Announcing: Global Soundscapes Festival 2019

The VICO’s annual Global Soundscapes Festival is a rich feast of sounds and rhythms, celebrating the intersection of Canadian cultures with musical traditions from all over the world. 

In 2019 the theme is Chrysanthemums & Maple Leaves, and the spotlight is on the instruments and traditions of Japan! We are excited to welcome international guest soloists Naomi Sato (sho), Harrie Starreveld (shakuhachi), Miyama Tokita-McQueen (koto), and Yuji Nakagawa (sarangi), alongside guest composers Tomoko Fukui from Tokyo and members of the Kyushu Okinawa Composers Association. These visiting artists will collaborate with a who’s who of musicians, composers, and guest ensembles from BC’s vibrant contemporary classical and world music scenes.

Connect across continents, cultures and centuries. Join us for some music without borders!

Tickets are on sale now, online at Brown Paper Tickets or in person at Banyen Books (3608 West 4th Ave.). Discounted Festival Flex Passes are also available online! And…pending availability, tickets may be purchased at the venue 1.5 hours before each concert (cash only in this case).

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EVENT DETAILS

  

Open Rehearsal **FREE**

Wednesday May 29 | 3 pm
Vancouver Japanese Language School
Co-presented by Powell Street Festival

Meet some of the Festival’s featured musicians and get an up close look at their their instruments, as well as an inside sneak peek at the process of creating and performing intercultural music.

Featuring: Harrie Starreveld (shakuhachi), Naomi Sato (sho), Miyama McQueen-Tokita (koto) and Geling Jiang (sanxian). Hosted by VICO Artistic Director Mark Armanini.

  

Debris: An evening of traditional Japanese & contemporary Canadian intercultural music

Saturday June 1 | 7 pm

Ucluelet Community Centre
Co-presented by Pacific Rim Arts Society
Tickets $20 / $15

The Festival visits Vancouver Island! We are proud to be partnering with Pacific Rim Arts Society on this concert, which will feature a new mini-opera by Rita Ueda inspired by the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami and the debris that washed up along the west coast of North America. Also on the bill: historical works by pioneering Canadian intercultural composer Elliot Weisgarber; and traditional Japanese music for sho and koto.

Featuring: Harrie Starreveld (shakuhachi), Naomi Sato (sho), Miyama McQueen-Tokita (koto), Geling Jiang (sanxian), and vocalists Sarah Albu (soprano – from Montreal, making her VICO debut!) and Willy Miles-Grenzberg (baritone).

 

Music of the Whole World: Pacific Rim **FREE**

Tuesday June 4 | 7 pm

Native Education College (237 East 5^th Ave., Vancouver)
Co-presented by Powell Street Festival

Meet some of the Festival’s featured musicians and get an up close look at their their instruments, as well as an inside sneak peek at the process of creating and performing intercultural music.

Featuring: Harrie Starreveld (shakuhachi), Naomi Sato (sho), and Miyama McQueen-Tokita (koto), hosted by VICO Artistic Director Mark Armanini

 

Festival Opening Concert

Wednesday June 5 | 8 pm

Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island

Tickets $35 / $25 / $20

The Festival officially opens in Vancouver with this presentation of  Debris: a new mini-opera by Rita Ueda, about the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami, with a screening of the 10-min. documentary by John Bolton that inspired the music. Also: historical works by pioneering Canadian intercultural composer Elliot Weisgarber, and traditional Japanese music for sho and koto.

Featuring Harrie Starreveld (shakuhachi), Naomi Sato (sho), Miyama McQueen-Tokita (koto), Geling Jiang (sanxian), Sarah Albu (soprano) & Willy Miles-Grenzberg (baritone).

 

Borealis String Quartet & McGregor/Verdejo Duo

Thursday June 6 | 8 pm

Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island

 Tickets $35 / $25 / $20 

Vancouver’s beloved Borealis String Quartet takes the stage with flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor, guitarist Adrian Verdejo and soprano Sarah Albu in this chamber recital that features world premieres by BC composers Jennifer Butler and Kara Gibbs (with text by poet Carolyn Nakagawa), as well as music by Toru Takemitsu, Yuriko Kojima, Anthony Genge, and intercultural pioneer Elliot Weisgarber.

 

KOCA: A Japan-Canada Exchange

Friday June 7 | 8 pm

Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island

Tickets $35 / $25 / $20 

Vancouver’s Yaletown String Quartet & visiting artists perform the world premieres of new intercultural works by members of the Kyushu-Okinawa Composers’ Association: Taishi Harada, Goushi Yonekura, Takeshi Saitoh, Yuko Kondo, Keiko Eto, and Airi Yoshioka. This concert is part of a multi-year creative development and exchange project that included concert performances and workshops by VICO musicians in Japan last summer. We are excited now to host six KOCA composers in Vancouver as we present the new intercultural works they have developed in the course of the project.

