Dear spaceship pilots,
Yesterday my Indiegogo campaign for Gravity Wing reached its full goal of $5000. During the night, it exceeded it. My gratitude to you is astronomical. You have made my Canada tour possible.
For now, some concrete tour details are outlined below. I have three dates confirmed and you can find the events on my Facebook page. The other performances are in the works, and I’ll be posting them as soon as I confirm. Each performance will be a slightly different format, with the songs, the story, and visuals by Hali Rey.
The tour starts off on May 5th in Montréal with a narrative reading performance at Résonance. I’ll be joined onstage by soprano Mercy Lamola (who performed with me when I did my very first show ever of Gravity Wing songs!), violinist Dominic Guilbault, and voice actor Stefano Saykaly.
The next show is at Black Squirrel Books on May 12, on the weekend of Ottawa Comic Con! This is an exciting not-quite-coincidence, so come enjoy your scifi in one city, in a very large dose! Black Squirrel is a bookstore cafe and music venue, and is thus absolutely perfect for my combination of words and sound. I’ve planned this as a solo show but if a musical guest appears, I will let you know.
Toronto is the centre of the universe according to some, so my galactic tour must indeed make a stop there to investigate this interesting star system. There is no denying the city’s rich cultural life, and so my performance at Gallery 345 on June 10, accompanied by violinist/violist Rezan Onen-Lapointe, will be well worth attending. Rezan performed the first ever piece I wrote for violin, ca. 2006. It’s wonderful to be collaborating with her a decade later!
Somewhere in the mix will be shows in Calgary (can’t miss out on the hometown love!), Ville de Québec with the most lovely in a collab with fellow writer Magali the Record Keeper, and a very special format in Vancouver in the fall with a collaborator I can’t wait to announce but am not allowed quite yet. I’ll be announcing dates as soon as I confirm them. Canada is large, and the tour may be slightly non-linear, but it will most surely be wonderful in all the ways.
Vienna, I am told, inspired much of the architecture on New Canada. It may just invite me back in the summer to a castle with a beautiful baroque hall. Details will be forthcoming once everything is confirmed. It may so happen that dea.nice, the fantastic violinist who performed on the album, dea.nice, makes an appearance, along with other musicians whose names will be revealed soon.
Music journalist Mark Anthony Brennan published a lovely interview with me yesterday on Canadian indie music blog Ride the Tempo. I talked about Gravity Wing, Vienna, and the films by Hali Rey. As Gravity Wing stems from classical music, we also discussed the division between classical and popular genres, how this division is relevant today, and where the lines in between are being eroded. Read here.
What a delight and honour to be able to tour Canada in its sesquicentennial year with my science fiction tale about New Canada. A most heartfelt thank you once more for all your support, encouragement, backing, kind words, and general awesomeness.
Featured image: Hali Rey. GIF from Serge’s Song, with steampunk machines dancing a minuet.
Clio Em 