By Felix Mills, Community Engagement Manager Diving into soundworlds – if you’re reading our blog, this likely piques your interest. Or, maybe you’re not sure and curious to explore. As Soundstreams gets ready for Improvised Components on March 6th at Drake Underground, we’re doing some exploring of our own, looking into the creation of new… Read More
By Felix Mills, Community Engagement Manager Which of your feet hit the floor first this morning? How many times have you said the word “and” today? Chances are you didn’t plan either of these things – you improvised; we all do. Just as it happens in your typical day, there are many different situations, structures,… Read More
By Felix Mills, Community Engagement Manager The results are in! RBC Bridges, Soundstreams’ workshop for early-career composers, is an annual workshop that brings together celebrated composer mentors, a professional resident ensemble, and six carefully selected emerging composers to develop and premiere new work in a professional context. We’re thrilled to have the incredible Sarah Kirkland… Read More
by Tim Crouch, Director of Marketing & Patron Experience, and Zoe Lin, Manager of Advancement & Patron Experience On March 6th, 2020 at 8 PM, Soundstreams presents another curated musical journey – Improvised Components at Drake Underground. Featured performers include – Nick Storring, composer, guest curator Katelyn Clark, harpsichord/organetto Emily Redhead, baroque violin Pierre-Yves Martel,… Read More
by Tim Crouch, Director of Marketing & Audience Engagement We’re getting set to present to Toronto the world premiere of Karappo Okesutura Vol 3 next week at The Great Hall in our concert, The Lost Karaoke Tapes. The work will be performed by the Australian Art Orchestra and composed by Nicole Lizée – let’s dig… Read More
by Zoe Lin, Manager of Advancement and Patron Engagement Nicole Lizée, born in Gravelbourg, a small town in south-central Saskatchewan, is the mastermind behind The Lost Karaoke Tapes. A “brilliant musical scientist,” Lizée will join the Australian Art Orchestra and take us on a nostalgic multimedia trip January 30th at the Great Hall. Not only… Read More
As we start a new decade, Soundstreams welcome our new Executive Director – Menon Dwarka. “My goal over the next few years will be to more clearly connect works like Hell’s Fury and Musik für das Ende with the global conversations on refugees and the LGBTQ2 community,” Dwarka told Ludwig Van Toronto. Dwarka looks forward… Read More
by Zoe Lin, Manager of Advancement and Patron Engagement While for many people in Toronto a night out involves restaurants, bars and clubs; in Taipei, where I grew up, things are a little different. KTV (Karaoke Television) – refers to places where people hang out in a private soundproofed room with a karaoke machine, and… Read More
by Menon Dwarka, Executive Director It’s been a month since Two Odysseys, our double-bill of Indigenous operas opened at Daniels Spectrum. I just started as interim executive director of Soundstreams a few weeks before the premiere, and most of my recollections from that time are just a blur of spreadsheets, files and innumerable introductions. But… Read More
by Zoe Lin, Manager of Advancement and Patron Engagement I grew up studying Classical music – the hardcore eight hour days were filled with practicing, rehearsals, music theory, and history. As someone born in the last decade of the 20th century in Asia, it was almost impossible for me to relate to the music I… Read More
by Tim Crouch, Director of Marketing & Patron Experience Electric Messiah re-imagines George Frideric Handel’s great masterpiece with inspirations from different genres to create a feast of musical styles for curious listeners. Perhaps not known to many, but the process of putting together Electric Messiah is an extremely collaborative affair. Each soloist and musician brings… Read More
by Zoe Lin, Marketing & Communications Intern We are excited to introduce the ensemble for this holiday season’s production of Electric Messiah. Electric Messiah will be presented to you by four soloists along with our ensemble team – SlowPitchSound, Joel Schwartz, Wesley Shen, Joel Visentin, and Lybido; with designer/technical director Nick Andison. SlowPitchSound SlowPitchSound is… Read More
by Tim Crouch, Director of Marketing & Patron Experience Fresh off a successful run in Toronto at the 2019 Luminato Festival, Hell’s Fury, The Hollywood Songbook is headed to the state in which a bulk of the action takes place, this time being presented by Stanford Live in early December. Soundstreams and Luminato have a… Read More
Soundstreams is proud to present their newest program, NEW VOICES: Curator Mentorship Program. Calling all aspiring music programmers! Soundstreams is now inviting proposals to develop and produce a concert on our 2020/21 season as part of our New Voices: Curator Mentorship Program. This is a unique platform for early- to mid-career music curators, seeking new… Read More
From the article: “Masks, beautifully simple imagery, repetition and cyclic form; it’s incredibly evocative and, even for non-Indigenous audiences, nostalgic.” “The simplicity of these stories drew me in, leaving me rapt for the duration and in awe of the execution of it all.” “One gets the feeling one is seeing an extraordinarily true account of… Read More
From the article: “Pimooteewin” is one of those deftly created works that suspends time as it tells its story, and the excellent performances incite us to hope that we won’t have to leave this alternate universe for a while. “[Gállábártnit] takes an old legend and makes it speak powerfully to the troubled times we live… Read More
From the article: “We need to be able to talk about our experiences using our own voices and it doesn’t always have to be about our trauma, because we’re more than that, […] Come for the opera — stay for the Indigenous excellence,” – Yolanda Bonnell, Narrator of Pimooteewin. Read the full story here.
by Cheryl Stone, Manager Advancement and Patron Engagement Villains, heroes and other characters are an integral part of opera. They act as our way into the story, connecting us with the worlds they are a part of. Two Odysseys is no exception to the operatic tradition, and even though the characters have new names and… Read More
by Felix Mills, Community Engagement Manager It’s always refreshing, speaking with someone whose personality shines out even through email. Rawdna Carita Eira is a multi-talented Sámi poet/dramatist/artist from Guovdageaidnu. She is the librettist for Gállábártnit of Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit and the stage manager at The Sami National Theatre Beaivváš, one of Two Odysseys’… Read More
by Tim Crouch, Director of Marketing and Patron Experience Soundstreams’ Electric Messiah, now in its fifth year, is one of the reasons I was so excited to come over and work here. The show itself is at one of my favourite haunts (Drake Underground, part of The Drake Hotel), is a multi-sensory experience with the… Read More