At Your Doorstep by Parmela Attariwala
Parmela Attariwala (composer / violin)
Described as “one of Canada’s most original and compelling artists”, Parmela Attariwala has been active in genre-bending music and performance since 1994. She has toured and recorded with an array of musicians that includes Carla Bley, Ravi Naimpally, James Campbell, Anthony Braxton, Ed Hanley, Ernst Reijseger, John Taylor and Don Thompson. She has also collaborated extensively – as composer, musician and movement artist-–with a diverse range of choreographers, including Gitanjali Kolanad, Keiko Kitano, Claude Wittmann and Karen Kaeja.
An ardent improviser and proponent of improvisational pedagogy as a tool for cross-genre musical communication, Parmela has been an active member of Toronto’s free improvisation scene. In addition to traditional symphonic work, she also performed contemporary orchestral music for twenty-five years with the Esprit Orchestra, as well as smaller works with Toca Loca, New Music Concerts, Ensemble Noir, and the Queen of Puddings Theatre Company.
Parmela finds her creative home in the Attar Project. Conceived as a vehicle to integrate the eclectic strands of her own musical background, the Attar Project engages artists across musical genres and artistic practices in virtuousic collaborations that maintain the essence of each while challenging the boundaries between them.
After cultivating a 25 year career in Toronto, Parmela moved to Vancouver, BC in 2019 to be closer to family, returning to the lands of the Coast Salish peoples where her grandparents made their home in the early 1900s. Parmela continues to focus on contemporary and experimental music in Vancouver, performing with the NOW Society, Redshift, Vancouver New Music, and Jared Burrows’ Temporary Ensembles. She has also returned to interdisciplinary composing, recently fulfilling a series of commissions that offer musical reflections on works by visual artists Peter Morin, Nep Sidhu and Jeffrey Gibson.
Video Production Credits
Director of Photography – Kerry Phillips
Gaffer / B Camera – Yong Jin Kim
Audio Engineer & Mix – Sheldon Zaharko
All additional photography – Kerry Phillips
Filmed and recorded on July 27, 2020 at Pyatt Hall (VSO School of Music) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
For the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra:
Global Soundscapes Festival Producer – Mark Armanini
Senior Project Manager – Farshid Samandari
