Talented jazz and new music women composers featured at Silence
On Sunday, March 24, Silence Guelph showcased an incredible group of female composers and artists, who put on a show that diverted expectations, broke down the boundaries of genre, and filled the audience with overwhelming emotion. The performance featured vocalists Laura Swankey, Belinda Corpuz, Lieke Van Der Voort, and percussionist Germaine Liu. The show was labelled as “New Music and Jazz,” but the actual listening experience was something that couldn’t be so easily pegged down. The group layered singing and speaking with more unconventional sounds — such as rolling pebbles, jingling car keys, whispering, heavy breathing, and even gargling water — to create a vocal texture that was rich, visceral, and incredibly moving.
One of the most wonderful components of the show was the depth of thought that had clearly been put into every piece. Each composer took time to explain the background of each of the compositions, and they revealed stories that were all as important as they were diverse. The final component of the show was the only work not written by one of the performers; it was a piece commissioned by the Canadian Women Composers (CWC) project and written by Toronto composer Tova Kardonne, who was present at the event to give her thoughts on the work. The topics of the songs spanned from a discussion of the pollution of the Don River in Toronto, to a commentary on the trials and tribulations of online dating. While the topics varied, what created unity in the show was its ability to bring a strong emotional element to social critique. Thus, the messages presented were something that the audience could not help but empathize with and acknowledge.
The performance was organized by the CWC project, which was founded by Clarisse Tonigussi. Tonigussi was inspired to start the CWC project because she recognized a lack of female representation in the music industry — particularly in classical music. Since the project first began in 2016, Tonigussi has been organizing concerts with diverse genres and themes. For her, the biggest goal of this organization is to create a world where a female composer is not a rarity. She noted that presently, successful female composers are considered relevant simply because they are female.
The aim of the CWC project is to allow female composers to be recognized not for their gender, but for their artistic talent and abilities.
Through this project, Tonigussi also hopes to show that small actions can make a big impact, and that even seemingly daunting goals can be reached through gradual change, hard work, and passion.
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Feature photo by Hannah Stewart