Lawrence Cherney, Founding Artistic Director of Soundstreams, has announced details of the company’s first TD Encounters of 2025. The event, titled Poitu Varen: A Pilgrimage in Sound, will be curated by Toronto-based composer, pianist, and Soundstreams New Voices Curator Mentorship Program winner Kalaisan Kalaichelvan.
Poitu Varen comes from the Tamil language, an expression of farewell that translates literally as “I will go and come back”. Kalaichelvan was inspired by Anne Carson’s book The Anthropology of Water. It describes a kind of relational philosophy that says the way we think about the social and ecological aspects of water as separate issues is only a matter of habit. In fact, the two are intertwined. It acknowledges the idea of living in a collective that includes more than humanity alone.
Kalaichelvan’s goal became a search for meaning through sound, and the concert will feature instruments that have been connected via speakers, along with projected text. The music will offer a meditation on loss and renewal, and the concept of legacy.
The audience seating will be arranged in and around the instruments for an intimate and immersive experience that blurs the usual physical boundaries between listeners and performers.
Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, composer
How do gestures and patterns accumulate through performance, becoming layered with meanings that can cut across generations of music making? That’s what Kalaichelvan explores in his composition.
“The concept of Poitu Varen is grounded in my interest in objects as storytellers, as containing their own history and memory. I wanted to build a piece of music based on resonance — the transformation that happens during a performance, the relationship between performer, object and audience. In a shared space we add to the history of the objects being performed, building a map together of memory, time and place,” says Kalaichelvan in a statement.
Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, (who LvT spotted as up and coming a couple of years ago…), was the winner of the Kathleen Morrow Award in 2024 and the SOCAN Emerging Composer Award in 2023.
As a composer and pianist, the Toronto-based artist works across multiple genres and media, including film, dance, and theatre as well as music for performance. He wrote the score for the film In Flames, selected to be the Pakistani entry in the Best International Feature Film category at the 96th Academy Awards in 2023. The same film screened at Cannes, the Toronto International Film Festival, and other prominent festivals internationally.
In 2021, he was a Fellow of the Sundance Composers lab, and has held a residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He includes artists such as Paul Wiancko and David Harrington of Kronos Quartet, Brian Current and others as his mentors.
Kalaisan’s music has been performed and premiered by Pro Coro Canada, the Dior Quartet, and NMC Ensemble, among other notable ensembles.
Concert Details
Toronto based pianist, keyboardist and composer Chris Pruden will perform on four interconnected pianos, along with double bassist Zoe Markle, known for her work with contemporary music and ensembles internationally, and producer/composer Nick Walker Grimshaw on electronics.
Seats are free for the performance on February 5 a Hugh’s Room, but space is limited. There will be a discussion and audience Q&A following the performance.
- Make your reservation [HERE].
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