Autumnal Happiness: Part Two - October 27th 2019
Offshore Matinee Doors open 1:30pm, Concert begins at 2pm Sunset occurs at 6:16pm $20 at the door $17 advance at Soundscapes The Grand Festival of Autumnal Happiness was a quasi annual series of musical concerts celebrating the Fall Season. Rob Clutton and Tim Posgate hatched the inaugural festivities, which were staged at numerous city venues, in the early 2000s. A favoured sonic spot continues to be the wooden church on the Island. The resonance within St. Andrew's by-the-Lake offers an enhanced listening opportunity via its simple structure, grand piano, natural park lagoon surroundings, and distance from urban distraction. Autumnal Happiness (2019) is a two-part concert series..Part One took place September 21 at west end Toronto Gallery 345, curated by Edward Epstein. Part Two ventures offshore to Toronto Island at St. Andrew’s By-the-Lake, Anglican Church. The artists performing will be Rebecca Campbell, Kevin Breit, Ronley Teper, Georgia Webber and the Rather Larger Acoustic Improvising Ensemble (gathered by John Oswald). KEVIN BREIT: Kevin Breit is a Canadian guitarist, vocalist, and singer-songwriter from McKerrow, Ontario, Canada. His group, The Sisters Euclid, has been a fixture at the Orbit Room in Toronto for the past thirteen years. Breit has toured and recorded with a variety of musicians, including Cassandra Wilson, Norah Jones, Michael Kaeshammer, Celine Dion, Marc Jordan, Molly Johnson, Harry Manx, Holly Cole, Rosanne Cash, Serena Ryder, the Rankins, The Miller Stain Limit, and Hugh Laurie. He also performs as a solo artist, and under the Folkalarm moniker. As a member of The Stretch Orchestra, he was awarded the 2012 Juno Award for Best Instrumental Album. Breit has performed on thirteen Grammy winning recordings. REBECCA CAMPBELL is an acclaimed and prolific singer, musician, and sometime songwriter. She plays percussion, Stella guitar, melodica, and harmonica. Most importantly, she sings. She has performed alongside countless individuals and ensembles, notable among many more, and in no particular order, are: Jane Siberry, Lynn Miles, the SPECIAL INTEREST Group, Collette Savard and The Savants, Fat Man Waving, Three Sheets To The Wind, Bec and Rusty, Paul Quarrington, Porkbelly Futures, Parachute Club, Sultans Of String, Radio Dial, Frank Patrick and Soul Medicine, Carol Ann Weaver, Hold The Bus, Ian Tamblyn, Ben Sures, Justin Haynes, Meredith Monk, Jay Douglas, Ernest Ranglin, The Woodchoppers Association… on stages large and tiny across Canada, the USA, and the world. Rebecca's voice has graced both the big and small screen, and she has sung on over 120 recordings. Rebecca will be performing with Pianist TANIA GILL. Acclaimed composer and pianist Tania Gill is a key figure in the Toronto scenes of jazz and creative music. She has performed and recorded with many diverse world-class artists, including Deep Dark United, Charles Spearin’s The Happiness Project, Andrew Downing, The Flying Bulgars, Mary Margaret O’Hara, and Anthony Braxton. RONLEY TEPER Children at heart who love comedic, poetic, theatric, yet at times serious storytelling, alongside truly magical music, should prepare themselves for the surprising world of Ronley Teper. Her group, the Lipliners began over a decade ago as a monthly residency in Toronto. Teper invited a rotating roster of the finest musicians to publicly improvise around her storytelling. This process has developed a body of work that listeners have compared to artists including Tom Waits, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Captain Beefheart, and Laurie Anderson. The Autumnal Happiness concert will be a rare opportunity to hear her unique sounds in a duo setting with TIM POSGATE backing her up on guitar and banjo. Posgate is best known for his work with So Long Seven, The Cluttertones, and Collette Savard and The Savants. Ronley and Tim are off to Europe in November for their third tour of the EU. GEORGIA WEBBER is a comics artist, writer, and editor living in southern Ontario. She is entirely occupied by the intersection of health and art, making music, comics, and facilitating health workshops from this point of fascination. Georgia is best known for her debut graphic memoir, Dumb: Living Without a Voice (Fantagraphics, 2018), the chronicle of her severe vocal injury and sustained vocal condition, which causes her pain from using her voice. This difficult experience lead her to work as a Cranial Sacral Therapist, a meditation facilitator, and an improvising musician, blending elements of healthcare, body awareness, and creative expression within constraints. She has extended her love of the voice into the community with a project called MAW Vocal Arts. MAW hosts a vocal arts showcase event every few months in Toronto, as well as a regular practice session called Breathing Music, where people can explore breath through deep listening, movement, meditation, and sounding. RATHER LARGER ACOUSTIC IMPROVISING ENSEMBLE (gathered by John Oswald) Participants: Scott Thomson Julia Hambleton Ryan Driver Ben Grossman Casey Sokol Michelangelo Iaffaldano D Alex Meeks David Prentice Marvin Green Tiina Kiik Andrea Nann Bea Labikova Rapheal Roter David Sait Germaine Liu Thom Gill Rob Clutton Tim Posgate John Oswald http://www.6q.com/joswbio.pdf Aside from his directing, designing, dancing, and visualizing, John Oswald, a Governor General Media Arts Laureate, and a McLuhan Fellow, is one of Canada’s most internationally-reknowned composers, and arguably its most infamous one. His album plunderphonic has been repeatedly 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. |