What Brings You In by Leslie Ting. A Leslie Ting production in partnership with Theatre Passe Muraille. Theatre Passe Muraille. 16 Ryerson Avenue. Mainspace. October 18, 2025. Continues until October 25; tickets here.
Leslie Ting’s striking confessional piece What Brings You In advertises that, “Your listening is the transformative act,” but, as an audience member on opening night, it didn’t feel that was the case.
It was Ting’s brave intimate style that should be acknowledged, providing a dramatic focus for the audience to appreciate. Listening was the most passive part of the event.
A Transformative Artist
To be fair, Leslie Ting certainly invites those attending a performance to work with her.
At one point, Ting asks those who wished to do so to come on stage and participate in the piece. More than a handful did, but all they were asked to do was to lie comfortably near her as she continued relating the story of her life.
No doubt their presence impacted positively on Ting’s performance, but it didn’t turn What Brings You In into a communal experience. As an audience, we were moved by her artistry and honest communication: it was the way her life unfolded that truly showed a transformation — or perhaps a self-revelation.
What Happens On Stage
Ting combines music and monologue to create a direct bond with her audience. A classically trained violinist, she plays with a deceptive assuredness that moves from the precise requirements of a piece by renowned contemporary composer Linda Catlin Smith to creating a heartfelt improvisation with percussionist Germaine Liu.
But Ting’s intent in What Brings You In is far more interesting conceptually than just making a fine concert.
What drives the evening is Ting’s recounting of her life in which music plays a significant role. From her childhood, Ting knew that she wanted to be a violinist. Her parents — particularly her mother — strongly disagreed. It made the young Leslie Ting anxious and indecisive.
As a theatrical event, Ting’s structure is simultaneously unusual and straightforward. She moves between the direct address of recounting her personal struggles to playing music from compositions by Smith, Rose Bolton and Julia Mermelstein, as well as improvs with Liu and electronics, often provided by Matt Smith.
As noted, the audience is encouraged to participate with Ting as supporters on couches.
Ting’s Trauma
Most sensitive individuals have experienced difficulties growing up — both psychological and existential — so it’s no criticism of Ting or her family that her problems growing up motivate What Brings You In.
The struggle between what the youthful Leslie wanted, and the desires of her mother are heartrending and quite relatable to many of us. As a youth, who didn’t want to be an artist, and how many parents approved of the choice? The fact that most of us have struggled with our parents to be allowed to express ourselves makes her piece so relatable.
There is an essential irony in Ting’s narrative that makes her tale particularly piquant. Ting, who only wanted to be a violinist, satisfied her family’s compulsion to have her become a professional by studying optometry.
How terrible was it for Leslie Ting to have her mother slowly go blind after she abandoned optometry for music? Much of the emotional power in Ting’s piece is in coping with age and infirmity while staying true to the course of being an artist.
The Power of the Event
Leslie Ting is a fine musician who can play everything from the classical repertoire — she’s a former member of the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony — through improvisations to contemporary compositions, some of which she’s commissioned. This adds a gravitas to What Brings You In, which has as its narrative thrust the daughter-mother conflict that so many of us have experienced as family members.
It’s surprising when an avant-garde piece is able to find an audience. By combining the personal with the musical, Leslie Ting has boldly done just that. Judging by the enthusiastic response by the opening night audience, Ting has created something unique and relatable.
By Marc Glassman for Ludwig-Van.
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