Full Schedule
Nuit Blanche
Fanfare Pourpour (Quebec)
The origins of this wonderful ensemble go back thirty-five years, when their precursor, L'Enfant Fort (literally "The Strong Child" and a double entendre, in French, for "The Fanfare") would parade through the streets of Montréal.
- Venue:
- Wyndham Street Jazz Tent
- Type:
- Concert
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 6 PM
The Trio: Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, George E. Lewis (USA)
Though each member of The Trio is an accomplished composer, this group is committed to collective improvisation, a wonderful context in which to hear these incredible instrumentalists: George Lewis (trombone), Roscoe Mitchell (saxophone), Muhal Richard Abrams (piano).
- Venue:
- Main Stage - River Run Centre
- Type:
- Concert
- Price:
- $49/$39
- Time:
- 8 PM (Second half of a double bill with Sangam Trio)
Sangam: Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussain, Eric Harland (USA)
Charles Lloyd, saxophones and other winds, was a key voice in modern jazz. Zakir Hussain is internationally celebrated for his masterful contributions to the field of Indian classical music. Joining them is drummer Eric Harland, who has played with Betty Carter, Joe Henderson and Wynton Marsalis.
- Venue:
- Main Stage - River Run Centre
- Type:
- Concert
- Price:
- $49/$39
- Time:
- 8 PM (First half of a double bill with the Trio)
Hello Adventure - Polydactyl Hearts
In a series of six shorts, Hello Adventure uses stop-motion animation and a live musical score to create a wildly imaginative world in which the basic structures of society have begun to unravel. Illustrations and paintings by Dave Willekes are synchronized with original music composed and performed by a six-piece orchestra . The visuals are projected and synchronized with the music while Willekes acts as a performer, playing the visuals as an instrument alongside the ensemble.
- Venue:
- Royal Bank Parking lot
- Type:
- Multi-media performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 11 PM
Cosmicomics / Dark Side of Echoes - Ben Grossman and Bryson Winchester
Throughout Nuit Blanche there will be a continuously evolving sound, light and video installation at Temple Studios, punctuated by scheduled performances of dance, live music, video art and electronics.
- Venue:
- Temple Studios
- Type:
- Multi-media installation with live dance and musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Dusk (ongoing)
Trio Tarana
"Tarana" itself refers to a song-style in North Indian Classical Music, where nonsense syllables or mnemonic drum sounds are used to spontaneously create a fluid chant or composition. In keeping with their namesake, the trio primarily utilizes Indian and East-Asian rhythms as the foundation for a new creative musical experience; they also employ compositions that seamlessly blend written material with spontaneous group interaction.
- Venue:
- City Council Chambers
- Type:
- Musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 10:30 PM
Three Parades
Weather balloons present the projected imagery created by Bird and Merritt while looping musical accompaniment engages the audience in an all encompassing world unto itself.
- Venue:
- Goldie Mill Park
- Type:
- Outstallation
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Chicago Underground Duo (USA/Brazil)
The Chicago Underground Duo creates an elaborate and cohesive sound-world that is more expansive than one would expect from just two instrumentalists: Rob Mazurek on cornet and laptops, Chad Taylor on drums and vibraphone.
- Venue:
- Mitchell Hall - St. George's Chruch
- Type:
- Concert
- Price:
- $25/$20
- Time:
- 11:30 PM
Adam Linson
In this performance, Linson combines his double bass skills with improvisation and automated interactive electronics.
- Venue:
- Bikram Yoga
- Type:
- Solo concert
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 2:30 AM
Singing in the Shower - Dawn Matheson
Anonymous self-recorded professional and amateur voices flow from the center of a public fountain (just as they would from the other side of the shower curtain) in Dawn Matheson's sound project.
- Venue:
- St. George's Square Fountain
- Type:
- Outstallation
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Fanfare Pourpour (Quebec)
This lively group will travel about the downtown and university corridor engaging the ears in a boisterous celebration of music!
- Venue:
- Throughout the city
- Type:
- Mobile musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Jesse Stewart
A large cone releases droplets of water which strike the surface of water in a bowl beneath causing ripples in the surface of the water which are amplified visually by the light as it reflects off the water and onto the surrounding walls. This spectacle is then accompanied by the live performance by artist Jesse Stewart.
- Venue:
- Macdonald Stewart Art Centre - Gallery #6
- Type:
- Multi-media installation with live musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Metropolis Re:Scored
Eccodek's Andrew McPherson and Deliveryboy present a contemporary, original score performed live to Fritz Lang's 1927 silent masterpiece, Metropolis. New York's Huffington Post praised it as being "so far left field you'd just have to experience Metropolis Re:Scored for yourself".
