Please note: AFTERNOON CONCERT
3-6 pm: 2 solo sets + CeramiX + duo set
Advance tickets $22 via Eventbrite or $30 at door
SOPHIE AGNEL & JOHN BUTCHER
photo by Christina Marx
[Agnel and Butcher solo set each, followed by IPE CeramiX, then Agnel-Butcher duet]
“Anyone looking for freedom will find it here: Equality on all levels.”
freistil - Austria
As is the way for many improvisers, pianist Sophie Agnel and saxophonist John Butcher’s paths have crossed in varying projects over the years. Working with feature film maker Caroline Strubbe, touring with Ståle Liavik Solberg & Pascal Niggenkemper and in Butcher’s HCMF commission “Fluid Fixations”, for example.
"… a kind of ideal duet, no imitation conversation but two simultaneous composers each repeatedly provoked and silenced, prodded and enchanted by the other…"
– Stuart Broomer (liner notes)
In 2021 they released the duo LP “la pierre tâchée” (recorded live in Berlin) and are particularly interested in further exploring this duo possibility. For Butcher the combination of having a shared musical history but only meeting for occasional performances is ideal for maintaining the freshness of improvisation.
“Agnel and Butcher enjoy a special connection. Moods come and go, variously mysterious, meditative, anxious and intense, but always seemingly governed by a mutually agreed but unpredictable logic. The interchange implies a real-time appreciation of shape and form. Theirs is a perfectly poised communion.”
– All About Jazz
““Extraordinarily powerful, Butcher’s saxophone may test the limits of one’s ear to make sense of the close and complex relationships that are put forth, but there’s an undeniable emotional depth and sheer beauty in his work that supersedes technicality and concept.””
““Agnel plays the piano inside and out as if that’s exactly what its makers had in mind all along... This music is not about precision as much as it is about exploiting a piano’s full textural potential, but the dynamic range of the performance is extraordinary, Agnel’s development of a ‘narrative’ coherent, and the effect on the listener utterly galvanizing.” ”
Much gratitude goes out to Scott Thomson and FIMAV for making this Transatlantic trek possible! 40th anniversary of Victoriaville Festival runs over the May 2-4 weekend (May 13-19)… incredible lineup… go, if you can!
IMAGINARY PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE CeramiX
Imaginary Percussion Ensemble is the brainchild of gifted Toronto percussionist and composer Germaine Liu, and features two of the city's other foremost sonic imaginations, Joe Sorbara and Mark Zurawinski. The ensemble’s music is rooted in a deep concern for gesture, for physicality, for tactility—invested in performance as visceral exploration and co-creation, performance as an ongoing process of (re)discovering ideas and vocabulary; always in the hope of creating an inviting and inclusive space for audience and participants.
…an evening highlight… repeatedly challenged any academy-set definitions of just what constitutes an instrument or a musical practice.
Exclaim! - Tom Beedham (2017 X-Avant Festival)
CeramiX is a collaboration directed by composer Germaine Liu and ceramic artist Chiho Tokita exploring music and ceramics. Chiho has created a collection of objects and Germaine is creating object-specific compositions. The performance will include some ceramic and other non-ceramic compositions created by Liu. The pieces will be performed by creative collaborators of this project; Germaine Liu, Joe Sorbara and Mark Zurawinski.
Please note: AFTERNOON CONCERT
Advance tickets $22 via Eventbrite or $30 at door
Sophie Agnel photo by Peter Gannushkin
Agnel / Butcher photo by Ariele Monte
Agnel / Butcher photo by Christina Marx