Introduction: Summer ended yesterday. They say in PEI that the weather changes after the Gold Cup and Saucer Harness Race. With global climate change and a seemingly inflexible harness racing season, I have begun to measure the seasons by my bike rides. Summer starts when I can wear shorts. Summer ends at the conclusion of my last ride on PEI. Yesterday it was quite warm in the sun when Evan and I rolled along for 45 or so kilometres. When we arrived back in town, the temperatures dropped swiftly and noticeably and I knew it was over.
As much as I love summer, I’ve been anticipating the end of this one for months. Fall 2018 marks the beginning of a new phase of my musical career, as I step away from Symphony Nova Scotia, and it means some of the most exciting and unusual concerts are coming up fast!
Most unusual? The Colourscape Festival in London. Most exciting? La Biennale in Venice!
The Colourscape Fest has been called “Europe’s most unusual music festival”, and La Biennale is well known as Europe’s biggest, with artists from many disciplines, from all over the world presenting, and over 500 000 people attending, each year.
The music I play and that I’ve grown up playing is universal now, but it originated in Europe. This fact creates a magnetic force that draws me and fuels my work and ambition. I want to make music THERE: Where it belongs! I used to imagine how cool would it be to play Mozart in Salzburg, but things in my musical makeup have shifted and now I want to play new music in Amsterdam, or Berlin, or at a big contemporary art festival like La Biennale!
How do you get this gig? I have no idea, but it seems like it’s a “who you know” situation. My partner in this adventure, Nicola Baroni had been a fixture in Italian contemporary music for 20 years or more, so I think he’s taken pretty seriously when he says he has a new project.
Our other partner is Nova Scotia’s Department of Communities Culture. When I first got word from the Biennale my first thought was “this is important. Who can I share this with, who can I tell about this and who can help us to make this possible, and even leverage more good things from this opportunity?” CCH stepped up and are helping fly me, as well as two of our composers (from Nova Scotia) Derek Charke and Jerome Blais to Venice to hear the show and speak about their work.
Lets go!
Sep 20, 2018 at 14:46