- Venue:
- City Council Chambers
- Type:
- Film
- Price:
- Free with Live Musical Performance
- Time:
- 12 AM
Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People
Friendly Rich and the Lollipop People present selections from Rich's newest album, "The Sacred Prune of Remembrance" along with sections of his re-arrangement of the famous 1874 suite: "Pictures of an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky. This strange arrangement will intrigue, entertain, disturb, bewilder, and engage every audience member with its' unique instrumentation and unconventional techniques.
- Venue:
- City Council Chambers
- Type:
- Multi-media performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 2:30 AM
Whitestone Gallery - BRING ON THE NIGHT
BRING ON THE NIGHT will take place on September 11th from dusk to midnight (6 to 12). The evening's activities will center on Art as a personal, experiential process and include some projects requiring participation from the public. Artist-members will be present throughout the evening.
- Venue:
- Whitestone Gallery
- Type:
- Multi media event
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 6 PM - 12 AM
Sanctuary - Jeff Reilly, Cristoph Both & Peter Togni
SANCTUARY ‘s unique combination of Cello, Pipe Organ and Bass Clarinet uses the melodic purity of ancient plainsong as a point of departure towards a wide ranging sound that integrates the intensity of free jazz and the colouristic range of classical contemporary music. The trio creates an atmosphere of intense, mystical lyricism.
- Venue:
- St George's United - Sanctuary
- Type:
- Musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 3 AM
Pauline Oliveros (USA)
Pauline Oliveros (1932) is one of the most influential figures in experimental music over the past 50 years. As a composer and improviser, she has created definitive and original works using a classical electronic music studio, modular synthesizers, and her own Expanded Instrument System, which combines any acoustic instrument or voice with software transformations she has designed.
- Venue:
- Bikram Yoga
- Type:
- Solo Concert
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 3:30 AM
Penderecki String Quartet
Let your sleepy ears and eyes wake up gently to the resonating tones of the string quartet as the sound plays with the dew on the grass and the sun bounces off of the pieces in the MacDonald Stewart Sculpture Garden.
- Venue:
- Macdonald Stewart Art Centre - Sculpture Garden
- Type:
- Outdoor Musical Performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 6:53 AM (dawn)
Ascension
Organized by saxophonist Jeremy Strachan, a group of Toronto musicians will perform John Coltrane's album-length landmark work Ascension. First recorded over 40 years ago, Ascension is widely considered to be among the most divisive and difficult of Coltrane's recordings for its uncompromising length, dissonance and aggressive intensity.
- Venue:
- Bookshelf Terrace
- Type:
- Musical Performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 10 PM
CFRU Silent Dance Party
The event features a rotating cast of DJs, playing a variety of different forms of music. At all times there will be three DJs simultaneously playing music, each broadcasting to a different radio frequency (including CFRU). Portable radios and headphones will be provided to attendees, who will be able to choose which of the three DJs they will be dancing to.
- Venue:
- Royal Bank parking lot
- Type:
- Outdoor dance party ... in silence.
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 12:30 AM
The Townies - GIMS Steve Sladkowski Band
The Townies represents a first-time meeting of four community-minded improvising musicians with strong ties to the Guelph area. They are Matt Brubeck (cello), Steve Sladkowski (guitar), Tyler Wagler (bass), and Ted Warren (drums and percussion).
- Venue:
- Synnema - Synn Studios
- Type:
- Improvised jam session
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 3:30 - 6 AM
Huelepega Sound System (ON)
Huelepega Sound System plays doombia, an electronic extension of cumbia, the legendary and infective Columbia-via-Mexico dance music.
- Venue:
- Wyndham Street Jazz Tent & Synnema
- Type:
- Concert
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 7:45pm & 2 AM
IKONS: music and sculpture
An innovative piece of music, created by George Lewis using specially created software, is integrated with a large array of Eric Metcalfe sculptures. Visitors literally create the work from their presence in the space.
- Venue:
- Macdonald Stewart Art Centre - Gallery #1
- Type:
- Interactive multi-media installation
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Kid Koala (Quebec)
Conventions dictate that flashy demonstrations of speed are the hallmark of turntable artistry; instead, Kid Koala uses his instrumental palette to weave stories through sound.
- Venue:
- Mitchell Hall - St. Georges Church
- Type:
- Concert
- Price:
- $20/$20
- Time:
- 1:30 AM
Sagapool (Quebec)
With its contagious joie de vivre and its vibrant music, this band of six musicians has created an original and dazzling repertoire that reflects the colourful influences of Montreal's cultural mosaic.
