Toronto, January 22, 2024 – Over its past five iterations, the annual Women From Space Festival has rapidly ascended as one of Toronto’s most anticipated and singular music events. Its programming—both playful and profound—celebrates a constellation of gender-diverse creators from across Canada and abroad, with artists operating in a wide variety of aesthetic expressions, both within and beyond the musical domain. The festival’s illustrious alumni includes the likes of Susan Alcorn, Lotte Anker, Ingrid Laubrock, Eve Egoyan, Kris Davis, Nicole Mitchell, Sook-Yin Lee, Thanya Iyer, and Judith Berkson.
As before, the festival’s sixth edition begins on International Women’s Day (Friday March 8th), running until March 10th. Each of the three evenings will unfold at 918 Bathurst, home to Toronto experimental music institution the Music Gallery.
Acclaimed Toronto/Berlin trumpet dynamo Lina Allemano kicks off the festival with her duo Bloop alongside Mike Smith (Sandro Perri, MV+EE) on electronics. Stewart Smith praised their deliciously abstract debut in the Wire remarking that “Proof offers a deft balance of the playful and the reflective, its eccentricities enhancing the beauty.”
Meanwhile, Mali Obomsawin‘s debut recording Sweet Tooth was one of 2022’s most celebrated albums with year-end-list mentions from The Guardian, NPR, and JazzTimes, plus countless glowing reviews. In a co-presentation with the Music Gallery, Obomsawin brings her unique amalgam of folk, exploratory jazz and elements of her Abenaki heritage to life at the festival with a quartet that includes lauded improvisers Mili Hong, Allison Burik, and Magdalena Abrego.
American composer and saxophonist Matana Roberts has spent many years at the forefront of experimental music, releasing a string of critically acclaimed albums on premiere Montréal label Constellation, appearing on the cover of the Wire, and having tastemaker the Quietus refer to them as “one of the most important figures in contemporary American music.” For their performance at Women From Space, they are joined by the brilliant local percussion colourist Germaine Liu and textural-trumpet master Nicole Rampersaud.
The festival’s in-house large ensemble BIG BANG! returns, paying tribute to Björk with arrangements from inventive musicians Jessica Ackerley, Mingjia Chen, Lieke Van Der Voort, Madeleine Ertel, Nicole Rampersaud, and Heather Saumer. The group is an all-star, 17-member improvising band with an unconventional make-up that includes three percussionists, electronics, winds, strings, and voice. Tara Kannangara, Shn Shn, Laura Swankey, and tUkU Matthews will be featured as singers while live visuals will be supplied by father-daughter duo, The Liquid Crystal Display (Zola and Jason Ball).
The Haitian-born, Brooklyn-based composer, drummer, and turntablist Val Jeanty (AKA Val-Inc) is another international guest this year. Currently an instructor at Berklee College of Music, she has had installations showcased at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Lincoln Center in New York City, as well as at Jazz à la Villette in France, the Venice Biennale in Italy, and SaalFelden Jazz Festival in Austria. She’s also been heard alongside the likes of Anthony Braxton, Andrew Cyrille, and Geri Allen. Jeanty is joined by Toronto dancer Nickeshia Garrick in a co-presentation with Toronto Dance Theatre. The Dora-winner has appeared in works by Tara Butler, Kaeja d’ Dance, Serge Bennathan, James Kudelka, Ballet Jorgen, the Newton Moraes Dance Theatre, and TDT itself.
The Canadian Music Centre’s CMC Presents Series (curated by WFS alumnus Karen Ng) is another co-presenter for this year’s extravaganza. Their collaborative offering is MOCH (Nahuatl for “all, everything”), the duo of Mexican-born mallet percussionist Patricia Brennan (of the GRAMMY®-nominated John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble) and DJ Arktureye. In 2019 the pair premiered an audio-visual suite composed by Brennan called “Raíces Jarochas”, paying homage to her roots in Veracruz at John Zorn commissioning series for beloved NYC venue National Sawdust. Elsewhere MOCH collaborated with the likes of noted bassist Michael Formanek and percussionist Mauricio Herrera, while Brennan plays/ has played alongside Tomas Fujiwara, Tomeka Reid, Vijay Iyer, Reggie Workman, and Wadada Leo Smith.
Local interdisciplinary artist Morgan-Paige brings their singular theatrical energy to the Women From Space stage this year following recent partnerships with Hillside, Tapestry Opera, MOCA Toronto, Wavelength, TDT, the 21C Music Festival, and Polaris-Prize winning rapper Backxwash. Grace Scheele presents her hypnotic, hot-wired harp playing in a solo set. Meanwhile versatile virtuoso Anh Phung (flute/electronics), chiquitamagic (collaborator to KNOWER, Bernice and others on synths), and Audiopollination Guelph/ ponyHAUS instigator Emjay Wright (drums/objects) join forces in a festival-curated improvising trio.
Past Praise for Women From Space
“If anything characterizes the work heard here, it’s a special fluency between styles, cultures, and technologies, or between the individual improvisers.” — Stuart Broomer, Musicworks
“The Canadian festival is a musical summit of international collaborations and compositions addressing urgent political issues”— Xenia Benivolski, The Wire
Early bird passes and full program will be available on the Women From Space website at the low price of $30 starting Monday January 22nd. On February 19th, this pricing jumps up to $38, while individual event tickets will be available for $15 advance, and $20 at the door.
TICKETS/ PROGRAM/ OFFICIAL WEBSITE : https://www.womenfromspace.com/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/womenfromspace/
INSTAGRAM: @womenfromspacefestival
