“solastalgia” exhibit closing panel talk

by | Sep 5, 2024 | Award, climate, Events, Graduate, School of Music, Writing

Don’t miss the closing night panel talk for solastalgia [soon to be what once was] — the new exhibit by current School of Music Master’s student in music technology & Ocean Networks Canada artist-in-residence Megan Harton. This event will feature fascinating insights and lively discussion from artists and experts in melding art with science, and environmental activism.

Join us at 7pm Friday, Sept 6, in room 103 of the Fine Arts building, with a guided tour of the exhibit to follow. Panelists include Megan Harton (2024 ONC Artist in Residence), Neil Griffin (2023 ONC Artist in Residence), Pieter Romer (Filmmaker & ONC Indigenous Community Liaison) and Dwight Owens (ONC Associate Director of Learning and Community Engagement).

This exhibit explores the emotional response to environmental change using soundscapes, experimental photography, and video elements alongside nostalgic retro iconography to evoke a sense of “solastalgia”—distress caused by the disruption of familiar environments. By integrating scientific data from ONC’s observatories with artistic mediums, Harton’s work invites visitors to reflect on the impact of climate change, memory and place.

A passionate composer, audio engineer and sound artist, Harton is the fifth artist-in-residence in this continuing partnership between ONC and the Faculty of Fine Arts. “My artistic practice is primarily about using sound technologies in artistic ways,” Harton explains.

For his part, Griffin will share writings developed during his time as ONC’s 2023 artist-in-residence, exploring the mystery of “whale falls” — what happens after whales die, which still remains something of a biological mystery.

“Imagine you build a new apartment building and various people live there as it ages and eventually falls apart,” Griffin says. “That’s what happens with a whale carcass: various scavengers and decomposers move in and out . . . there are even worms that take hundreds of years to burrow single-mindedly through a thick whale vertebrae to get to the marrow inside.”

A graduate student partnership between Fine Arts and ONC, previous artists-in-residence include Neil Griffin (Writing, 2023), Colin Malloy (School of Music, 2022), Dennis Gupa (Theatre, 2020) and Colton Hash (Visual Arts, 2018). 

The call for 2025’s Ocean Networks Canada Artist-in-Residence will be released this fall. 

SALT celebrates 10th festival

by | Sep 4, 2024 | Alumni, climate, Events, Faculty, indigenous, School of Music

SALT co-founder & School of Music professor Ajtony Csaba

The tenth SALT New Music Festival, founded in 2011 and organized by the Tsilumos Ensemble in collaboration with UVic’s School of Music, returns to Victoria for the first time live since 2019 with a compelling program featuring diverse and thought-provoking music from the 20th and 21st centuries—including concerts drawing attention to pressing global challenges, including social inequality and climate change.

“Like salt is essential to your food, the SALT Festival brings musical excitement to the Victoria audience,” says Ajtony Csaba, managing co-director of the SALT Festival and a School of Music professor of conducting. “This is a celebration of diverse new music performed by outstanding Canadian musicians, including premieres by contemporary composers and works by seminal ones.”

Beyond the traditional concert venue of UVic’s Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, SALT also offers the local premiere of the unique, immersive, under-the-stars performance of Stockhausen’s “Sternklang” in the serene setting of Finnerty Gardens.

The festival is thrilled to present fantastic performers with an array of exciting instrumental music by living Canadian composers and the seminal composer Stockhausen (called the “Beethoven of the 20th century”). In collaboration with UVic, the events take place in the breathtaking Finnerty Gardens and the exquisitely sounding Philip T. Young Recital Hall.

All concerts are free, with donations appreciated, but online booking is required at www.tsilumos.org/salt2024.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 I 7:30pm
Earth Sounds
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall

The first night features the premiere of David A. Jaffe’s “Northwest Passages”, a mesmerizing musical soundscape reflecting the grandeur and fragility of our ecosystem, with the SALT Festival Orchestra.  A champion for music of our time, the Emily Carr String Quartet will present commissioned compositions by Canadian composers Jocelyn Morlock and Tobin Stokes, also a School of Music alumnus, including a vocal performance by soprano and UVic Music professor Marion Newman.

Emily Carr String Quartet

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 I 7:30pm
Diverse Sounds
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall

Tsilumos Ensemble and guests showcase diversity through remarkable contemporary solo and chamber works, featuring the premieres of two pieces by Canadian composers. School of Music alumna Aliayta Foon-Dancoes returns with a commissioned composition for instruments and digital media.

