Lia Pas is a Canadian multidisciplinary creator-perfomer who has worked professionally in the fields of music, writing, and theatre. Born in Western Canada, Lia studied music at York University, Toronto (BFA 1995) and completed her Master of Arts in Devised Theatre at Dartington College of Arts (October 2006) in Devon, UK. Prior to her arrival at Dartington, Lia lived in Japan for two years. Lia is a long-time student of Roy Hart Voice work. She has trained with Richard Armstrong, as well as Enrique Pardo and Linda Wise of Pantheatre.

Lia is an accomplished musician (oboe and piano), composer, and vocalist, with substantial achievements in contemporary, improvisational, and classical forms. Her compositions have been performed by soloists and ensembles and broadcast on CBC and BBC Radio. Lia has written poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and scripts. In addition to her volumes of poetry: Husk (JackPine Press, 2008), what is this place we have come to (Thistledown Press, 2003) and vicissitudes (Underwhich Editions, 2001), her literary work has been broadcast on CBC Radio and widely published in Canadian literary periodicals. Her two interdisciplinary shows, The Descent of Inanna (2001) and Baba Yaga’s Hut (2002), for which she wrote or co-wrote the scripts and music, and in which she performed leading roles, played to sold-out audiences in Saskatchewan. In 2009 Lia completed her video poem “susurrations” a film about the heart which combines poetry, found text, composed and improvised music, and movement.
Lia currently lives in Saskatoon where she works extensively with Free Flow Dance Theatre. From 2010-2011 she directed, trained and composed for the Mysterium Choir (founded by Angie Tysseland in 2009). She regularly teaches Voicing classes and workshops.

Lia’s current project-in-process is a manuscript of poetry, performance scores and biofictions around the theme of anatomy. In February 2011 she attended In(ter)ventions:Writing at the Edge residency at the Banff Centre to work on this project with faculty Fred Wah, Lance Olsen and J.R. Carpenter.

Lia’s current work explores anatomy as an imagistic starting point to understand experience. Working with text–both spoken and sung forms–Lia explores the voice in all its range, timbre, and potential. Her music combines drones, trance-like repetition, and rhythmic play with evocative timbral exploration and extended vocal techniques ranging from low growls to high whistle tones. The body being a starting point for her work, physical movement comes into play as a vehicle for both image and text.