of-the-now: Archipelago presents a portrait of Ann Southam’s electronic music, in partnership with the Canadian Music Centre. Featuring The Reprieve (1983) and the previously unreleased A Thread of Sand (1972), we will delve into her music in conversation with pianist Eve Egoyan and dancer/choreographer Peggy Baker about their relationships with the composer and her works.

We are excited to share previously unreleased footage of Eve and Ann rehearsing, as well as Peggy Baker’s piece Strand, set to Ann’s music. You can join the livestream at of-the-now.ca

of-the-now : Archipelago is conceived like a small venue or house concert series, with a suggested $10 or PWYC at the door. Please consider donating if you are able. All proceeds go to the artists involved.

About the Artists |

Ann Southam was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1937 but lived most of her life in Toronto. After completing musical studies at the University of Toronto and the Royal Conservatory of Music in the early 1960’s, Ann Southam began a teaching and composing career which included a long and productive association with modern dance. As well as creating music for some of Canada’s major modern dance companies and choreographers including The Toronto Dance Theatre, Danny Grossman, Dancemakers, Patricia Beatty, Christopher House and Rachel Browne, she was an instructor in electronic music at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and has also participated in many “composer-in-the-classroom” programs in elementary and high schools. While a great deal of her work was electroacoustic music on tape, in her later years she became increasingly interested in music for acoustic instruments. She composed concert music for a variety of acoustic instruments and instrumental ensembles, working with such artists and ensembles as Eve Egoyan, Christina Petrowska Quilico and Arraymusic. Ann Southam’s work was commissioned through the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the CBC, and has been performed in Canada, Europe and the U.S. She is a member of the Canadian Music Centre, the Canadian League of Composers and a founding member of the Association of Canadian Women Composers. She was the recipient of the Friends of Canadian Music Award in 2001. Ann Southam passed away November 25, 2010.

Eve Egoyan is an artist whose medium is the piano. Her intense focus, command of the instrument, insightful interpretations, and unique programmes welcome audiences into unknown territory. Her recordings have received accolades including “Best Classical”, The Globe and Mail (1999), for her first solo CD, and one of “Ten Top” classical discs, The New Yorker magazine (2009), and “Top Classical Disc of the Year”, The Globe and Mail (2011). Eve’s recent releases include Thought and Desire, works by Linda Catlin Smith, and De Puro Amor / En Amor Duro, Maria de Alvear’s epic diptych. Recent touring includes solo recitals at the following festivals: Transart, Italy; Klangspuren, Austria; the Huddersfield Festival, U.K.; and the Modulus Festival, Vancouver, Canada. Eve’s most recent project, SOLO FOR DUET, is a deeply integrated virtuosic mix of sound, image, and unspoken narrative challenging traditional conceptions of piano and pianist which is currently touring internationally. Eve was selected as one of the 25 greatest Canadian classical pianists of all time by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Peggy Baker is acclaimed as one of the most outstanding and influential contemporary dancers of her generation. Her unique abilities are the product of an education in both dance and theatre, pursued initially through the drama department of the University of Alberta, with The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, and in New York at the Martha Graham School and the Herbert Berghof Studio. Born in Edmonton in 1952, she began her professional career in Toronto in 1974, as a founding member of Dancemakers, toured internationally as a prominent member of Lar Lubovitch’s celebrated New York company throughout the eighties, and joined Mikhail Baryshnikov and Mark Morris for the inaugural season of their White Oak Dance Project in 1990, subsequently forging important creative relationships with Paul-André Fortier (Montreal), James Kudelka (Toronto), and Doug Varone (New York) through numerous performance projects.