TORONTO, CANADA – April 5, 2024 – New Music Concerts (NMC) is proud to announce the launch of their biennial Future Resonance Festival. The Future Resonance Festival serves to address and sustain the discourse on curating diversity in contemporary music. A confluence of concerts, lectures, workshops, and discussions, the Festival celebrates the limitless power of music to bring diverse groups together. The main goal is to address the culture of contemporary music so that everyone feels welcome. This involves questioning and providing alternatives to Eurocentric power structures in contemporary music and sound art.
“Toronto is bursting with untapped musical creativity from all corners — adventurous ideas, sounds, textures, and colours. This festival is all about bringing those to the forefront and celebrating them.”
- Brian Current, Artistic Director
Friday, April 26, 2024 | What is the Real Sound of Toronto?
Location: Canadian Music Centre, 20 St Joseph St, Toronto, ON M4Y 1J9
Schedule: Doors 4:30PM | 5:00 - 6:30PM Panel Discussion | 6:30PM Reception
Tickets: Pay What You Can - Available Here!
A discussion featuring esteemed panelists Sandeep Bhagwati (Chair), Anthony R. Green, Parmela Attariwala, Dylan Robinson, and Patty Chan. They'll explore alternate ways of making, thinking, funding, and programming newly made music. Led by the renowned composer and professor, Sandeep Bhagwati, our panel will delve into important conversations of decolonization as a creative force in musicking.
“We read and hear a lot about decolonization as a moral and political necessity for our cultural institutions - but we rarely discuss the aesthetic benefits it brings. Which new ideas, new imaginations, new concepts and new aesthetic sensibilities arise from processes of inclusion and decolonization?”
- Sandeep Bhagwati
Saturday, April 27, 2024 | Swara Sutras Goes Electric
Location: St. George by the Grange, 30 Stephanie St, Toronto, ON M5T 1X6
Schedule: Doors 7:00PM | 7:30PM Pre-Concert Chat | 8:00PM Main Show
Tickets: Available Here! - Starting at $15
Audiences will experience a thought-provoking musical convergence at the heart of the Future Resonance Festival with Swara Sutras Goes Electric. This concert presents four brand-new works commissioned by NMC for Guzheng, Peul Flute, Tablas, and Métis Fiddle, alongside cutting-edge electronics by Andrew Staniland, Laurie Radford, Kotoka Suzuki, and Myriam Boucher. The second half features a performance by the outstanding Swara Sutras Ensemble, featuring Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk, Lasso Sanou, Lina Cao, Patty Chan, Atish Mukhopadhyay and Jesse Dietschi. The performances are firmly rooted in the festival's ethos of embracing diversity and innovation, fusing electronics with non-Western instruments.
Sunday, April 28, 2024 | How to Inhabit These Different Temporalities? with Śabdagatitāra
Location: Aga Khan Museum, 77 Wynford Dr, North York, ON M3C 1K1
Schedule: Durational Performance-Installation, 10:00AM - 5:30PM
Tickets: Free Event located in the Aga Khan Museum’s Atrium. Regular Museum admission will apply for gallery entry. Guests can use code NMC10 for 10% off admission to the galleries.
In partnership with the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) and the Aga Khan Museum.
Sandeep Bhagwati’s How to Inhabit These Different Temporalities? with Śabdagatitāra: a musical journey with ten musicians that transcends time, connecting cultures through art and innovation. This performance will be an immersive and participatory experience which ties together music and visual art, through composition and improvisation. Visitors can dive into the various sound worlds of the soloists, stationed at five areas of the Aga Khan Museum’s Atrium as they relay music back and forth throughout the day. In this durational performance, the audience is free to wander throughout the space while interacting with the musicians. Śabdagatitāra is a Sanskrit term for the crossing over (tāra) of methods of making (gati) sound (śabda) - celebrating many musical roots and containing wonderfully unexpected sound worlds.
Śabdagatitāra will feature the musicianship of seven performers from Berlin: Lucy Zhao, Deniza Popova, Eva Glasmacher, Murat Gürel, Klaus Janek, Gebrüder Teichmann (Hannes & Andi Teichmann), and three soloists from Québec: Terri Hron, Reza Abaee, and Valentina Plata. This performance-installation was first performed at the Gropius Bau Museum in Berlin, in August 2020 and is also being presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts on April 20 and 21, 2024.
For more information on the Future Resonance Festival, please visit: www.newmusicconcerts.com
About Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ):
At the heart of musical creation for nearly 60 years, the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) is dedicated to promoting the work of composers. Over the years, it has made its mark on the cultural scene through the quality and scope of its concerts and activities, which stand out for their unifying aspect. Every two years, the SMCQ celebrates a Canadian composer by inviting the national and international musical and cultural milieus to incorporate the artist’s works in their programming throughout the cultural season. This eighth edition, in the 2023-2024 season, honours Sandeep Bhagwati, a multifaceted composer of international renown.
About Aga Khan Museum:
The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, has been established and developed by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC), which is an agency of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). Through permanent and temporary exhibitions, educational activities and performing arts, the Museum’s mission is to spark wonder, curiosity, and understanding of Muslim cultures and their connection with other cultures through the arts. Designed by architect Fumihiko Maki, the Museum shares a 6.8- hectare site with Toronto’s Ismaili Centre, which was designed by architect Charles Correa. The surrounding landscaped park was designed by landscape architect Vladimir Djurovic.
