If you’re here in Toronto at the end of November, don’t miss this year’s Toronto Sound Festival at Beverley Halls. The event combines seminars, a composer’s panel, workshops, live music and more.
I spoke with two of the event’s organizers this evening. Paul Stillwell, who is also a member of the Canadian Electronic Ensemble, says the event is all about community.
“The idea is to learn from each other, so we draw from the community for our talks, and share with each other,” he says. “And on the Saturday night we have a party.”
Lori Steuart is another member of the event team. “Because the focus is on community, we want these forums for people to come together and talk about their experiences,” she says. “We have people from all walks – professional sound designers, film composers, advertising composers all the way to someone who has been using analog or modular synthesizers for two years. They all come from different positions and backgrounds. They come together and they talk about their experiences.”
There are a number of highlights.
“Having Hainbach coming in from Germany to do a talk and a performance, that’s a real highlight,” says Stillwell. “He is somebody who has been an inspiration for me and my own music, and for many of the people in the local community. Having him here is truly a special thing. The next one for me would have to be the composers’ panel. We have three excellent composers form the community who work in composing music for the screen, games and for performance.”
Maks, Nailbiter, Good and Butr are all part of an opening set presented by ORO Records. “They are this new label that has come up in the last year or so,” says Steuart. “They’ve got sort of a rotating cast of 10 or so Toronto musicians that are contributing to pieces of work. They do a new release every week or two.
“We also have visual artists who are going to be providing visuals for the night,” she says. “They are a collective called NULLSIGHT. Their work is beautiful and it’s going to fit so well with the different styles of music.”
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