Kellsie Moore DENVER — AiR TOUR — Issue 9 “The Starry Rocky Mountains” by Kellsie Moore Kellsie Moore by Erika Arlee sM | How do you think the AiR residency program, and this exhibit, fits into the artist community in Denver? KM ── This residency is a phenomenal opportunity for local artists! This has been an incredible way to reach more of my community than nearly any other show. The Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit makes art an accessible and memorable experience that expands the appreciation of what it takes to create emotionally evoking works of art. Because it is a new and different way of experiencing art, it brings in more and different people beyond the gallery crowd. This exhibit brings the community together and allows for more people to become art fans, and now collectors of original pieces! Continue the AiR tour in print: ISSUE 9 | ISSUE 10 Sign Up to K eep Up! Our newsletter brings you the best in the visual and performing arts. Exclusive interviews. Global coverage. Local perspectves. sM | What were you able to accomplish in your residency? KM ── Live painting with a crowd was a new experience for me and, it honestly gave me anxiety for the first couple of days, but after adapting to the situation, the people became a new source of inspiration for me. It’s been exhilarating to see people’s reactions to my work in real-time, to share the process of what I’m doing and have them enjoy seeing the transformation as the piece gets finished. It’s helped grant me a new perspective and freedom with my work! Dedicating this consistent time to creation and painting has shown me so much more of what I’m capable of and unlocked a greater vision for where I want to take my career as an artist. sM | What inspiration do you get from artists around you? KM ── I am constantly soaking in inspiration from artists around me. Some artists from the past — like van Gogh, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Degas — but also contemporary artists that I find in some of my favourite galleries or on Instagram. I adore watching people’s processes and appreciating how different and unique our styles are. It’s beautiful how a dozen people can paint the same thing and you’ll get a dozen different expressions every time. sM | How has the pandemic transformed your mission as an artist, and priorities as a creative? KM ── The pandemic obviously forced change and a massive slow-down for most people, which in some ways dampened creativity and inspiration; however, it also allowed for a deeper awareness and stillness that opened the door for new ideas to come in. I actually used this time over the past couple of years to dive in and create more. It opened up a desire and commitment within me to take less unnecessary middle steps in my life and really begin creating at the level I want to be at now. Art cultivates connection, showcases beauty (which is subjective), discusses ideas, communicates meaning and reveals part of the human spirit in every brushstroke. PREVIOUS NEXT

The Flying Sailor “Imagine the story of the sailor’s flight as a subjective, visceral, slow-motion ballet” WORDS BY RACHEL WINDSOR | CALGARY | IN FOCUS IN FOCUS FEB 28, 2023 | ISSUE 11 "The Flying Sailor" Artistic inspiration can come from the most unexpected places─just ask Calgary-based Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, creators of the short film The Flying Sailor . The duo, known for such films as When the Day Breaks and Wild Life , took inspiration from the 1917 Halifax Explosion for their newest work. The explosion – caused by the early morning collision of the TNT-laden French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc and the Norwegian SS Imo – was unquestionably tragic for the Halifax and surrounding community (including the Mi’kmaq First Nation settlement in nearby Turtle Grove, which was never rebuilt). Yet, in The Flying Sailor , Forbis and Tilby are able to find beauty and even humour in the catastrophe by focusing their attention on the story of a single British sailor. The pair imagines his experience through a mix of 2D, 3D, live action, and photography techniques, with their variations mirroring the work’s blend of meditative philosophy and playful exuberance. Their innovative combinations paid off: the film has won nine awards to date, and was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 95th Academy Awards. smART Magazine connected with the filmmakers who, true to their collaborative nature, answered in tandem. ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Amanda Forbis (L) and Wendy Tilby (R) The Flying Sailor IDEATION sM | What was your journey towards the telling of this story, and what larger motivations propelled the realisation of this project? AF&WT ── A number of years ago we visited the Maritime Museum in Halifax and discovered the section dedicated to the Halifax Explosion. Oddly, we can’t remember if we already knew about that catastrophic event or not. Few Canadians are familiar with it─and that was particularly true before the famous Heritage Minute was made. Among the displays was a short blurb about a British sailor who was blown skyward from the pier and flew two kilometres before landing uphill, naked and unharmed. We were intrigued! What did he see? What did he hear? What was he thinking? The story brimmed with animation potential. Inspired by accounts of near-death experiences, our idea was to expand those few chaotic seconds into as many minutes, and imagine the story of the sailor’s flight as a subjective, visceral, slow-motion ballet. Our aim was to show that our lives are at once fleeting, precarious, profound … and, in the grand scheme of things, utterly insignificant. LAUGH & CRY & LAUGH sM | Although you're depicting a tragedy, the visual style is bright, colourful, and exaggerated. Why is this mixture of tragedy and comedy important to you, and to this particular story? AF&WT ── The humour was built into the factual account of the flight of the sailor. All he was wearing when he landed was one rubber boot. It’s an image that is both funny and awful, and we were interested in that tension. Humour is also the leavening that keeps the story from getting too earnest or self-important. We’re attracted to contrasts—terrible and beautiful, vast and tiny, funny and tragic─these contradictions keep showing up in our work. We feel they tell the truth of life, that it’s a mess of conflicting states and emotions, difficult to navigate and harder still to truly understand. In The Flying Sailor , we deliberately made the prologue jaunty and cartoony (how could we resist, with a giant stack of TNT in the story?), then changed the tone at the point of the explosion. We wanted to underscore the notion that we all get up in the morning with some idea of how the day will go, blithely unaware that our plans could be blown sky high in an instant, and our