SHIFT Festival: February 25-March 3

SHIFT

Movement and meaning between Canada and the Netherlands

A Festival of Canadian and Dutch Music, Film and Literature

Phase Two ’Äì Toronto: February 25 ’Äì March 3, and April 2, 2009

Harbourfront Centre, Music Gallery, Gallery 345, Isabel Bader Theatre

www.shift-festival.ca

For Immediate Release ’Äì Toronto, January 26, 2009: Following the highly successful first phase of the festival of Canadian and Dutch music, film and literature mounted by Continuum Contemporary Music and partners in Amsterdam in November, SHIFT is coming to Canada. From February 25-March 3, and on April 2, 2009; SHIFT events will take place at Harbourfront Centre, Music Gallery, Gallery 345 and the Isabel Bader Theatre. Programmed by some of Canada’Äôs top artistic voices ’Äì Continuum Contemporary Music, Authors at Harbourfront Centre and The Images Festival, in collaboration with York Quay Galleries, Ives Ensemble and Toca Loca ’Äì SHIFT is an opportunity for self definition and comparison between two historically connected but markedly different nations.

SHIFT Toronto

Concerts, screenings, exhibitions, workshops, literary happenings, collaborations, and artistic exchange and dialogue pick up in Canada where they left off in Amsterdam. Some of the concerts and events in Toronto are a reprise of Amsterdam activity; others were designed specifically for SHIFT in Canada. Besides the nexus of SHIFT activity in Toronto from February 25 ’Äì March 3, with a later event on April 2, there is the Canadian tour of the esteemed Ives Ensemble, with concerts in Montreal, Ottawa, Kitchener and Vancouver.

Highlights include a joint concert of Continuum and the Ives Ensemble, one of the premiere Dutch new music groups. These two ensembles, important in their respective countries for supporting aesthetic adventure in music, combine for commissioned works by Linda Bouchard (CA) and Guus Janssen (NL) and perform other works separately, by Gyula Csapo (CA) for the Ives, and by Mayke Nas (NL), for Continuum’Äôs musicians all playing inside the piano. SHIFT offers emerging Toronto composers the benefit of the Ives’Äô skill and dedication in a workshop held at the Music Gallery. In Toronto only, the inspired and versatile jazz pianist and new music composer Guus Janssen performs a solo concert at Gallery 345. Toronto-based Toca Loca hasn’Äôt been on the scene long but is keenly felt as a thorn in the side of convention. In e1gh+¬€ 31gh7 they bring the spirit of Dutch rebellion to an often staid Toronto by performing more works by Mayke Nas and Guus Janssen, as well as works by Canadians Laura Barrett, Myra Davies, Jerome Blais and world premieres by Chris Smalloochi and Aaron Gervais. In the eight hands and 40 digits of Quatuor Bozzini, new music is executed with brilliance. From their Amsterdam programme they repeat works by Dutch composers Martijn Voorvelt, Hanna Kulenty (originally from Poland, she shares her time between the two countries) and Richard Ayres (originally from the UK.) For the past several decades the Netherlands has imported labourers, chiefly from Turkey and Morocco, to do jobs that native Dutch demur; the country has also welcomed arts migrants, people who go there often to study then stay for the advantageous climate they find for art. Kulteny and Ayres are two such. Though Ayres’Äô quartet is from 2003, Quatuor Bozzini gave its first complete performance in Amsterdam as they are the only quartet yet to be able to handle the difficult middle movement. Dutch and Canadian film and video works, programmed by Images Festival, are presented in one evening and the festival kicks off with an authors’Äô panel presented by Authors at Harbourfront Centre ’Äì new and startling Dutch and Canadian voices in discussion. See detailed schedule below.

SHIFT was conceived by Continuum’Äôs Artistic Director Jennifer Waring during her Metcalf Foundation-funded residency with Gaudeamus in 2005-06. At its root, the festival is an investigation of the bond between the two markedly different countries, a bond created during the Second World War and through the subsequent wave of immigration to Canada; SHIFT provides new perspective on the relationship. She writes, ’ÄúThe Netherlands is small, rich in human history, and still comparatively uniform in makeup; Canada is large, young as a modern state, and diverse in its population. In these rather obvious factors the countries are diametrically opposed, and to an expatriate ’Äì a privilege I had on and off over seven years ’Äì the contrast is a head-swiveling, breathtaking experience that can provoke hyperactive theorizing. But a base of common outlook and perception prevents total disorientation and makes comparison possible. Beyond these is an ineffable but strong affinity.’Äù

SHIFT Toronto Schedule

Jan 24 ’Äì Mar 8

Exhibition by Dutch jeweller Felieke van der Leest

York Quay Galleries, Harbourfront Centre

235 Queens Quay West

Free Admission

Info: 416-973-4000

ˆÝ Dutch artist Felieke van der Leest combines toy animals, crochet work and precious metals to form humourous and colourful jewellery and objects.

Wednesday, Feb 25

19:30 Authors at Harbourfront Centre

Brigantine Room, York Quay Centre

235 Queens Quay West

Tickets: $8/FREE members & students with ID

Box Office/Info: 416-973-4000

ˆÝ Dutch authors Lieve Joris, Anja Sicking, Lucette ter Borg, and Tommy Wieringa, along with a Canadian author TBC, take part in a panel discussion to share ideas, explore new writing, and spark discussion of larger issues in literature.

Thursday, Feb 26

19:30 Film and video from The Netherlands and Canada

Studio Theatre, York Quay Centre

235 Queens Quay West

Free Admission

Info: 416-973-4000

ˆÝ This special double feature was conceived of as an exchange between two festivals’Äîthe Impakt Festival in Utrecht and the Images Festival in Toronto’Äîon the occasion of the SHIFT Festival. Arjon Dunnewind (Impakt) and Pablo de Ocampo (the Images Festival) have each assembled a program that tries to define something about their respective countries through video.

