Sensual Emergency is a beat poem and conceptual performance piece in one. Inspired by the Parma Manifesto of Frederic Rzewski, the work explores the necessity for improvisation in creativity and the sociological restrictions disabling spontaneous creation. Winnipeg slam poet Andrea von Wichert and Cluster resident ensemble Trio 86 present a special commission libretto by Matthew Ricketts. Directed by Kelly Lovelady

PAZZIA Contemporary Performing Collective is an internationally active performance experiment fusing chamber music with Live Art and circus and their inherent political narratives. PAZZIA is an Italian word for an ardent madness generated by extreme creative intensity. The company is the brainchild of UK-based Australian conductor, Kelly Lovelady.

PAZZIA has enjoyed success at the Adelaide, Montreal and Brighton Fringe Festivals, repeat appearances at Pop Montreal International Music Festival, and independent shows with the fringe organizations Artrage (Perth AUS) and Ace Art Inc (Winnipeg CANADA)

They have realized 11 unique productions, engaging expressive disciplines from interpretative dance and puppetry to contortion, stiltwalking, visual arts and onstage cookery

Projects have included I’m Not Your Bearded Lapdog (Brighton UK, 2009), Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot (Montreal, 2007), La Bonne Cuisine (Montreal, 2007), Sonic Circus (Perth AUS, 2006), and the Canadian-Australian tour, Soft Sculpt, in its many guises (2006-07)

AVATAR explores methods of creating, validating and disseminating one’s identity through the use of technology and the Internet. The work is inspired by the mantra “I post therefore I am”, whereby Internet power users legitimize their existence by documenting their lives and uploading this media to personal webpages and blogs. AVATAR facilitates an inquiry into what encourages us to share and publicize our lives. Nothing is hidden as the work develops, Freya moves intimately through software, opening and closing files on her personal computer and interacting with the built-in camera. The performance inherently becomes a duet with technology as in AVATAR Freya makes use of live video feeds and projections to magnify, manipulate and effectively broadcast persona and image. Since it’s premiere in 2009 as part of Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers season, AVATAR has toured to North Carolina, Toronto, Montreal, North Dakota as well as Quito, Manta and Guayaquil in Ecuador. Most recently AVATAR received the “Buddies in Bad Times Vanguard Award for Risk and Innovation” at the 2010 Summerworks Theatre Festival in Toronto. In April 2011, AVATAR looks forward to presentation in Ottawa as part of Prairie Scene organized by the National Arts Center.

Freya Björg Olafson is an interdisciplinary artist who works with video, audio, painting and performance. Her creations have been presented/exhibited nationally as well as internationally at festivals and galleries such as the Plug In Institute for Contemporary Art (Winnipeg),  InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Center (Toronto), Dance: made in canada biennial (Toronto), Winnipeg Art Gallery, Núna (now) Festival (Winnipeg, Toronto, Iceland), Groundswell New Music Series (Winnipeg), O.K. Centrum (Linz, Austria), Kling&Bang Galleri (Reykjavik,Iceland), Akureyravaka (Akureyri, Iceland) and Springboard Danse Montréal. Freya began developing AVATAR at Studio 303 (Montreal) during a workshop lead by 2boys.tv (video/performance duo, Montreal) in May 2008, since then the series has benefited from significant time at PAF~Performing Arts Forum (St.Erme-Outre-et-Ramecourt, France), SIM – The Association of Icelandic Visual Artists (Reykjavik, Iceland) and at The Barn with Tedd Robinson of 10 Gates Dancing Inc (Ontario).

As performer and creator, Freya blends 6 years classical training in the Professional Program of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet with the contemporary facility achieved through her completion of the Bachelor of Arts Honors degree in dance from Winnipeg’s School of Contemporary Dancers in affiliation with the University of Winnipeg. She combines her finesse in movement with the directness of her performance art, video and theory studies from the University of Manitoba School of Art and her subsequent completion of a Master of Fine Arts Degree in New Media from the Transart Institute / Donau Universitat in Krems, Austria (Graduated August 2007). During her studies Freya was the recipient of awards/scholarships for her abilities from The Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Friends of The Transart Institute, Canada Iceland Foundation, University of Winnipeg Woman’s Auxiliary, The Imperial Order of Daughter’s of the Empire, and Springboard Danse Montreal among others. Freya was nominated in 2008 by Winnipeg’s School of Contemporary Dancers and in 2009 by Choreographer Stephanie Ballard for The Winnipeg Arts Council Emerging Artist Award “On The Rise”.

As a performer Freya has worked for Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, Trip Dance Company, Adhere & Deny Theatre Company, Gearshifiting Performance Works and Stephanie Ballard. Outside of creating her own work and performing in the work of others Freya is actively involved in the community in curating and teaching. She is a member of the curatorial committee for the nuna (now) Festival and has traveled to Calgary, Iceland and Slovenia to facilitate work for the festival. In 2008 she curated a performance of “1401 IBM – A User’s Manual” a collaboration between dance artist Erna Omarsdottir and composer/musician Johann Johannsson. In 2009 she worked with Kegan McFadden director of Platform Center for Photographic and Digital Arts in Winnipeg to facilitate the presentation of International performance art collective Icelandic
Love Corporation Montreal’s The Discriminating Gentlemen’s Club.

