tag:www.parmela.com,2005:/blogs/latest-news?p=2Latest News2022-12-16T10:58:19-08:00Parmela Attariwalafalsetag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/71240412022-12-16T10:58:19-08:002023-10-16T07:47:52-07:00Every Little Voice podcast<p>There is much to say these days, but I have even less time now than I had a few months ago. My life is as unruly as the Earth's reactions to our climate change assaults on her.<br>Here is a recently released podcast interview with Danielle Muir about the anti-racist, anti-oppression music and social curriculum I wrote last year for Community Music Schools of Toronto (formerly Regent Park School of Music).<a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/regent-park-sm/s4e1-resolving-the-dissonance?si=c2c0d22ce4ea4a588af4ee059261b4ac&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing"><span class="font_small"><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/161727/690a7c97658cf20cb27e82120c3749f6bd97da95/original/nurturing.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpeg" class="size_m justify_center border_none" alt="" /></span></a></p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/70095222022-07-07T09:31:52-07:002022-08-25T12:44:20-07:00June 2022 Chronicles<p>We’re heading into the third summer of the pandemic. Unlike one year ago when a heat dome filled the air over the Pacific Northwest with a granular dryness so thick one could smell the threat of cinders ready to spark to life, this year, heavy and dark grey clouds have kept the lands verdant, the mountaintops still snowy and the waterways coursing. </p>
<p>Life has been anything but boring for me. But if I’m honest … <br>When honest, self-reflective discussions about social justice—in Canadian (and American) society generally, and in Western art music specifically—began two years ago, it was exciting. Finally, people seemed ready to hear what I and other cultural thinkers had been investigating for years: the subtle injustices that were so behaviourally normalized no one dared call or consider them racist. Artists who had put up with these behaviours suddenly had agency, and abundant opportunity to air decades of slights, oversights, and grievances. We were also suddenly gifted (“gifted”, “offered” – are either of these words bereft of colonial patronizing?) opportunities to express our full and complicated selves in positions of artistic creation and leadership. </p>
<p>But when a person gets used to repressing significant portions of themselves in order to be acceptable to the status quo; when a person has supressed any inclinations toward positions of leadership in order to keep themselves safe both at work and at home (i.e. emotionally and physically safe; and here, the intersection with gender also comes into play); when such a person is suddenly offered opportunity to be everything previously denied them—without their having experienced mentorships and support systems equivalent to the years (or decades) of experiential learnings their peers have had—the chances that they will live up to expectations set for them are far from certain. </p>
<p>Yes, to a certain extent I am speaking about myself. But I also speak of colleagues with whom I have shared stories over the past two years. The elation of opportunity is accompanied by exhaustion from multiple and simultaneous steep learning curves that heave on top of the daily responsibilities of our lives. </p>
<p>What am I trying to say? Am I apologizing to all the people (including, and especially, myself) that I feel I have disappointed? Yes, partly. </p>
<p>I am also asking—in the spirit of social justice—for others (allies) to step up. I am asking that those for whom opportunities have been abundant to share your knowledge and skills. Give us the tools and the time to succeed. Be honest about the limits to which you can imagine change, then add 50% more to that. That is what is needed for us to succeed together. That is what will bridge privileged and suppressed knowledges. That is what it will take to transform ours into a more compassionate and egalitarian society; and to transform the arts sector into one that can begin to be inclusive. </p>
<p>(When I was growing up, my mother used to tell me: you need to work 150% more before people will imagine you half as good (In retrospect, I see the seeds of my and my brother’s tendency to work 48 hours at a stretch, and seven days a week for months on end; both of us endeavouring to change big systems that have long been inequitable—my brother in medicine, I in expressive culture). </p>
<p>My mother, who was born in North Vancouver in 1931, often claims that she didn’t grow up with racism. I suspect the colonial normalcy of how one was supposed to live and what cultural traditions coloniality inhibited wasn’t obvious to her through childhood and adolescence. Of her childhood she says that everyone who was not Anglo-Saxon was considered “lesser than”, including the Scandinavian (Japanese, Chinese, Indigenous and other Punjabi) families that lived on the West coast in the 30s. My mother did, though, encounter overt racism later—as a university student, as a microbiologist, as my father’s wife, and as my mom.) </p>
<p>What would happen if those who say they are ready to help cultivate a just and fairer world were to add 50% to what they are prepared to change? From my perspective as a musician, without that extra flexibility, Eurocentric musical organizations will lose their power and place. </p>
<p>June 19th – Banff <img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/161727/a7d36d52fe74ceaffce4cafa25ce7cb879c41060/original/img-3028.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpeg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /><br>Today I’m heading to Banff. <br>Having been born and raised in Calgary, the land—in, around, and between Calgary and Banff—pulls on the spirit cord to my heart every time I am here. Banff has significance to many artists, and I am no exception. Without Banff, I would not have become a musician. </p>
