Event will be livestreamed online at https://contaqtnewmusic.org/
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In person at Arraymusic, 155 Walnut Ave., Toronto, ON.
Thursday July 18th
7:30pm doors, 8pm show
PWYC/FREE
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Virtual CONTAQT is an ongoing project hosted by ContaQt, featuring past and future collaborators. Initiated by the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, the project represents the ensemble's search for a means of collaborating with artists from around the world while still primarily based in different geographic locations. This event marks the fourth official Virtual ContaQt performance, following Terry Reilly's 88th birthday celebration with Evan Ziporyn and friends, "Poppy 88" (June 2023), "Bell Dreams + ContaQt" (October 2023) presented in collaboration with the Saskatchewan ensemble Bell Dreams and Sounds Like: An Audio Festival! and "ROOT BLOOD" featuring Tina Pearson (April 2024).
For this performance, ContaQt will be joined by composer-performers Evan Ziporyn in Massachusetts and Yaz Lancaster in New York. Program TBD.
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Composer/conductor/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn's music has taken him from Balinese temples to concert halls around the world.
He has composed for and collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Brooklyn Rider, Maya Beiser, Ethel, Anna Sofie Von Otter, the American Composers Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Iva Bittova, Terry Riley, Don Byron, Wu Man, and Bang on a Can. In 2017, his arrangements were featured on Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s The Vietnam War, and on Silkroad’s Grammy-winning album Sing Me Home.
Most recently, his orchestral reimagining of David Bowie's final album, Blackstar, was recently released on Islandia Music, featuring Ziporyn conducting his own Ambient Orchestra with Maya Beiser, cello soloist. Since its 2017 premiere, Ziporyn has conducted the work in Boston, Barcelona, New York Central Park Summerstage, Australia's Adelaide Fringe Festival, Strathmore Hall, and numerous other national and international venues. 2019 also saw the world premieres of two new works, the drum concerto Impulse Control for the Bowling Green New Music Festival, and the gamelan/string hybrid Air=Water for Philadelphia's Network for New Music. Other recent works include the collaborative immersive installation Arachnodrone/Spider's Canvas with Christine Southworth, which premiered at Paris' Palais de Tokyo in 2018, and The Demon in the Diagram with visual artist Matthew Ritchie and choreographer Hope Mohr.Ziporyn studied at Eastman School of Music, Yale, and UC Berkeley with Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick, and Gerard Grisey. He received a Fulbright in 1987, founded Gamelan Galak Tika in 1993, and composed a series of groundbreaking compositions for gamelan and western instruments, as well as evening-length works such as 2001's ShadowBang, 2004's Oedipus Rex (Robert Woodruff, director), and 2009’s A House in Bali, which was featured at BAM Next Wave in October 2010. He released two albums of his orchestral works with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, featuring tabla master Sandeep Das as soloist.
From 1992-2012 he served as music director, producer, and composer/arranger for the Bang on a Can Allstars, winning Musical America’s Ensemble of the Year award in 2005. He has also recorded and toured with Paul Simon (You're the One) and the Steve Reich Ensemble, sharing in the latter's 1998 Grammy for Best Chamber Music Performance. In 2012 he formed the Eviyan Trio with Iva Bittova and Gyan Riley, with whom he recorded two albums. He has also released numerous albums on Cantaloupe Music, New World, CRI, Airplane Ears, and other labels. Other honors include a USA Artist Fellowship, the Goddard Lieberson Prize from the American Academy, Massachusetts Cultural Council Fellowship, and commissions from Carnegie Hall, Kronos Quartet, Rockefeller Multi-Arts Program, and Meet the Composer. As a conductor recent appearances include LA Opera (Keeril Makan’s Persona), Hamburg Elbsphilharmonie (Julia Wolfe/Bill Morrison’s Fuel), the Barcelona Symphony, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. At MIT he is Distinguished Professor of Music, Director of the Center for Art, Science and Technology, and currently Guest Director of the MIT Symphony Orchestra.
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Yaz Lancaster is a transdisciplinary artist residing in Lenapehoking (NYC). Their work as a performer, composer, poet/writer, and collaborator is grounded in queer, DIY, and liberatory frameworks. It utilizes fragmentation and collage; relational aesthetics; improvisatory forms; and experimental electroacoustic composition. Through independent study, Yaz spends time thinking about the cultivation of care and intimacy, Marxist/collectivist praxis, and digital (sub)cultures.
Their debut record AmethYst, comprising music for violin, voice, and electronics was released in April 2023 (PPR) and has been featured on I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, Bandcamp (New & Notable), and Foxy Digitalis, among other publications. Recent and upcoming collaborators include Andrew Noseworthy, Asia Stweart, Black Mountain College/Hub New Music, Dorothy Carlos, Eliza Bagg, gg200bpm, International Contemporary Ensemble, Massa Nera, Mingjia, Minnesota Philharmonic, Miss Grit, and Sean Pecknold.
Yaz additionally works as the co-manager of people places records, an organizer with abolitionist music collective Sound Off, and a freelance poet and (music) writer. They love powerlifting, horror manga, and summers down South. More at yaz-lancaster.com
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ContaQt combines 21st-century new-classical and experimental music with the sensibilities of rock and jazz to form a hybrid chamber ensemble that defies genres. Praised by the Globe and Mail as “thought-provoking” and “highly entertaining”, and by the New York Times as “mesmerizing” ContaQt has premiered works by emerging and established Canadian and international composers and has performed at venues and new music festivals around the world.
https://contaqtnewmusic.org/
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Special thanks to the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council and City of Toronto for their ongoing funding support.
Poster by Yaz Lancaster