lives stripped down to the bare, often desperate, essentials. It could be an accident, a lost job, a bit of bad news─these are the moments that sharply divide our lives between before and after. TEAM sM | The two of you have been working as a team for over twenty years. What makes that collaboration work? AF&WT ── Yes, it’s been 27 years of pure hell! Just kidding. We met at art school in 1985 and immediately discovered that we had very similar tastes, ideas, and senses of humour. For us, two heads are better than one─rather than a dilution of the creative process, we find that working together is a route to better ideas. It involves a lot of discussion and negotiation throughout the entire process, and 97 percent of the time we agree—which means that disagreements come as a nasty shock to both parties. Occasionally, we’ll have a good knock-down-drag-out on the way to resolution, but we always get there. Though we take on different tasks in production [Amanda does a lot of drawing and character animation, while Wendy does much of the editing and compositing], we each have fingers in all pies. It’s a true collaboration. The best part is having a partner to share the highs and lows. Animation can be such a tedious, solitary, inward-looking pursuit—it’s wonderful to have someone along for commiseration or encouragement or celebration. We wouldn’t have it any other way. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Curran’s Tosca is an unashamed feast An original COC production sticks the landing WORDS BY DR. JANE FORNER | Four Season’s Centre for the Performing Arts MAY 05, 2023 | COMMUNITY Roland Wood as Scarpia and Sinéad Campbell-Wallace as Tosca in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Tosca, 2023. Photo: Michael Cooper. ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Stefano La Colla as Cavaradossi and Sinéad Campbell-Wallace as Tosca in the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Tosca, 2023. Photo: Michael Cooper. ​ Paul Curran’s Tosca , familiar to the COC since its premiere in 2008, leaves a lasting impression regardless of the quality of the performance. This season’s revival, which opened on Friday May 5th, offered a sparkling cast that brought all its dramatic richness to life. As the first time seeing this production live, I was struck by its ability to offer a classic, period design replete in archetypal operatic splendour that nonetheless manages to bring out nuances of the plot through a sensitive eye. The design for each act always makes remarkable use of shadow and chiaroscuro alongside a rich, warm palette and sumptuous décor, with my immediate impression being of a Van Eyck or Vermeer interior painting. The contrast of luxurious furnishings with black-and-white square tiling in Act II particularly brought my mind to the Flemish Renaissance. I was captivated especially by how well the lighting was managed throughout by Lighting Designer David Martin Jacques. A small point to some perhaps, but lighting is a signature concern of Curran’s production, and one that consistently created a remarkable visual atmosphere: shafts of greyish light filtering through the gloom of Sant’ Andrea of Act I, the appearance of an almost dusty and misty air enhancing the intrigue of the beginning of the drama. In Act II, the construction of Scarpia’s villainous (but sumptuously decorated) lair leans into, on the one hand, warm contrasts of gold, cream, black, and brown, and blueish moonlight at the curtains on the other. I was rarely anything other than impressed and enthralled with Irish soprano Sinéad Campbell-Wallace’s COC mainstage début in the leading role. She shone throughout with impeccable control across her full range, a superbly commanding stage presence, imperious in jealousy and empathetic in love, bringing sensitive attention to dramatic contrasts. Although I spent some time just this weekend debating the mutability and often arbitrary designations in labelling voice types with some fellow singers, it’s notable that the Wexford-raised singer has only rather recently turned to the “heavier” dramatic repertoire of the likes of Puccini and Wagner, having started out her career as a light lyric soprano. It was a joy to see her embody a role which is only a quite recent addition to her repertoire. And to the folks behind me cackling with laughter when she stabbed Scarpia, I can only assume that was a cackle of glee at Tosca’s triumph over the villain, not a comment on her acting, which I found convincing throughout. Naturally, we all waited with bated breath for “Vissi d’arte,” and the enthusiastic applause which followed Campbell-Wallace’s rendition — as well as her immediate solo ovation after the final curtain ─ speaks for itself: it was a nearly flawless vocal performance. Campbell-Wallace was decidedly matched by Stefano La Colla, also making his COC mainstage début, as Mario Cavaradossi. While I sensed that the chemistry between the two took a moment to settle, I was thrilled by La Colla’s embodiment of the embattled and lovestruck painter from the outset: a rich, powerful tenor, he demonstrated versatility and a luxurious tone. I would have liked his rubato to match the orchestra’s more consistently: I heard, throughout, a deep attention to expressive legato lines, but noticed that La Colla stuck almost too closely to precise rhythmic delivery. While this is likely my personal bias in favour of unabashed Romantic schmooze, I wanted just that bit more fluidity: I want to forget the time signature and lose track of the beat in Puccini’s long, languorous melodies, not to be slightly too reminded of rhythmic certainty. A picky observation, however, in an otherwise outstanding performance: that second moment we all await, “E lucevan le stelle,” was delivered with all the emotional aplomb and vocal skill that one could wish for. A commitment to dramatic sensitivity was generally strong throughout the opening night cast: Roland Wood’s Scarpia was just as gloriously ruthless as one would like (if he makes me physically recoil as much as Tosca does when he touches her, I know he’s doing a good job). There were a few moments where I felt a loss of volume, sometimes from moving upstage, and sometimes a slight dip in power in the lower range that was only noticeable when he is required to pierce through full-steam orchestral passages ─ or in Scarpia’s Bond villain-esque laying out of his devious plot over the chorus’s storming Te Deum at the end of Act I. (As a very small aside, I enjoyed that the dousing of holy water was performed in time, the priest “conducting” with the aspergillum, lending an even greater sense of grand popish ritual to the already-bombastic final act). Donato di Stefano bumbled around appropriately as the grumpy and frustrated sacristan, and henchmen Sciarrone and Spoletta (Giles Tomkins and Michael Colvin) added some comic relief in all scenes, though