A collaboration with Delf Maria Hohmann, Allison Cameron, Raven Chacon, John Oswald, and Marc Sabat culminated in a special edition of Harbour Symphony as part of the Toronto Biennial of Art Opening Week, activating boats docked along Toronto’s shoreline in a celebratory launch. For this evening, Chacon, Cameron and Oswald reflect on this and previous editions of the symphony, inviting audience members to collectively listen to Harbour Symphony recordings and consider the possibilities of working with sound, composition and experimental instrumentation.
Location details: This event will take place at the Harbourfront Centre’s Studio Theatre.
Harbour Symphony was co-presented by Harbourfront Centre and the Toronto Biennial of Art.
Image: Delf Maria Hohmann and Raven Chacon, with Allison Cameron, John Oswald, and Marc Sabat, Harbour Symphony, 2019. Co-presented by Harbourfront Centre and Toronto Biennial of Art. Photo: Yuula Benevolski.
Bios
Allison Cameron (born in Edmonton, AB, Canada; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) grew up in North Vancouver at the foot of Grouse Mountain. She is currently developing a large-scale composition project with Trace in collaboration with the Netherlands and new works for British pianist Philip Thomas and members of Apartment House.
John Oswald (born in Kitchener, ON, Canada; lives in Toronto, ON, Canada) – aside from his directing, designing, dancing, and visualizing – is a Governor General Media Arts Laureate and McLuhan Fellow, and one of Canada’s most internationally-renowned composers (arguably its most infamous one.) His album plunderphonic is on the Polaris Heritage Prize shortlist. The Kronos Quartet commissioned his piece Spectre, and have performed it hundreds of times, recently with guest soloist Tanya Tagac.
Marc Sabat (born in Kitchener, ON, Canada; lives in Berlin, Germany) is a Canadian composer of Ukrainian descent, and has been based in Berlin since 1999. He makes pieces for concert and installation settings, drawing inspiration from investigations of the sounding and perception of Just Intonation and of various music forms — folk, experimental and classical. He studied composition, violin and mathematics at the University of Toronto, at the Juilliard School in New York, and at McGill University, as well as working privately with Malcolm Goldstein, James Tenney and Walter Zimmermann. Scores and artist editions are available through Plainsound Music Edition: www.plainsound.org
Raven Chacon (Navajo First Nation, born in Fort Defiance, AZ, USA lives in Albuquerque, NM, USA) is a composer, performer, and installation artist. As a solo artist, collaborator, or with Postcommodity, Chacon has exhibited or performed at venues including: Whitney Biennial, New York City; documenta 14, Kassel; REDCAT, Los Angeles; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; San Francisco Electronic Music Festival; Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; Ende Tymes Festival, New York City; 18th Biennale of Sydney; and The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. Every year, he teaches twenty students to write string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project. In addition, he is the recipient of multiple prizes.