Anna Lange: De Aardappeleters (The Netherlands)

Julika Rudelius: Tagged (The Netherlands)

Corinna Schnitt: Das schlafende Mˆ§dchen (Germany)

Klaas van Gorkum & Iratxe Jaio: Monitoring the Dordtselaan for Maximum Peace of Mind (The Netherlands)

Erik van Lieshout: Respect (The Netherlands)

Wendelien van Oldenborgh: No False Echoes (The Netherlands)

Aleesa Cohene: All Right (Canada)

Daniel Cockburn: Brother Tongue / Langue Fraternelle (Canada)

Kevin Lee Burton: Nikamowin (Song) (Canada)

Mike Rollo: Ghosts and Gravel Roads (Canada)

Friday, Feb 27

20:00 Concert: Toca Loca

The Music Gallery, St. John-the-Martyr Church

197 John Street

Tickets: $25 adults / $15 seniors & arts workers / $5 students

Box Office/Info: (416) 204-1080

ˆÝ Toca Loca presents: e1gh+¬€ 31gh7

Toca Loca's Simon Docking and Gregory Oh tackle Ordinateur v Typewriter, Say-Say=CC, live Aussie irony and straight talk from Stevie Harper. With Xin Wang and The Walter Haul: Nichol S. Robertson, banjo, Chris Willes, sax/elec, Bram Gielen, bass and Dean Pomeroy, drums.

Mayke Nas: DiGiT #2 (two players and a piano)

Mayke Nas: Anyone can do it (for six unprepaired players)

Guus Janssen: Veranderingen [Changes] for 2 pianos

Aaron Gervais: Sensational Revolution in Medicine (for soprano and speaking pianist), world premiere

Jerome Blais: Con Stella (for piano and ensemble)

Chris Smalloochi: Pierogie State Fair (for piano, dildo, typewriter, office bell, voice, kazoo, and fascist cock-bag Prime Minister), world premiere

Laura Barrett: Robot Ponies

Myra Davies: No Time

Saturday, Feb 28

19:30 Concert: Continuum and the Ives Ensemble

Brigantine Room, York Quay Centre

235 Queens Quay West

Tickets: $25 adults / $15 seniors & arts workers / $5 students

Box Office/Info: 416-973-4000

ˆÝ Continuum Contemporary Music and the Ives Ensemble perform individually and together in a performance of Canadian and Dutch works.

Linda Bouchard: Joint Venture (Ives and Continuum combined)

Guus Janssen: Ex Tempore (Ives and Continuum combined)

Gyula Csapo: Parmi les Blancs et Noirs... at...Intervals...from the Cabin (Ives Ensemble)

Mayke Nas: Douze mains (Continuum)

Gerald Barry: Piano Quartet No. 1 (Ives Ensemble)

Sunday, Mar 1

20:00 Concert: Quatuor Bozzini

The Music Gallery, St. John-the-Martyr Church

197 John Street

Tickets: $25 adults / $15 Music Gallery members / $5 students

Box Office/Info: (416) 204-1080

ˆÝ The acclaimed Quatuor Bozzini performs Canadian and Dutch works

Richard Ayres: No. 38 Three Small Pieces for String Quartet (2003)

Hanna Kulenty: String Quartet No. 3 (Tell me about it) (2006)

Martijn Voorvelt: 4/4 for string quartet (1999)

Walter Boudreau: Le grand mˆ©ridien (2002)

Tuesday, Mar 3

16:00 ’Äì 20:00 Ives Ensemble workshop for students and emerging composers

The Music Gallery, St. John-the-Martyr Church

197 John Street

Free admission

Box Office/Info: (416) 204-1080

ˆÝ The Ives Ensemble presents a workshop for local students and emerging composers (composers working professionally but not yet established). Composers are invited to submit scores for consideration.

Thursday, April 2

20:00 Notes on Composing ’Äì opening night of the 2009 Images Festival

Isabel Bader Theatre

93 Charles Street West

Tickets: $15 adults / $12 students & seniors

Advance tickets available March 13: www.imagesfestival.com/store

Info: (416) 924-4945

ˆÝ The Images Festival and Continuum Contemporary Music present an evening of collaborations: five Canadian filmmakers working with Canadian and Dutch composers

Composer/Filmmaker: Title

Martin Arnold/Christina Battle (Toronto/Toronto): Behind the Shadows

Richard Ayres/Guy Maddin (Renkum/Winnipeg): Glorious

Oscar van Dillen/Clive Holden (Rotterdam/Toronto): 2 Cameras @ Sea

Rick Sacks/Vera Frenkel (Toronto/Toronto): ONCE NEAR WATER: Notes from the Scaffolding Archive

Malcolm Goldstein/DaˆØchi SaˆØto (Montreal/Montreal): Trees of Syntax, Leaves of Axis

Continuum is supported through grants from The Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the city of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council; the Metcalf Foundation's Strategic Initiatives programme; the SOCAN, Emerald and McLean foundations; by patrons Aurora Tewksbury Reford, Ann Southam and Christopher Des Brisay; by the accounting firm Newman & Sversky; and as well, through the generosity of many private donors.

SHIFT is supported by The Canada Council for the Arts, Muziek Centrum Nederland, Muziekgebouw aan ’Äòt IJ, the Consulate-General of The Netherlands, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quˆ©bec, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Charles Street Video and a variety of individual and corporate donors.

For more information on SHIFT please contact Festival Coordinator Josh Grossman at (416) 924-4945 or josh@continuumusic.org , or visit www.shift-festival.ca .