their brand of mildly dissatisfied, bickering police enforcers occasionally strayed too far into the realm of light clowning. Perhaps they might have been a tad more threatening ─ I never quite had the sense that they were exerting much intimidation over Tosca or Cavaradossi. Although the passages in the neat sliding torture room were effective. Christian Pursell (another COC début) impressed in his brief appearances as unkempt and anxious escapee, Angelotti. The troupe of extremely fast choristers were positively scampering onstage with a slightly surprising alacrity, but were suitably cherubic otherwise. Curran’s Tosca is an unashamed feast: it delivers everything you want from a classic performance of one of the most overperformed operas in the repertory, but brings a keen attention to visual and choreographic detail that elevates it from merely splendid spectacle. With vibrant and compelling singers taking on the lead roles, it offers a fitting close to the COC’s season. Tosca runs at the COC until May 27, 2023. Sinéad Campbell-Wallace sings the lead on May 19, 21, 23, and 27, sharing the role with Keri Alkema, who appears on May 7, 11, and 13 . ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Barbara Hannigan A Canadian Music Icon Wearing Multiple Hats on Stage WORDS BY ARLAN VRIENS | PARIS | MUSIC THE smART Ensemble NOV 14, 2022 | ISSUE 9 Barbara Hannigan by Marco Borggreve ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Barbara Hannigan by Kalya Ramu Barbara Hannigan at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Photo by Musacchio Ianniello If one had to name the most iconic Canadian classical musician of the moment, it would be hard to choose anyone other than the Nova Scotia-born soprano Barbara Hannigan. Her trailblazing work as an advocate of contemporary opera includes definitive performances of works from György Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre to Louis Andriessen’s Writing to Vermeer , not to mention a clutch of awards, including a Grammy, a Juno, an Edison, and the Order of Canada. Hannigan is also an increasingly sought-after conductor, appearing on the podiums of leading orchestras from Berlin to Cleveland. Today, Hannigan balances this high-profile performance career with a fierce dedication to supporting the next generation. Through the Equilibrium Young Artists project, she mentors a roster of young vocalists and pianists with unique talents and impressive potential; via her Momentum project, Hannigan encourages other artists to share main-stage performance opportunities with rising stars. Sitting down with Editor-in-Chief Michael Zarathus-Cook, Hannigan joins smART Magazine from Paris for a glimpse into her multifaceted career and the priorities that guide her practices. She shares her excitement for an upcoming collaboration with Canadian composer Zosha di Castri, and offers her unique perspectives on training and supporting the upcoming generation of artists. sM | What do you think of the current state of Canadian opera companies and orchestras? BH ── Although most of my career has been built in Europe, where I made my big debuts, I did start off in Canada with companies like Opera Atelier, the Toronto Symphony, and Edmonton Opera. I also worked with Canadian groups like Arraymusic, New Music Concerts, and Continuum. In all of these organizations — especially when you’re writing grant applications to support Canadian projects — there’s a huge demand for Canadian works to be programmed and commissioned. I haven’t seen that type of priority as strongly in Europe, yet I think some European arts scenes have gotten the balance right. In Belgium, for example, you might see a certain number of works by Belgian composers being programmed, but even as they do that, organizations keep in mind what’s happening internationally, and that’s what keeps them on an international level. When Alexander Neef was at the Canadian Opera Company, I think that he was getting a lot of flak for not programming Canadian works. Of course, he also got a lot of flak when he did choose a Canadian work, Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian . I think that by programming international repertoire, Neef was rightly trying to build the Canadian Opera Company into a truly international company that was attracting top talent, and he did that. Normally in North America, orchestra programming is less adventurous than in Europe. That has a lot to do with the interests of the funding sources, which makes America’s programming even more conservative than Canada’s. But I strongly feel that one must program internationally acclaimed contemporary music as well as homegrown contemporary music. If you only program Canadian-centric works about Canadian topics, it narrows our worldview. And furthermore, you can feel or almost smell when a piece was written by commission. You can tell when it wasn’t the urge of the composer to write about whatever story they’ve been told they should write about. sM | What can you tell us about your upcoming world premiere of Zosha Di Castri’s New Work for Soprano and Orchestra with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra? BH ── I’m super excited about it! When the Toronto Symphony came to me looking to commission a new work, I knew I definitely wanted to work with Zosha. We’re also working with Tash Aw, who is writing the text. What’s been really nice about this project is having Zoom calls together ─ we haven’t been able to meet in person as a group, but it’s still been quite a collaborative sharing of material and stories. I can’t say too much about the idea of the piece yet, but it centers around the German word Heimweh , which means both longing for home and a kind of displacement. So the piece is kind of asking, “Where am I? What is home, and where do I belong?” I haven’t seen any of the music yet, but it’s going to arrive soon. Sometimes I have a really good feeling about a piece, and other times I can be apprehensive, but in this case, I have a really good feeling. I did some world premieres last year, but this is the first major orchestral world premiere that I’ve done in a little while. I’m psyched. sM | What are you looking for in the young artists selected for the Equilibrium program, and what do you hope they leave with? BH ── First and foremost, I’m looking for a super high vocal quality; I can’t go below that level. But I’m also looking for personalities and for multitalented people. We’ve had several people who are dancers, visual artists, photographers, or writers. I’m also searching for people that are super curious and creative ─ not just the ones that can sing with a generic appeal. Those more generic artists are going to get snapped up and be busy all the time anyway, so they don’t need me. Personally, I also benefit hugely from meeting all these young people: from their perspectives, the way they use