The following text is taken from Front Magazine, vol. VI, no. 3, pp. 11-13, January/February 1995:
– Shweta Jhaveri North Indian Singing Workshop 01/22/95
Shweta Jhaveri, who specializes in the Khayal form of Hindustani vocal music, returns to the Western Front to conduct this singing workshop. Open to all who are interested in understanding the principles of Indian music in a learn-by-doing approach. *See Jhaveri Concert Feb. 4.
These programs are made possible with assistance from The Canada Council Music & Opera Section and Touring Office, in collaboration with Women in View and the Pandit Jasraj School of Music Foundation.
– Zeellia 01/26/95 – voice
Zeellia, a Vancouver based a cappella ensemble, specializes in Eastern European folk music delivered in the distinctive traditional vocal style called bilij holos “pure voice”. Their repertoire, which emphasizes two and three part harmonies, ranges from the traditional to the contemporary. It reflects Zeellia’s Ukrainian Canadian roots and includes songs form various Eastern European cultures, strongly identifying with the village origins of these songs. Director, Beverly Dobrinsky has been exploring these traditional forms by composing new choral work for the ensemble. Vocalists performing in the ensemble are Marusya Bociurkiw, Heather Buries, Beverly Dobrinsky, Christina Farmilo, Christina Jastrzembska, Mary Machibroda, Carmen Rosen and Teresa Vandertuin.
– Cliq, Shannon Peet/Holly Small/Katherine Duncanson 01/27/95 – percussion/bassoon/dance/voice
An evening of offbeat “salon/performance art” and music merging with dance, by composers Mary Ellen Childs, Elizabeth Cotton, Mary Jane Leach and John Oswald featuring Shannon Peet, Katherine Duncanson and Holly Small. Shannon Peet is an internationally renowned bassoonist, composer and producer, instrumental in founding several Toronto based new music ensembles Hemispheres, Sound Pressure and 5th Species. She is frequently featured as a soloist with various symphonies throughout Canada and in Europe. Katherine Duncanson has been involved in the creation and performance of experimental video, dance, theatre and music. Recent work involves investigations into impulse and the art of being blindfolded, in The 365 Day Garden: a year long live performance installation. Choreographer/teacher/performer, Holly Small has been engaged in interdisciplinary performance for many years, notably collaborating with composer John Oswald.
– Kathy Kennedy, Loose Connections 01/28/95 – electroacoustics and voice
One of her most recent works, Never/Always, a roving installation for a hundred voice choir and portable stereos was presented outside Montreal’s Place des Arts. This Montreal vocalist/composer’s curiosity has leaned towards exploring the realm of the voice and its mediation by the interface of technology.
Trained in classical voice Kathy Kennedy is at home in many styles of singing, performing extensively as a contemporary improviser. As well as composing for film and choreography she is the director of the innovative women’s choir Choeur Maha. Her concert at the Front will include standards and original songs for sampler, tape and voice about relationships, travel, and the real and intimate world within a technological world. In addition she will perform with a low-watt transmitter-radio installation for portable stereo and improvisers.
– Carolee Schneeman and her cat Vesper 01/28/95 – 02/09/95 – artist in residence
Jan. 29 Western Front
Performative Talk
Feb. 2 UBC Fine Arts Gallery
Lecture at Lasserre 107
Feb. 2 Pacific Cinematheque
Video and Film Screenings
“I pay attention to the direction of unconscious information. There has always been something irrepressible in my work. I believe in the purest rest of intuition, trust of the body. My body in a central position in my art reveals contradictions in our culture. I resist social, erotic and aesthetic restraints, and have opened my energies to finding materials and forms which celebrate and transcend predicted directions of the work.”
– Carolee Schneeman
Since the 1960s, Carolee Shneeman has exhibited her paintings and kinetic sculptures, while she extends the boundaries of performance, video and film. A 1993 recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Carolee Schneeman is also a recognized writer and lecturer. Her books include: Parts of A Body House Book (1972); Cezanne, She Was A Great Painter (1976); ABC – We Print Anything In The Cards (1977); More Than Meat Joy: Complete Performance Works and Selected Writings (1979); Early & Recent Work (1983) and Video Burn (1991). This will be her premiere visit to Vancouver.
During her residency Ms. Schneeman will be working on a video tape interview– a “performative video.”
– Shweta Jhaveri 02/04/95 – concert
Shweta Jhaveri is a disciple of Sangeet Martand Pandit Jasraj from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. She started learning music at the age of five, and continued on, receiving an in MA in Indian Classical Music as well as a degree in English literature. She has been awarded many state and national awards, and keeps up a busy performance and teaching schedule throughout the world. Shweta has been a regular visitor to Vancouver for over five years now and it pays audiences at the Western Front with sold-out vocal recital during the 1992 Vancouver Jazz Festival and 1994 VIEW Festival.
Ms. Jhaveri will also be conducting a singing workshop January 22.