<p>When I was very young, Tom Rolston brought Shinichi Suzuki to the Banff Centre. I was too shy to join the group onstage, so Tom came to the back of the hall and coaxed me onto the stage by letting me play on his violin (!). Years later, as a member of both the Calgary Youth Orchestra and the Mount Royal Academy, I went to Banff for the occasional weekend to get coaching from whomever was in-residence. (I wasn’t allowed to attend summer programs because there would be boys and alcohol there, and not enough adults to ensure I didn’t encounter either of those things). </p>
<p>Then, when I was in first year at U of Calgary (leaning toward pre-med), I went to Banff to play for Janos Starker. Changing majors to music was the furthest thing from my mind at the time, but that weekend Mr. Starker convinced me to apply to Indiana. Within minutes, all the plans dreamed up in the first 17 years of my life came to an abrupt end. </p>
<p>The road to becoming a violinist is very much like that of becoming a hockey player. One must start young—very young. One needs a lot of pricey gear, dedicated parents, dedicated (and excellent) coaches, and one needs to be on teams that are single-minded in their dedication to technique and craft. </p>
<p>My sudden change in direction was about as weird a shift as a junior hockey player who has no intention of going pro suddenly being drafted to an NHL farm team only because they happen to be playing on a team (in my case, a chamber group) with someone else who is on the scouts’ radar. </p>
<p>Those were the first of my significant connections to the Banff Centre. </p>
<p>Now, I have the privilege of sharing Banff with a next generation of young artists. </p>
<p>June 30 <br><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/161727/28664a6ed01115e8c8268d5bf69f805700ed3cd8/original/img-3227.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpeg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" />The last day of the month has arrived. It is cloudy as I look out onto the brightly-hued houses clustering, (as they so often do in port towns) around the port of Juneau, Alaska. </p>
<p>Having not organized a US cell roaming package (wishful thinking?), I have not checked email or the internet for four days. This has allowed me to de-stress for the first time in years. I find myself experiencing “vacation” as people did in the pre-telecommunication days. I talk to the people around me, track my own thoughts and musings, and am present to the happenings around me. </p>
<p>I wonder--have we lost something in being tethered to people and places thousands of kilometres away; in being obligated to output targets seven days a week? </p>
<p> </p>
<p>July 7 </p>
<p>Well, COVID, you finally caught up with me (and just when I was getting back to my gym workout regimen. sigh …). </p>
<p>The family vacation to Alaska was good, though. My dad was happy to have his grandchildren near, and my mother was toodling around with more energy than I’ve seen in her since this pandemic started. At 90, she still insists on cooking and cleaning by herself; but I suspect that not having to do those things gave her energy for other things. <br><br>All in all, the last three weeks have been a joy: visiting my parents' best friends in Calgary--my elders; mentoring a creative group of young musicians in Banff, alongside an incredible team of peers (thank you to Roman Borys for inviting me!); and hanging out with my family for a week. Now, it's time to get back to creating some music. July's menu includes: a sound score for a dance film; a couple of arias; and a chamber piece for Vancouver Inter-cultural Orchestra.</p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/67644362021-10-02T15:10:50-07:002021-10-02T15:10:50-07:00Seasons of change 2021<p>The leaves are changing again - or already!<br><br>i wish I had time to be poetic about the past spring and summer, but they’ve come and gone so quickly that I barely had time to take in the scent of lilacs and roses that I love so much. The dragon’s breath of climate change hurled summer at us early in British Columbia and vociferously. Temperatures soared to 40C in mid-June and the Lytton perished. Meanwhile, in my previous home of Toronto, monsoon-like rains ravaged buildings and water systems that were never built for those kinds of deluges. <br><br>And then, a gift from the Canada Council—an almost-forgotten proposal for a new kind of artistic, collaborative organization (Understory)—sent me and my colleagues, Germaine Liu and Nicole Rampersaud, on a journey that none of us had figured into our schedules. Understory is up and running. We brought together 39 artists to collaborate in trios and co-create art. There has been some incredible art-making; beautiful community-building. And SO many lessons about how to change the way we do things - by centering care and communication.</p>
<p>Understory releases new episodes on the third Thursday of each month. September’s episode included a work created called “We Were Children” - created by Michelle Lafferty, a First Nations mezzo-soprano who I met through Namwayut, Viviane Houle, also a vocalist, and Danielle Jakubiak, who is better known for field recordings and production, but leant her voice to this track. “We Were Children” is haunting. It encapsulates the devastation, grief, and horror that descended upon the artists - and upon all of us - as scanners found evidence of graves in the orchard of the former residential school near Kamloops. If you have five minutes, I’ve posted a link above. </p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/65414782021-02-06T11:23:06-08:002021-06-05T16:39:58-07:00Reflections on viral change (February 6, 2021)<p> </p>