language, and the way they look at music and programming. Yannis François, for example, has been with Equilibrium since the first season, but I’m not letting him go yet because he’s so brilliant; he’s an incredible album curator for some of the biggest artists right now on Deutsche Grammophon, and I would like him to curate some stuff for me personally. I don’t always know what I’m looking for, but I know when I found it. When I do the auditions, if I hear somebody that ignites some kind of interest, I’m going to program for them, and we’ll find a place for them. sM | For most, a career as a soprano is fulfilling enough, when did you know that you wanted to add conducting to your performances on stage? BH ── It wasn’t always part of the plan, and I wouldn’t even say that I was looking to do more on stage at the time. The conducting career was simply a natural progression that began simply by saying yes to conducting one concert at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Some people who were watching and helping to guide my career had suggested that I should try my hand, literally, at conducting. Once I had done that, I found that conducting was another way to get close to the music and to develop my musicianship. I also really like to develop my roles in leadership. Leadership means a lot of things: if I’m singing Lulu, I need to lead the cast, and there are different kinds of leadership involved with conducting a program or running Equilibrium. I’m really fascinated by leadership and how one can find its best applications and use that power justly. At a certain level, whether we realize it or not, some of us artists attain real power, and with that comes responsibility. So when I started conducting, I realized I enjoyed certain aspects that didn’t necessarily have to do purely with music. Music was simply the medium through which I was developing those skills. Similarly, when I founded Equilibrium, I really felt a big sense of purpose because I found I could really make a difference. sM | What is your advice to up-and-coming female conductors struggling to see themselves on a podium? BH ── I noticed the other day that all of my engagements from December 2021 through to March 2022 were all either with myself conducting or with another female conductor. That isn’t something that I planned, so that’s a really good sign. Because I didn’t start conducting until I was 40, I didn’t go through a stereotypical training program where I was the only young woman in a class of all men. But I have to say that on one occasion, I did experience the feeling that I had been hired because of my gender, not because of my quality. This was an orchestra that had made a noble effort to hire a lot of women conductors, but those conductors were not consistently of the quality needed to be with that orchestra. So by the time I got there, the orchestra only looked at me as, “oh no, another woman.” They were in a really bad mood before I even gave my downbeat, and that had an enormous effect on me, the orchestra, and the audience also. It’s a delicate issue. If you’re choosing to feature young or less-experienced conductors, then you really have to search and learn a lot about who you’re asking. Those young conductors need to be nurtured and be put into situations that they’re actually ready for because it can be really damaging if you’re not ready or if the orchestra feels that you’re not at their level. sM | One female conductor that is flying under the radar at the moment? BH ── Glass Marcano is very cool. She’s Venezuelan, but I think she’s based in Europe now. She’s a bit under the radar and doesn’t yet have a big media presence, which is good. She’s just been doing her thing; I saw her conducting Lucia di Lammermoor at the Munich Staatsoper a few years ago, and she was fantastic. She’s the real deal. You can tell as soon as she gives the downbeat. I don’t know if her big breakthrough has come yet, but she’s just pure music and absolutely one to watch. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Hilary Hahn’s Eclipse “Music like this resonates with the dissonance that you might be experiencing” WORDS BY ARLAN VRIENS | FRANKFURT | MUSIC THE smART Ensemble MAR 13, 2023 | ISSUE 10 Hilary Hahn by OJ Slaughter ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Hilary Hahn Hilary Hahn by Ella Mazur With a massive social media following, a trio of Grammys, and dozens of new works dedicated in her name, Hilary Hahn is the epitome of a classical celebrity. Yet in 2019, the star violinist embarked on a one-year sabbatical, looking for a fresh perspective on herself and her artistry. Extended by the intrusion of the pandemic, this sabbatical led to months of deep thought, the rebuilding of the very foundations of her career ideals, and eventually the recording and release of Eclipse , her newest album on the Deutsche Grammophon label. “Historically, eclipses are times of great power, with strong cultural beliefs about transformation and emergence,” muses Hahn. “I felt like that very much aligned with the experience that musicians went through in the course of the lockdowns: a shifting of the light, and a different feeling on the other side of it.” Speaking to smART Magazine from Frankfurt, Hahn shares thoughts on the emotional dissonance of the Ginastera Violin Concerto, bringing Carmen to life on a violin, and her own efforts to address the ongoing upheaval of the past few years. sM | Let’s start with Sarasate’s Carmen Fantasy— how did this work come to join the Dvořák and Ginastera concertos on Eclipse ? HH ─ The Carmen Fantasy is interesting because Sarasate was very grounded in his Spanish musical roots. Carmen, as an opera, was written by a French composer but draws on traditional Spanish forms. In Sarasate’s day classical music was pop music, and artists would take the greatest hits of an opera and make a version to play themselves for a tour. Sarasate, in a sense, was reclaiming his own music from Bizet. It’s a full circle, and I love that. I knew that my colleagues from the Ginastera and Dvořák project would be fantastic at this piece. I developed my Carmen interpretation really closely with conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, who has conducted the opera. I wanted to present the music as a singer would, not as a violinist. Carmen is a strong character, and it is really wonderful to highlight her arias and play a role. sM | This is your very first studio recording of Dvořák’s enormously popular Violin Concerto. Why is it the right time to tackle this piece, and what do you appreciate about it now? HH ─ The Dvořák concerto is kind of a perennial favourite. I’ve always felt that it would be a great work to record, but earlier in my career I couldn’t quite figure out where it fit inside a project, or who to collaborate with. But after my sabbatical and the pandemic, it really felt like the right