Lawrence Cherney, Founding Creative Director of Soundstreams, has introduced particulars of the corporate’s first TD Encounters of 2025. The occasion, titled Poitu Varen: A Pilgrimage in Sound, will likely be curated by Toronto-based composer, pianist, and Soundstreams New Voices Curator Mentorship Program winner Kalaisan Kalaichelvan.
Poitu Varen comes from the Tamil language, an expression of farewell that interprets actually as “I’ll go and are available again”. Kalaichelvan was impressed by Anne Carson’s ebook The Anthropology of Water. It describes a sort of relational philosophy that claims the best way we take into consideration the social and ecological features of water as separate points is barely a matter of behavior. The truth is, the 2 are intertwined. It acknowledges the thought of residing in a collective that features greater than humanity alone.
Kalaichelvan’s purpose grew to become a seek for that means by means of sound, and the live performance will function devices which were related by way of audio system, together with projected textual content. The music will provide a meditation on loss and renewal, and the idea of legacy.
The viewers seating will likely be organized in and across the devices for an intimate and immersive expertise that blurs the same old bodily boundaries between listeners and performers.
Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, composer
How do gestures and patterns accumulate by means of efficiency, changing into layered with meanings that may minimize throughout generations of music making? That’s what Kalaichelvan explores in his composition.
“The idea of Poitu Varen is grounded in my curiosity in objects as storytellers, as containing their very own historical past and reminiscence. I wished to construct a chunk of music based mostly on resonance — the transformation that occurs throughout a efficiency, the connection between performer, object and viewers. In a shared area we add to the historical past of the objects being carried out, constructing a map collectively of reminiscence, time and place,” says Kalaichelvan in an announcement.
Kalaisan Kalaichelvan, (who LvT noticed as up and coming a pair of years in the past…), was the winner of the Kathleen Morrow Award in 2024 and the SOCAN Rising Composer Award in 2023.
As a composer and pianist, the Toronto-based artist works throughout a number of genres and media, together with movie, dance, and theatre in addition to music for efficiency. He wrote the rating for the movie In Flames, chosen to be the Pakistani entry within the Finest Worldwide Function Movie class on the 96th Academy Awards in 2023. The identical movie screened at Cannes, the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition, and different outstanding festivals internationally.
In 2021, he was a Fellow of the Sundance Composers lab, and has held a residency on the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. He consists of artists similar to Paul Wiancko and David Harrington of Kronos Quartet, Brian Present and others as his mentors.
Kalaisan’s music has been carried out and premiered by Professional Coro Canada, the Dior Quartet, and NMC Ensemble, amongst different notable ensembles.
Live performance Particulars
Toronto based mostly pianist, keyboardist and composer Chris Pruden will carry out on 4 interconnected pianos, together with double bassist Zoe Markle, identified for her work with modern music and ensembles internationally, and producer/composer Nick Walker Grimshaw on electronics.
Seats are free for the efficiency on February 5 a Hugh’s Room, however area is proscribed. There will likely be a dialogue and viewers Q&A following the efficiency.
- Make your reservation [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