Canadian composers Peter Hatch and artist Matthew Talbot-Kelly present an audiovisual collaborative composition reflecting on our environment through a novel lens, and School of Music professor emeritus Andrew Schloss and clarinetist François Houle bring an improvisational electroacoustic duo for electronics and clarinet to stage.

Aliayta Foon-Dancoes

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 I 5:30pm
Star Sound
UVic Finnerty Gardens

In a nighttime park, groups of musicians perform under the open sky, each at a distance from the others, drawing their music from the varying positions of the stars. This concept was envisioned by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen in his seminal work, “Sternklang” and the SALT Festival Orchestra introduces this immersive experience to Victoria for the first time.

Music flows throughout the entire garden as “sound couriers” and “light bearers” carry the sounds from one location to another. The nature- and stargazing-audience is invited to inhabit this multidimensional space, whether by walking among the groups or sitting down to the lawn.

Karlheinz Stockenhausen

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 I 7:30pm
Sounds of the Zodiac
Phillip T. Young Recital Hall

Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Tierkreis: 12 Melodien der Sternzeichen” meets four young Canadian composers who re-envision the seasons, climate change, astrology, and even Stockhausen himself through a uniquely 21st-century lens. Performed by British Columbian Duo Inquietum (Liam Hockley, clarinets, Mark Takeshi McGregor, flutes).

Duo Inquietum

The SALT New Music Festival closes with a unique workshop focused on narratives in music inspired by indigenous knowledge. Active composer and musician participants will engage in dialogue with invited storytellers and artistic knowledge keepers, initiating concepts for new works. Please join us for this at 5pm Friday, Sept 20 at the UVic School of Music. 

More info and free tickets: www.tsilumos.org/salt2024

Quartet Fest West returns

by | Jun 24, 2024 | Events, Faculty, School of Music

The chamber music experience Quartet Fest West returns to the School of Music from June 24-July 5 with a lineup including former members of the Lafayette String Quartet, guest artists the Jasper String Quartet, the Breakwater Quartet plus this year’s student participants.

You can get the full details here but the public events include:

QFW participant concert: 2pm Friday, June 28 at St. Andrew’s (Broughton & Douglas, by donation) 

Jasper String Quartet: 7pm Sunday, June 30 (UVic’s Phillip T. Young Recital Hall, $20/$25)

The Jasper String Quartet are the recipients of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award and their playing has been described as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” (The Strad). The ensemble has released eight albums, including Unbound, named by the New York Times as one of the year’s 25 Best Classical Recordings. This year’s QFW program features the Jasper String Quartet performing works by Gabriella Smith, Grażyna Bacewicz and Antonín Dvořák.

Jasper String Quartet

Live Music Bingo FUNdRaiser with the Breakwater Quartet & $1K+ in prizes: 7pm Wed, July 3 (UVic’s David Lam Auditorium, bingo cards 1/$25, 2/$40, 3/$50)

For the Live Music Bingo FUNdRaiser, refreshments will be served starting at 6:30, with the bingo starting at 7pm—with over $1,000 in amazing prizes up for grabs! There will be a brief intermission for more refreshments and then another round of fun begins.

UVic Music alumni The Breakwater Quartet will perform their own arrangements of pop and classical tunes: each ticket holder receives one bingo card, but additional cards are available at the door. Sing along to your favourite songs, hum to the classics, and win awesome prizes like tickets to the Victoria Summer Music Festival, floral arrangements from Twyla’s Flower Farm, gift certificates to the Synergy Health Centre, Crag X Indoor Climbing Centre, Fig Deli and future performances by the Breakwater Quartet — with more prizes coming in daily!

All proceeds from this bingo event go toward scholarships for QFW participants, this year travelling from Vancouver, Seattle, Calgary, the BC interior and even Mexico. Our goal is to raise $3,000 in scholarships, so help us make it possible for all these talented young musicians to study without worrying about finances!

Breakwater Quartet

Participants Final Concert: 7pm Friday, July 5 (UVic’s PTY, by donation)

A unique teaching experience outside of the regular School of Music curriculum, Quartet Fest West has been running since 2012 (but also 1993-1998) and offers student participants an in-depth study of great chamber music literature alongside former members of the world-renowned Lafayette String Quartet.