- Venue:
- Wyndham Street Jazz Tent
- Type:
- Concert
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 9:30 PM
The Souljazz Orchestra (ON)
The Ottawa-based Souljazz Orchestra is an outstanding ensemble that fuses the energy of 1960s free jazz with funk and groove music from around the world.
- Venue:
- Wyndham Street Jazz Tent
- Type:
- Concert
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 11:15 PM
A Piano Talking To Itself - Gordon Monahan
Six long piano strings are connected to a piano. Audio recordings are transmitted into the long piano strings using vibrating coils attached to the wires, which causes the piano strings to vibrate in sympathy with the audio signals. The vibrations in the long piano strings are amplified by contact to the piano soundboard. The sounds heard coming from the piano are reproduced entirely acoustically by the piano soundboard and strings.
- Venue:
- WC Wood, Plant #1, 5 Arthur St. S.
- Type:
- Sound installation
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Peripheral Zones - Gabriela Alonso & Nelda Ramos
Argentinian artists, Alonso and Ramos explore women's roles and their resistance to some of these traditional roles through actions with balloons and other materials.
- Venue:
- Ed Video
- Type:
- Installation Performance Art
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 8 PM & 11 PM
Hurdy Gurdy Solo - Ben Grossman
Ben's vielle à roue* is a contemporary, electro-acoustic instrument with roots in the European middle ages. Through extended techniques, live-looping and processing, Ben seeks to use it as a physical interface into improvised sound creation, spontaneous composition and the exploration of acoustics, form and extended aesthetics.
- Venue:
- Bikram Yoga
- Type:
- Musical Performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 1 AM
Land of Marigold
Josh Zubot (violins) and Ellwood Epps (trumpet) play an intimate and psychic music. Some things get bent while others are clarified, and it's ok to laugh or cry out. Jason Sharp (baritone saxophone) joins LOM for this dream in Guelph.
- Venue:
- Synnema
- Type:
- Musical Performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 11 PM
"Riveradiant" by Scott Thomson, performed by the Radiant Brass Band
In Guelph, the Radiant Brass Band will be premièring a new piece by Scott Thomson for ten brass players, "Riveradiant". Five musicians will be on each of the shores, playing hauntingly sonorous and fittingly nocturnal music across the Speed River between the Gordon Street Bridge and the McRae Blvd Bridge.
- Venue:
- Royal City Park along the riverbank
- Type:
- Musical Performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 1 AM
The Wandering Musicians - Ratchet Orchestra broken up
A collection of small ensembles from the Ratchet Orchestra will improvise a performance as they travel to various points around the downtown and university corridor, making an audience of everyone in earshot!
- Venue:
- Throughout the city
- Type:
- Roving Musical Performances
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Trio - Lori Freedman, John Heward, Nicolas Caloia
The Trio brings these three phenomenal artists hailing from the Ratchet Orchestra together in a smaller collection to play off one another's improvised lines, creating a cohesive, organic and emotionally charged performance.
- Venue:
- Synnema
- Type:
- Musical Performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 9:30 - 10:30 PM
Midnight [e] Scapes - Rebecca Caines
Sound [e] scapes is an web-based international project that features recordings from communities in Northen Ireland, Australia and Guelph, Ontario. The project allows participants and audience members to experience the sounds of everyday life, engaging listener's ears in the soundscapes in their communityand through this action, making them more active aural participants.
- Venue:
- Ed Video
- Type:
- Sound Installation
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 12:30 AM
Nicolas Caloia Quartet - Jean Derome, Nicolas Caloia, Guillaume Dostaler, Isaiah Ceccarelli
When speaking of the quartet, Caloia explains how "playing bass in Montreal has given me the chance to play Tango, Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Gypsy Music, African Music, Rai, Shabi, Gnawa, Orchestral music, Contemporary music and Free Jazz. I do not mimic these styles when I compose for my Quartet but I do let these colours filter through me. I try to organize this composed material in a way that they will inspire but not inhibit our improvisations. I hope the result is a music that engages the mind and makes the body dance."
- Venue:
- Synnema
- Type:
- Musical Performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 12:30 - 1:30am
Dancetheatre David Earle
Dancetheatre David Earle presents two installments from a series entitled "Portraits, Mirrors, and Windows". Choreography and concept are by David Earle.