time to record this with the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra. In a sense, they have a “German” way of playing, but they also work with people from everywhere, so they’re not only technically capable but musically very malleable. I knew that wherever I wanted to go with the piece, they would go too. I really appreciate that the Dvořák concerto has a high level of accessibility. The rhythms are fun and catchy, the melodies are beautiful long lines, and there’s both drama and fragility. A cynic might say that it’s too accessible. But when you have colleagues who genuinely love the unique aspects of this work, it’s such a pleasure to work with them on it. I just knew that this was the right moment with the right people. Hilary Hahn sM | You’ve been particularly excited about the Ginastera Violin Concerto. What does that piece do for you that no other violin work does? HH ─ I think it’s fair to say that I’m obsessed with the Ginastera concerto. It’s such a genius piece. It turns everything inside out and upside down to create a new world, and it doesn’t shy away from the darker side of things—there’s some brutality in it, but also some really uplifting phrases. It’s everything that’s in the human condition. Reflecting the human condition is the sign of an emotionally astute composer, but Ginastera was also responding to the social climate of the 1960s. Music from difficult times becomes an emotional document of history that shows you what it felt like to be that person at that moment in time. Listening to music like this resonates with the dissonance that you might be experiencing sometimes in your life and in your history. Art can guide you through that dissonance to a new perspective or resolution. sM | What are your top five violin concertos currently? HH ─ Dvořák and Ginastera, of course. I’ve also been really into the Schoenberg concerto. Brahms is great, and so is Beethoven, but I can’t stop at five when there are so many contemporary works to list too. I know Jennifer Higdon’s Violin Concerto really well, and I love Florence Price’s Second Violin Concerto. I try to avoid going through the sequence of composers everyone takes for granted, because I want to look at the people like Florence Price, who did hard, amazing work and didn’t get the credit they deserved. sM | You curated some playlists for Deutsche Grammophon recently: Rest , Travel , and Workout . What goes into selecting the perfect tracks, and how does it overlap with your thoughts as a performer? HH ─ One funny outcome of the Rest playlist is that now my four-year-old needs to hear it to go to sleep every night. I wouldn’t normally listen to myself, but now Rest is a part of my life and I hear my own recordings every single night. Classical music is such an all-encompassing term, and I wanted playlists for different scenarios. You don’t see a lot of classical workout playlists. It also gave me a chance to mix and match artists and to play around with individual movements of pieces instead of entire works. That feels like creating a new composition in a sense, with four or five different tracks that all flow together. It gives me a chance to rethink some things. Hilary Hahn sM | In September of 2019, you started a year-long sabbatical, one that you’d wanted to take for close to a decade. How did the pandemic affect that plan? HH ─ In a way, since I was already off the road, I was protected from a lot of the logistical impacts that other artists experienced. I didn’t have quite the same scramble to replace concerts, wonder about next month’s schedule, or go through a technological learning curve. Ultimately, the purpose of my sabbatical was to see who I am when I’m off the road and don’t have plans. But, just as I thought I was starting to emerge with plans and ideas from that nebulous state, the pandemic upended everything, and again heightened all of these questions about who I am and what the purpose of my work and life are. As I was asking those questions, there were also new conversations in the world about racial injustice, systemic bias, and systemic racism. I realised I had a lot of gaps that I should have filled a lot earlier, and now I had a chance to do that. With no upcoming performance season to return to, I shifted pretty much all of my attention from preparing for the next season to correcting huge oversights in my own work from the ground up. I took a hard look at all of my projects, all of my social media, all of my searches, all of my assumptions, talked to as many people as I could, and began to rebuild. I’ve really tried to understand what I can do going forward to avoid anything unfair in how I’ve been doing things. I titled this album Eclipse because, although the pandemic blacked out stage lights, they came back on. Historically, eclipses are times of great power, with strong cultural beliefs about transformation and emergence. I felt like that very much aligned with the experience that musicians went through in the course of the lockdowns: a shifting of the light, and a different feeling on the other side of it, where none of us take music for granted anymore. ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

elijah woods On what if it was great? , the self-starting singer and producer breaks new creative ground smART MAGAZINE | TORONTO | HOMEGROWN HOMEGROWN JUL 05, 2023 | ISSUE 12 elijah woods In 2022, elijah woods made the decision to pack up and leave Ottawa, the city where he launched his career. The singer and multi-instrumentalist bid farewell to the large basement studio where he had written, produced, recorded, and mixed his 2021 EP look what I did , downsizing to a smaller studio in Toronto. This new space served as the home base for what if it was great? , woods’ second EP, out now. In 2018, woods skyrocketed into the spotlight after winning the Canadian music reality show The Launch as one-half of the electropop duo Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine. The group’s blend of pop, R&B, and electronic elements caught the attention of record executive Scott Borchetta, who signed them to his label Big Machine and executive produced their debut EP 8:47 . Their song “Ain’t Easy,” co-written by Camilla Cabello and Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, was certified platinum later that year. Since going solo in 2020, woods has balanced meeting fan expectations with establishing a musical identity separate from his collaborative work with Fine. He has slowly inched away from the pulsing R&B-inspired beats and soaring choruses of his earlier production, opting instead for simpler and more atmospheric instrumentation. what if it was great? is moodier than wood’s earlier work, a lyrics-forward collection of confessional songs focused largely on big loves and ill-fated relationships. The production is more restrained than his first EP, and the vocals lack the