www.freyaolafson.com

Cluster: New Music and Integrated Art Festival
March 24-26, 2011
Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Cluster is featuring Winnipeg-based composer, music theorist, performer and inventor Daryn Bond at the festival’s final night, BLITZ! Saturday, March 26th, 8pm @ 318 Ross Ave. He will be performing a new work, STANDARD MACHINE. In his own words:

“I am very excited to be presenting this new work. After a short stint of being type-cast as an installation artist, I return once more to performance. STANDARD MACHINE is a work for live electronics and video, generated algorithmically in real-time, in which each performance is unique. Harmonic Matrix theory in its simplest form is used to generate both the rhythms and the harmonies. The audience will have the opportunity, perhaps for the first time, to experience the beauty of perfectly and precisely tuned triads. None of the exact details of the video or the music is known in advance. In this unpredictable environment, I will play along with the music [hopefully staying out of trouble] on the sadly obsolete but much beloved acoustic grand piano, as well as perform on my newest instrumental creation/adaptation, the iPad [a.k.a the Padivarius].”

Check out an interview between Daryn and Sasha Amaya, created by Dave Betz.

For more info on Daryn Bond and his work, visit his website.

Anything can happen at Cluster New Music and Intergrated Arts Festival — a three-day exploration of sound and art

By: Julijana Capone

Cluster co-Directors Heidi Ugrin and Luke Nickel

Luke Nickel, co-director of Cluster New Music and Integrated Arts Festival, talks a lot about “magic,” that instant when art begins to emerge out of spontaneity.

The festival, a three-day exploration of contemporary sound and art, began last year in response to the lack of symphonic ‘new music’ in Winnipeg, and the desire to nurture a larger collaborative artistic community.

“We saw this need to integrate all of the diverse artistic communities,” says Nickel, an interdisciplinary artist and composer who studied composition at the University of Manitoba. “We have so many great artists and so many great musicians. We don’t often find them all in one place, and we don’t often collaborate as much as we could. We really thought that the need wasn’t only for a new music festival, but for bringing all of these groups together.”

Since its first go in 2010, Nickel says the show has been “growing at a breakneck speed.” This year, there will be close to 50 acts including composers, musicians and visual and intermedia artists.

Each night will be totally different from the next, Nickel says. The first night, dubbed The Inner Owl, at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church, will begin with Montreal organ virtuoso Alexandra Fol, followed by local chamber choir Antiphony and Trio ’86. Both will perform amid video projections that are cast on gigantic screens hanging from balconies.

Friday night’s Resolutions & Irresolutions at 318 Ross Ave. will feature intermedia artist Freya Olafson, who will be performing her arresting work, AVATAR. Giorgio Magnanensi, celebrated West Coast composer, Vancouver New Music artistic director, circuit-bent toy performer and, as of late, video artist, will also be leading a large-scale improvisation with local jazz and classically trained musicians.

“As soon as we started the festival, we thought, ‘We gotta get this guy in here,’” Nickel says. “He sort of does everything. When we approached him, he was like, ‘What do you want me to do?’ and gave us this long list of just bizarre and zany things.”

Speaking of bizarre and zany things, three floors of absurdity at 318 Ross Ave. will close off the festival with Saturday’s finale, BLITZ. The massive Exchange District warehouse — which houses around a dozen artist studios — will host a dance party that starts at 11 p.m, the premiere of an unusual new musical instrument called the Wallballs, and a minimalist DJ set by Nathan Zahn. In addition to the regular programming, all of the studios will be open and each will have something going on inside, such as performance pieces, projections and/or exhibits.

The main floor mainstage will also showcase a surrealist cabaret. Nickel says the piece is so loosely developed that he has no idea how it’s going to play out.

“I know the director has all sorts of wild ideas, like having the musicians playing in straight jackets, and projections, and there could be a dancer,” he says. “We don’t know.

“It’s that kind of thing that’s both incredibly scary as an organizer, but also really thrilling. Then when you watch it, you’re watching something so raw, and something so new that you haven’t seen before, that you can’t have seen before, and it’s really a magical feeling.”

View the original article here.

The second in a three-part series by Bryan Ugrin. Featuring Will in the Exchange.

His music is being featured at Cluster’s opening night, the inner owl Thursday, March 24, 2011, 8pm at Crescent Fort Rouge United Church. Cluster commissioned Semchyshyn to compose a new work, Skin Divers, for Montreal-based Trio ’86.

Semchyshyn is a member of “The Toxic Triplets”, a collective consisting of film maker and poet Olga Zikrata, and visual artist Ty Rogers. The Toxic Triplets are currently completing a chamber opera based upon the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster titled, “Poema Letkoho Mista (Poem of Volatile City)”. Semchyshyn’s music has been broadcast on CBC radio and in September 2011, he will be pursuing his DMus. at The University of Alberta under the direction of Dr. Howard Bashaw.

Skin Divers
“The inspiration for this music evolved from a collection of poems found in Anne Michaels’ third book titled, “Skin Divers”. Michaels’ poetry is rich in imagery and her narratives are both lyrical and precise, something I strived to achieve with this piece.”

Sweet promo video by Matt Wiebe (who is currently creating a documentary on this year’s Cluster: New Music + Integrated Arts Festival – stay tuned!)

Cluster’s…Coming Together Part 1

The first video in a three-part series by Bryan Ugrin. Featuring Jef Edwards and his sweet fixie.

Music by Dustin & Luke