SSXXII: Evening Concert Series
Join us for opening night at the LSPU Hall for the first show of our Evening Concert Series with Temporal Waves and friends& !
At the LSPU Hall Doors @ 7pm, Show at 7:30pm.
Early Bird Concert Pass as low as $90!
About the artists:
Temporal Waves is the latest project from renowned Canadian tabla player Shawn Mativetsky, transporting the tabla into a retro-future cinematic sound world. Inspired by sounds of his childhood years growing up with Atari, Nintendo, and early PCs, along with an 80s dystopian sci-fi vision of the future, the music carries a message about the environment, and our need to balance our relationship with nature and technology. Tabla, bathed in the neon glow of analog synthesizers, Temporal Waves is an excursion deep into aural science fiction.
Dynamic performer Shawn Mativetsky is widely regarded as one of Canada’s leading ambassadors of the tabla and a pioneer in bridging Western and Indian classical music traditions. Acclaimed as an exceptional soloist and a leading disciple of the renowned Pandit Sharda Sahai, he is highly sought-after as both performer and educator. Mativetsky is an accomplished practitioner of Indian classical music, and is equally embedded in the contemporary music realm. An avid improviser, he can also be found accompanying countless other artists across and beyond the spectrum between jazz, pop, and global traditions.
“Here is what it feels like to listen to [friends&]. An absolutely disorienting experience, one that makes you feel like you are being dropped into a swirling ocean of sound–tones and noises, familiar and unfamiliar, rocket from one channel to another, coming back in various distorted and undistorted forms, melodies coalesce and dissipate–a totalizing, sensorily all-encompassing feeling. But one that is never not friendly and inviting! Because, thing is, [friends&] is more than anything else a dance-pop [band]–there are hooks for years… hummable melodies and shining, beautiful tones, and propulsive, electrifying rhythms. Sometimes it feels like overcomplex noise, but other times something so pure and melodic and direct will come out that it hits you right between the eyes.”
– merton, folx RYM review, February 17, 2026
friends& is a four-piece pop band featuring BC Power, CT Pond [aka Amateur Painter], JC Grame [aka tirestires], and jksims. We plunder and collage glitch pop, folktronica and neo-psychedelia to produce maximalist electronic dance music. Our debut album, folx, was recently released on Dawk26 Records.
Day 2 of SSXXII! Come to our Evening Concert with Loopstitch and Tiber & John Oliver!
LSPU Hall
Doors at 7pm, Show at 7:30!
About the artists:
Thrilled to have a new commission from Nicole Lizee, Loopstitch features violist Kate Read and sound engineer/artist Michelle LaCour, frequent collaborators since their first artistic foray together during Sound Symposium XIX (July 2018). The two have since taken every opportunity to expand upon their creative efforts, exploring a sonic world comprised of amplified viola; looping, reverb, and delay pedals; synthesizers; and found sounds recorded in nature around the province. Loopstitch use many different elements as starting points to their improvisations, a look into detailed minutiae, a favourite chord or sequence, or something spontaneous. Loopstitch has performed at numerous festivals in NL and Ontario, including Electric Eclectics, Hold Fast, Sound Symposium and the CMC. In 2024 they were awarded the Gerry Porter Award for Creative Improvised Music. Their work has recently moved into live sound design for theatre productions.
Tiber is a multi-instrumentalist modular synthesis sound designer based in St John’s NL. He is an active collaborator with many artists in the music and visual arts communities. You will also likely find him on stage, wielding a bass or electric guitar alongside St. John’s finest musicians. At Sound Symposium 2022 Tiber received the Gerry Porter Award for Creative Improvised Music.
John Oliver‘s “wonderfully, creative music” (Fanfare) displays “a delicate yet often complex sense of beauty” (Musicworks). Oliver has an international reputation as a composer and electronic musician. He has performed as guitarist and electronic musician with the Vancouver Symphony, and in concerts across Canada and abroad. His music has been heard in performances in Europe, Asia and the Americas and appears on over 40 commercial and independent releases. His work “El Reposo del Fuego” for DX7 and soundscapes won the Grand Prize at the CBC’s 8th Young Composers’ Competition. Oliver performs on touch-plate and circuit-bending synthesizers, and granular and resynthesis sound processors that allow him to process amplified sounds, creating washes of every-shifting, multi-layered soundscapes. He currently performs solo concerts, as well as in duo with Douglas Schmidt (bandoneon), and in the trio Squid in Chains, which adds François Houle (clarinet & electronics) to the duo.
Evening Concert series Day 3 with: Duane Andrews, Pirarán & XEL!!
LSPU Hall
Doors at 7, Show at 7:30
About the artists:
Duane Andrews casts a wide net in the musical ocean. He discovered Sound Symposium while growing up in Carbonear and making occasional visits to St. John’s where Harbour Symphonies and throwing pianos off cliffs seemed normal at the time. He is most active these days with The Hot Club Of Conception Bay and you can go deeper into what he does at duaneandrews.ca
Pirarán is a networked ensemble that combines the sound of analogue and digital synthesizers with live coded soundscapes. The band is influenced by synthesis creation and embodiment, just-intonation research and poly-temporal music creation, Latin-American popular modernism (Pérez Prado, Cumbia chichadélica, and MicoRex), and music genres like vaporwave, hippie synth music, techno, glitch, industrial, ambient and noise. This iteration of the ensemble – Pirarán (-) – is formed by Alejandro Franco, Sarah Imrisek, and Iván López.
