Thursday, February 3, 2011
8pm
Hamilton Place Studio Theatre, 1 Summers Lane
Canadian singer-songwriter Basia Bulat’s soaring vocals, soul-baring lyrics and intricate instrumentation have earned her critical acclaim in the folk music scene. A classically trained multi-instrumentalist (she sings, plays the autoharp, piano, guitar and ukulele), she brings her talents to the What Next? Festival supported by members of the Hamilton Philharmonic. Basia will perform songs from her albums "Oh My Darling" and "Heart of My Own", with all orchestral charts done by Owen Pallett of Arcade Fire.
Want to learn more about Basia?
What’s an autoharp? Watch this video where she teaches us how to play one.
$23 advance single tickets, $25 at the door
Friday, February 4, 2011
5pm
Art Gallery of Hamilton Pavilion, 123 King Street West
A round-table discussion and Q &A around the interplay between media, technologies and genres in the 21st Century. Featuring guests from McMaster University and festival performers, including trans-media composer David Ogborn, Music Director James Sommerville, video artists David Rokeby and Brian MacMillan, and pianist Eve Egoyan.
Immediately following the panel discussion will be a performance of:
A collaborative interdisciplinary work for disklavier piano and interactive video created by pianist Eve Egoyan and artist David Rokeby.
In “Surface Tension”, Eve’s performance at the keyboard of a disklavier (an acoustic piano with a computer interface) is transformed and interpreted by a computer into live visual images projected onto a screen rising from the body of the piano. The visuals respond to a variety of performance parameters including dynamics, pitch, the harmonic relation between pitches, the use of the sustain pedal, and the duration of individual notes. This extends the piano into a visual instrument as well as a musical one.
Wondering what this looks like? Click here to read the full description of Surface Tension and to view a video.
Friday, February 4, 2011
6:30pm
Art Gallery of Hamilton (throughout), 123 King Street West
Walk through galleries of the AGH and experience fascinating new sounds from the cutting edge of electronic creation, the laptop orchestra. Featuring the young creative minds from the McMaster University Cybernetic Orchestra.
The Cybernetic Orchestra will perform a mix of composed and improvised music for laptop orchestra, using Nintendo Wiimotes, wireless networking, and on-the-fly programming. The performance will also feature special guest appearances by Festival Director James Sommerville and McMaster University professor of music cognition Michael Schutz.
Learn more about the Cybernetic Laptop Ensemble – visit their website here.
Friday, FebrUary 4, 2011
8pm
Art Gallery of Hamilton Pavilion, 123 King Street West
Music from masters of the 20th Century and fresh new voices from the 21st Century; a celebration of young Canadian women’s voices in the musical landscape. Featuring a premiere by Slavko Popovic (clarinetist, composer and Hamilton Philharmonic Youth Orchestra member) performed with James Sommerville, and a video installation by Canadian video artist Brian MacMillan.
| Toru Takemitsu | Rain Coming (video installation by Brian Macmillan) |
| Slavko Popovic | Trio for Clarinet, Horn and Piano (HPO commission, world premiere) |
| Osvaldo Golijov | Lullaby and Doina |
| Andrew Svoboda | Rhapsody |
| Abigail Richardson | Emerge |
| Nicole Lizee | Left Brain Right Brain |
Saturday, February 5, 2011
8pm
The Cathedral, 252 James Street North
New music meets the brilliance and fire of the HPO brass, featuring a Canadian premiere by one of England’s most respected young composers Mark-Antony Turnage.
| Jacques Hétu | Fanfare pour Lanaudière |
| Elliott Carter | Canon in Memoriam Igor Stravinsky |
| Jacob ter Veldhuis | Jesus is Coming |
| Jeffrey Ryan | 5 Portentous Preludes |
| Toru Takemitsu | Garden Rain |
| Folke Rabe | Basta! |
| Folke Rabe | Shazam |
| Scott Good | Postlude |
| Michael Horwood | Residue |
| Mark-Anthony Turnage | Out Of Black Dust (Canadian premiere) |
Saturday, February 5, 2011
10pm
The Cathedral, 252 James Street North
A favourite from last year's What Next? Festival laptop artist Jeremy Flower returns this year with more electronic music. His set will feature some brand new music along with some older music remixed to play live especially for the venue.
Experimental music group O/H (David Foster, Christina Sealey, Richard Oddie) is recognized as pioneers of "rhythmic noise"; a fusion of harsh, experimental sounds with the rhythmic elements of dance music. They will follow Jeremy Flower with a set of innovative electronic music using everything from modular synthesizers to circuit bent instruments.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
1pm
The Pearl Company, 16 Steven Street
Why is so much new music so dissonant? How do our bodies and our brains respond to musical sounds? Is our sense of beauty ‘hard-wired’ ? Featuring guests from the McMaster Institute of Music and the Mind, Music Director James Sommerville and festival musicians.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
2pm
The Pearl Company, 16 Steven Street
A concert for strings, performed by members of the HPO. Music from around the globe, inspired by nature, pop, cartoons and zen.
| Kotoka Suzuki | Minyo |
| John Zorn | Cat o’Nine Tails |
| Toru Takemitsu | A Way Alone |
| James Macmillan | Kiss On Wood |
Sunday, February 6, 2011
3pm
The Pearl Company, 16 Steven Street
Parmela Attariwala, violin & dance
Shawn Mativetsky, tabla
The Attar Project, developed by violinist Parmela Attariwala combines the sound worlds of the violin and the Indian percussion instrument the tabla through both improvisational and compositional means that also incorporates dance and South Asian aesthetics. The Attar Project engages both the ears and the eyes and challenges the boundaries between musical genres and artistic practices.
Learn more about Parmela Attariwala and the Attar Project here.
Basia Bulat
Eve Egoyan
David Rokeby
Parmela Attariwala
Jeremy Flower
Brian MacMillan
