Improvisation in Dada, performance and discussion, A Tribute on the 100th Anniversary of the Cabaret Voltaire

MUN School of Music, Suncor Hall
Tuesday, February 5th from 7:30pm-9:30pm

As part of the NewFound Festival of New Music, Improvising Spaces will be presenting a improvisation multimedia happening featuring sound and poetry by the St John's Vocal Exploration Choir, poetry by Hadi Milanloo, music by Peter Ko, Michael Venart, and Andrew Staniland, and costumes by Junlu Zhao. The evening will begin with a discussion of some of the improvisatory techniques used in the early avant-garde performances of the Dada movement and with a discussion of improvisation and use of found objects in fashion design and realization.

Come join us at the MUN School of Music's Suncor Hall at 7:30pm on February 5th. Also, after the event, you are welcome to join us for an after-party at Bitters Pub (216 prince Philip Drive across from the Arts and Culture Centre) with improvised musical entertainment by Rob Power, Andrew Staniland, Chris Tonelli, and Paul Bendzsa.

Junlu Zhao:

Originally from Shanghai China, Junlu Zhao is now a student studying fashion design and handicraft in College of the North Atlantic in St. John's Newfoundland.

Junlu received a Bachelor of Business Management from Shanghai University in 2007. After graduation she began to get involved in the fashion field when working for a world-renowned zipper company in the apparel industry. During that period she gradually realized her passion for fashion. In 2014 Junlu took the professional courses in College of the North Atlantic Textile: Craft and Apparel design program and has exhibited her talent in creation and design. Her works have been shown in several exhibitions and enjoyed positive comments. In 2015 Junlu designed a blue bag dress for the city of St. John's to promote the "Blue is the New Black" campaign for recycling awareness.

Junlu is currently working on her final show of the Textile Program which will be exhibited to the public at Anna Templeton Centre in June 2016.

Hadi Milanloo:

Raised by a family for whom Iranian music was of great value, Hadi Milanloo started to learn Iranian music by playing Setar when I was thirteen. He studied with some outstanding masters of Iranian music including Daryush Talaei and Mohammad Reza Lotfi. Having finished my BMus degree (University of Tehran) where he learned about the performance, theory, analysis and history of Iranian classical music, he decided to continue my education in “Art Studies” because he was interested in investigating the historical-cultural context of Iranian music. In my MA thesis, he explored the relationship between contemporary Middle Eastern sociopolitical contexts and modern-day Iranian music. Although that was an amazing experience, he was not satisfied with Art Studies! So, he decided to pursue a Master’s in ethnomusicology, where he thought his ideas and interests will finally find their home! To expand his recent project, he is studying the relation between Iranian classical music and modern media, including social networks like Facebook and Youtube. He is interested in probing the ways by which this new media is changing the way music is produced and disseminated. His second research interest is the role of music in Iranian’s extended diaspora in North America (especially Canada). His questions are: how and why do Iranians-in-exile listen to this music? Moreover, what’s the relation between the music of younger generations of this diaspora and their parents’ music? Does Iranian music play a role in constructing their identity? For Improvising Spaces 2016, Milanloo will be reading Karawane, a poem Hugo Ball read 100 years ago at the Cabaret Voltaire.

Andrew Staniland:

Composer Andrew Staniland has firmly established himself as one of Canada’s most important and innovative composers. Described by Alex Ross in the New Yorker magazine as “alternately beautiful and terrifying”, his music is regularly heard on CBC Radio and has been performed and broadcast internationally in over 35 countries. Andrew is the recipient of the 2009 National Grand Prize in EVOLUTION, presented by CBC Radio 2/Espace Musique and The Banff Centre, top prizes in the SOCAN young composers competition, and the 2004 Karen Keiser Prize in Canadian Music. As a leading composer of his generation, he has been recognized by election to the Inaugural Cohort of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists Royal Society of Canada in 2014.

Andrew has been Affiliate Composer to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2006-09) and the National Arts Centre Orchestra (2002–04), and has also been in residence at the Centre du Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis (Paris, 2005). Recent commissioners include the Brooklyn Art Song Society, cellist Frances-Marie Uitti, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, and Duo Concertante. Andrew is the lead composer/educator with the Gryphon Trio’s Listen Up! education initiative, created and produced in collaboration with the Gryphon Trio and Rob Kapilow. He also performs himself, both as a guitarist and working with new media (computers and electronics).

Andrew Staniland is currently on faculty at Memorial University in St John’s Newfoundland, where he founded MEARL (Memorial ElectroAcoustic Research Lab). At MEARL, Staniland leads a cross-disciplinary research team that has produced the innovative ARC 16 and ARC 2.0, and electronic music instruments.

Michael Venart:

Completely self taught, Michael Venart has been composing, improvising, and playing music since the very early 1980's.

Peter Ko:

Peter Ko is a cellist currently studying under Vernon Regehr at Memorial University for his MMus. He completed his BA with honors at UC San Diego, where he studied under Charles Curtis and Ashley Walters.
His interests cover the study and performance of a wide variety of music, including classical, popular, jazz and contemporary music. He is not only active as a orchestral, ensemble and solo performer, but also as a teacher in the local community.