Event will be livestreamed online at https://contaqtnewmusic.org/
Sunday April 21st
4pm EDT/ 1pm PDT
FREE
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Virtual CONTAQT is an ongoing project hosted by ContaQt, featuring past and future collaborators. Initiated by the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, the project represents the ensemble's search for a means of collaborating with artists from around the world while still primarily based in different geographic locations.
This event marks the third official Virtual ContaQt performance, following Terry Reilly's 88th birthday celebration with Evan Ziporyn and friends, "Poppy 88" (June 2023) and "Bell Dreams + ContaQt" (October 2023) presented in collaboration with the Saskatchewan ensemble Bell Dreams and Sounds Like: An Audio Festival!
For this performance, ContaQt will be joined by Tina Pearson to present telematic imaginings of her ongoing work "Root Blood Fractal Breath" working telematically intentionally, moving beyond replicating a piece, or playing together, in a networked environment.
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Tina Pearson is a Canadian composer, sound artist, media artist and facilitator. Her projects are nuanced sonic investigations of perception, presence and place, and connections that are minimized or forgotten. Her work references biospheres, ancestries, spectral structures and long spans of time; usually incorporates attention states; and often occurs in contexts beyond concert or gallery, including outdoors, and within/through online platforms. As a performer (flute, voice, glass, accordion, objects, electronics), Pearson’s sound worlds reveal unusual textures and phenomena. Pearson’s work has been commissioned for concerts, installations, choreography, and video in centres through North America and Europe. Pearson was editor of Canada’s Musicworks, and taught Sound Studies at OCAD University in Toronto. She is co-director of LASAM Music, member of the Avatar Orchestra Metaverse, and the Experimental Music Unit, and a certified Deep Listening® practitioner through Pauline Oliveros. Pearson is of Nordic and Slavic descent, and is grateful to live and work within the territories of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples.
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ContaQt combines 21st-century new-classical and experimental music with the sensibilities of rock and jazz to form a hybrid chamber ensemble that defies genres. Praised by the Globe and Mail as “thought-provoking” and “highly entertaining”, and by the New York Times as “mesmerizing” ContaQt has premiered works by emerging and established Canadian and international composers and has performed at venues and new music festivals around the world.
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Special thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council and City of Toronto for their ongoing funding support.
Special thanks to Evan Ziporyn for inspiration and initial experimentation.
Special thanks to Tina Pearson for guidance in the telematic universe.
Special thanks to Wawken Studio for technical support, live sound, audio and video production and broadcasting.
Photo by Sarah Fraser Raff