The Music Gallery: X Avant New Music Festival

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The Music Gallery, Toronto’s Centre for Creative Music, presents the fifteenth edition of the internationally acclaimed X Avant New Music Festival from October 1 to 18, 2020.

All shows will be available to stream online and will be a mix of on and off-site concerts produced by the Music Gallery; (still) located at 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education.

Highlights include:

  • Abstract punk ensemble OK Miss featuring 2017 Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun
  • Word/sound/power from 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize winner Kaie Kellough with Jason Sharp
  •  Alanna Stuart (Bonjay) gathers Jamaican-Canadian artists and supporters of different eras in discussion around a community meal.
  • Performance from Toronto’s own “Groove-Based Indie Jazz” star, Tara Kannangara.
  • Toronto’s foremost contemporary ensemble, Thin Edge New Music Collective
  • Interview with Toronto Black music historian emeritus, Norman “Otis” Richmond
  • Anishinaabe singer songwriter Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and avant-jazz explorer Mingjia livestreamed from the Music Gallery

Praise for X Avant & The Music Gallery 

“For adventurous music lovers, it’s difficult to resist the appeal of Toronto’s not-for-profit arts centre Music Gallery and their annual flagship festival, X Avant. After all, where else can you see early electro-acoustic pioneers, up-and-coming Canadian musicians, and internationally-acclaimed poets?” – THUMP

“Building a coherent sensibility from diverse inspirations and challenging narrow conceptions of Canadian music..” – NOW Magazine 

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X Avant XV: Transmissions

October 1-18 2020

In a time of transmissions and transitions: welcome to the Music Gallery’s 2020-21 season. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything for everyone; never has arts presentation faced such existential questions as it does today. While we fear viral transmissions, we need to continue cultural transmissions in order to maintain a semblance of ourselves during this time.

This is the focus of the Music Gallery’s 2020-21 season. Focusing on the old, the new, and music as a vehicle for subversion of cultural and structural norms; 2020-21 will be largely characterized by the curatorial work of Artistic Associates Pratishtha Kohli and Olivia Shortt. Mentored by Artistic (now Executive) Director David Dacks last year, their work builds on the strong foundation of the organization while pointing to new ideas and future forms of music programming.

X Avant XV: Transmissions surveys the transition from one era of artistic vision to the next as we spotlight past MG favourites while welcoming new ones. In doing so, this edition of the X Avant festival continues to cement the role the Music Gallery occupies in the Toronto music ecology. This edition’s innovative experiments in music challenge governance, hierarchies and hegemonies in the sense of exploring who curates concerts, and which artists are centred in the programming. Our festival is programmed by the Artistic Associates, collaborating laterally with the Artistic Director.

The festival focuses on what it means to transmit artistic knowledge and creative vision to our audiences and each other, while re-imagining what a music festival can look like in a pandemic.  Simultaneously, the festival considers the ongoing restructuring of the music industry and challenges the gatekeepers of live music, taking a hard look at the past, present and future of the Music Gallery, the city of Toronto, and Canada, as a baseline for musical activity.

This festival deliberately centers queer, Indigenous, black and POC artists, focusing on individual journeys into musical experimentation. This challenges notions of who has historically been given license to create “art music” in public spaces, where this art is allowed to exist, and what genres of expression are attributed to different communities. Moreover, all events are free – anyone with internet access can check out the entire scope of these ideas. By highlighting the diversity and talents of both growing and veteran experimental artists outside of our usual milieu of live performance, we hope to grow, adapt and transmit new ways of serving our community of sonic explorers.

Thin Edge Music Collective +Tara Kannangara

October 4, 2020 | 7 PM

Since 2011, Cheryl Duvall and Ilana Waniuk have built something incredible with Thin Edge New Music Collective, becoming one of the most forward-thinking contemporary ensembles in Canada over the last 10 years. We first encountered them as part of our Emergents series back in 2013 and since then they have mounted increasingly ambitious shows at the MG and beyond. As is to be expected, they’re bringing something special to X Avant: the ensemble continues to nurture emerging voices, who comprise a considerable number of their 70+ commissioned works. It’s all part of their distinctly eclectic and community-oriented outlook—endeavouring to bring 20th and 21st century music to an ever-expanding listenership.

Opening for Thin Edge is JUNO-nominated artist, Tara Kannangara who  meshes Pop, Electronic/Synth music, Jazz, and Alternative, into a singular voice that is captivating audiences all over North America.Tara has melded everything she’s learned into genre-bending music that will make you cry, dance, smile and feel everything in between.

Growing up in Chilliwack, BC, she studied classical piano and voice from an early age. She then serendipitously picked up the trumpet in high school at first focusing on classical before moving into Jazz and other genres. Tara studied at the University of Victoria for classical trumpet and vocals but later moved to Toronto to pursue music at the University of Toronto where she came into her own as a performer and songwriter.

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The Music Gallery: X Avant New Music Festival

Date/Time

Wednesday, October 7, 2020
7:00 pm

Location

CCMC Music Gallery
918 Bathurst Street
Toronto,
Canada, M5R 3G5

Price

No Information

Phone

416-204-1080

Website

www.musicgallery.org

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This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French)

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