grittiness that characterized his collaboration with Fine, though the anthemic climaxes are still there. Songs like “make believe” with its surprising use of breakbeat and vocal modulation, and “easier said” also flirt with experimentation, making this EP stand out from prior releases. woods has described the creative process for this EP as “a journey inward.” With his relocation to a smaller studio in a new city and his experimentation with new sounds on the EP, the characterization makes sense. But that doesn’t mean the EP is an exercise in unrestrained creativity. As woods has stepped away from the mainstream spotlight he once shared with Fine, he has found a devoted following online, with millions of viewers regularly tuning into his videos on TikTok. what if it was great? is a streaming-friendly release crafted with these listeners in mind, a step away from woods’ previous output, while still maintaining the pop sensibilities of his career so far. what if it was good Album Cover ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ elijah woods what if it was great? sM | what if it was great? has an altogether more robust sound than look what i made - the EP you recorded during the pandemic - what did you want to explore lyrically and sonically in this latest release? ew ─ I've been making music for as long as I can remember. Getting started in dance music, the messaging was always me plus another person, me making somebody else sound good. My first EP was the first time that I got the chance to say: here's my story, here's what I've been through, here's how I see things. look what i made was about me being a solo act. Now, I’ve found my stride in terms of being able to voice my opinions in a unique way, so this new EP gave me the permission to focus more on my lyrics and the music. ON THE LOW sM | Your album title, song titles, and your name are all stylized in lower case, what inspires this? ew ─ I read this article on what lowercase and a lack of punctuation means, and how it's a nod to anybody doing what they want. You write it how you write it, you play it how you play it, you sing it how you sing it, and that's just the way it is. INSPOS sM | Who are some of your musical influences? ew ─ It changes all the time. When I first started, it was very much about what I could sing on a technical level. For this EP, the inspiration was a lot of textural, lyrical singers, people like JP Saxe, Fleetwood Mac, Cindy Lauper. This is hilarious, but also Nickelback and Dan + Shay. DIY sM | You write, sing, perform, and produce all of your music─where does this drive to go after it come from? ew ─ I think ultimately it came from a place of never wanting to work a normal job. I never wanted to have to live by anybody else's schedule. If I like doing something, whether it's getting into cameras or learning how to press vinyl onto t-shirts, I just like doing that for me. It's the mastery of something that’s the most exciting part. But the cool thing with music is that you can't get good at it, that's exactly what's so exciting about music for me. I can feel the energy of what lyric makes a great verse, and then how that verse makes a great chorus. That chorus leads to this incredible bridge, which leads to this incredible song, and that gives me the idea for a piece of content. I am trying to fit these jigsaw pieces together and they're constantly changing. I like that. CANADIAN MUSIC sM | Do you consider yourself a Canadian musician? ew ─ I grew up here and I have so many Canadian influences that I think it's impossible not to consider myself a Canadian musician. But, it was really taboo to be Canadian when I was coming up as an artist. Nickelback was one of the only bands to actually take that specific sound from Canada and export it. They took the best pieces of Canadian rock music and turned it into Americana. I think that's what great Canadian artists do. Justin Bieber, Tate McCrae, The Weekend, Drake, they're all number one artists, period. We own the charts right now. MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE sM | What advice do you have for other people in small Canadian towns looking to get creative? ew ─ My advice to everyone is that the only reason something is unique is because you put your filter on it. As soon as you try to be somebody else, it doesn't work. The only unique perspective you can have is your own. The fact that you're from Alberta means that you have a unique perspective that someone from Toronto isn't going to have. I'm a transplant here. I live right in downtown Toronto but I'm from a small town of 6,000 people. The reason why I have this perspective on life is because I had that experience of growing up in a small town. I t's about allowing the world to filter through you. I think we're just vessels. I think we are just regurgitating and refracting information, we never create anything unique ourselves. A piece of advice that is specifically for artists: keep ownership of your masters. Do not assign your masters to a record label, period. It's a crooked industry and everyone will tell you to sell your shit, but why would you make art, sell it for a fraction of what it's worth, and then not collect on it? It doesn't make sense. elijah woods COMMUNITY sM | With 1.2 million followers on TikTok, and an equally impressive level of attention on Instagram and other platforms─how does this translate to IRL experience and sharing music with fans in a venue? ew ─ I think it's been really strange the last couple years because the numbers have been so ridiculous. I look at that TikTok number and I think it's absolutely insane that 40 million people have streamed this song. I've never met 40 million people. There's no reason why you should be listening to this music, but the fact is, people actually are, and that blows my mind. Not to belittle social media or anything, but when people actually show up for our performances, I get to engage with them. I get to steal their energy and I get to see them crying at lyrics that I wrote in my basement. That human part of it is so different from the experience on social media because social media is very short-lived. That video did well, this is having a moment, this is going viral, this song has X amount of streams. I'm so grateful for that. I said from day one that I'll always be a streaming artist. That is my goal. But the feeling of a song getting 10 million streams versus a song being sung back to you by 20,000 people, it doesn't equate. It's not even remotely the same thing. