The other day I saw a listing online, of the guest artists at the Vision Festival in New York City. The Vision Fest is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its week’s worth of concerts, and visual arts (and there’s even a parade!) at the Judson Memorial Church and Columbia University in NYC. It’s been led all these years by William Parker and others, and features some of the giants of our music. I looked through that list and started to pick out all of those giants that had been featured in suddenlyLISTEN concerts: Gerry Hemingway (2011 and 2015), Marilyn Crispell (2009), Joelle Leandre (2012), Mat Maneri (who is coming this season) and of course William Parker (who we may see this season, fingers crossed). Then I saw notice of the schedule for The Stone in NYC. This is John Zorn’s club that hosts residencies and Gerry Hemingway is the guest this August. He’s playing several concerts with his ensembles, one of which is with Miya Masaoka (2009). Then I saw that Evan Parker (2011) and Eddie Prevost (2007) had released a CD on Eddie’s Matchless Recordings label.
Oh, and Quebec is celebrating Jean Derome’s (2010 and 2013) 60th birthday this year, with concerts all over the province, along with his regular collaborators Joane Hetu (2013), Danielle Roger (2013), and Laurie Freedman (2007)! And, hey! There’s Allison Cameron (2008 and 2014) on the cover of this month’s Musicworks Magazine.
Well, it all makes me feel great that suddenlyLISTEN could bring so many important artists to Halifax and Nova Scotia! And it invigorates me (again) to keep trying to get people to come out, take a chance and listen to some of these unique artists, sharing their work. Tell your friends, drag them to a concert, and feel confident they will be amazed by what they hear.
I’ll be telling you more about this season’s concerts in the next couple of weeks and you’ll be able to see and hear more about them here on our website and on our FaceBook Page . It’s going to be an amazing season!
Aug 1, 2015 at 11:28