It’s official!  Sound Symposium XXI is happening July 16 -24, 2024 in St John’s. Join us for sound beyond boundaries.
Experience the best in international new music and sound art. Schedule coming soon!

See the line up.      Download our poster

Calling All Improvisers!

Night Music is an improvisational music series held the third Thursday of very 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.

Find information about upcoming shows on our Facebook page.

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

Sponsored by the Sound Art Initiative, Inc., and presented by the Downtown Academy of Improvisers.

The Harbour Symphony is original music written for the horns of the ships in the St. John’s harbour. This signature fanfare of the Sound Symposium transforms the ships in the harbour into an orchestra on water. Each Harbour Symphony begins with a radio countdown transmitted to the bridge of the ships by the Coast Guard where players stand at the helms of tugboats, trawlers, and ocean-going freighters. At the signal, a giant, floating horn section reverberates off the Southside Hills and through the streets of old St. John’s, echoing the soul of this 500 year old seaport.

On July 24th, at 8pm at Cape Spear National Historic Site an outdoor site specific event is being created for Sound Symposium, by Hear Here Productions (hearhereproductions.ca). Directed by Erin Donovan and choreographer Susanne Chui, this program involves 30 performers including dancers and musicians and features special guest Eastern Owl. The audience will be led through outdoor and indoor spaces where a variety of experimental sound and movement events are being designed to reflect the history, the natural beauty, and the sounds of this place.

Show is approximately 1 hour 15 minutes in length. Bring layers, shoes for walking, water, binoculars, a blanket or chair if you need one. Show begins just off the main parking lot. A bus will be provided from St. John’s to Cape Spear departing at 7:20 pm from 72 Harbour Drive.

This event is supported by Celebrate NL, Arts NL, Year of the Arts, Hear Here Productions and Sound Symposium.

CAPE SPEAR 24

Artistic Director Erin Donovan (Hear Here Productions)
Co-Artistic Director/Choreographer Susanne Chui

The island of Ktaqmkuk/ Newfoundland is the traditional territory of the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq. We also acknowledge Labrador as the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Innu of Nitassinan, the Inuit of Nunatsiavut, and the Inuit of NunatuKavut. We are all treaty people who are working together in the spirit of reconciliation to create a better future for our children, for generations of children to come and for the land that we share. CAPE SPEAR 24 is both a celebration and a reflection on the beauty of this place, the natural and human presence here, and a look forward to what is possible when we listen and use our energies in creative, collaborative ways.

Today at Cape Spear, you can find the remnants of a Second World War coastal defense battery with a series of tunnels and bunkers with unique acoustic properties. Whales, icebergs and seabirds can be often be spotted from the cliffs. Drums, saxophones and cellos have also occasionally been heard in the bunkers…arrive, listen, look around you and experience CAPE SPEAR 24.

Erin Donovan/ Hear Here Productions is a percussionist, composer, and the Artistic Director of Hear Here Productions. Hear Here has been creating interdisciplinary outdoor and indoor performances for 25 years including 2023’s This Tree Listens for Kitchener, ON’s Open Ears Festival, Trail Reports for Sound Symposium in the MUN Botanical Gardens in St. John’s Nfld, and co-productions with the Banff Centre, Parks Canada, Mocean Dance and tiger princess dance projects. Working in abandoned mines, glacier lakes, public parks and theatre spaces, Hear Here strives to create inclusive experiences that invite audiences of all ages to listen more deeply. Collaborative works with Susanne Chui (Mocean Dance) include Burnwater, a series of outdoor films called Woodlight (with poet Alice Burdick), and interdisciplinary trio Becoming Old Growth (with poet Basma Kavanagh). As a percussionist she has performed with the Canadian Opera Company, the Calgary Philharmonic, Symphony Nova Scotia, Alkali Collective and her trio Saltwater Percussion (with Rob Power and Bill Brennan). She is a former student of Sound Symposium’s founder, Don Wherry and his spirit continues to influence her work.

Susanne Chui is a mother of two, an award-winning dance artist and Co-Artistic Director of Mocean Dance http://www.moceandance.com/.

As a performer for 22 years, Susanne has worked with over 25 choreographers from across the country, and her dancing in Mocean’s Canvas 5 x 5, choreographed by Tedd Robinson, earned her the 2016 Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia’s Masterworks Award. A passionate improvisor, Susanne collaborates across disciplines and is a faculty member of the Creative Music Workshop. Her choreographic work has been presented by Kinetic Studio, the TD Halifax Jazz Festival, and Mocean Dance and her most recent project is Becoming Old Growth, a collective with Erin Donovan and Basma Kavanagh.

CAPE SPEAR 24 artists include:

Eastern Owl, Andrea Tucker, Andrya Duff, Tammy McLeod, Marie-Josée Chartier, Robyn Love, Jeff Reilly, India Gailey, Louise Moyes, Bill Brennan, Lucas Goudie, Amy Parsons, Greg Bruce, Duane Andrews, Gabriela Sanchez Diaz, Jennifer Mong, Kathy Kennedy, Joe Sorbara, Sarah Rossy, Geordie Haley, Kasey Pocius, Persio Dominguez, Nuilbeth Ortiz de Dominguez, Ana Luísa Ramos, Vanessa Cardoso-Whelan, Bruno Vinhas, Timothy Feeney, Cassia Streb, Stephen Eckert, François Houle and more!

Technical support: John D.S. Adams, Michelle LaCour, Heather Rumancik, Emily Critch, Greg Locke, Terry Day, David Hiscock, Kathy Clark-Wherry and Sound Symposium crew

Many thanks to: Sound Symposium, Parks Canada (Pascale Gerdun McGuire and Glenn Keough), Rob Power and Kellie Walsh

Every year we make a noise together that stretches around the world.

Drone Day

Drone Day is an annual celebration of drone, community, and experimental sounds. Dreamed up by MCLF of Weird Canada and vibrated into existence by communities and droners around the world, Drone Day is celebrated across the country. Our version of events is presented with our friends at Lawnya Vawnya.

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 III: Squeeze fest

ONSOUND II: Patchwork Quilt

ONSOUND I: An Exploration of Experimental Electronic Music