Exploring the interaction and shared compositional structures between music and architecture, soundaXis transforms Toronto into a playground of discovery through concerts, film, sound installations, symposia, panel discussions, and exhibits from June 1-11, 2006.
Presented by New Music Arts Projects (NMAP), formed by key members of the Toronto Coalition of New Music Presenters, this emerging city-wide celebration offers both international and local festival-goers a fresh look into the intimacies between sound and space; soundaXis’ cultural and educational exploration of the fundamental ideas that permit translation from one art form to another simultaneously unearths Toronto’s evolving acoustical landscape.
Thematically based on revolutionary thinker, architect, engineer, mathematician, and composer, Iannis Xenakis (1922- 2001), the multifaceted breadth and scope of soundaXis is unprecedented. Selected soundaXis highlights include the following: Seeing is Believing, a 16-panel biographical portrait of sound architect and revolutionary thinker, Iannis Xenakis, created by Centre de documentation de la music contemporaine (Paris), illuminating the kaleidoscopic nature of his music, architecture, writings, performances, and friends; Plucking Sound & Space which featuress international guest artist Elisabeth Chojnacka (harpsichord), joined by Lori Freedman (bass clarinet) and a 15-piece ensemble, performing compositions by Xenakis; Music of/in the City, in which panellists Jonathan Burston, Rodolphe El-Khoury, Peter Hatch, Ute Lehrer, Diane Lewis, and David Lieberman (moderator) consider the question of new music and how it speaks to a postmodern world; City Space & Sound in which jazz pianist Marilyn Lerner and clarinetist Lori Freedman accompany new silent film Bird on a Wire, capturing the expressive qualities of Toronto, Berlin, New York, Ramala, and Jerusalem, while their accompaniment to Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, the classic 1927 silent film by Walter Ruttmann, explores the awakening of the city, its pulsating organic rhythms, and its return to dormancy; Building Music at the Music Gallery Institute of the Toronto Urban Studies Centre hosts students from the TDSB community in creating music using sounds from the urban environment and producing a soundtrack for a multi-media exhibit of architectural images.
Be sure to stop by the Festival Hub, which launches June 1st at the MaRS Discovery District, 101 College Street. For more information, please visit www.soundaxis.ca.