<p>Feb, 2021<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/161727/7253528b60cc3e89ce7726060e991c6ca764f15f/original/img-1569.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpeg" class="size_m justify_right border_none" alt="" /><br><br>The last time I boarded a flight was just over a year ago. It was my fourth return trip between Toronto and Vancouver, since (ostensibly) having moved from Ontario ten months before. Everything indicated that this might be the pattern of my immediate future with Vancouver being the place to hang my hat, walk in the forest, and recharge before heading elsewhere for short-term playing and consulting gigs. </p>
<p>Instead, a microscopic organism (that finds the lungs of homo sapiens a perfect place to thrive) foist a different agenda on us. We discovered that the 2019 SARS Corona Virus parties hard and often trashes its hosts beyond repair. In British Columbia (B.C.), we attempted to fight the virus’ invasion by “locking down”—shutting ourselves in our homes in the hope of limiting the virus’s access to us. We’ve had to reimagine how to be a social species; how to organize ourselves in order to ‘produce’ the things that fashion our days. </p>
<p>Being still new to the west coast – and a freelancer, at that - I hadn’t yet cultivated a structure to my days; so spending most of my time at home was neither unusual nor difficult. I did, though, have to quickly figure out how to use my recording devices and editing software. At the same time, I realized that my lovely west coast abode had no rooms unaffected by the constant traffic on the secondary arterial road next to it. So much for the myriad of home recording tutorials that said, “the key to good editing and mixing is to start with the best recording”. There’s no way my wood frame building could ever be soundproofed from the road, nor (as I also discovered) from the voices of my neighbours living below me. </p>
<p>I did my best. Through most of March, I worked on a piece commissioned by Calgary’s Esker Foundation for their permanent collection. <a contents="“Heme ♦&nbsp;Stand Healing”" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://permanentcollection.eskerfoundation.com/essays/parmela/" target="_blank">“Heme ♦ Stand Healing”</a> is a musical response to two (visual art) exhibits—Jeffrey Gibson’s “Time Carriers”, and Nep Sidhu’s “Divine in Form, Formed in the Divine (Medicine for a Nightmare)”—which were shown simultaneously at Esker in the fall of 2019. <br>(Many thanks to the Canadian Music Centre, BC Region, who offered me a residency through January 2020, during which I created the score for “Heme :: Stand Healing”). </p>
<p>In early April, I recorded Otto Joachim’s “Requiem” (link on this page) for CMC BC and Redshift’s “Music in Isolation” series. I had discovered the piece (originally written for viola) when, as part of my afore-mentioned residence at the CMC, I read through much of the solo violin repertoire in their library. Somehow, recording a requiem felt fitting in the spring of 2020. </p>
<p>During April and May, I also took part in NOW Society’s innovative<a contents="&nbsp;“Creative Music Series #8”" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBaPu9BBnQNEAC7PLZsZ_fA" target="_blank"> “Creative Music Series #8”</a> (CMS#8). The brainchild of NOW’s artistic director, Lisa Cay Miller, CMS#8 brought together improvisers from Vancouver, Holland and the United States in a series of multi-tracked and improvised pieces crafted in isolation. Personally, I found the results extraordinary (you can find links to them here on my home page). My friends in the improv scene who watched the series were surprised to find that, with the exception of Miller (who was in two sextets with me), I didn’t know any of the people with whom I improvised. </p>
<p>Shortly afterwards, I wrote a reflective article about CMS#8 (due out soon in a special edition of Critical Studies in Improvisation). In preparation for writing about the series, I had conversations (via Zoom!) with half of the 42 musicians who took part in the series (snippets of which will be included in a re-release of the CMS#8 recordings in March, 2021). Yet, more than simply giving substance to the bones of my article, I got to know a new community of musicians—something I had subconsciously been looking for since moving to Vancouver </p>
<p>In June, I recorded the violin parts for Jordan Nobles’ <a contents="“Lagrange Point”" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://redshiftmedia.org/lagrange/" target="_blank">“Lagrange Point”</a>, a fluidic piece that allows the listener to select whichever instruments they want to hear in whichever order they’d like. </p>
<p>Also in July, the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra asked if I would like to record an eight-minute piece (of my choosing) for an online version of their Global Soundscapes Festival. I had one such piece in my repertoire, but somehow, it didn’t quite fit my state of mind. I chose, instead, to write a piece based on the first poem of Kirtan Sohila, the set of five poems Sikhs are meant to recite before bed and at funerals. I attempted to recreate the now-extant raga to which it is meant to be sung, as well as my sense of how a traditional singer might sing and extemporise on the poem. </p>