XEL is a sound and vision composer and sound artist based in Canada, crafting audio-visual and sonic worlds unbound by genre. Through semi-modular synthesis, field recordings, and electroacoustic processes, she weaves complex and conceptual rhythms into expansive ambient and drone soundscapes, work that lives in constant flux between structure and dissolution, the immediate and the infinite.
Her compositions meld organic and synthetic textures, field recordings, analog synthesis, polyrhythmic density, and sub-bass frequencies that viscerally push and pull the audience. Her works shift between dense visceral intensity and intentional, organic minimalism.
Of Lur ancestral lineage, her practice is rooted in eco-feminine thought, mythology, decolonization, and interspecies dialogue. She has performed and exhibited at ArsElectronica, MUTEK.JP, Times Square, Vancouver New Music, and Vancouver International Jazz Festival, among others. Her work has been recognized by the Canada Council for the Arts and published in the IEEE journal.
She finds community in diversity.
Evening Concert Series Day 4 with: Ensemble Meduse & An Laurence 安媛
LSPU Hall
Doors 7pm, Show 7:30pm
About the artists:
Ensemble Meduse is a multi-media ensemble based in Canada. First formed in 2004, Meduse’s first performance was at Sound Symposium in St John’s, NL.
Its members are: Kate Read – viola and sound design, Maria Gacesa – writer, clarinettist, and producer, and Yesim Tosuner – video design and graphic arts.
Meduse’s mission is to create and perform collaborative, inter-disciplinary projects that broaden the audience’s experience of live music, while at the same time allowing the artists to step out of their usual roles. Commissioning over 10 new works they often followed the theme of migration, water and change. Following the inaugural performance in St John’s they went on to perform at Bristol University; UK, Toronto Music Gallery, Festival of the Sound; Parry Sound and McGill University; Montreal. In recent times the ensemble has moved towards creating all aspects of the works themselves, performing “Pray for Rain” at the Montreal Fringe Festival, written and performed by Maria, with live sound design by Kate, and video/lighting by Yesim.
An Laurence 安媛 is a Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal-based musician active in the contemporary/experimental music scene, performance/multimedia artist and a curator. Her work has been presented in music and media arts festivals, arts galleries and by various show producers in Canada, Europe (Portugal, Greece, France) and Asia (Japan, China).
Her eclectic debut album “Almost Touching” (2022), distributed by people | places | records, has been described as displaying “a graceful vulnerability that transforms [the] compositions into a powerful suite of emotive manifestations” (Foxy Digitalis), “a demanding listen … never less than engaging” (The Whole Note), where An Laurence “displays her willingness to dive headfirst along each pathway she chooses to explore” (Musicworks magazine).
A daring performer, An Laurence collaborates with artists from a variety of disciplines and thrives in contexts that reimagine traditional musical performance. Her work has been presented by the Quartier des spectacles, Accès Asie, Théâtre La Chapelle, Groupe Le Vivier, the Music Gallery, Phenomena, No Hay Banda, Oh! my ears, Lucky Penny Opera/re:Naissance opera, Chinatown Biennial, Montreal’s maison de la culture, Athens Digital Arts, Tranås at the Fringe, Codes d’accès, among others.
Our Fifth Day of Evening Concerts! Come and listen to: Duane Andrews, Ink & Echo, junctQín
DF Cook Hall
Doors 7pm , Show 7:30pm
About the artists:
Duane Andrews casts a wide net in the musical ocean. He discovered Sound Symposium while growing up in Carbonear and making occasional visits to St. John’s where Harbour Symphonies and throwing pianos off cliffs seemed normal at the time. He is most active these days with The Hot Club Of Conception Bay and you can go deeper into what he does at duaneandrews.ca
Ink & Echo is a groundbreaking intercultural ensemble debuting at the Sound Symposium with a multimedia performance that bridges traditional Eastern aesthetics and contemporary sonic exploration. The ensemble features an international cohort of acclaimed virtuosos: award-winning guzheng artist Jing Xia, renowned for her genre-blending approach to the Chinese zither; Honolulu-born violinist Patrick Yim, an advocate for contemporary works with non-Western instruments; Dutch clarinetist and philosopher Michel Marang, a specialist in avant-garde and theatrical music; and celebrated Newfoundland percussionist, composer, and producer Bill Brennan.
