WOW! 10 hour musical improvization @ Nuit Blanche SEPT 29-SEPT30

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Saturday 29 September, 2007

The Theatre of Ephemeral Music

Part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche (an Independent Project)

An all-night-long, ever-changing band of improvisers, spatialized live by Darren Copeland

Classic Avant series

Sept. 29, 7pm to Sept. 30, 5am (NOTE "EARLY" CLOSING TIME!)

FREE admission

As part of this year’s sophomore edition of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, the City of Toronto’s “All Night Contemporary Art Thing,†the Music Gallery is forming a one-night-only band called The Theatre of Ephemeral Music. The concept here is an ever-shape-shifting band of improvising musicians that will perform a single concert lasting 10 hours. 12 musicians will take part, with a new musician joining every hour, on the hour. (Except the last three hours, when things speed up to every half-hour.) Musicians can stay in a long as they want, but they must play for a minimum of one hour, until the next musician joins them — and hopefully they stay in longer. (We freely admit the name is a cheeky reference to LaMonte Young’s Theatre of Eternal Music.)

Throughout the 10-hour show, Darren Copeland will move the sound of the live performers to speakers above and around the audience, using custom-made spatialization software and a Polhemus sensor controller. Some works will be spatialized using an automated 12-channel system that uses the Richmond Sound Design Audiobox and its control software ABControl.

Performer bios and schedule:

*** PLEASE NOTE: THE SCHEDULE HAS CHANGED, THE EVENT WILL NOW WRAP UP AT 5AM INSTEAD OF 7AM! ***

Darren Copeland is a sound artist whose work for radio, installations and performance have received international attention, including two solo releases on the empreintes DIGITALes label. Darren Copeland is the Artistic Director for New Adventures in Sound Art. In this capacity, he has been a progressive leader in the area of performance spatialization by integrating it in NAISA's three annual festivals (Deep Wireless, Sound Travels and SOUNDplay) in both an automated 8-channel format and a live 12-channel format. Both of these formats will be used in this Nuit Blanche performance.

7pm • Ben Grossman (hurdy-gurdy) is a vielle à roue (hurdy gurdy/Drehleier/zanfoña) player, percussionist, composer and improviser based in Toronto. With a varied background in early, traditional and experimental music, sound design and electronics, Ben is a busy session and touring musician with a wide variety of ensembles. His first solo album, Macrophone, was released in 2007 and features a unique two CD form for simultaneous, aleatoric playback. www.macrophone.org

8pm • Neil Wiernik (laptop) • Montreal ex-pat Neil Wiernik (aka naw), who currently calls Toronto his home, began composing electronic music in 1988 with explorations in audio art and experimental music. Neil's interest in sound and technology has led him to a continued questioning and refinement of audio tools and modes of production resulting in experimentation with altered instruments, modified devices, and custom software environments. The sound design of naw is firmly grounded in the rich traditions of dub studio culture but can also be weighed alongside formal contemporary composition. Neil has released music on various labels including Noise Factory and Sentient Sound.

9pm • Debashis Sinha (percussion) is a percussionist interested in recontextualizing his traditional instruments and finding new ways of letting them sound. Trained in South Indian, Middle Eastern and related systems and techniques, he has been exploring the "post-traditional" mindset for over 10 years in the world music and improvised music scenes. He is also an invited artist to Nuit Blanche 2007 in Zone B with his audio installation “where you are,†accessible by cellphone. He has received support from the canada council for the arts, the chalmers foundatiion, the ontario arts council and the toronto arts council.

10pm • Andrew Downing (double bass) has been playing the double bass in many aspects of the Canadian music scene for the last 15 years. His most recent project is a duet with slide guitarist David Tronzo which spawned the album Velodrome in 2005. He also leads his own groups Melodeon, 71ET and The Great Uncles of the Revolution, who received a Juno Award in 2003. He has taught at the Creative Music Workshop in Halifax, and at the Banff Centre’s Jazz and Creative Music workshop with Dave Douglas. Andrew has participated in musical escapades with Zubot and Dawson, David Occhipinti, Moe Koffman, Kelly Joe Phelps, and Eugene Chadbourne. Andrew practices the unusual craft of tuning his double bass in fifths.