Participants receive daily coachings and masterclasses, plus one-on-one consultations on their individual chamber music parts in private lessons; they also gain experience performing in-concert, enjoy chamber music parties with faculty and local musicians, gain insights in listening skills, as well as body awareness and movement through Feldenkrais workshops and get to explore Victoria with fun outings!

Congratulation to the 2024 grad class!

by | Jun 14, 2024 | Alumni, Art History & Visual Studies, Award, Events, Graduate, School of Music, Theatre, Undergraduate, Visual Arts, Writing

Jude Wolff Ackroyd, BFA Honours 2024

Congratulations to our 2024 grad class! Whether you’re graduating from our department of Art History & Visual Studies, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing or the School of Music, you’re now part of an extended community of nearly 10,000 other Fine Arts grads!

“While many of you started your current academic journey back in 2020—arguably, the most trying of recent times—we’re hoping you’ll look back on your degree as a time of rewarding and inspiring creative and scholarly exploration,” says Dean Allana Lindgren. “While the weeks ahead will be a whirlwind of emotions ranging from excitement and uncertainty to relief and anticipation, never forget that you’re well-prepared for wherever life takes you. Be bold. Be creative. Believe in yourself. Know that you are ready to succeed.”

Watch the livestream of the Fine Arts convocation starting at 10am Friday, June 14.

We would also encourage you to pause and thank the people who have supported and mentored you during your studies— be they family, friends, faculty, staff, donors or anyone who helped along the way. No matter your career path or the distance you travel, let us know about your projects and events, so we can celebrate your accomplishments.

“The world urgently needs fresh ideas and fresh energy: I challenge you to use your critical thinking and creative skills to give back to society and make a difference as you become the voice of a new generation,” says Dean Lindgren. “Always know that we are very proud to call you a UVic Fine Arts grad!”

2024 Victoria Medal winner Stella McCaig 

Special congratulations also go out to Visual Arts student Stella McCaig, who is graduating with a truly remarkable grade-point average of 9.0. Her perfect GPA earns her the 2024 Victoria Medal, presented annually to the Fine Arts student with the highest grades. 

“Stella McCaig is a daring and sensitive artist,” says Visual Arts professor Beth Stuart. “She combines personal narrative and material investigation fearlessly and from a place of raw vulnerability — in a way that generates art that is singular and resonates deeply with those who have the privilege to experience it.”

Stuart well knows of which she speaks: in summer 2023, while completing and installing a mammoth public art commission in Montreal, she brought Stella along to help with the process as a directed study — which involved undertaking many processes and pathways with which she was not familiar.

“Stella took up this task with effervescent good humour, meeting each obstacle and new set of knowledge with tenacity and grace,” says Stuart. “The project unfolded at breakneck speed, and Stella was completely instrumental in its success . . . . There is no standard metric that can express what this person is capable of — she’s a gift to the field, and I count myself blessed to have been able to work with her. Someday I will say, ‘I knew her when’.”

About the artist

“My sculptural work considers the idiosyncratic material language and forms that are developed through diving into the material and process, responding to and solving the challenges that exist due to experimentation and play. The body dispersed; transformation from the organic to the synthetic — and back again; a growing positive embrace of female sexuality, and an ownership of the gaze. These threads of interest become the genesis of intense sculptural works and installations, and become contemplative rather than predictive.

“Through an entirely personal practice of sewing, I create mangled and uninterpretable objects, that which become sanctified, having an unmatched virility in their endlessness. Because I primarily work from banal found objects and materials, the work enshrines the objects asking the viewer to realize the beauty of that which exists in the world; artificial or once alive. In an attempt to realize this idea, I adorn, embellish, and prettify the forms and objects that emerge, in preserving the infatuation I have with the unaesthetic, the disingenuous, and the absurd.

“I present the installations and sculptural works that I create in a moment of transmutation, from what they once were, to how they stand in front of the viewer. Every choice is presently there for the viewer to see. Everything is something, even the tiniest morsel of material becomes a point of love and thoughtful consideration. Each of the works arrive to and for the moment, functioning as tools gently resting between what is real and what is imagined, acknowledging the beauty of artificiality.”