- Venue:
- Temple Studios
- Type:
- Dance performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 10 PM & 12:45 AM
Frequent Mutilations by Andrew O'Connor & Doug Horne
Frequent Mutilations is a performed installation for 4 reel to reel tape machines and a series of giant analog tape loops. Each tape machine simultaneously plays a tape loop, each loop is a different duration, and different sound. The loops weave together different sounds and textures to create a slowly evolving slightly random composition.
- Venue:
- Temple Studios 2nd floor gallery
- Type:
- Sound installation
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Fall on Your Feet
Fall on Your Feet Dance Lab was formed out of the need to have alternative, improvisational based movement research opportunities.
- Venue:
- Temple Studios
- Type:
- Dance performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 11 PM - 11:45 PM, 2 - 2:45 AM & 4:30 - 5:15 AM
Haunting Melodies, Improvisation and Motion by Dianne Chapitis
Voice, harp and dance are the springboards to kaleidoscope the dueting of Shannon Kingsbury and Dianne Chapitis. Joining the duo will be Sue Smith, Jenikz Rego and guests, creating evocative soundscapes to carry you through the portal of music and motion!
- Venue:
- St George's Church
- Type:
- Dance and musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 2:30 AM
Harut Marut by Jerrard Smith
Harut Marut is a series of sculptural installations that are situated in a variety of different venues. This series of quasi-humanoid shapes amuse, startle, provoke and otherwise engage the spectator by their form, their seeming reality and their ability to generate a sonic response to the proximity of the spectator.
- Venue:
- Throughout the city
- Type:
- Sculptural installations
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
The Weather Report Project by Jason Raso and Brent Rowan
The Jason Raso Quartet features Brent Rowan on sax and effects, Rob Hannam on keys, Domenic Di Nino on drums and Jason Raso on bass. They will be performing the music of jazz fusion pioneers Weather Report and Jaco Pastorius.
- Venue:
- The Cornerstone
- Type:
- Musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 1 AM
10 Carden
10 Carden street presents a collection of local artists while you plan your next Nuit Blanche performance and re-fuel with coffee and snacks. Exhibiting artists include Maria Pezzano, Colin Carney, Pearl Van Geest, Tammy Ratcliff, Barbara Bryce, Maggie Leighton and Lynn Chidwick.
- Venue:
- 10 Carden St.
- Type:
- Multi media
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Ongoing
Memories from my Mind's Eye by Chris Iwanowski
Approximately 1000 images taken by photographer Chris Iwanowski of Canada, live performances, and dealing with a wide array of subject matter.
- Venue:
- Municipal Parking lot beside Sun Sun's
- Type:
- Multi media installation
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 7:39 to 6:57 AM
Surroundings Interior by Robert Kingsbury
A man appearing in the dark as a set of lights moves through his inner zodiac with the help of a grapefruit. A meditation towards dynamic embodiment, featuring live vocals by Sue Smith.
- Venue:
- Royal City Park Gazebo
- Type:
- Dance and musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- Dusk & 12:30 AM
Jazz Café Noir
Jazz Café Noir is a trio with an unusual and unique approach to the Great American Song Book. With a varied repertoire from the music of Ellington, Rodgers & Hart, Gershwin, etc to Latin and French styles and original compositions by Johnson, this trio will draw you into their musical sphere for a memorable night.
- Venue:
- The Woolwich Arrow
- Type:
- Musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 1 - 4 AM
field - Ben Grossman & Debashis Sinha
field is the name of a new performance project by Debashis Sinha (visuals) and Ben Grossman (electro-acoustic hurdy gurdy).
- Venue:
- Temple Studios
- Type:
- Multi-media performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 3:15 AM
Viola Solo - Jean René
A solo viola recital from one of the most in demand musicians on the Montreal musique actuelle scene.
- Venue:
- Bikram Yoga Studio
- Type:
- Musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 12 AM
Rhythmic Recyclers by Liam Kijewski and Crystal Bradford
Using waste and recycled goods to make instruments, this duo (with guest musicians) will be performing an interactive improvisation dressed as various creatures. Audience members are welcome to participate and/or bring their own creations.
- Venue:
- Royal City Park
- Type:
- Interactive performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 9 PM - 3 AM
Modern Field Recordings with guests
In this performance Modern Field recordings takes a break from their folk roots, pick up their bass and jam with fellow local artists.
- Venue:
- Red Brick Cafe
- Type:
- Musical performance
- Price:
- Free
- Time:
- 11:11 PM
Volunteer!
Interested in volunteering with the Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium? There are positions available! Click here to learn how you can participate in an incredible community experience, support innovative music all while benefiting from the advantages our Festival volunteers enjoy.
