New Music

February and March bring a vibrant array of new sounds, kicking off with an energetic start of multiple concerts in early February. And right in the middle, in early March, comes International Women’s Day on March 8 – a time to celebrate progress while acknowledging the challenges that persist. While one might hope such a day would no longer be necessary, recent developments south of the border highlight persistent threats to women’s rights and freedoms, underscoring the continued importance of IWD.

Alice Ping Yee Ho’s Dark Tales: On November 9, right after you thought all the pumpkins, goblins and spider webs had been put away for another season, Toronto composer Alice Ping Yee Ho and New Music Concerts will present an innovative evening of ghost stories, with a new work entitled Dark Tales: An Immersive Journey into Music, Light and Legend. During a recent conversation, Ho described this new work, commissioned by Duo Concertante, as a music drama in five movements based on five stories from Tom Dawe’s book An Old Man’s Winter Night.

Women from Space: In last month’s issue, I wrote about the Women from Space festival, which happened from March 8-10. I was delighted to attend some of the events, and came away feeling inspired and energized by what I heard. The festival opener was a spectacular improvisation by Bloop, the duo made up of trumpeter Lina Allemano and her performance partner Mike Smith, whose electronics wizardry was fully on display in the effects processing he conjured from the equipment at hand. At times Allemano also played various gong instruments, such as a large cow-bell with one of her hands, adding different sonorities to the mix.

As we endure the coldest stretch of the year, anticipating the first signs of thaw around six weeks from the release of this issue, it seems that new music activity in the city is also undergoing a bit of a hibernation, with many of the typical presenters holding off until April to resurge into action. However, as I discovered while perusing the listings, there are some signs of vibrant and percolating life out there. One concert in particular caught my eye – a performance of Morton Feldman’s 80-minute work for piano and cello entitled Patterns in a Chromatic Field, performed and produced by members of Freesound on February 29 and March 1.