—Stella McCaig

Orion Series presents filmmaker Ali Kazimi

by | May 14, 2024 | Art History & Visual Studies, Events, indigenous, Orion Series in Fine Arts, Research

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:

Ali Kazimi

Documentary filmmaker

“Documentarian as Witness: The Making of Beyond Extinction“

10:30am-noon, Thursday, May 30

Online only via Zoom  Free & open to all

(Meeting ID: 839 7959 0560. Password: 119640)

Presented by UVic’s Department of Art History & Visual Studies

For more information on this lecture please email: arthistory@uvic.ca

About Ali Kazimi

A professor of cinema and media arts at Ontario’s York University, Ali Kazimi is a filmmaker, writer and visual artist whose work deals with race, social justice, migration, history, memory and archive. He was presented with the Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in Visual and Media Arts in 2019, as well as a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from UBC. In 2023 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

“My body of work reflects a commitment to storytelling that addresses social issues, cultural complexities, and historical injustices, aiming to provoke thought, inspire change, and foster understanding within diverse communities,” he says.

Kazimi has interwoven themes of place and belonging through many of his works—including Beyond Extinction (2022), which traces three decades of action by the Indigenous matriarchs of the Autonomous Sinixt for recognition of their existence and their claim to their ancestral territories and is an important document of BC history.

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

Phoenix Theatre launches new season

by | Mar 18, 2024 | Events, Faculty, Theatre

im:print 2024 

October 3–12, 2024

A special presentation with the Inter-Cultural Association of Greater Victoria featuring a creative team of diverse artists and facilitators. im:print 2024 is a diverse performance that skillfully weaves together the personal stories of Indigenous, settler, immigrant and refugee artists. Using spoken word, dance and song, the production delves into the complex web of our connections to place, people and belonging. It boldly challenges prevailing beliefs and sheds light on the real-life impacts of equity, diversity, inclusion, and identity politics.

This project, which spans across cultures and generations, is a community-based effort designed to be a vital creative outlet. These stories centre around themes like place and displacement, belonging and longing, and connection and disconnection, showcasing the diverse voices within our community. 

Art can be a powerful way of healing, raising awareness, and having conversations around difficult subjects. 
—ICA

 

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

November 7-23, 2024

Winner of the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Best Book of a Musical (Rachel Sheinkin), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee takes audiences on a hilarious and heartwarming journey into the competitive world of spelling bees.

Set in a small town, the story follows an eclectic group of six adolescents as they vie for the coveted title of spelling champion. These quirky characters spell their way through a series of challenging (and possibly made-up) words, hoping to avoid the dreaded “ding” of elimination. Along the way, they share touching and wildly funny stories from their home lives. Thanks to catchy tunes by William Finn (Falsettoland) plus unexpected twists and even some audience participation, this fast-paced gem is a riotous ride that has charmed audiences worldwide.

Guest directed by Jaques Lemay, the musical mastermind behind our previous production of The Drowsy Chaperone.

The Killing Game

February 13–22, 2025

Theatre professor Conrad Alexandrowicz (The Waste Land, Comic Potential) offers this absurdist comedy that transcends the ordinary. Step into the surreal world of Eugène Ionesco’s The Killing Game, a captivating play that immerses audiences in the tale of a town facing a deadly plague. As the body count rises, accusations fly, tensions rise, and the line between reality and absurdity is blurred. Death spares no one, regardless of wealth, age, innocence, or guilt, turning the community into a chaotic mix of paranoia, hypocrisy, and opportunism.

One of Ionesco’s final plays, The Killing Game is filled with humour despite its dark subject matter, and reveals how social connections can become fragile when confronted with an existential threat. With razor-sharp wit and keen satire, Ionesco skillfully allows the audience to engage while maintaining a sense of detachment through laughter.

The human drama is as absurd as it is painful.
—Eugène Ionesco.

 

Twelfth Night


March 13-22, 2025

In the magical realm of Shakespeare’s Illyria, director and Theatre professor Fran Gebhard (Dead Man’s Cell Phone, Problem Child) offers a fresh interpretation of the timeless comedy Twelfth Night. Shipwrecked and separated from her twin brother Sebastian, Viola disguises herself as a young man to serve Duke Orsino. What follows is a whirlwind of romantic entanglements, mischievous pranks, mistaken identity and hilarious misunderstandings.

Gebhard’s vision transports the audience to a future era, post-climate change, where traditional gender roles blur. Amidst wit, humour, and poetic language, the play explores love’s transformative power and the delightful chaos of reality and illusion.

If music be the food of love, play on. 
— William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

After a strong 23/24 season that saw the majority of performances play to sold-out audiences, the Department of Theatre‘s 24/25 mainstage season promises an equally exciting year to come—from community impact stories and a Tony-winning musical to an absurdist comedy and a much-loved classic!