Calendar

Silence Presents: Canadian Women Composers Project

Doors at 2:00 PM
Concert at 4:00 PM

Tickets available here. 

"New Music & Jazz" is giving audiences the unique experience of hearing jazz musicians unite to perform an entire concert of tunes by women jazz composers. 
 
The performance, brought to you by Silence, Guelph and The Canadian Women Composers Project, features Canadian jazz vocalists Laura Swankey, Belinda Corpuz, Lieke Van Der Voort, and percussionist Germaine Liu.
During the course of an hour and a half you will hear vocal music by composers Juliet Palmer, Lieke Van Der Voort, and the premiere of Preposterous Locutions by Tova Kardonne and I Hear You by Belinda Corpuz and Laura Swankey.
​

Laura Swankey - vocals/piano
Belinda Corpuz - vocals/guitar
Lieke Van Der Voort - vocals
Germaine Liu - percussion/vocals
Tickets:
Early Bird Special: $12 + tax
Door: $15

The Canadian Women Composers (CWC) Project is an organization dedicated to bringing greater awareness to vocal music by Canadian women founded in 2016 by Canadian soprano Clarisse Tonigussi. In the 2018/19 Toronto season, The CWC Project is continuing to support the music of Canadian women in a concert series spanning multiple genres: from folk to opera.

The CWC Project concert with Silence Presents features Toronto based jazz singer Laura Swankey and a band of Canadian female jazz musicians behind her. The music on the programme is written by local female/ female-identifying/ non-binary composers including Lieke van der Voort, Tova Kardonne, and Juliet Palmer, some of whom have been commissioned by The CWC Project to write works for the performance. 

Laura Swankey

Canadian vocalist/ composer/ improviser Laura Swankey is known for her versatility, creativity and open mindedness. She has worked with artists such Juno award-winner Mike Murley, Mark Feldman, Poet Laureate Dennis Lee, Christine Duncan and Ralph Alessi, and premiered works by Juliet Palmer, Elio Villafranca and Mike McCormick. Recently Laura has been collaborating with and touring through Canada, parts of America and Scandinavia with Proxemics, Star Triptych, Jazz Bras Dot Com and her own ensemble.

2018 holds four album releases for Laura: EP Once More featuring music Laura has been developing for solo voice and electronics, Volume II with Toronto’s Collective Order (with support for Toronto Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts), Rivers (Barnyard Records) with music by Juliet Palmer, and Veryan Weston’s The Make Project (Barnyard Records).

This will also be an exciting year of performances including an extensive fall tour around Ontario and Quebec with the European-Canadian ensemble, Proxemics. Laura will spend most of June as a resident artist at Toronto’s Artscape Gibraltar Point continuing to develop new music for her solo project. This music is a continuation of the etherial sound world she has been developing in various collaborative projects over several years. Combining acoustic and processed voice to create soundscapes underneath simple, ernest melodies and stories, the sound that is minimalist at some moments, can be dense, raw and abrasive at others.

As she continues forward as an active member of the Toronto music scene, Laura continues to focus on fully exploring imagination within her voice; to exploit it’s full capacity in both live and studio settings, as a solo singer and collaborator.

To learn more about The CWC Project and its mission you can visit: www.canadianwomencomposersproject.com

or go to

www.facebook.com/TheCWCProject/

www.instagram.com/thecwcproject/

www.twitter.com/TheCWCProject

[46 Essex]

Space limited to 25 women.

Sisters, we gather again for a Song Medicine circle on Saturday, March 30th at Silence in Guelph.

Facilitator: Rita di Ghent (Sister Moon)
Cedar Tea drinking and teaching: Maya LaRose
Wisdom Doll Making: Rhonda Nolan

WHAT TO EXPECT:
"Truthfully I almost didn’t show up today because I’m feeling so raw and vulnerable with grief. I’m so glad that I took the leap. I felt fully held and supported and connected. It was deeply healing to hear (and relate to) everyone’s stories, insights, fears and dreams. Rita, your voice and songs and bass riffs were such a delight. Much gratitude."

"Thank you dear lovely Rita! So much wisdom shared by all, so amazing to hear it expressed in so many ways through words, your music, tenderness, various stages of women from everywhere. Thank you from the bottom of my wild passionate heart and soul!"

MORE: Women who were at last Spring's circle can continue their journey together with new Song Medicine and stories. Women who haven't been to a Song Medicine gathering before: we welcome you to experience it with us!

This Song Medicine gathering will look at empowering teachings within the Life-Death-Life Inuit tale of Sedna and Clarissa Pinkola Estes' compelling teachings surrounding it.

What is "Song Medicine"? It's a gathering of women in created sacred space that is trusting and non-judgmental. There are 4 components:

1.Stories from Women Who Run With the Wolves as re-told by Rita.
2.Shares
3.Song Medicine (songs written by Rita that combine Clarissa Pinkoka Estes' story analysis with Rita's personal insights and experience. Songs are interactive.)
4. The Sisterhood Cafe! (Optional)

What Song Medicine gatherings ARE NOT:

Reading from books.
Advice-giving.
Music therapy.

What Song Medicine gatherings ARE:

Deeply empowering.
Safe and Non-judgmental.
Both serious and playful.
Very creative.

About the Sisterhood Cafe (from 5:45-7:45) at Silence:

There's a break from 4:00-5:45 at which time those who wish to re-gather at Silence to (1) share and (2) have witnessed your creativity in any form: a poem, a journal entry, a memory, a story, a spontaneous sketch, a song. It's a chance for us to drink in each others' Creator-given creativity. Feel free to dress in whichever way makes you feel your most beautiful, empowered self. Bring out the bling, the headdresses, the colours!

Self-Investment: $70 plus $5 materials fee for artist Rhonda Nolan (all doll-making materials supplied) =$75
DISCOUNT: register by March 1st and receive a $20 discount: $50 + $5 = $55

How to Register (max 25 women): please send an email to Rita at dearsistermoon@gmail.com and a registration form will be sent to you.

I'm so excited to gather with you again. Love, Rita

[46 Essex]

Dreamy soundscapes on world instruments.
8 p.m. start $20

[46 Essex]

Soundscapes for wellbeing
10 a.m. to noon $20 Silence
[46 Essex]