Orion Lectures: Anosh Irani Author, playwright “Building Character in Fiction”

The Orion
Lecture Series in Fine Arts

Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Victoria, is pleased to present:

Anosh Irani 

Author, Playwright

“Building Character in Fiction”

2:30 pm Friday , February 7
Room 103, UVic’s Fine Arts Building

Free & open to all 

Presented by UVic’s Department of Writing.

For more information, please email writing@uvic.ca

Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts is pleased to present Anosh Irani, Visiting Artist. All are welcome to attend this free event.

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

 Anosh Irani was born and brought up in Bombay before moving to Vancouver in 1998, where he teaches creative writing at SFU’s World Literature Program. He has published four critically acclaimed and bestselling novels: The Cripple and His Talismans (2004), The Song of Kahunsha (2006), Dahanu Road (2010) and The Parcel (2016). The Parcel was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and was chosen as one of the best books of the year by the Globe and Mail, National Post, CBC, The Walrus and Quill & Quire. His work has been translated into 11 languages, his short stories have appeared in Granta and the Los Angeles Review of Books, and his nonfiction has been published in the New York Times. 

His 2006 play Bombay Black won five Dora Awards (including for Outstanding New Play) and his anthology The Bombay Plays: The Matka King & Bombay Black was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Drama. The Matka King received a Jessie Award nomination (Outstanding Original Script), as did his 2018 play, The Men in White — which was also a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Drama. 

His latest play, Behind the Moon, is running at Victoria’s Belfry Theatre from Feb 4 to March 2. 

Free and open to the public | Find more at www.events.uvic.ca

For more information on this lecture, please email visualarts@uvic.ca

About the Orion Fund

Established through the generous gift of an anonymous donor, the Orion Fund in Fine Arts is designed to bring distinguished visitors from other parts of Canada—and the world—to the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Fine Arts, and to make their talents and achievements available to faculty, students, staff and the wider Greater Victoria community who might otherwise not be able to experience their work.

The Orion Fund also exists to encourage institutions outside Canada to invite regular faculty members from our Faculty of Fine Arts to be visiting  artists/scholars at their institutions; and to make it possible for Fine Arts faculty members to travel outside Canada to participate in the academic life of foreign institutions and establish connections and relationships with them in order to encourage and foster future exchanges.

Visit our online events calendar at www.events.uvic.ca

Orion Lectures: “Thriving in the Arts” & “Connecting Audiences”

The Orion
Lecture Series in Fine Arts

Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Victoria, is pleased to present:

“Thriving in the Arts” & “Connecting Audiences” 


Sara Topham & Pablo Felices-Luna,
Visiting Theatre alumni artists

12:30-1:45 pm Wednesday , February 5

Theatre for Young Audiences playreading 

12:30- 1:45pm Friday, February 7
Both in Chief Dan George Theatre, UVic’s Phoenix building

Free & open to all 

Presented by UVic’s Theatre Department.

For more information, please email theatre@uvic.ca

Through the generous support of the Orion Fund in Fine Arts, UVic’s Faculty of Fine Arts is pleased to present Sara Topham & Pablo Felices-Luna, Visiting Theatre Artists. All are welcome to attend this free event.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Sara Topham, a graduate of UVic’s Theatre Program, has performed on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, including Broadway, where she starred in revivals of The Importance of Being Earnest and Travesties and originated the role of Sally in Leopoldstadt. With 15 seasons at the Stratford Festival, plus work with the Shaw Festival, her roles have ranged from Shakespearean heroines like Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) and Rosalind (As You Like It) to dramatic leads like Hedda Gabler. Sara has performed internationally, from London to Washington, D.C., and San Diego, while contributing as a teacher and collaborator at theatres across North America. Sara works frequently with Manitoba Theatre for Young People as a co-director and choreographer.

 

Pablo Felices-Luna, a fellow UVic Theatre Program graduate and Artistic Director of Manitoba Theatre for Young People, has dedicated 25 years to Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). Born in Peru and arriving in Canada more than 30 years ago, Pablo’s career has championed the artistic value of TYA, directing 15 productions and premiering seven new plays during his eight years as Artistic Director of Carousel Players. At MTYP, he continues to inspire with new works and international collaborations. Pablo is a passionate advocate for integrating TYA into professional artist training, drawing on his extensive experience to redefine the relationship between theatre and young audiences.

Free and open to the public | Find more at www.events.uvic.ca

For more information on this lecture, please email theatre@uvic.ca

About the Orion Fund

Established through the generous gift of an anonymous donor, the Orion Fund in Fine Arts is designed to bring distinguished visitors from other parts of Canada—and the world—to the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Fine Arts, and to make their talents and achievements available to faculty, students, staff and the wider Greater Victoria community who might otherwise not be able to experience their work.