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Mikhail Baryshnikov How can something as active as dance be contained in a still? WORDS BY TASH COWLEY | TORONTO | LIGHTHOUSE IMMERSIVE SPACES NOV 28, 2022 | ISSUE 7 Mikhail Baryshnikov by Annie Leibovitz ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Dance is a medium of action, and is perhaps one of the most difficult art forms to capture in photography. Looking for the Dance, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s latest exhibit in partnership with Lighthouse Immersive, takes up the task of expressing movement in photography. Beginning September 18th, Looking for the Dance will be presented at One Yonge Street in Toronto, alongside select images from his previous series, Dance This Way , and Dominican Moves . For this Canadian collaboration, the acclaimed dancer, actor, and photographer has put together a breathtaking display of his quest to capture dance in transformative moments. It is a document of his journeys, from exploring the milonga and tango of Argentina, to the South Indian Odissi styles. In his own words, “On these journeys, more than the shape, I am looking for emotional impact through colors, gestures, and steps of the dance and dancers.” Despite being stills, the photos are vigorously alive. After the success of the exhibition, inaugurated in 2013 at the Contini Art Gallery in Venice, and its subsequent presentation at the Cortina d’Ampezzo location, Baryshnikov’s series makes its way to Toronto. Those familiar with his work will know that Baryshnikov is considered one of the greatest dancers of our time, and that Toronto is a special place for him. After launching his career at the Kirov Ballet Company in St. Petersburg, he escaped the Soviet Union in 1974 while on tour in Toronto. At 26, Baryshnikov finished a performance at the Meridian Theatre, and promptly slipped out the back, evading his KGB handlers and sprinting to a nearby getaway car. He then hid out in Canada until he was granted political asylum, going on to dance with major companies in the West. His dancing distinguished itself then and now via his clarity of imagery, marrying impressive technical physicality with a deep emotional and dramatic prowess. At first, he was hesitant to take up the camera for dancers, as he considered it monotonous and shallow replicas of reality. How could something as active as dance be contained in a still? Looking for the Dance provides Baryshnikov’s latest answer to that question. The particular style of his body of work has become known for its amorphous quality, capturing not only how the dance looks, but also how it feels in the body. This technique for capturing dancers is incredibly fruitful. We get to view not just the separate movements but also the connective tissue between, as the follow-through of each gesture is made perceptible. Baryshnikov displays bodies interacting in a space as the dancers blur into one another: the many become one, while remaining within their individual place in the dance. Having the subjects meld into one another with his technique also highlights the ephemeral nature of dance, capturing both the individual and communal components. In a sense, he has indeed done the impossible. Looking at the photographs, they seem to move on their own, so thoroughly are the arcs, shapes, and movements captured. The images tell us not only where the dancer was, but where they are headed, giving us a small journey inside each static image. Looking at these photographs is also an emotional experience. Steps, gestures, and facial expressions are highlighted amongst the frenzy of dance. Vibrant lights and colours commingle in the images, giving the subjects a tangible aura for the camera to observe. As energetically charged as the photos are, they still manage to capture the precision in the dancers’ movements. Baryshnikov’s images of the tango have a silken quality to them, again successfully portraying the sweeping circles each pair is rotating within, not unlike orbiting planets. The softness in light, movement, and expression, make the sensuality of the dance more palpable. It’s almost dizzying, though without the sense of nausea. Apart from capturing their technique, Baryshnikov manages, in his photographs, to highlight the cultural significance of dance. The movements emphasize a sort of sacredness to the entire scene, each gesture holding the weight of its history and cathartic effect on the dancers. There’s a suggestion that dance is transformative; the camera picks up how dancers are elevated through their dance, internally and externally. Some stills are even transparent, successfully translating the ethereal nature of dance to a photograph. The images are alive with passion, effort, and grace. Each one thrills as uniquely as the subjects themselves. With Looking For the Dance, Baryshnikov has once again proven the value of looking at dance from the perspective of a dancer. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

LIGHTHOUSE IMMERSIVE GOES GLOBAL Following meteoric rise in North America, the Canadian company embarks on its international immersive journey WORDS BY MEGAN APA | ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COPYRIGHT OF DISNEY | PARTNER JUN 30, 2023 | ISSUE 12 At the Disney Animation Immersive Experience “We have to be very flexible. We have to be very open and conscious that every market has its own description, its own items, its own timing.” Vicente Fusco Immersive experiences have emerged as a transformative force in the global art scene, captivating audiences and redefining the boundaries of artistic expression. These experiential installations and exhibitions engage the senses, transporting viewers into worlds where art merges with technology, sound, and space. By immersing viewers in multisensory environments, these experiences have fostered a deeper connection between art and its audience, shaping the future of artistic innovation. Over the last three years, Lighthouse Immersive has emerged as a leading force in the realm of interactive entertainment. Following its remarkable success in North America, Lighthouse Immersive has embarked on an international journey, selecting Japan as the inaugural destination outside of its home continent. Japan, a country renowned for its rich history, technological prowess, and vibrant cultural tapestry, stood out as an ideal location for Lighthouse Immersive's global expansion. Likewise, with Japan being a significant Disney market, the decision to bring the Immersive Disney Animation experience to Tokyo became an obvious choice. To learn more about this international expansion, smART Magazine sat down with Vincente Fusco, Lighthouse’s Global Business Developer (and key cog in the company’s Immersive Frida exhibit ). Vicente Fusco - by Kalya Ramu ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ Immersive Experience - From The Lion King DRIFT TO TOKYO sM | What other factors influenced the selection of Japan as a destination? VF ─ First and foremost, we’re super excited about being open in Tokyo. To start off with, it’s one of the greatest cities in the world. But there were a few factors that went into deciding where we wanted to go. We started off by trying to identify the