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SOUNDSTREAMS ANNOUNCES MARK ROTHKO & MUSIC
Music Inspired by Rothko: Morton Feldman & Cecilia Livingston
A FREE TD ENCOUNTERS EVENT
Presented in collaboration with Koffler Arts

OCTOBER 4, 2023 (TORONTO, ON): Lawrence Cherney, Founding Artistic Director of Soundstreams, today announced a new Soundstreams TD Encounters Series event-MARK ROTHKO & MUSIC-a companion event to Soundstreams’ season opening concert this November, The Bright Divide. Presented in collaboration with Koffler Arts, this free TD Encounters event takes place on October 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the Holy Blossom Temple (1950 Bathurst St.) in the Mishkan Room. Details and free registration are available here.

This special event is centred around music inspired by iconic American painter Mark Rothko, and will include a riveting discussion on Rothko and music moderated by Koffler Arts General Director Matthew Jocelyn, with Lawrence Cherney, Tim Albery (stage director of The Bright Divide), and composer Cecilia Livingston.

A live performance will include excerpts from Morton Feldman’s masterwork Rothko Chapel, which premiered at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas in 1972, and Cecilia Livingston’s mark, a newly commissioned companion work to the Feldman, to be premiered by Soundstreams during The Bright Divide at the new TD Music Hall on November 10, and 11, 2023. Excerpts will be performed on October 30 by Steven Dann (viola), Gregory Oh (piano), and Alex Samaras (voice).

Images of Rothko paintings, both from the Chapel and from his earlier periods, will be projected during the event. There will also be an audience Q&A.

The Soundstreams TD Encounters series aims to bring people together through music and discussion to explore themes that resonate in their communities. New Canadian music stimulates and provokes ‘cultural conversations’, music with underlying themes that resonate with our time and place.

Encounters: Mark Rothko & Music is generously supported by TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment.

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https://soundstreams.ca/events/the-bright-divide/
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About Soundstreams
Under the leadership of its Founding Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney, Soundstreams began in 1982 with a tribute to Igor Stravinsky’s 100th birth year, an artist who fundamentally transformed the ways we hear our world. In the intervening years, we’ve probed compelling Canadian themes and stories through new works in music and opera that resonate with our time and place. We aim not only to reflect upon those themes and stories but to inspire new perspectives and approaches to them. Soundstreams has created a platform for compelling new creations both at home and abroad. Our various Toronto based concert series, educational and outreach events and professional development programs have showcased nearly 1500 global creators and performers in collaboration with their Canadian counterparts. At the same time, Soundstreams’ productions have toured North America, Latin America, Asia and Europe. In recent seasons, Soundstreams has received high praise from the international press: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, and The Wall Street Journal.

About Koffler Arts
Koffler Arts is a cultural platform that explores critical ideas and concerns of our time through exhibitions, publications, performances, literary events and digital initiatives. We examine complex issues through transformative art experiences that stimulate intercultural dialogue and position Jewish identity in conversation with diverse perspectives and global voices.

For further media information, contact:
Katie Saunoris, KSPR | [email protected]

Images for The Bright Divide & MARK ROTHKO & MUSIC, here.