According to their statement, the Women From Space Festival — hitting Toronto March 7 to 9 this year — offers, “three days of performances by the visionary women of Toronto’s Creative Music, Improvisation and Jazz scenes”.
The festival has grown from humbler origins to three days of innovative artists who not only blur, but simply ignore the lines between experimental and improvised jazz, electronic, and contemporary classical music.
We spoke to Bea Labikova, one of the Festival’s organizers, about Women From Space and its lineup this year. It’s the 7th iteration of the festival, and the Slovak-Canadian saxophonist and improviser has been involved from the beginning.
“Yes, from the beginning in 2019,” she says. The first Women From Space was a collaboration with another organization involved in Toronto’s experimental jazz scene.
“We wanted to celebrate that the incredible work that the women in this city are doing,” she says.
For it’s inaugural outing, Women From Space took place over four days in small venues, some with a capacity of only 20 or 30 people. This year, three multi-artist concerts take place in the 200-seat theatre at the 918 Bathurst complex.
“It’s really nice to see how the festival grew through the years.”
Bea Labikova (saxophone), Germaine Liu (drums), and William Parker (bass), Live at Women From Space Festival, March 8, 2020 at 918 Bathurst Centre (recorded by Paul Hodge):
Women In Space 2025: March 7 to 9
On March 7, the festival opens with a triple bill, including Allison Cameron: Small Scale Experimental Machine.
“Allison is an amazing improviser and composer,” Bea says. Cameron has a longstanding reputation and presence in Toronto’s jazz scene, and appeared in the first ever Women From Space. “We like to have the opening spot for someone exactly like that.”
Labikova says Cameron is preparing the titular Machine as a new project for Women From Space.
“What I hear, it’s going to have field recordings, projections, surround sound.”
Women From Space Big Bang! Plays Nina Simone features a large ensemble who pay tribute to the jazz and Civil Rights icon. “The Big Bang! is 20 people,” Bea says. The group was drawn from Toronto’s music scene.
“We commissioned six Canadian arrangers,” Labikova explains. “It’s about an adventurous, imaginative approach to the material.” It’s part of a focus that’s placed each year on a specific artist. For 2024, Bjork’s music was chosen to spotlight. Nina Simone was both remarkable artist and culturally significant figure. “I think she’s so important to the Civil Rights movement and what it represents.”
The new arrangements and interpretations come from a place of homage. “It all comes from love for it.” Each of the composer/arrangers (Olivia Shortt, Mingjia Chen, tUkU, Pursuit Grooves, Madeleine Ertel, Tania Gill, and Alexa Belgrave) were chosen in part for their existing affinity for Simone’s music and message, and understood what Labikova calls “the gravity of her music”. Nonetheless, they had free reign to celebrate and reimagine in unconventional ways.
The performance also includes live visuals by Meghan Cheng.
Also on the bill on March 7: the Plastic Babies album release, featuring Christine Duncan, Patrick O’Reilley and Laura Swankey.
On March 8, the show opens with what Labikova calls a “cross pollination with Toronto Dance Theatre”. The co-presentation features Erin Poole and Chantelle Mostacho (movement), along with Rosina Kazi (voice), and shn shn (synths, voice). “Deep improvised dialogues between sound and movement,” she describes. “Each year, we are presenting at least one music and movement improvisation piece.” The passion for experimental music is deeply connected to movement.
“It’s really incredible when these two disciplines meet,” she says.
The March 8 bill also includes two more performances that blend movement with music. US-based artist yuniya edi kwon uses both violin, voice and movement to improvise and explore ritual. Azumi OE and Eucademix, also based in the US, blend electronics and Butoh dance in performance.
The festival finale begins with Meara O’Reilly‘s Hockets For Two Voices, with vocalists Mingjia and Linnea Sablosky in an a cappella performance. It’s followed by Arushi Jain in a performance on modular synths that blend electronic music and traditional Indian idioms.
Women From Space closes with Myra Melford‘s Fire and Water Trio. The legendary American avant-garde pianist Myra Melford is joined by saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and Lesley Mok on drums.
“She’s an amazing pianist” Bea says. “She’s going to bring her Fire and Water Trio, and we’re very excited to have her. She’s a very special international guest.”
They’ll be performing a trio version of Melford’s own quintet, a work and performance that blurs the lines between composition and improvisation. “There are some high energy textures.”
Improvisation & Experimental Music?
In night clubs and smaller venue, there’s been a recent upswing in interest in the experimental and improvised music scene in Toronto.
“The energy feeds into the festival,” Labikova says. She calls it a very grassroots movement that incorporates a lot of DIY shows.
“The beauty about this music is that it’s inherently inclusive.” The musicians come from varied backgrounds, including classical, jazz, folk, electronic music, and other genres. “A lot of people from different backgrounds have an easy entrance into it,” Bea says. It’s a space where the lines between the genres melt away.
“That’s really exciting to me.”
That broadly based background of musicians makes for endless possibilities for experimentation. Coming together for the music, and in particular for improvisation, also creates community.
“I feel like that’s a big factor,” Labikova says. It includes both audience and artists. “I think there’s something really human about seeing people make artistic decisions on the stage.” There’s interactions between the musicians, as well as with the audience.
The connections are important. “At this time, we are hungry for those kinds of experiences,” she says. As she points out, sometimes those experiments work well… and sometimes they don’t. It evolves in front of the audience.
It’s a kind of opposition to the very polished recordings that constitute the commercial side of the music industry. “We are hungry for this side.”
The festival has also received a lot of support in terms of finding people to handle the behind the scenes work, and volunteering. “I’ve had a lot of people express an interest in this kind of music,” she says.
“We can do so much with so little. That’s because of the energy and the vision.”
- Find tickets and more information [HERE].
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