<p>Until I started writing the new piece, I didn’t realize how much I had suppressed feelings of grief over losing people in the early months of the lockdown. Childhood mentors. Close friends of my parents. The first patient to die of Covid-19 in Toronto, a grocer on Gerrard Street from whom I bought my spices; a man whose smile lit up his shop's heavily laden aisles, and who always had a box of saffron ready for me. And then in May, my oldest friend’s mother passed away, someone who was as close as I had to a second mother. I wrote and recorded ,<a contents="“At Your Doorstep”" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://vi-co.org/global-soundscapes-festival-digital-edition-2020/at-your-doorstep-by-parmela-attariwala/" target="_blank">“At Your Doorstep”</a> (also on this page) in less than a week. I intend to compose instrumental versions of the subsequent four poems of Kirtan Sohila in the months ahead. </p>
<p>~ </p>
<p>If we thought the pandemic had turned our worlds upside down, the fact that we were all at home to witness the horrific killing of an innocent man by police added another vector of disruption to our lives. George Floyd’s senseless and brazenly executed death brought the pre-pandemic race-triggered killings of Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery into focus. The coincidental timing, with people around the world already reflecting on the preciousness of life and human relationships, spotlighted the ugliness of overt and structural racism, and finally brought it to the forefront of social consciousness. Consequently, people suddenly (and seriously) began acknowledging the work I have done over the past decade and a half to detangle the knotted threads contributing to structural inequity in Canadian music: my PhD; my teaching and advocacy at Regent Park; my membership in the Toronto Arts Leader’s Lab; my co-authorship of Orchestras Canada’s equity report; and my presence on many equity committees and boards. </p>
<p>I have never been busier. I have never been more mentally exhausted. The arts infrastructure is struggling—struggling to survive, and also, to understand what and why the organizations that dominate it (particularly in Canada) need to change. The Society of Ethnomusicology, too—home to those who seek to elevate the musics otherwise ignored by our Western music infrastructure—is on the verge of imploding. For all their good intentions, the institution has continued to be led and populated by “white” people speaking for “others”. The others (we) now want to—and need to—speak for them-(our)selves. (I have much more to say about this … ) </p>
<p>And for the first time, those who have power want to know about the lived experience of those of us who, not for lack of skills or will, have not been granted the same access to privilege. </p>
<p>Thus, having been deluged with requests to participate on committees and panels (as well as undertaking a lot of self-directed learning about Indigeneity and other aspects of equity), the stolen moments I have taken over the past months to create music and art have been cathartic and joyful. In September, I contributed a new track (done in collaboration with the artist himself) for Peter Morin’s <a contents="“NDN Lovesongs”" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://belkin.ubc.ca/events/peter-morin/" target="_blank">“NDN Lovesongs”</a>, part of the (touring) <a contents="Soundings&nbsp;Exhibition" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://curatorsintl.org/exhibitions/soundings" target="_blank">Soundings Exhibition</a>. Through the fall, amidst a myriad of conferences and meetings, I also contributed to Vancouver New Music’s project with Endlings (Raven Chacon and John Dieterich), for which you can find an awesome interactive website <a contents="https://www.parallel03.com" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://www.parallel03.com" target="_blank">https://www.parallel03.com</a> . Together, we constructed and deconstructed music, visuals, words, found sounds (and the parameters of the website), and Endlings reconstructed our contributions. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>At this writing, I am taking part in a project that is about a different kind of deconstruction: we are deconstructing all things until now held sacred in the world of opera creation. I am collaborating with people—physically distant, but in person and fully present. We have all been offered the opportunity to have agency of thought, action and creativity; moreover in an oeuvre in which most of us involved have had very little opportunity to contribute on our own terms. It is quite extraordinary. We are together in Calgary working for three weeks in the middle of winter. I haven’t done collaborative work like this for so long—not since my pre-PhD days working with choreographer. I had forgotten how creative energy can be channelled through true collaborative process, where no one person dominates the space or the ethos. I had also forgotten how beautifully energy can move when creating together in person. <br>(For background on this opera-in-progress, check out the video at the top of my homepage, that shows up as a still with composer Ian Cusson) </p>
<p><span style="color:#f39c12;">2020 was quite the year </span> <br>For those of us who have been advocating for equity and ethical behaviour in Canada,<br>the dial began to turn. These months of isolation from friends and loved ones have been distressing.<br>Yet, the lingering 2019 Coronavirus has offered the precious gift of time.<br>On a personal level: time to think, read, absorb, learn, reflect, listen, reconsider,<br>unlearn and relearn. Interpersonally and systemically: time to activate substantial change,<br>and <strong>most critically, </strong>time to begin the long overdue process of honest reconciliation. </p>
