A message from artistic director peter hatch

Welcome

Open Ears is back! It is time to book the days off in your calendar, be prepared to turn off your television, computer, Blackberry, iPhone, etc and come experience five days of activity that will engage, entertain and possibly change your life.

This year we bring artists from as far afield as London, New York, Seoul (Korea) and Cambridge Bay (Nunavat). We’ll hear sounds brought to us by recent technologies, from an orchestra of laptops (PLOrk) to the turntable as instrument (DJ P-Love), to the recently invented “t-stick” (performed by Andrew Stewart), which responds to gestural movement — the ultimate conductor’s baton. At the same time, new-to-us sounds come from ancient traditions and the oldest of musical instruments, the human voice, ranging from Noreum Machi’s renditions of Korean “pansori” to the Arabic-trained voice of Maryem Tollar and from the unearthly sounds of Tanya Tagaq (trained in Inuit throat singing) to the overtone singing by Da Capo Chamber Choirs in Gerard Yun’s new work for them.

Our composer-in-residence this year is Montreal’s Nicole Lizée, whose works appear three times over the weekend, including the new world premiere of a piece written for Greg Oh for keyboard and ensemble. Nicky’s work is fascinating for the way it embraces and straddles both “pop” and “serious” musical traditions, synthesizing many musical influences in a way that requires no expertise in any of them.

A number of artists in this year’s festival investigate popular culture in a variety of ways. Popular music, as we know it, was an invention of twentieth century mass media, where a small numbers of “stars” and “hits” were available through the (relatively) few channels of radio stations and record labels that dominated. As this kind of large scale mass media gives way quickly to the plethora of narrowcasting available through the internet, what was once completely marginal is now completely available and known to a larger percentage of the population.

It is interesting to note the strong sense of nostalgia that characterizes the work of artists like John Oswald and Vicki Bennett, two artists who appropriate images from popular culture in ways that are highly investigative, critical and entertaining. John is famous for his groundbreaking work in “plunderphonics”, which predated the sampling phenomenon underlying hip-hop. Vicki Bennett’s (People Like Us) multimedia works juxtapose popular images (like similar “mashup” activity) in ways that are both hilarious and bitingly critical. Similar sensibilities are found in the video work of installation artist Marc Couroux and Matt Rogalsky’s new installation Discipline will see twelve electric guitars respond sympathetically to a local classic rock station. The performance of the “Halo Ballet” on Toca Loca’s concert examines our relationship to popular culture in a very unique way — we watch as three expert “gamers” play the classic “Halo” with the goal of perfecting balletic-like synchronized movements — less than a handful of shots are fired by the machine-gun wielding thugs while they dance their way through the piece.

Lots to do … you’ll need to book off days because an action-packed schedule will allow for only concertizing, socializing and occasional opportunities for food and sleep. It is a time to energize, rekindle creative thoughts and spirits and hang out with like-minded souls. I look forward to seeing you there!