The Orion Fund also exists to encourage institutions outside Canada to invite regular faculty members from our Faculty of Fine Arts to be visiting  artists/scholars at their institutions; and to make it possible for Fine Arts faculty members to travel outside Canada to participate in the academic life of foreign institutions and establish connections and relationships with them in order to encourage and foster future exchanges.

Visit our online events calendar at www.events.uvic.ca

Visiting Artist: Jennifer Stillwell

Our ongoing Visiting Artist series continues with UVic Visual Arts professor Jennifer Stillwell, who will present a free illustrated public talk at 7:30pm Wed, Jan 22, in room A162 of UVic’s Visual Arts.

Jennifer Stillwell primarily works with sculpture and installation, and her recent work is site-responsive: found objects and manufactured materials are physically transformed in order to provoke imaginary possibilities — scale shifts, spaces collapse and meanings slip. She is currently completing a new body of work with the industrial activities around her studio space serving as the catalyst.

Stillwell received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BFA from the University of Manitoba. Her work has been exhibited widely including large-scale installations at the Darling Foundry in Montreal and Triple Candie in New York. Other solo exhibitions include YYZ Artists’ Outlet in Toronto and a survey show at Plug In ICA in Winnipeg. She has attended residencies in Banff, Toronto, Rotterdam, Quebec, Montreal and Naples, and her work has been part of group exhibitions and video art screenings across the country and internationally. She has a permanent public sculpture installed in Winnipeg, within Treaty No. 1 Territory, over the left field wall of the city’s baseball park. 

Her talk is part of the continuing Visiting Artist Series in UVic’s Department of Visual Arts. 

Sounds for Soldiers: Emily Armour’s Music for Veterans Project connects young musicians with military vets

Music alum Emily Armour with Pipe Major Roger McGuire of the Canadian Scottish Regiment
(Princess Mary’s) at 2024’s 80th anniversary of D-Day event at Victoria’s Bay Street Armoury 

When it comes to honouring veterans, many people wear a poppy on November 11 and then literally call it a day. Emily Armour created the Music for Veterans Project as a cross-generational way to honour soldiers year-round. Armour’s program involves sharing profiles of a member of the Canadian military with a young musician. The youth then creates an original musical composition to honour that person.

“It’s wonderful that we all unite and honour veterans in November, but it’s important to have other moments throughout the year to make them feel special as well,” Armour says.

Now in its fourth year, the Music for Veterans Project (MVP) provides meaningful connections between Armour’s students and Canadian veterans. Over 100 pieces have been written by students ranging in age from 18 to just five years old. These works honour both deceased and living veterans, including those who still are on active duty or have served as reservists.

“What makes this project unique is that every piece is inspired by and dedicated to an individual person,” she says.

Honouring the past

The program started as a Remembrance Day event but has since grown in scope. “There are a lot of activities out there for youth around Remembrance Day, but there isn’t always an opportunity to do something focused on an individual,” says Armour. “Like many of us, some of my students may have had relatives who served, but do they know a veteran who’s alive? Have they ever spoken to one? Have they ever heard a veteran talk about anything — even just about themselves? Through this project, the students are suddenly realizing just how different veterans are.”

Armour is a professional piano teacher who received both her Bachelor’s (2012) and Master’s (2017) from UVic’s School of Music, where she primarily studied with famed professor Bruce Vogt. Her family’s strong ties to the Canadian Armed Forces inspired the project.

“Not only was my husband in the military, but my grandmother served overseas during World War II: she was a physiotherapist in England and Germany between 1944 and 1945. I’ve seen how important and valuable it is for veterans and people in the Canadian Forces to have these moments of acknowledgment and positive recognition— but it’s just so amazing when it’s coming from youth.”

Composing from memory

Averaging between one and four minutes in length, each simple but evocative composition is inspired by an information package compiled by Armour. Veterans are chosen through a mix of word-of-mouth and organizational outreach. The creative lens is strictly focused on the soldier as a person: no additional historical information is added to the profile the student receives.

“There’s a lot of love, thought and care that goes into the process,” she says. “It’s emotional for everybody, because it’s so personal: even the titles of some compositions are drawn right from the material. It’s a very personal acknowledgment, as opposed to giving a drawing of a poppy to a veteran . . . which may be fantastic, but it lacks the personal acknowledgment music has.”

The compositions are always instrumentals with the idea of allowing the listener to conjure their own thoughts and feelings from the piece. She feels the greatest value is not actually the music itself: it’s why the music is written.

