A totally unique experience for just $15!
"One of today's most electric, transfixing performers in any genre."
– The Rolling Stone of Tagaq
In a one-night-only event, Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq will fuse her voice with other musical talents, silent film, and organ improvisation for a mesmerizing effect. Controversial silent film Nanook of the North will be projected on screen as Tagaq provides an improvisational soundscape alongside organist Dr. Aaron David Miller, revealing the film’s original score in a new contemporary light.
The contentious 1922 documentary, Nanook of the North, has been widely acknowledged as having paved the way for the modern documentary, and also drew controversy for its clichéd and sometimes fictional images. Along with percussionist Jean Martin and guitarist Bernard Falaise, Arctic-born Tagaq reclaims — through explosive sound — this portrayal of an early 20th century Inuit community in Northern Quebec. Channeling ancient rituals through her own personal ferocity, Tagaq’s wholly improvised performance transform haunting chants, screams, and growls into an ecstatic—sometimes unnerving—journey to a completely new sound world. Prolific composer and organist Dr. Aaron David Miller will be accompanying through improvisation on the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ.
About Tanya Tagaq:
Tanya Tagaq’s music is like nothing you’ve heard before. The Arctic-born artist is an improvisational performer, avant-garde composer and experimental recording artist who won the 2014 Polaris Music Prize for an album called Animism, a work that disrupted the music world in Canada and beyond with its powerfully original vision.
Tagaq contorts elements of punk, metal, and electronica into a complex and contemporary sound that begins in breath, a communal and fundamental phenomenon. While 2014’s Polaris Music Prize win signalled an awakening to Tanya Tagaq’s art and messages, she has been touring and collaborating with an elite international circle of artists for over a decade. Tagaq’s improvisational approach lends itself to collaboration across genres, and recent projects have pulled her in vastly different directions, from contributing guest vocals to a recent F**ked Up song (a hardcore punk band from Toronto) to premiering a new composition made for Kronos Quartet’s Fifty for the Future collection.
Tanya Tagaq’s music and performances challenge static ideas of genre and culture, and contend with themes of environmentalism, human rights and post-colonial issues. In repeated interviews, Tagaq has stressed the importance of considering her work in the context of contemporary – not traditional – art. This statement is not just about sound, although her music is decidedly modern and technically intricate, but about deep-rooted assumptions about indigenous culture in general.
Click here for a recent review of Tanya Tagaq!
Organ programming is generously supported by the Wyncote Foundation.
MEMBERS save 10%. click here to join!
GROUPS OF 10+ SAVE!