It’s that time of year again, and suddenlyLISTEN is finally ready to announce our 2011/12 season of concerts. We are now entering our second decade of presenting music that surprises, challenges and informs our audiences and our performers! The artists that join forces to create our concerts all believe that a great way to reflect our time is to compose in real-time! We all get our kicks, and make some great music together through cooperation, collaboration, exploration and listening. And that’s what you’ll hear at suddenlyLISTEN concerts: improvised chamber music created before your ears and eyes!
This season we are presenting holds perhaps the widest variety of concerts and artists yet!
The Main Series begins September 15th at The Bus Stop Theatre with Hoarse Rattle featuring Isaiah Ceccarelli, drums and percussion; Arthur Bull, guitar and harmonica; and Norman Adams cello and processing. Isaiah represents the new generation of Montreal improviser. He has played with everyone on the Montreal scene and tours around the world. His music is rich, responsive and expressive. Arthur is a multifaceted Nova Scotian artist that creates poetry and visual art in addition to playing free with some of the world’s finest improvisers. He is one of those people that plays with total intention, with a gritty sound that harkens back to his blues roots. Hoarse Rattle will be full of that intention plus sonic explorations that will surprise us all!
November 15th in Dorian, suddenlyLISTEN will be assembling Nova Scotia’s most versatile instrumentalists to work with three actors Form Irondale Ensemble Project to interact and create spontaneous narratives based on A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. We’ll create scenes and stories inspired by Wilde and informed and accompanied by spontaneous music! It will be a collaboration like no other in Nova Scotia. Norman Adams, violinist Gina Burgess of Gypsophelia, David Christensen, a multi-instrumental sideman to many, including Jenn Grant and Hawksley Workman, and Lukas Pearse an sL regular, as well as a frequent collaborator with pop, world music and experimental performers. These musicians will work with artists from the Irondale Ensemble Project: Karen Bassett and Theo Pitsiavas and Sebastien Labelle. Come to the Bus Stop and see the stories unfold!
February 26th we will discover that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. In this concert, the cello/piano duo of Norman Adams and Tim Crofts will join with Spanner from St. John’s, Newfoundland. Spanner is Paul Bendza – woodwinds, and Rob Power – percussion. Spanner has played together each week at Memorial University for years, rehearsing and recording each session. They perform frequently in Newfoundland, and have released two truly compelling CDs. These two duos, both solid as individual units, will integrate to make a quartet full of musical fun and collective exploration. Come and hear the sum of its parts.
For the final Main Series concert of the 2011/12 season, Vox Latrina suddenlyLISTEN is presenting Canada’s most adventurous creative vocalists, as they tour Canada. Christine Duncan from Toronto and DB Boyko from Vancouver, are frequent collaborators. Together and separately they lead choirs, sing in ensembles, with instrumentalists and create and commission work. On May 12, this duo will collaborate with Norman Adams and guitarist Geordie Haley. As well they’ll do a special performance of Stall, Christopher Butterfield’s bathroom-specific vocal duo! Get ready for some real fun, in a bathroom near you!
Open Source is suddenlyLISTEN’s series of smaller shows at 1313 Hollis. These concerts allow audiences to listen to fresh music and get up close and personal with touring creative musicians. This fall suddenlyLISTEN will be presenting Circuit artist JP Carter from Vancouver on September 26th. JP playing trumpet and electronics, will collaborate with Halifax’s finest musicians. October 8th suddenlyLISTEN will partner with 1313 Hollis to present a double bill of Jerry Granelli’s 3 Form, plus Dragos/Diatribes a trio of electronic musicians from Switzerland. The very next week, sL will co-present Canada’s busiest progressive jazz band the Lina Allemano 4, from Toronto. As the season continues, more concerts will be added to this series, we’ve got some pretty cool plans developing too! Don’t miss any of these concerts, come get up close to some great music making.
2011/12 marks the 7th season of the suddenlyLISTEN Improvisation Workshop. Alternating Monday evenings from September 19th to May 2012, Norman Adams and Tim Crofts lead sessions for all musicians interested in making free improvised music, regardless of experience or musical ability. This workshop is a welcoming community of people eager to play and share listening based music. Come check it out.
Curating all of suddenlyLISTEN’s concerts is Norman Adams, an award-winning cellist, electronic musician and concert producer that is ready for anything! Through his work as a creative musician he has traveled across Canada and Europe, in addition to bringing the finest artists to Halifax for suddenlyLISTEN concerts for over ten years.
Sep 14, 2011 at 19:06