Thin Edge New Music Collective Presents:

ONGAKU

*Celebrating Japanese + Canadian Contemporary and Experimental Music*

September 20, 21, 22, 2019

Doors 7:30/ Show 8pm

918 Bathurst | Culture, Arts, Media & Education

Single Tickets: $20 General Admission, $15 Student/Seniors/Arts Worker

Festival Pass:$50 General Admission, $35 Students/Seniors/Arts Workers

ONGAKU is a three day festival and cultural exchange celebrating some of Japan and Canada’s most exciting voices in contemporary and experimental music (September 20-22nd, 2019, Toronto). TENMC will be joined by visiting guest artists Miyama McQueen-Tokita (bass koto), Ko Ishikawa (shō), Ami Yamasaki (voice) and Akiko Nakayama (’alive painting’) as well as Toronto-based Urbanvessel featuring Germaine Liu (percussion), Aki Takahashi (shamisen/voice) and Sonja Rainey (projections/installation). ONGAKU showcases world premieres by Canadian composers Hiroki Tsurumoto, Juliet Palmer, and Daryl Jamieson, alongside new works by Yuka Shibuya, Takeo Hoshiya, Toshiya Watanabe , and the Canadian premiere of compositions by Yoshiaki Onishi, Jo Kondo, Malika Kishino, and Miya Masaoka. ONGAKU will take place at 918 Bathurst and the CMC Chalmers Performance Space in Toronto, with satellite concerts/workshops presented by NUMUS Concerts and Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario (September 18-19, 2019).

ONGAKU is made possible with generous support from: The Canada Council for the Arts, The Japan Foundation, Arraymusic, Dream Cymbals, Urbanvessel and the Canadian Music Centre.

Thin Edge New Music Collective, Tiff and Riparian Acoustics present

CONTRALTO

dir. Sarah Hennies | USA 2017 | 50 min. Video

Sarah Hennies' Contralto has generated a wave of critical praise since its debut at the Brooklyn’s Issue Project Room last year. An experimental documentary designed to be performed with live musical accompaniment, Contralto — which takes its title from the term for the lowest female singing voice — is based on a common practice among transgender women, whereby they learn to change their voices in order to be perceived as “female.” Unlike transgender men, whose voices deepen due to the testosterone prescribed during hormonal therapy, the voices of transgender women remain unchanged by estrogen therapy, and require conscious practice to achieve a higher pitch.

In Contralto, onscreen interviews with and vocal exercises performed by seven transgender women are accompanied by a live score that emphasizes timbre, pitch and tone — qualities of sound that, when found in voices, often signify culturally determined gender cues. Conceived in part as a “protest piece” that challenges the audience to “change their definition of what they think a woman sounds like,” Contralto is a visceral and beautiful exploration of identity through sound.

Contralto is brought to Toronto in conjunction with Tiff and Riparian Acoustics. TENMC will be performing the piece along with a brand new composition commissioned especially for the collective. TENMC performers for the evening include Ilana Waniuk (violin), Nelson Moneo (viola), Amahl Arulanandam (cello), Adam Scime (double bass), Cheryl Duvall (keyboard/percussion), Nathan Petitpas (percussion) and Germaine Liu (percussion).

General admission- $14

Contralto is presented with generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Tiff, Riparian Acoustics, and Arraymusic

PREMIERES VIII

March 23, 2019

Doors 7:30/ Show 8pm

Arrayspace, 155 Walnut Ave, Toronto

Tickets:General - $20, Students/Seniors/Arts Workers - $15

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TENMC's annual premieres series returns with 5 brand new compositions by some of Canada's most intriguing compositional voices. This year, TENMC's intrepid performers are featured as soloists with electroacoustic or visual elements created by:

Roxanne Nesbitt, Lieke van der Voort, Afarin Mansouri, James O'Callaghan and Émilie Girard-Charest

Presented with Generous Support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Dream Cymbals, Toronto Arts Council, SOCAN Foundation and Arraymusic.