Hard to believe that we're two decades into the second millennium. And twenty-five years since I landed in Toronto, intending only to kill the length of time necessary to renew my visa to the UK ... and perhaps make a bit of money. The work was exciting: weekly sessions recording jingles and Hollywood film scores; traversing the underground PATH system as I zipped between any one of four long-running musicals, ballet, opera or stage concerts. Heady days!
The big news is that I will be moving to the west coast in the spring. Yes, it's the opposite direction to the UK, but it is as similar as I can get to the climate! And it has also been the place I have felt most at peace, going every year to spend time with my grandmother on her little farm in Lake Cowichan.
I have a few more performances in Southern Ontario before heading west, including a solo set in Kitchener in February focused on my original choreographed works. I'll be presenting brand new music with choreographic contributions by Roger Sinha, and an improvisation from beyond with Ken Aldcroft. February 22nd, 8pm).*
I will also be creating music to a series of Peter Morin's (OCAD) video scores entitled "NDN Love Songs" on February 14th at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queens University in Kingston. My musical responses will be improvised and recorded on the 14th, and will become part of the exhibit.
*In an ironic bookend to my time in Toronto, I fractured my arm a few weeks before this performance and was unable to complete the recorded part of my score for this new work. So, instead, I improvised with one of the improvisations I'd recorded the week before for Peter Morin's NDN Lovesongs.
(Why an ironic bookend? Because one week before moving to Toronto in January, 1994, I sprained my thumb while skiing and was unable to play the violin for six weeks. The injury kiboshed my plan to take the TSO violin audition in mid-January, something I never had the desire to try for again ... ah well).