{"id":48705,"date":"2017-10-30T12:47:43","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T16:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=48705"},"modified":"2017-10-30T12:47:43","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T16:47:43","slug":"on-the-radar-tanya-tagaq-and-the-concert-no-one-is-talking-about-but-should-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/10\/30\/on-the-radar-tanya-tagaq-and-the-concert-no-one-is-talking-about-but-should-be\/","title":{"rendered":"ON THE RADAR | Tanya Tagaq And The Concert No One Is Talking About, But Should Be"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tanya
Tanya Tagaq<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

YYZ\u2019s a big town and there\u2019s always loads going on. The media is saturated with shouts of information for upcoming shows and productions that creates a kind of option paralysis. That is unless you try to look up 01 November 2017: Tanya Tagaq Tour at Trinity-St. Paul\u2019s United Church, Toronto.<\/p>\n

Go on, get a\u00a0search rolling<\/a> on your browser.<\/p>\n

The lack of information is a little strange, considering that Tanya Tagaq is an international icon of the avant-garde; that and she is a proper Canadian superstar.\u00a0 Weaving out of traditional katajjaq<\/em>, Inuit throat singing, she\u2019s already sung with Bj\u00f6rk (Ancestors<\/em> on Med\u00falla, <\/em>2004), and won a Polaris Music Prize with Animism<\/em>, in competition against Drake (Nothing Was The Same<\/em>) and Arcade Fire (Reflektor<\/em>) in 2014, and was shortlisted again in 2017 with Retribution<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Her albums have been reviewed by the Rolling Stone<\/a>, the Guardian<\/a>, and NPR<\/a> \u2014 the list goes on.\u00a0 Oh, and she\u2019s already named to the Order of Canada.<\/p>\n

Her fierce political stance and guttural, hypnotic, and ultraviolent soundscape may scare (or even offend) the general public who are more comfortable with lush voices of opera and gentle art songs- until we realize that we have seen her before. We had heard her voice, along with familiar faces.\u00a0 We saw her this past spring<\/a> with Toronto Symphony Orchestra as featured soloist for the new commission for Canada Mosaic<\/em> Series, Qiksaaktuq<\/em>, and her work with the renowned Kronos Quartet includes Tundra Songs<\/em> (2015), and compositional collaboration, Sivunittnni<\/em>, as part of Fifty for the Future<\/em><\/a> project. And yes, we did hear its premiere<\/a> last year in town, in the familiar Koerner Hall.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the reader may wonder aloud at this point: how does throat singing relate to the classical music anyhow? Certainly, there are enough operas and standard classical shows going on in town?\u00a0 Why should I venture out to this unfamiliar music?<\/p>\n

David Harrington of Kronos Quartet states the need for discovery succinctly:<\/p>\n

\n

“You hear something that changes the way you think, then you try to make that sound for yourself and you have begun to add to your collection of essential homemade musical experiences\u2026 What would happen if we could, through our years of working with hundreds of composers from many places, make a body of incredibly interesting, fun music that could serve the next generation as a launching pad to a world of discovery?”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n


\n<\/em>And discovery<\/em> is the core of this concert<\/a>. Armed with her longtime collaborators: Jean Martin and Jesse Zubot, the Element Choir with leader Christine Duncan, and guests Ash Koosha<\/a>, and Jeffrey Zeigler (formerly Kronos Quartet), the concert is organized by the National Film Board of Canada for Throat<\/em>, a documentary-in-process on Tanya. The crew is bringing Dolby Atmos<\/em>, the 360-degree sound mix technology, to film what is to become the foundation of the film.<\/p>\n

What is the Element Choir<\/a>, you ask?<\/p>\n

Drawing members from all background, Duncan has been leading the choir over ten years.\u00a0 She uses intuitive gestures to create structured improvisation composition within the group.<\/p>\n

This may sound like a whole lot of jargon: improvisation has been a hot topic in contemporary classical music for a good long while, and we the classical music people are still quite cautious about its definition and applications.\u00a0 Even in the next genre, jazz, the idea of improv is often confined by the mechanical means (applicable theory and idiomatic technique) and by musical <\/em>restraint (pre-constructed structure, the need<\/em> to relate to the original melody, etc.)<\/p>\n

I went to attend Duncan\u2019s workshop for new members a few nights ago (*membership is open to anyone who is interested), and when I confessed the difficulty of \u2018letting one express,\u2019 Duncan agreed that perhaps the idea of organic interaction without the academic rules scared me off:<\/p>\n

\n

“Talking, whistling, vocalizing \u2014 all these things go beyond the idea of singing.\u00a0 What I am asking people to do is listen to collaborate, to build from nothing.\u00a0 I want to have individuals, whom I call elements, to work with me, to create a pointillistic composition\u2026 my role is to give everything I can, to create the environment, to have their back, to make it safe, to make you believe that trainwreck won\u2019t happen.”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Tanya
Tanya Tagaq (Photo: Vanessa Heins)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The collaboration web began long ago, when Tagaq first met Jean Martin about ten years ago, at Guelph Jazz Festival, where both of them were invited to collaborate on one stage. Ever since then, Tagaq worked closely with Martin and Jesse Zubot, and Duncan met Tagaq through Martin.\u00a0 On 2014 France Tagaq Tour, Duncan hopped along, and one day, Tagaq invited her to perform with her- and the rest is history. Duncan quickly became a core Tagaq team member, and for Polaris 2014 award, when the producers wanted something special<\/em>, Jean suggested the addition of the Element Choir \u2014 and they became an integral part of Tagaq\u2019s music.\u00a0 This building of personal relationship is so important to Duncan: it is about recognizing relationship for what it is, as permission to go to places, to be opened up for finding this special\u00a0new awareness.<\/em><\/p>\n

Improvisation is a highly political gesture- one yields one\u2019s autonomy voluntarily, surrenders it to others (or to a leader), and becomes acutely aware of others to the point where each individual is not distinguishable in the mixture, yielding to the group\u2019s exponential expressive potential.\u00a0 To a degree, with written music, we do do this<\/em>, within the general confinement of classical music interpretation<\/em>. However, the Elementals<\/em> are participating in a whole new level, and with that understanding, the program quickly becomes an aesthetic enigma- to be experienced (to witness or even to participate in next Element Choir gig!), then to mull over.<\/p>\n

There is no program to present regarding 01 November 2017 Tagaq show. But perhaps it\u2019s only natural, because this concert is not curated to express anything particular; rather it is heavily charged aggregate that will transform in real time, on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

I find it interesting that Duncan calls Element Choir\u2019s improvisations compositions<\/em>, as it is literally correct<\/em>. This will be a real-time composite, of individuals, of identities and interests, of genres and of collaborative, open energy.<\/p>\n

There is only\u00a0one thing left to do: go to the show.\u00a0 The team \u2014\u00a0 National Film Board, Tagaq and her crew, are almost ready for the composition<\/em>, and they want YOU to be there, the last missing element.<\/p>\n

Tanya Tagaq at Trinity St. Paul\u2019s. Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017. Tickets $30. Full details here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/i>
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Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and reviews before anyone else finds out? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/u><\/a>\u00a0or <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/u><\/a> for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tanya Tagaq teams up with the Element Choir this week at Trinity St. Paul’s. Here’s why we think this is a special one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":48713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,12991,4557,63],"tags":[4717,12992,5091],"yst_prominent_words":[12967,12960,6715,12975,12990,12961,12969,12973,12965,12962,12963,12958,6616,12970,12959,12968,12964,12972,12971,12974],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/TanyaTagaq_1024.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-cFz","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48705"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48705"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48721,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48705\/revisions\/48721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48705"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}