<p>This blog is months overdue. But all is well. I, my bubble, and my elderly parents<br>have remained healthy. I have much more to say and will continue to write<br>as time gives me opportunity. For now, I am basking in the joy of writing musical notes,<br>creating soundscapes, and spending time in my old hometown.<br>It’s -28C today and snowing. Time to go for a walk and feel the snow melting<br>as it lands on skin that is 50 degrees warmer!<img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/161727/363443b620b8164a4bcd60f9896c0aaacb650e75/original/img-1592.jpeg/!!/meta:eyJzcmNCdWNrZXQiOiJiemdsZmlsZXMifQ==/b:W1sic2l6ZSIsIm1lZGl1bSJdXQ==.jpeg" class="size_m justify_left border_none" alt="" /></p>
<p><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><span style="color:#f39c12;">p.s.</span><span style="color:#f1c40f;"> </span>If you’re interested in equity,<br>one of the best organizations<br>I’ve come across in the past year is<br><a contents="Community Centric Fundraising" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://communitycentricfundraising.org" target="_blank">Community Centric Fundraising</a> (CCF).<br>While CCF’s focus is ethical philanthropy,<br>they have an excellent “<a contents="10&nbsp;principles" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://communitycentricfundraising.org/ccf-principles/" target="_blank">10 principles</a>” page,<br>listing values that can easily be transferred<br>to any kind of organization. They are principles of ethical behaviour.<br>On a related note, Michelle Shireen Muri - one of the founders of CCF - <br>has an excellent podcast, <a contents="The Ethical Rainmaker" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://communitycentricfundraising.org/the-hub/multimedia/podcasts/" target="_blank">The Ethical Rainmaker</a>. </p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/57827402019-06-06T15:55:24-07:002019-08-28T23:31:26-07:00"Re-sounding the Orchestra" live! (June 6, 2019)<p>"Re-sounding the Orchestra", the research report commissioned by Orchestras Canada and co-authored by Soraya Peerbaye and myself has been officially released today. <br><br>The report is based on 16 months of research, including interviews and roundtables with more than 40 people across Canada, including orchestra directors, administrators, Indigenous musical creators, and orchestral musicians of colour. It opens the door to grappling with issues that are of critical importance to all sectors of Canadian society, but that have--until now--remained un- or under-examined in our orchestras. <br><br>Re-sounding the Orchestra was inspired by Orchestras Canada's 2017 Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) Declaration. Given the limitations of time, funding and page limitations, the reporting is not exhaustive. We did not have the space to talk about access, ableism and ageism as they relate to our orchestras. We hope, though, that our focus on Indigenous artists and people of colour working with and in Canadian orchestras will enrich and enhance the conversations that Canadian orchestras have about their place in national, local and international conversations on meaningful equity and public accessibility.</p>
<p><a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://oc.ca/en/resource/re-sounding-the-orchestra/">https://oc.ca/en/resource/re-sounding-the-orchestra/</a></p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/57692942019-05-26T16:01:59-07:002019-08-05T10:36:22-07:00Against Nature - 5 star review! (May 26, 2019)<p>Having traversed this extraordinary country two months ago in order to make a new home on its west coast, late spring finds me back in Toronto. I'm here for a remounting of James Kudelka, Alex Poch-Goldin and James Rolfe's extraordinary--and beautifully produced--work, "Against Nature". The music-dance-theatre piece (or 'chamber opera' for those not afraid of the word 'opera') is based on the novel by French novelist Joris Karl-Huyssmans, <em>Au Rebors, </em>which depicts the depth of Romantic decadence and excess through the character of Jean de Esseintes. <br><br>We have four shows remaining May 29-June 1, 8pm at the Citadel (Parliament and Dundas).<br>But a warning: it's not exactly PG-13. In addition to depicting Romantic excess, this staged version of the novel does not shy away from the role of Catholic church pedophilia on Esseintes' tortured soul.<br><br>Here's a new 2019 review from Plays to See.com<br><a contents="Against Nature" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://playstosee.com/against-nature/?fbclid=IwAR2diKz0RIAS5Ll6fmEkF0FItyOSF7iGImVK7_7XauKQpyAnXigMlyFuXqw">https://playstosee.com/against-nature/?fbclid=IwAR2diKz0RIAS5Ll6fmEkF0FItyOSF7iGImVK7_7XauKQpyAnXigMlyFuXqw</a></p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/55802892019-01-03T21:09:05-08:002019-09-27T15:58:14-07:00Two decades in (January 4, 2019)<p>Hard to believe that we're two decades into the second millennium. And twenty-five years since I landed in Toronto, intending only to kill the length of time necessary to renew my visa to the UK ... and perhaps make a bit of money. The work was exciting: weekly sessions recording jingles and Hollywood film scores; traversing the underground PATH system as I zipped between any one of four long-running musicals, ballet, opera or stage concerts. Heady days!<br><br>The big news is that I will be moving to the west coast in the spring. Yes, it's the opposite direction to the UK, but it is as similar as I can get to the climate! And it has also been the place I have felt most at peace, going every year to spend time with my grandmother on her little farm in Lake Cowichan.<br><br>I have a few more performances in Southern Ontario before heading west, including a solo set in Kitchener in February focused on my original choreographed works. I'll be presenting brand new music with choreographic contributions by Roger Sinha, and an improvisation from beyond with Ken Aldcroft. February 22nd, 8pm).*<br><br>I will also be creating music to a series of Peter Morin's (OCAD) video scores entitled "NDN Love Songs" on February 14th at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queens University in Kingston. My musical responses will be improvised and recorded on the 14th, and will become part of the exhibit.</p>