The performance premieres a new work by composer Jing Zhou, whose distinct style fuses bold musical ideas with her Chinese heritage. Inspired by ancient poetry and the visual philosophy of Chinese ink painting, the piece explores the interplay of “”dots and lines”” through structured composition and spontaneous improvisation. Enhancing this immersive experience, AI-generated ink paintings—created in response to classical verse—will be projected as a visual dialogue, guiding the conceptual framework of the music. Ink & Echo invites the audience into a layered space where ancient poetry, modern technology, and cross-cultural expression converge.
junctQín (pronounced ‘junction’) consists of pianists Elaine Lau, Joseph Ferretti, and Stephanie Chua. The name of the collective is taken from junctio – the Latin word meaning to join, and from Qín – the Chinese character for keyboard instrument. junctQín’s goal has been to recast the idea of the piano as more than a solo recital instrument. The ensemble has discovered and re-introduced works for multiple hands from the 20th and 21st centuries alongside commissioning new works for piano six-hands, unusual keyboard instruments such as toy pianos, melodicas, and synthesizers, as well as those featuring everyday objects and live-electronics.
Praised by Musicworks Magazine for their “…unfaltering, polished performance [that] is a testament to years of work as a unit,” the ensemble has commissioned and premiered over forty works by Canadian and international composers and interdisciplinary artists since its inception in 2009. Their performances have been featured at venues and festivals including the Canadian Opera Company’s Four Seasons Centre, Open Ears Festival, NUMUS, and the Toronto International Electroacoustic Symposium.
Recent highlights include the release of the interactive digital platform PLAYrePLAY (playreplay.ca) featuring three new works by Nicole Lizée, Germaine Liu, and Lieke van der Voort; as well as a record release with Quatuor Bozzini.
Day 6! Come to the Evening Concert at the DF Cook Hall with ChromaDuo and Weather Vane
DF Cook Hall
Doors 7 pm, Show 7:30pm
About the artists:
One of North America’s leading guitar ensembles, ChromaDuo shares uncommonly beautiful music with audiences throughout the world. For the past fifteen years, Tracy Anne Smith and Rob MacDonald have concertized across Canada and throughout the United States, as well as in Mexico, England, and Germany.
Passionate advocates for their art form, their deep creative connection allows audiences to immerse themselves fully into the music. The Iserlohner Zeitung observed, “As ChromaDuo sounded the first harmonies, you could hear a pin drop in the house of worship. Smith and MacDonald immediately captivated the audience.”
They are the dedicatees of works by top composers, including Roland Dyens, Stephen Goss, Dale Kavanagh, and Dušan Bogdanović. In the 2022/23 season they commissioned and premiered works by legendary Leo Brouwer, uncanny Canadian Amy Brandon, and iconic Brazilian Sergio Assad. As Naxos recording artists, their music can be heard on all major streaming platforms.
They are also active international educators; Rob MacDonald teaches at the University of Toronto and Tracy Anne Smith is Assistant Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
Weather Vane is a Montréal-based collective that produces exciting, novel works featuring state-of-the-art music technology in the hands of master performers. The group’s current lineup features saxophonists Greg Bruce and Tommy Davis, clarinetist Maryse Legault, as well as technologist and composer, Kasey Pocius. Weather Vane seeks to highlight the expressive potential offered by woodwinds that are technologically augmented, extended, and modified. By implicating performer research, improvisation, and instrument design, the collective blurs the lines of creation, fostering a collaborative synergy that harnesses expertise across many disciplines. Notably the group has presented works with eTube, Canadian-made musical software SpireMuse, feedback saxophone, as well as clarinet and fixed media.
It’s the final day of SSXXII !! Come out to our last Evening Concert with Gina Burgees and Hans Tammen.
First Light CPAC 81 Cochrane St
Doors at 7pm, Show at 7:30pm
About the artists:
Internationally recognized artist Gina Burgess is a multi-genre violinist, composer, yoga instructor, educator, and musician wellness facilitator. A former member of the Juno nominated Iqaluit-based Arctic rock band “The Jerry Cans”, a four-time ECMA award winner with the Hot Swing group “Gypsophilia”, and collaborator with numerous ensembles, Burgess is sought after!
Her debut album, “ISNOW”, won the 2024 ECMA fusion recording of the year award. This project reflects her diverse experience, mixing classical music with Celtic folk and incorporating contemporary Inuit throat singing with elements of jazz.
Burgess recently published a book, “One Note at a Time: A Musician’s Guide to Health on the Road.” This activity book serves as a health and wellness resource for touring musicians. It presents a new perspective to life on the road, aiding touring artists in developing a personalized wellness practice.
Burgess’s newest music is improvisational in nature and not confined to a specific ensemble structure. These compositions draw inspiration from the minimalist composers of the 1960s and aim to create large-scale, hypnotic musical experiences through repetition of rhythmic and melodic gestures. Like light, these pieces evolve and transform over time. Burgess’s original compositions have been described as ethereal, genre-defying, and filled with Spirit.
Hans Tammen is just another worker in rhythms, frequencies and intensities. He likes to set sounds in motion, and then sit back to watch the movements unfold. Using textures, timbre and dynamics as primary elements, his music is continuously shifting, with different layers floating into the foreground while others disappear. This flows like clockwork, “transforming a sequence of instrumental gestures into a wide territory of semi-hostile discontinuity; percussive, droning, intricately colorful, or simply blowing your socks off” (Touching Extremes).