New Brunswick Summer Music Festival plans hybrid performance series merging chamber and electronic music.
By Kate Butler @butler2
The New Brunswick Summer Music Festival have once again teamed up with musician Greg Harrison and his FUZE project to curate a number of special performances as part of this year’s program, with several events planned for August 14 and 15.
“Richard Hornsby artistic director of NBSMF reached out to me last year wondering if we could put together a day of a new music and contemporary classical music, but bring it downtown to The Capital and introduce this type of music to an audience who might not have checked it out before,” said Harrison.
Harrison currently resides in Toronto and makes a living as a free-lance percussionist. As a former resident of Fredericton, he believes there is an audience for this style of musical pairing.
“The Fredericton music scene is great and always has been,” said Harrison. “I think the Fredericton scene errs on a side of experimental and is not narrowed down to one genre. This year with FUZE it is going to be a little bit more electronic heavy. We have local musicians remixing classical music pieces in their own way. The concept of what this is, and then seeing what people are able to create, is a really interesting experience.”
FUZE will be utilizing several venues over the course of the weekend including The Capital Complex, The Charlotte Street Arts Centre and Memorial Hall to showcase several different performances including two improvisational drone showcases.
Beginning at The Capital Complex on Friday August 14, the first show, an early evening seated performance, will feature solo acts including Richard Hornsby and Nadia Francavilla. For the second part of the evening a drone improve will occur which will feature many members of the NBSMF improvising with their selected instruments.
Later in the evening, members from local bands, The Sentimentals, CellarGhost, NUAGES and UDA will be remixing classical pieces by selected composers followed by the evening’s headliners, Joyful Talk.
On Saturday August 15, The Charlotte Street Arts Center will host the second installment of the drone improve which will take place from 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. and feature members from NBSMF as well as members from Joyful Talk.
Also on Saturday, Harrison will perform with his marimba duo, Takus, at Memorial Hall on UNB Campus starting at 7:30 p.m. They will be playing pieces originally written for a solo piano which they have reworked for marimbas. This performance will double as the group’s album release show.
The event’s organisers understand that classical and contemporary music fans are often divided, but Harrison is hoping this unique mix of performances will help break that barrier down.
“Unfortunately I think there is oftentimes a stigma against classical music,” he said, “and I wished people would realize it’s not that different from going out to see a band, and hope people will come out and listen and hear something they may end up really enjoying.”
For complete information on all FUZE and NBSMF events, visit www.nbsummermusicfestival.ca