<p>*In an ironic bookend to my time in Toronto, I fractured my arm a few weeks before this performance and was unable to complete the recorded part of my score for this new work. So, instead, I improvised with one of the improvisations I'd recorded the week before for Peter Morin's NDN Lovesongs.<br>(Why an ironic bookend? Because one week before moving <em>to</em> Toronto in January, 1994, I sprained my thumb while skiing and was unable to play the violin for six weeks. The injury kiboshed my plan to take the TSO violin audition in mid-January, something I never had the desire to try for again ... ah well).</p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/54157072018-09-05T07:28:15-07:002020-05-25T14:56:09-07:00"Industry Tactics" podcast interview with Friendly Rich (September 5, 2018)<p>A mid-summer interview by my friend and colleague, <a contents="Friendly Rich" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.friendlyrich.com">Friendly Rich</a>, in a podcast series called "Industry Tactics". <br><br>We cover a myriad of topics including: my early life in Calgary; the Suzuki Method; defining Canadian culture; colonialism; improvised music; the crwth; and keeping things fresh.<br><br><a contents="Industry Tactics" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://soundcloud.com/industry-tactics/ep-60-parmela-attariwala-mastered" target="_blank">https://soundcloud.com/industry-tactics/ep-60-parmela-attariwala-mastered</a></p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/50474172018-01-27T13:39:38-08:002020-05-25T15:02:50-07:00Ghosts of the Woolly Mammoths Roar (January 27, 2018)<p>I can't quite believe that 2017 has come and gone! I spent a wonderful semester in Brandon last winter, experiencing (and enjoying!) what it was like to have a singular workplace, from which to pursue a multi-faceted job of lecturing, researching, and performing. It was idyllic! Perhaps that explains why the months since have felt like a whirlwind. </p>
<p>For the most part, talk during orchestral breaks of 2017 swirled around the politics emanating from our neighbours to the south. And fair enough: orchestras are international—albeit Western—entities, and naturally, a significant number of Toronto musicians are American and/or have connections to the United States. </p>
<p>Amongst musicologists and cultural critics, though, the big political crisis occurred in the spring of 2017 with the Canadian Opera Company choosing to present Harry Somers and Mavor Moore's "Louis Riel" to mark Canada’s sesquicentennial. The elephant of colonial appropriation—and everything colonialism entails—roared after decades (centuries) of having been silenced. </p>
<p>I returned to Toronto from Brandon into a spring tornado of conferences, roundtables, panels, meetings all of which grappled with the roaring elephant. And suddenly, everything that caused me to “press pause” on my performing career in order to research the conundrums of artistic identity in a liberal-democratic multicultural country has become relevant. The recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UNESCO’s Proclamation on Intangible Cultural Heritage, combined with the extraordinary work of my colleague Dylan Robinson is forcing Canadian cultural organizations to take a hard look at themselves. </p>
<p>The Canadian psyche is in a profound moment. I’m not sure if we’ve just been bruised or if we are in the emergency room in crisis. We carry on as if bruised because our Western structures plan and schedule years in advance. We have to put on a brave face and sell the show we've spent years planning and the medium whose infrastructure we've spent decades building. But if Canadians are truly committed to reconciliation, then we are in crisis. “We”, for me, is every cultural organization that has been historically acknowledged (ergo, also funded) by the government purse for practicing artistic forms that originated in Europe: art forms that have advertised themselves as representing “the best” of human creativity and thus, of transcending tribe and politics. In 2018, we know that this premise is false. </p>
<p>Thus, we find ourselves in a Canadian cultural conundrum. Between the centennial and the sesquicentennial of this political geographic entity called “Canada”, we have built up cultural institutions (of the European kind) to international standards. In tandem, we have cultivated a cadre of artists whose caliber and output is comparable to those of European institutions (I’ve been one such fortunate artist). This cultivation, though, has come at the price of decimating (othering, belittling, appropriating, exoticising, primitivising) the cultures of those on whose mental, physical, spiritual territory the Europeans colonized. Where do we go from here? Psychically and socially, we cannot afford to have our notions of artistic culture continue to be monopolized by expressive practices that represent the history, priorities and practices of Europe and European notions of cultural superiority. </p>
<p>And so it is that much of my work these days is centred on examining the conundrum facing Canadian musical institutions. It means I have less time to be a performing musician, a creative musician, and a publishing tenure-oriented academic. Instead, I do a bit of each. </p>
