Soundstreams
20 St. Joseph Street M4Y 1J9 Toronto, ON, Canada

We were perusing online, and thought this a great event to share! Renew your New Year’s reading goals and join Canadian Stage for The Elements of Story, this time curated by the legendary Indigenous singer-songwriter, musician, Oscar-winning composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist, Buffy Sainte-Marie! Streaming live on Feb 18 at 7 PM, tickets are PWYC starting at $15. Available at https://www.canadianstage.com//elements-of-story-buffy-sai #csBuffy

We're celebrating Lunar New Year (the Year of the Ox) with a spotlight on Toronto composer Kevin Lau, Composer. To all who are celebrating, we wish you a happy, prosperous year! Featuring his work 'Between the Earth and Forever' (2020). "Between the Earth and Forever is, first and foremost, a work inspired by space exploration, and the intrepid explorers who dare venture beyond the boundaries of our planet, wading into the mystery of the cosmos on behalf of all humankind. Ind...eed, the French horn melody which opens this workwith its elemental intervals above a bass drone on Cdeliberately evokes Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra, made famous through its use in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The title comes from the caption of a photo depicting the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield performing his first spacewalk. Exploring these ideas through the lens of the erhua traditional Chinese, two-stringed instrumentwas not an intuitive choice at first. But my grandfather, who I never met, was an amateur musician who played many instruments, the erhu among them. This tenuous ancestral connection provided an invisible thread which kept me tethered during the most challenging parts of composing this work." Read more about the work on our blog: https://bit.ly/3d8kvYy Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0BH9qgwLMQ&feature=emb_logo Visit Kevin's website: https://www.kevinlaumusic.com/main.php #lunarnewyear

We're pleased to continue featuring composer Bruce A. Russell this February as part of Black History Month. Next up, his work 'Companion, for two pianos' (2019), performed by Wesley Shen and Stephen Clarke at Arraymusic. "Companion (2019) is written for two pianos and is dedicated to my two youngest children. The first pencil sketchesjust patterns of black dots (note heads)were made in late 2011 and set aside, with composition being resumed and completed in late 2018 and e...arly 2019. That bookends the first period of the children’s life journeys from the anticipation of their arrival through their toddlerhood. As well as representing their close sibling bond by way of instrumentation and title, the work is about building and transitions in the music itself and in my family life. I use purely technical means to arrive at something that appeals hopefully on a non-technical level." Read more about the work on our blog: https://bit.ly/3tMzTjh Visit Bruce's website: https://elmahboob.com https://vimeo.com/505071971

Happy Anniversary to the Association for Canadian Women Composers!

Congratulations to composer James O'Callaghan!

Soundstreams regulars SlowPitchSound and Lybido recently did something awesome with the Aga Khan Museum - check it out, we love this. https://www.youtube.com/watch

"I was always going to be a multidisciplinary artist, there is just too much that interests and excites me." Opera Canada wraps up it's wonderful 'What's Next?' series in an interview with one of our favourite artists, Rebecca Cuddy - Mezzo Soprano!

The biennial Azrieli Music Prizes - AMP Gala Concert looks fantastic! World premieres by Keiko Devaux, Yotam Haber, and Yitzhak Yedid. Congratulations to these prize winners! The concert will be livestreamed on the prestigious medici.tv, and on AMP’s Facebook page, for free. >>> Oct 22, 2020 at 8pm EST http://ow.ly/Smnx50ASVY1

We hope you've enjoyed this week's spotlight on composer Cecilia Livingston! To cap it off, please enjoy her lovely work 'Garden' on The JUNO Awards winning album 'detach', performed by Angela Schwarzkopf (harp) and Michelle Colton (percussion). Listen >>> https://redshiftmusicsociety.bandcamp.com//garden-cecilia-... (And support our artists by purchasing the album at the same link! From Redshift Music Society)

"Even when I’m writing pieces without voice, I’m still thinking primarily about how structure and pacing, and motivic play and harmonic tension and rhythmic drive all create affect, atmosphere, drama, narrative just as I would for an interlude or a transition section in opera." A wonderfully in-depth interview with composer Cecilia Livingston from barczablog, focusing on Cecilia's opera-writing.

This wonderful recording is of Cecilia Livingston's 'Flay', composed as part of the 2016 Emerging Composer Workshop (now RBC Bridges). Featuring Zorana Sadiq (soprano), Wesley Shen (piano), and Daniel Morphy (percussion), and recorded at the Alliance Française de Toronto

Some stunning photos from some of our performance venues and Bloor St. Culture Corridor partners. The #LightUpLive campaign is to raise awareness of the substantial impact the pandemic continues to have on the live entertainment industry. To learn more and how you can get involved, visit: https://lightuplive.ca/ ... You can also watch the #IMissLiveTheatreTO video from TAPA Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts https://youtu.be/BsstFD6mpPA Koerner Hall Trinity-St Paul's United Church and Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education

Plans are afoot for Electric Messiah 2020! Director Rob Kempson, Music Director Adam Scime, and Lawrence Cherney and Emma Fowler of Soundstreams met yesterday at the Canadian Music Centre to start laying out the vision.

"...It started as intimate conversations amongst ourselves to make sense of the violence, anger, and frustrations we felt, and expanded to include an inspirational circle of women sharing their thoughts and experiences on what it means to identify as a woman and to be part of the movement fighting for women’s rights." This week we're featuring the music of Cecilia Livingston. Listen to this stunning piece by poet Nasim Asgari, performed by Madeleine Co. As our friends at musica intima shared with us, this work seems especially relevant with the recent passing of RBG.

It's getting colder out, which means we think gourds and similar veggies would make great additions to this game you can play at home, courtesy of composer Juliet Palmer (Urbanvessel) https://urbanvessel.wordpress.com/20//26/vegetable-sounds/

"Each speaker plays out a line of The Sky Beneath Our Feet, a new work by British composer Pete Wyer for 72 voices and orchestra. Wyer wanted to create music like the birds at dawn. Music to surround you, that you could walk through." This has made us want to explore some of our favourite ambient compositions set in natural surroundings, including some by R. Murray Schafer. Any other recommendations?

RBC Bridges alum and Toronto-based composer Bekah Simms is a participant in the Ensemble contemporain de Montréal (ECM+) Génération2020 - Congratulations, Bekah!

So pretty! Decided to take a break from work to go pick up our Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble (Opera), for Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit. Congratulations to the amazing performers, and our wonderful partners at Signal Theatre and Sámi Našunálateáhter/Det Samiske Nasjonalteatret - Beaivváš TAPA Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts

Congratulations to The Honourable Senator Murray Sinclair for being named the recipient of the 5th Adrienne Clarkson Prize for Global Citizenship! Senator Sinclair served the justice system in Manitoba for over 25 years. He was the first Indigenous judge appointed in Manitoba and Canada’s second. The senator also served as the chief commissioner of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, participating in hundreds of hearings across Canada, giving survivors the long-overdue ...opportunity to tell their stories. As Canada faces a renewed reckoning with racism, and questions about what role we can all take to build more inclusive societies, Senator Sinclair continues to serve as an inspiration. The senator recently made the decision to join a law firm to further the understanding of Indigenous law, in addition to his ongoing Senate work. He'll be given the award as part of 6 Degrees, the global forum for inclusion from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship. Learn more here: https://www.inclusion.ca/6degrees-global-forum/