I’m excited to announce that my composition a small piece of sky will be performed at the Ritornello Chamber Music Festival in Saskatoon on 30 May 2015.
The festival runs from 29-31 May at three different venues. Carissa Kolopoushak and Jaqueline Woods have been producing this festival for seven years and always have an exciting lineup featuring a number of local musicians as well as musicians who have grown up in Saskatchewan and studied and worked around the world.
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For the past few months I’ve been working with the University of Saskatchewan Drama Department as Musical Director for their upcoming production of Coram Boy.
The action takes place in the 18th century. The benevolent Thomas Coram has recently opened a Foundling Hospital in London called the “Coram Hospital for Deserted Children”. Unscrupulous men, known as “Coram men”, take advantage of the situation by promising desperate mothers to take their unwanted children to the hospital for a fee. The story follows a range of characters, focusing on two orphans: Toby, saved from an African slave ship; and Aaron, the deserted son of the heir to an estate, as their lives become closely involved with this true and tragic episode of British social history (from Wikipedia)
I’m very proud of the cast and choir learning a number of very difficult pieces of music for this play and want to thank Robert Grier for being an excellent assistant music director and conductor and Natasha Martina for her directing and holding it all together.
Coram Boy previews on March 18, opens on March 19, and runs until March 28 (no performance on Sunday, March 22).
There are several ways to buy tickets:
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I’ve been working on a collaborative piece with new media artist Ellen Moffat for the past number of months and am very excited to announce the premiere this November 7 & 8.
Book. Chair. Table. is a three-movement work based on three poems from Gertrude Stein‘s Tender Buttons. I’ve been calling it a new media chamber music theatre piece. I’ve written the music for voice, oboe, double bass, and new electronic instruments. Ellen Moffat has created new electronic instruments which integrate amplified sound, recorded texts, and video projection.
Book. Chair. Table. will be performed by Lia Pas on voice, Erin Brophey on oboe, Richard Carnegie on double bass, and Ellen Moffat on electronic instruments.
Book. Chair. Table. was composed with the support of a grant from the Saskatchewan Arts Board.
PERFORMANCE:
CORE Series V – In Transformation
Friday, 7 November 2014 – 7-11pm – buy tickets here
Saturday, 8 November 2014 – 7-11pm – buy tickets here
Tickets $15.00
at PAVED Arts (424 20th Street West, Saskatoon)
***These performances consistently sell out so please get your tickets quickly!***
A bit more about the piece: Continue reading
On September 20, 2014, I’ll be premiering a new piece at La Caravan Dance Theatre‘s fundraiser, La Soirée. Please join us if you can. Tickets are available through La Caravan.
On Thursday, 22 May 2014, I will be performing my new interdisciplinary piece ossa . ora at the Cathedral Village Arts Festival’s GET LIT CABARET in Regina.
ossa . ora is an imagistic interdisciplinary piece that begins with finding a child’s baby teeth in a jar and goes on to explore through object collage, haiku, text animations, and song what perceptions are evoked by this discovery.
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My very mutable piece a small piece of sky is being performed on November 29 and 30, 2013 as part of the PAVED Core Series.
From the PAVED website:
PAVED Arts presents an evening of contemporary sound and video/film work featuring the Saskatoon Symphony Chamber Players (The Core) and works by Jennifer Sparrowhawk, Alice Teichert & Hri Neil, Gerald Saul, Callen Diederichs, Reilly Forbes & Devin McAdam. The Core Series was the recent recipient of an artsVest™ Outstanding Partnership Award between collaborators PAVED Arts, the Saskatoon Symphony and Affinity Credit Union.
My videopoem susurrations is featured on Street Anatomy today.
Street Anatomy is one of my favourite blogs. Its curator, Vanessa Ruiz is “obsessed with the beauty and intrigue of human anatomy” as am I.
Please click on the link above and then visit the rest of the Street Anatomy site.
Since September 2011 I have mostly hermited myself away in order to work on a manuscript of poetry, text/image pieces, performance scores, and biofictions – all around the theme of anatomy as image. I’m happy to say that I am very close to having a manuscript ready to send out to publishers. The project itself is a huge one. Fred Wah pointed out to me last February that it is likely a life work. It seems silly to keep the work squandered away until the entire thing is done so I’m putting what I have into some semblance of order to send out over the next month. One piece—percuss—has been published in Ars Medica (Vol. 8, No. 1. Fall 2011), and another few pieces are forthcoming in Dandelion.
Please note that starting January 2012 all Voicing Classes information can be found here.
Voicing classes are designed to help you enhance the range, depth, power and resonance of your voice. Using games, exercises, text, movement, improvisation, and song, these classes are recommended for everyone interested in singing, acting, public speaking, or just being comfortable with your voice and how you use it. Lia’s voice teaching is based on her performance and composition work as well as her experiences studying Roy Hart Voice Work, a technique which connects the body, the voice, and the psyche in a healthy and holistic manner. These classes are geared towards adults at all levels of voice experience, from beginners to professional singers, actors, and speakers.
INTRODUCTORY CLASS
Wednesdays, 7:45-8:45 pm
INTERMEDIATE CLASS (for those who have previously studied with Lia)
Wednesdays, 8:45-9:45pm
10-week session:
Sept 21 – Nov 30, 2011
(no classes Oct 12)
Free Flow Dance Centre (224 – 25th Street West – at Avenue C – in Saskatoon)
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Mysterium Choir presents:
An ambient spring experience
featuring music by Lia Pas, Angie Tysseland, Meredith Monk, Hildegard Von Bingen, and others.
With special guests: Free Flow Dance Theatre
Wednesday, April 6, 2011. 8pm
Grace-Westminster Church. 505-10th Street East. Saskatoon.Tickets: $15 general admission, $10 students/seniors. Available at McNally Robinson or at the door.
Mysterium is a choir of fourteen singers whose mandate is to present meditative and innovative vocal works in an immersive environment.
This spring concert will feature works by local composer/performers Lia Pas and Angie Tysseland, including “a small piece of sky” written by Lia Pas for the choreography of Jackie Latendresse, artistic director of Free Flow Dance Theatre. The concert also includes two experimental pieces by American vocal maverick Meredith Monk, “O Ecclesia” by 15th Century abbess Hildegard of Bingen, as well as ambient group vocal improvisations and solos by Lia Pas and Dave Hiebert.
Please join us for this ambient experience. Be surrounded by sound. Begin to truly listen.
director: Lia Pas
assistant director: Kim de Laforest
founded in 2009 by Angie Tysseland
for more information email mysterium.choir@gmail.com or visit us on Facebook.
PROGRAM:
Karmic release chant – Traditional
all soul’s night – Loreena McKennit – Solo by Kim de Laforest
O Ecclesia – Hildegard of Bingen
Astronaut Anthem – Meredith Monk
Angel on the Roof – Angie Tysseland
Di Provenza il mar, il suol from La Traviata – Giuseppe Verdi – Solo by Dave Hiebert
sound cycles – Pauline Oliveros
a small piece of sky – music by Lia Pas, choreography by Jackie Latendresse
Intermission
Witches in the Backyard – Angie Tysseland – Duet by Lia Pas & Kim de Laforest
Panda Chant – Meredith Monk
Ostinato – Spontaneous composition by Lia Pas
Postojna – Herman Rechberger
The Crucifixion – Samuel Barber – Solo by Lia Pas
Karmic release chant – Traditional