<p>Creatively, I will be performing/presenting a new score for “Gandhari”, a choreographed work based on the powerful feminine character of the Mahabharata who willfully blindfolded herself. We are three women working on this project--Brandy Leary (dancer), Gitanjali Kolanad (choreographer) and me. As we develop the work, we ask whether the accepted reading of Gandhari blindfolding herself in order to be a “good wife” to her blind husband is a patriarchal reading. Now we ask: did she blindfold herself as an act of willful defiance for having been married off to an impotent, blind man? (And meanwhile, I am surprised to learn that the ancient principality of Gandhara, from which Princess Gandhari comes, contemporary Kandahar?). </p>
<p>Research-wise, I continue to work (along with equity specialist and poet, Soraya Peerbaye) as an equity consultant for Orchestras Canada, examining the situation of orchestras in the era of the roaring woolly mammoth. At the moment, we are especially interested in talking to people of (North American) Indigenous, South Asian and African descent working in Western classical music in Canada. (please contact me!) </p>
<p>And I continue to teach at York University and at Regent Park School of Music (where we actively pursue a decolonizing curriculum). At both institutions, I do my best to mentor a next-generation of young musicians and audiences to love the aural-kinesthetic magic of music-making, while being socially aware of what the sounds mean.</p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/47178742017-05-22T10:19:20-07:002020-05-25T14:51:18-07:00Omnivorous Listening Blog (May 22, 2017)<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/161727/6907bdba38dbb106310ab8c5f3b4c2fd85ce393b/medium/img-3455.jpg?1495473482" class="size_m justify_left border_" />I am back in Toronto after a wonderful winter semester sojourn at Brandon University. And really, the winter wasn't so bad. It was actually a relief to go through a winter of sunny, cold days and clean air instead of the grey, cloudy, heavy-traffic of Toronto. <br><br>In addition to teaching a wonderful group of students in a course I called, "Ethnomusicology and the Canadian Musician", I also had the opportunity to proffer some of my ideas on music and identity in the Canadian context through a series of public lectures. And I contributed to a new blog called, The Omnivorous Listener. The blog, and my presence at BU, are part of the School of Music's new Institute for Research in Music and Community. I wish the school all the best as they embark on their research. We are at a critical <em>and</em> pivotal moment in Canadian history as we appreciate the place musicking occupies in community(ies). Our training institutions can no longer pretend that the towers carved of elephant tusk will shield us from engaging in the symbolism musics hold at a deep socio-cultural level. <br><br>Here's a link to my Omnivorous Listener's post <a contents="" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://irmc.ca/2017/03/10/give-me-cannons-for-a-dinner-bell/">https://irmc.ca/2017/03/10/give-me-cannons-for-a-dinner-bell/ </a><br><br>(photo features my friend's cat, Signy, checking out my CD and ethnomusicology collection)</p>
<p><br> </p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/45454682017-01-10T21:38:00-08:002020-05-25T15:12:06-07:00Hello, Brandon! (January 11, 2017)<p>Winter 2017 finds me in beautiful, snowy Brandon, Manitoba as the Stanley Knowles Distinguished Visiting Professor in Public Policy. What can I say? It's my dream gig: thinking about and conducting research on policy, social justice, equity and music, plus teaching ethnomusicology and performing. <br><br>I'm grateful to Pat Carrabré for thinking of me, and for putting my name forward to the university as a candidate for this position. It's an honour to hold this residency - created in the memory of MP Stanley Knowles, who advocated for social justice through his career in public service. Along with Tommy Douglas, (another BU graduate!), he created the CPP and helped create many of the social programs Canadians now take for granted. The institutionalization of these programs paved the way for Canadians to pursue social justice and equity as national ideals. And now, it is my turn to work towards doing the same for music and the arts.<br><br>~ <br>Ah! But what about the cold? Yes, the mildest day I've experienced was my first day here last week. It was -13C; and it has been much, much colder since. But I love it!! The crunch of the snow under my feet, and the immediacy of my body remembering to walk angled forward with heels heavy so as not to slip. The silvery snowflakes settling for mere seconds on my cold skin before evaporating. The bright sun and brilliant blue sky. I am transported back to the carefree days of my youth in Calgary and the morning walks to school (especially the 3 km walk to high school when I missed the bus, which happened often - and subconsciously, perhaps purposefully, so that I could indulge in sinking my feet into snowdrifts up to my knees while watching the sun rise). And to be in a small place? After years of long winter commutes on Toronto's subways, buses and streetcars, it is a relief to be in place where nothing I need is further than the eye can see.<br><br> </p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/42063352016-06-01T06:45:52-07:002020-05-25T15:08:15-07:00Attar Project concert review (June 1, 2016)<p>A lovely review for the Attar Project - from our performance in Cardiff, Wales<br><a contents="Parmela Attariwala and Shawn Mativetsky at Vale of Glamorgan Festival" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.walesartsreview.org/live-vale-of-glamorgan-festival-parmela-attariwala-shawn-mativetsky/">Parmela Attariwala and Shawn Mativetsky at Vale of Glamorgan Festival</a></p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/41718872016-05-09T08:29:48-07:002020-05-25T15:16:27-07:00Spring, nature and movement (May 9, 2016)<p>Spring has finally arrived in Toronto. After a mild winter, I'd been looking forwards to a long, lovely spring; but no. Winter decided to show up after all: in April!<br><br>Under the superficial layer of snow and frozen grass, life has been percolating with projects and performances. And everywhere around me, I have been buffeted by the swirl of what has been potential energy lying latent now become dynamic.<br><br>I'm currently in the midst of performances for a wonderful, new, experimental production by Coleman-Lemieux: "Against Nature", a chamber opera featuring the music of James Rolfe, libretto by Alex Poch-Goldin, and direction by James Kudelka. As-ever with Coleman-Lemieux, the production (let alone the richness of its content!) is exquisite. </p>
