L-R: Saxophonist Jeffrey Leung (Photo courtesy of the artist); saxophonist Bea Labikova (Photo courtesy of the artist); percussionist Michael Murphy (Photo courtesy of the artist); Composer/curator Haotian Yu (Photo: Maxwell Zhang)

Toronto’s Soundstreams presents Transoceanic, the next iteration of their free TD Encounters Series, on January 19. The concert, curated by Haotian Yu, examines the intersections between technology and the disaporic experience, and features music from Corie Rose Soumah, Kotoka Suzuki, and Anthony Tan.

The three diasporic composers offer works seen through the lens of science fiction, transforming sound and light, and step outside the Eurocentric narrative that is typical of the classical-contemporary music realm.

A discussion and audience Q&A with Yu will follow the performance.

The Music

Technology, like notions of diaspora, is geographically fluid. It flows everywhere, all over the world, but carries with it traces of the cultures where it has lived.

Corie Rose Soumah: Limpidités VI (2025)

Described as “a brief investigation on blooming, dread & tinted clouds”, Limpidités VI layers saxophones, cowrie shells, and electronics to evoke the essence of the Black Atlantic.

Anthony Tan: Horizontal and Vertical Forces (2014)

The composer writes about this work for electronics, “This piece plays with how we hear sounds as one thing or as many. Materials sometimes lock together and feel like a single source. At other moments they pull apart into separate layers that interfere, overlap, and fade. Timing, tempo, and modulation push sounds toward fusion or separation. Nothing stays fixed for long. Perception shifts as the piece unfolds. Timbre changes with attention, space, and time.”

Kotoka Suzuki: Delicate Anticipation (2023/25)

Delicate Anticipation uses percussion and fixed electronics with repurposed electric lighting, creating delicate silhouettes that draw on Japanese aesthetics. It’s a use of shadow that contrasts the usual Western ideals of light and what we call progress.

The Performers

Bea Labikova, saxophones

Slovak-Canadian saxophonist and improviser Bea Labikova music spans the range of free improvisation, avant-garde, modern jazz, and Slovak folk music. She performs in a variety of ensembles such as “No Beginning, No End” alongside Germaine Liu and William Parker, the avant-groove ensemble future proof, the avant-jazz group Triio, and the contemporary afrobeat band Asiko Afrobeat Ensemble.

Along with her specialty in the alto saxophone, she has been creating her own style on the fujara, a Slovak overtone flute, an instrument she has taken out of its usual home in the folk music world to explore its percussive potential.

Bea is the co-founder, visual artist and one of the driving forces behind the Women From Space Festival.

Jeffrey Leung, saxophones

Performer, collaborator, and educator Jeffrey Leung is the Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Queen’s University, and serves as the Associate Director of the International Saxophone Academy. He performs with ensembles such as the Newfound Chamber Winds and Moanin’ Frogs saxophone sextet.

Jeffrey has presented recitals and concerts of repertoire that ranges from traditional to contemporary throughout North America, including appearances at the Maryland Wind Festival, and with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Kingston Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, and Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, among others.

His performances can be found on albums and recording projects by Michigan State University, people|places|records (PPR), Arts Laureate, and Sly Pup Productions. He has premiered and commissioned more than 30 new pieces for the saxophone, including music by Viet Cuong, Shelley Washington, Joel Love, Theo Chandler, Spencer Arias, Annika Socolofsky, Keaton Garrett, Alexis Bacon, Timothy Peterson, Roydon Tse, Baldwin Giang, Matthew Browne, Joe Krycia, and Gregory Wanamaker.

Dr. Leung earned degrees in Saxophone Performance and Music Theory from Michigan State University, University of Michigan, Northwestern University, and University of Toronto, and is a sought after guest artists at schools and universities across North America.

Michael Murphy, percussion

Chinese-Canadian percussionist Michael Murphy has performed across North America, Scandinavia, Europe, and Asia. He has performed as an orchestral musician with the Toronto Symphony, the National Ballet of Canada, the Esprit Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic, and the Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg. Murphy regularly plays with organizations such as New Music Concerts, Continuum, Arraymusic, Soundstreams, and Ensemble Scope, and has appeared in festivals such as Nuit Blanche, the New Creations Festival, 2D2N in Odessa, and Frau* musica nova.

His is a passionate advocate for Canadian music, and has commissioned and premiered concertos by Alice Ping Yee Ho, Liam Ritz, and Bob Becker, and shared a number of Canadian works with international audiences. He performs and commissions new music both as a soloist and chamber musician in groups like Duo Holz (with Aysel Taghi-Zada) and Freesound.

Beyond the concert stage, his credits include recording percussion for and appearing in the film Tuner starring Leo Woodall, Dustin Hoffman, and Havana Rose Liu, and he is the featured xylophone-soloist in the videogame Cuphead (Delicious Last Course, 2022).

His discography of chamber and contemporary works includes music by Brian Current (Missing, 2025), Huang Ruo (Book of Mountains and Seas, 2025), Paolo Griffin (Supports and Surfaces, 2024), Russell Hartenberger (Arlington, 2024), Sophie Dupuis (Comme Bon Lui Semble, 2023), and Chris Paul Harman (Works 2019-2023).

Michael has studied Japanese taiko, Iranian tombak, and Gagaku in Osaka with the Shitennōji Gagaku troupe Garyokai, and is a frequent guest lecturer at universities in Toronto, Germany, and Japan,

Curator Haotian Yu

Haotian Yu is the winner of the 2025/26 Soundstreams New Voices Curator Mentorship Program for the Encounters Series.

Canadian composer Haotian Yu was born in Shanghai, China, and currently lives and works in Berlin. His music draws from Chinese musical traditions and social practices.

Yu studied at the HfMDK Frankfurt (Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts), and the Eastman School of Music, along with seminars and other exchanges with a variety of teachers in Germany, Russia, and Canada. Yu garnered eight SOCAN Foundation Young Composer Awards (including the 2023 Grand Prize), and has been twice included in the Canadian Section submission to the ISCM World Music Days.

From 2022-23, he was the artist in residence at the Akademie der Künste Berlin, and since 2018, he is artistic director of the Beijing-based AIR contemporary music collective. For the 2025-26 season, he is the composer in residence with the International Ensemble Modern Academy (Frankfurt). He has collaborated with groups such as ensemble mosaik (Berlin), Freesound (Toronto), Divertimento Ensemble (Milan), members of IEMA (Frankfurt), Ensemble Fons (Essen), AIR contemporary music collective (Beijing), Jaume Darbra Fa (Murcia/Cologne), and Michael Murphy (Toronto/Freiburg).

Soundstreams’ TD Encounters

You can expect the unexpected at the Soundstreams’ TD Encounters free event series, which are qual parts performance, artist discussion, and Q&A, presented in a relaxed and intimate setting.

Transoceanic takes place on January 19 at Hugh’s Room Live. Register for the event, and find more details, [HERE].

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Anya Wassenberg

Anya Wassenberg is the Toronto City Editor at Ludwig Van. Previously, she was a freelance writer with a specialty in culture and travel for three decades, and a creative writing instructor for Ontariolearn.