“As artists, it’s always kind of about us—what can this do for me and my career and my voice—but this is decidedly not about them; it’s for the person who gave their life in France during WWII, or whenever. It taps into something deeper because they’re doing it for somebody else.”

Emily Armour presents Commanding Officer Lt Col Slade Lerch with one of two plaques crafted on oak by a local veteran to commemorate the eight-piece collection created for the anniversary of D-Day

Memory beyond life

The age range of the veterans honoured reflects Canada’s involvement with international conflicts, from World War I to today’s peacekeepers. The program has honoured two living centenarians and a 35-year-old Afghanistan veteran—with a century’s worth of soldiers in-between.

Armour says it’s been a positive experience for her students. They receive a certificate signed by the veteran or partner organization and often get to professionally record the music. The veterans receive a copy of the music.

Many pieces are quietly reflective, with titles like “Beyond the Fray”, “Remembering a Hero” or “The Sacrifice for Freedom” (all of which can be heard at musicforveteransproject.com, many paired with a photo of the veteran). But Armour highlights one light-hearted piece called “Ballad for Seanmhair” (Gaelic for “grandmother”), which was composed for the 2024 80th anniversary of D-Day.

“The title seems very strange for a commemorative piece about a soldier, but his next-of-kin was his grandmother: that was the person who would have been informed of his death. I was so proud of my student for thinking about the impact of their service. It shows how this project can help heal and unite people from such different worlds, both historically and emotionally.”

Looking to the future, Armour has now established MVP as a federal not-for-profit and is opening participation to other piano teachers; they’ve also started working on projects that are both larger and more national in scope.

“Last year we did an event at the Royal Oak Burial Park in Saanich: it was our first public event and we had a ceremony at the war graves plot featuring a procession with Vice Regal Piper Ken Wilson, a group of active Air Force members and WWII pilot George Brewster as a guest speaker,” she recalls. “My students announced the names of the veterans and the title of their pieces; then, as we played professional recordings of the music, they lay the sheet music on the graves.”

Armour and four of her students were also thrilled to attend a 2023 event at the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, where audience included Indigenous elders, ambassadors and other dignitaries. “That was a life-altering experience,” she says about watching her student play pieces honouring three Indigenous veterans, as well as former Senator Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire.“

Music students Kai, Keira, Luke, Maya, Théo & teacher Emily Armour with
former Chief of the Defence Staff General Wayne Eyre during a trip to Ottawa 2023

Growing commemoration

Currently, the Music for Veterans Project is involved in two new efforts: the Honouring Garden, created in collaboration with Nova Scotia’s Veteran Farm Project Society to commemorate women veterans, and Oaks of Remembrance, a unique living memorial marking the 110th anniversary of World War I’s Battle of Kitcheners’ Wood.

Part digital and part environmental, Oaks of Remembrance will see new Garry oak trees planted at Saanich’s Royal Oak Burial Park, where current trees will also be designated as memorials for individual veterans; the public will then be able to go online to hear the musical compositions and learn about both the veteran and the student.

“Oaks of Remembrance will commemorate members of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, Vancouver Island’s only infantry unit, who wear an oak leaf battle honour on their uniform representing this 1915 battle in Belgium — they’re one of the few units in the whole Commonwealth who actually wear a battle honour on their uniform,” Armour explains. “And since Royal Oak Burial Park already has a connection with the Commonwealth War Grave Commission, it’s going to be a beautiful fusion of nature and music that will stand forever as a fully embodied remembrance.”

The sound of history

 When asked if she has a favourite moment over the last four years, Armour hesitates. “I don’t know if there could be just one, there have been so many: seeing tears in the eyes of a veteran as they listen to the music, talking to a family member about somebody who recently passed away . . . it all reminds me of how important this project is.”

As a veteran told Armour after hearing the piece composed for him, “You and your students have no idea how much this piece of music means to me, and I will use this gift to get me through some of the tougher days ahead.”

Visiting Artist: Marlene Yuen

Our ongoing Visiting Artist series continues with Vancouver-based artist Marlene Yuen, who will present a free illustrated public talk at 7:30pm Wed, Jan 15, in room A162 of UVic’s Visual Arts building.

Marlene Yuen is a Vancouver-based multidisciplinary artist whose current focus is on illustrations, prints, comics, zines and handmade books. Her books & zines have been retained in special collections archives nationally and internationally. She has also created artworks about Vancouver’s historic Chinatown and Chinese Canadian workers for museums, galleries and public art programs.

Her mural, “The Journeys Here” will be part of the travelling exhibition Odysseys & Migration at the Royal BC Museum in April 2025. She is currently working on a comic publication Hak Chu Pak for the Burnaby Art Gallery.