<p><a contents="Against Nature review" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.broadwayworld.com/toronto/article/BWW-Review-AGAINST-NATURE-Translates-the-Bizarre-into-the-Beautiful-20160507">Against Nature review</a><br><br>---<br>Meanwhile, I've been preparing for my visit next week to the Vale of Glamorgan Festival in Wales. I have been working with movement and theatre coach, Kelly Arnsby, on two movement pieces originally choreographed for me by Gitanjali Kolanad. It has been an extraordinary process to integrate a third layer - of emotional contour - into these already complex pieces. I look forwards to presenting them next week.<br><br>In advance of my visit to Wales, <a contents="The Cusp Magazine" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="https://thecuspmagazine.com/uk/parmela-attariwala-profile/" target="_blank">The Cusp Magazine</a>, has written a feature article on my dance and music work<br><br><br>Looking forwards to Wales!</p>Parmela Attariwalatag:www.parmela.com,2005:Post/35506182015-02-25T09:34:57-08:002019-09-27T15:56:56-07:00Recognition for "Under Milk Wood, an opera" (February 25, 2015)<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/161727/720f7195ebcc03224cae0f684b992e59cf72a30a/small/block-productions-under-milk-wood-2014.jpg?1424885479" class="size_s justify_left border_" />The highlight of 2014 for me was performing in the premiere of <em>Under Milk Wood, an opera. </em>John Metcalfe composed the music to text based upon Dylan Thomas' radio play of the same name. <em>Under Milk Wood </em>has been nominated for a number of awards, including the prestigious World Premier category in the <a contents="International Opera Awards" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.operaawards.org/Finalists2015.aspx" target="_blank">International Opera Awards</a>. This follows on nominations for both Best Opera Production and Best Design/Costume at the <a contents="Wales Theatre Awards" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.walestheatreawards.com/" target="_blank">Wales Theatre Awards</a>, and a listing as one of the best operas of 2014 by <a contents="The Guardian" data-link-label="" data-link-type="url" href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2014/dec/17/2014-best-opera-productions-in-pictures" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p>
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<br>Working on and performing in <em>Under Milk Wood</em> marked my transition from academia back to performance. In fact, I flew to Wales to begin workshopping <em>Under Milk Wood</em> just hours after my Ph.D. convocation at the University of Toronto in Nov, 2013. Metcalfe (in whose 1996 opera, <em>Kafka's Chimp</em>, I performed at the Banff Centre) believes that musicians perform better--and learn the score more deeply--without the aid of a conductor as interlocutor/interpreter; and personally, this type of chamber music approach to an opera suits me perfectly. I also love working with singers (and what an extraordinary cast we had!). Singers--and the words they sing--always bring me back to the essence of musical phrasing and breathing: something that I find tends to get lost when music is mediated by conductors who try to convey musical interpretations by explaining them through the language of instrumental technique. <br><br><em>Under Milk Wood</em> involved eight singers and five musicians - all onstage together. We became a tight knit merry band, particularly during the last rehearsal, performance and touring period in March/April 2014. All of the musicians performed multiple parts. I played violin, viola and learned how to play a 6-string, bowed Welsh lute (based on an 11th c. design)called a crwth. The crwth's tuning was Bb, Bb, F, F, C, C: the doubled notes tuned in octaves. Of course, I didn't play the crwth in a traditional manner (as a drone instrument with an optional single melody line on the top string). Oh no (when did a living composer make things that simple for their musicians?) I had to figure out how to triple and quadruple stop chords - even on the strings that didn't have a fingerboard beneath them. But that is the kind of challenge that I love.<br><br>Kudos to all my colleagues and everyone who helped bring <em>Under Milk Wood</em> to life. Next step: let's bring it to North America! <br> </div>
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<div><em>N.B. In November of 2018, bass-baritone Michael Douglas Jones who played Captain Cat in Under Milkwood, left this world. In the scene, "The Dawn Inches Up", I traversed the stage with my viola, circling around the blind and stationary Captain Cat. The four men of the cast can be heard in this track, and Michael's voice is featured from the 3'08" mark onwards. <br>Many people who were pivotal to my life as a musician passed away between December 2017 and November 2018. My heart broke when I heard that Michael, too had gone.<br>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZg1rL5mbIs</em></div>
</div>Parmela Attariwala