11pm • John Gzowski (guitar): Sound designer, composer, musician and instrument maker John Gzowski has been found across the globe. He's played for the opera in Banff, studied Carnatic classical music in India, and played oud and guitar in jazz and folk festivals across Canada and Europe. Gzowski has played on numerous CD's, with his latest release coming from a live score for Serge Bennathan's choreography for Dancemakers. As a leader, he has run Canada's first microtonal group, touring Canada playing the works of Harry Partch. He's won the Freddie Stone award (given to Canada's best improvising musician), been nominated for a Juno with the group Maza Meze and recently began working as Co-Artistic Director for the Music Gallery.

12am • Parmela Attariwala (violin): At age 17, Calgary-born violinist Parmela Attariwala dropped out of pre-med and became a music major with no idea as to where it might lead. She finds herself surprised by the music junkie she has become, and privileged to have had the opportunity to create music alongside a diverse array of extraordinary artists. Currently pursuing a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto, Parmela continues to indulge in her passion for contemporary and cross-genre musics, improvisation, performance art and modern dance collaboration.

1am • Nick Fraser (drums) has been an active and engaging presence in the Toronto new jazz and improvised music community since he moved here from Ottawa in 1996. In addition to having worked with a veritable "who's who" of Canadian jazz and improvised music, he co-leads the co-operative group Drumheller with Brodie West, Rob Clutton, Eric Chenaux and Doug Tielli. Other projects that occupy Nick regularly are Michael Herring's Vertigo, the Lina Allemano 4, Deep Dark United and the Bill Grove Quartet. Nick is a founding member of the Association of Improvising Musicians of Toronto (AIMToronto).

2am • Nick Storring (cello) is a composer, cellist and improviser with a wide-spanning interests. He is a member of bands Picastro, I Have Eaten The City and The Knot. His pieces have been featured at the Open Ears Festival, the 25th Anniversary of the Maison De Culture Notre-Dame-De-Grace in Montreal, Concordia University’s EUCUE series, and at the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony’s New Orchestra series. He has also composed for a variety of theatre productions and interdisciplinary projects.

2:30am Christine Duncan (voice): A musical chameleon with a near five octave range, Christine Duncan uses her voice as an instrument, exploring its full tonal, timbral and textural range. She is involved with everything from jazz, R&B, gospel, improvised music, sound poetry, to new music and musique actuelle. She performs with many musical groups and projects, most notably Hugh Fraser’s VEJI (Vancouver Ensemble of Jazz Improvisation) and Barnyard Drama with drummer/electronic artist Jean Martin. Christine also teaches voice in the jazz programs at Humber College and the University of Toronto.

3am • John Kameel Farah (keyboards) is a Toronto composer, pianist, electronic musician and visual artist, fusing the music worlds of renaissance and baroque counterpoint, free improvisation, Middle-Eastern texture, ambient minimalism, techno and electroacoustics. A virtuosic keyboardist simultaneously using piano, laptop, synthesizer and at times even harpsichord and organ, his creative efforts are fueled by exchanges of physical, spiritual and emotional energies. In 1999, after meeting Terry Riley after a performance at the Kitting Factory in NYC, he had private lessons at his home in the Sierra Nevada mountains. NOW Magazine named him Toronto’s Best Pianist of 2006.

3:30am • InsideAMind (turntables): The two-man turntable band has gained a reputation as a leading force in Canada's independent music movement by using their rebel mentality to showcase the turntables' creative colours. We've seen them perform original compositions at the World Short Film Fest, Leftover Daylight Jazz series, and at Summer Festivals including the Vans Warped Tour, and Montreal's Soukmachines. In the studio, dedication to developing their art form is seen daily at their independently operated DJ School on Queen St. East called "Off Centre."

4am • Jonny Dovercourt (guitar) is better known to the authorities and his parents as Jonathan Bunce. He has been playing guitar and bass in various independent and experimental rock music ensembles since his mid-teens. Tonight (this morning?) he escapes from rock-band jail to explore free improvisation for electric guitar and effects. In 2000, Jonny co-founded Toronto’s community-driven Wavelength music collective. He has been publicist for the Music Gallery since 2002, and co-artistic director since 2006.

Edited September 27, 2007 by Guest
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