre (composer for France's Théâtre du Soleil) and Italian playwright Patrizia Buzzi.
"Histoire du Soldat", a music-drama by composer Igor Stravinsky and writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz to be conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste and directed by Thom Sokoloski.