Featuring: Yaletown String Quartet, Saina Khaledi (santur), Bic Hoang (dan bau), Paolo Bortolussi (flute), Morgan Zentner (oboe), Mike Brown (clarinet), Qiu Xia He (pipa), Lan Tung (erhu),  Naomi Sato (sho), Harrie Starreveld (shakuhachi), Miyama McQueen-Tokita (koto), Michelle Panikkar (percussion) with Taishi Harada (guest conductor) and Janna Sailor (guest conductor)

 

Festival Gala Concert: Zen and Now

Saturday June 8 | 8 pm

Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island

Tickets $35 / $25 / $20 

The full Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra takes the stage with guest conductor John Zoltek and visiting artists, to perform the world premiere of new works by Leslie Uyeda and Tomoko Fukui, the Canadian premieres of Kokoro by Rita Ueda and Phoenix Rising by Farshid Samandari, and Chidori No Kyoku (Song of the Plovers) by Yoshizawa Kengyo in an intercultural arrangement by Mark Armanini.

Featuring: Harrie Starreveld, (shakuhachi), Naomi Sato (sho), Miyama McQueen-Tokita (koto), Bic Hoang (dan bau), Mark Takeshi McGregor (flute)

With: Geronimo Mendoza (oboe), Milan Milosevic (clarinet), Mike Brown (bass clarinet), Mark Ferris (violin 1), Janna Sailor (violin 2), Sarah Kwok (viola), Finn Manniche (cello), Jun Rong (erhu), Bic Hoang (dan bau), Qiu Xia He (pipa), Saina Khaledi (santur), Geling Jiang (sanxian, daruan), Dailin Hsieh (zheng), André Thibault,  Mark Haney (double bass), Brian Nesselroad (percussion) and Jonathan Bernard (percussion)

 

KOCA presents: Music for Piano & Violin

Sunday June 9 | 3:00 pm

Canadian Music Centre (837 Davie St.)

Admission by donation (suggested $20)

Our guests from the Kyushu-Okinawa Composers’ Association (KOCA) present visiting artists Saki Kono (piano) and Taishi Harada (violin) in an intimate programme of solos and duets. Featuring music by Keiko Eto, Yujin Izaino, Taishi Saitoh, Goushi Yonekura, Mineaki Yoshida, and Airi Yoshioka.

 

Powell Street Festival Showcase

Sunday June 9 | 8 pm

Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island
Co-presented by Powell Street Festival

 Tickets $35 / $25 / $20 

Our community partner, the Powell Street Festival, hosts this showcase of local Japanese musical acts, featuring:

• Banana Bread: a quartet of multi-instrumentalists with a fondness for the ukulele and a light-hearted pop/R&B/choral flavour
• Kotojiro: a koto & guitar duo with an eclectic repertoire of traditional, pop and world music.

 

 

Raga-tala-Malika! A Garland of Ragas and Talas

With VICO & Friends

Wednesday June 12 | 8 pm

The Rothstein Theatre

Tickets $35 / $25 / $20 

The sounds and instruments of Japan mingle with those of India in this concert, as the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra performs the world premiere of a new work for bansuri and strings by Neelamjit Dhillon, alongside The Longing Sky, Moshe Denburg’s ground-breaking double concerto for shakuhachi and sarangi. Featured soloists will be Harrie Starreveld (shakuhachi) and Yuji Nakagawa (sarangi), under the baton of guest conductor John Zoltek. Also on the bill: Nesting Cranes for shakuhachi and strings (traditional, arranged by Farshid Samandari), and an intercultural orchestral arrangement of George Harrison’s Within You and Without You by Mark Armanini.

With: Mark Ferris  (violin 1),  Susan Cosco (violin 1), Janna Sailor (violin 2), Louise Lee (violin 2), Elyse Jacobson (violin 3),  Jeffrey Chow (viola 1), Tony Kastelic (viola 2), Finn Manniche  (cello), Bo Peng (cello 2), Mark Haney (double bass),  Jun Rong (erhu/gaohu), Lan Tung (erhu), Saina Khaledi (santur), Ali Razmi (tar), Geling Jiang (ruan), Mohammad Amini (kamanche), Marjan Alekhamis (kamanche),  Mike Brown (bass clarinet), Niel Golden (tabla),  Jonathan Bernard (percussion)

 

Special House Concert

Thursday June 13 | 7 pm 

The Annex on Blenheim (5590 Blenheim St., Vancouver)

Tickets $75 (includes concert, light refreshments, tax receipt for $50)

The Festival closes with this intimate performance featuring Harrie Starreveld (shakuhachi) and Yuji Nakagawa (sarangi); a unique opportunity to witness two virtuosi play both separately and together, on their traditional instruments from Japan and India. Also featured: Niel Golden (tabla).