Sound Symposium XXII takes place July 15-21, 2026 in beautiful St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Stay tuned for more details!

Filled with 9 days and nights of workshops, improvisation, sound, music, dance, visual and performance art, and everything in between, Sound Symposium XXI was truly a symposium of ideas. From July 16-24, 2024, we were thrilled to host 9 Harbour Symphonies, 17 workshops, 11 live installation/performances, 25 concerts, and countless other unique indoor and outdoor events.

See the line up    Download our poster

Calling All Improvisers!

Night Music is an improvisational music series held the third Thursday of every month at The Ship Pub. Local musicians play a set of their own music, which serves as the basis for the improvisation that follows. Musicians collaborate with organizer Craig Squires to present the evening of music, both planned and impromptu. This is not an open mic, but all players are invited to come down and join the fun.

Day Music is a new initiative held on the last Saturday of each month at the Froude Avenue Community Centre. Local artists offer workshops on a variety of topics related to sound, music, and improvisation. Afterwards, all are invited to partake in an open jam facilitated by the Nova Collective.

Find information about upcoming shows on our FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM pages.

Does your band want to anchor an event? Contact us!

Night Music and Day Music are supported by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, and Recreation. Day Music is additionally supported by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation: Improvising Futures.

Drone Day

Drone Day is an annual celebration of drone, community, and experimental sounds. It was dreamed up by MCLF of Weird Canada, and vibrated into existence by communities and droners around the world. More info at droneday.org

Drone Day is Saturday May 24th, 2025. Join us to Drone and Draw in the Baird Building garage (on the corner of Clifts-Bairds Cove and Harbour Drive). There will be tables and drawing supplies provided, or bring your own – and bring an instrument for the jam! Doors open at 12:00pm, drone starts at 12:30pm sharp accompanying a special Harbour Symphony.

A co-production between Eastern Edge, Lawnya Vawnya, and Sound Arts Initiatives.

ONSOUND is Sound Arts’ biennial four-or-five-day festival, taking place in the odd-numbered years, while the biennial Sound Symposium occupies the even-numbered years. Sound Symposium brings an eclectic mix of hundreds of sound explorers and enthusiasts from around the world, while our new ONSOUND festival celebrates a dedicated area of new and experimental music every other year with workshops, soundwalks, concerts, and more.

ONSOUND IV: what is jazz? – July 16-19, 2025

St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador – Sound Arts Initiatives is proud to present ONSOUND IV: what is jazz? July 16-19, 2025. Showcasing some of the most innovative and boundary-pushing artists from across Canada and right here at home.

Evening concerts with
Lina Allemano Four • Florian Hoefner Trio • Brodie West
Bill Brennan, Patrick Boyle & Rob Power • Ana Luísa Ramos
Greg Bruce • Humberto Piccoli • Natasha Blackwood

Late-night performances by
NPNP Trio • NYON • Lithops Quartet
Zaynab Wilson • Big Space • The Cayenne Trio

Workshops from
Lina Allemano Four • NPNP Trio • Greg Bruce • Persio Dominguez Piantini

Full schedule available here. Festival passes and individual tickets available for purchase through the LSPU Hall box office.

Poster design by Noah Bender

Past events:

ONSOUND III: Squeezefest took place July 19-22, 2023 and celebrated the accordion in its many varied forms, from contemporary and traditional Newfoundland music, to classical accordion, to Brazilian forró pé de serra, to the experimental and avant-garde. It featured workshops and performances from Dave Penney and Daunt Lee, Gracie Reid, Sawtooth, Michael Bridge, Graham Wells and Duane Andrews, Kyle Gryphon and Kady Meaney, Ana and Eric, and Maria and the Band.

ONSOUND II: Patchwork Quilt (2021) saw St. John’s weirdest and most wonderful performers coming together to celebrate art in some uncertain times. In collaboration with First Light, we welcomed Aaron Prosper as an artist in residence, leading workshops and giving a performance with the First Light Community Drummers. ONSOUND II featuring workshops and performances from Duo Concertante, Pamela Morgan, Jing Xia, Kyle Gryphon, the Nova Collective, David Buley, Chad Feehan, Emma Pope, Nicholas Bendzsa, Arabat Beowulf and Mahina Graham-Laidlaw, Joe Fowler, and the Watershed Ensemble. It also saw the premiere of Cinethesia, a filmmaking project in conjunction with the Nickel Independent Film Festival and DarkNL, featuring works by Krissy Breen, Joe Kisusi, Mimi Stockland, Shaalan, Luke Blackmore, Holly Winter, and Atomic Clock.

ONSOUND’s first iteration in 2019 saw St. John’s come alive with experimental electronic music, featuring workshops and performances by Robert Lippok, Debashis Sinha, Knuckleduster, Bekah Simms, Andrew Noseworthy, Andrew Staniland, Joseph Donaghey, Gillian Sheppard, Mado Christie, Ben Diamond, Bert Power, Former Eraser, Header, DJ Krystle Hayden, Over|Out, Chris McGee, Sleeping Police, Thank, and It Could Be Franky.

The Impulse Series is a new interdisciplinary performance series presented in partnership by The Rooms, Sound Arts Initiatives, and Neighbourhood Dance Works. Each evening offers a unique, one-time-only performance shaped by the artists present and the energy in the room.

The series brings together local dancers and musicians to create spontaneous, real-time compositions in an intimate, low-tech performance setting. Each presentation features a small mixed ensemble improvising together—without predetermined choreography or musical scores—and is followed by a short audience reflection period.

Public presentation evenings take place at the theatre at The Rooms between March and June 2026. Tickets and more information are available through The Rooms.

April 10th: Alison Carter, Caedda Enright, Missy Morris, Kate Read, Seonaid Stark
Tickets and artist bios: https://therooms.ca/events/impulse-series

April 24th: Robyn Breen, David Buley, Amy Chafe, Matthew Hardy, Andrea Tucker
Tickets and artist bios: https://therooms.ca/events/impulse-series-0

May 8th: Vanessa Cardoso-Whelan, Andrya Duff, Nicole Hand, Sarah Joy Stoker, Jing Xia
Tickets and artist bios: https://therooms.ca/events/impulse-series-1

June 12th: Simon Alteen, Jennifer Lynn Dick, Yi-Ta (Dean) Hsieh, Gabriel Piller, Heather Rumancik
Tickets and artist bios: https://therooms.ca/events/impulse-series-2

Every other year, Echo Village transforms the Memorial University Botanical Garden into a playground for sonic adventurers and the performing arts. In 2025, Echo Village: stillwaters took place on Saturday, September 20th, from 5:30pm until sunset.

Produced by composer and multi-instrumentalist Benton Roark, each iteration of Echo Village is a little different. In 2025, for Echo Village: stillwaters, we were delighted to collaborate with Julia Carr of Neighbourhood Dance Works, who served as director of choreography. Echo Village was performed by Andrea Tucker, dance; Andrya Duff, dance; Missy Morris, dance; Manae Ryu, flute; Elliott Morrison, trumpet; Jo Dashney, trombone; Chris McGee, saxophone; Matthew Roome, saxophone; Kate Read, viola; Kira Sheppard, harp; Amy Parsons, percussion & keyboard; Gabriela Sanchez Diaz, percussion; Michelle LaCour, accordion & keyboard; Benton Roark, melodica; Tiber Reardon, synth; and Gabriel Piller, synth.

Echo Village: stillwaters featured performances of contemporary works written for spatialized ensemble. For a list of works performed, please see the program here: https://soundsymposium.com/wp-content/uploads/Program-for-Printing-1.pdf