bigger Disney markets around the world. We collaborated with the great people at Walt Disney Animation Studios and the Disney regional offices across the globe, who have all been super supportive. We were also very lucky to have collaborated with a great group in Japan called Nippon Television. We then identified the markets that made the most sense for our expansion. After that came the process of figuring out: how do we make this work? ディズニー日本 sM | Japan has such a specific culture. Considering that, how did Lighthouse Immersive ensure that the exhibit resonated with a Japanese audience? VF ─ There are a lot of different elements that go into it. First and foremost, the show is 100% in Japanese. As you know, it’s a very musical show─ Immersive Disney Animation is really the soundtrack to some of the greatest hits of the Disney movies. So it was really cool to see the show in a completely different language. But we couldn’t have done that without Disney Japan being very big on the collaboration. They were literally guiding us along the way. And this is gonna happen, by the way, globally. The same approach will be given to Latin American possibilities, European countries, and so on. EUROPEAN MARKET sM | Speaking of which, when can audiences expect to see Lighthouse Immersive in Europe? VF ─ We’ve been very ambitious and aggressive in our openings in regards to North America. And at the same time, we’ve been very careful as to how to plan out our international strategy. Everything’s coming together now after many months of work and travel and identifying cultures. I cannot disclose anything right now because it’s not official, but you can absolutely expect at least five new markets on an international level towards the end of this year. We’re very excited about that, and we’re very anxious about announcing it as soon as we can. There’s a lot of work going into it and a lot of progress, great partners, and great cities. It’s gonna be very exciting. Disney Animation Immersive Experience - From Frozen DISNEY 100 sM | When it comes to selecting expansion cities for Lighthouse Immersive, what factors are you considering? VF ─ Immersive Disney Animation , by definition, is a huge show in terms of dimensions. You need a lot of footprint, and you need high ceilings. So identifying the right venue in different countries is a very big challenge. In North America, it’s a little bit easier to find big rooms because everything in North America is big and wide, and there’s space. But in many of these markets, that’s a luxury. One important factor is that we’re obviously celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary, which is huge. But at the same time, because of that, there’s a lot of celebration going on worldwide in terms of Disney products. So it’s important for us to recognize where the different Disney products are and not to bump into each other, respecting a certain calendar. Disney Animation Immersive Experience - From Lady and the Tramp IMMERSIVE GLOBETROTTING sM | How does the expansion into new markets align with the overall mission of Lighthouse Immersive? VF ─ The importance of the Disney brand is overwhelming. It reminds us every day of how thankful and lucky we are to be working with such an important company. But at the end of the day, we want this to go as far and wide as it possibly can. We believe that this is an amazing experience. And the fact is that we’re seeing awesome results not only in North America, but now that Tokyo is open, there as well. It’s doing so great and everybody is so happy with the show. It’s fuel for us to keep driving ourselves into going everywhere with this, as much as we can. So I think we will be going into pretty much every continent we can think of. It’s just a matter of timing and announcing everything at the right time. And we have to be very flexible. We have to be very open and conscious that every market has its own description, its own items, its own timing. All these elements need to be taken into consideration before executing something of this magnitude. ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Nina Stewart DENVER — AiR TOUR — Issue 9 Art by Nina Stewart Nina Stewart sM | What inspiration do you get from artists around you? NS ── The community of artists within Denver, Colorado creates a very driven and innovative energy as a collective. Overall, the community inspires me to push my artistic skills both traditionally and within the new opportunities of technology. I feel energized in imagining beyond the constructs we have had in the past by creating in ways that will grow our collective in the future. I’m often reminded by the presence of other artists, being authentic to themselves, how important it is for us all to share our unique stories. I’m prompted to ask myself: how can I most Continue the AiR tour in print: ISSUE 9 | ISSUE 10 Sign Up to K eep Up! Our newsletter brings you the best in the visual and performing arts. Exclusive interviews. Global coverage. Local perspectves. authentically and sustainably share my story? What legacy do I want to leave behind? How can I contribute to making the world a better place with the resources I have? The artists I am around push my creative drive and love of life. sM | What have you accomplished in your residency? NS ── In my residency at Immersive Van Gogh , I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, had beautiful interactions with people, and created five new paintings. I often have a habit of being an introvert; the residency pushed me into being open to all kinds of energy exchanges that I wouldn’t always be open to. Because I was open to interaction, there were moments that I cried, laughed, loved, imagined, and collaborated with so many people. I am grateful for all the people that I was able to meet, and all the raw human stories that were shared. Since I was given the privilege of painting full-time, I was able to make more paintings than I usually would as well. Overall, I feel very accomplished within the experience and I am grateful for the opportunity. sM | What social issue does your art speak to the most? NS ── I believe that, in America, the capitalistic infrastructure makes a lot of money off creating insecurities, depression, sickness, and division within our society. Growing up in the lower-middle class, I understand how the lens we are taught to see ourselves in is often detrimental to our physical, mental, and spiritual health. I focus my art on spreading the message of self-love, self-acceptance, truth, unity, and unconditional love. We are too often taught that our worth is based on temporary material gain, and my goal is for my art to teach people that they are enough for simply existing. I believe that the social issues of separation and insecurity amongst the people must be addressed for the longevity and integrity of humanity. Follow Nina Stewart on Instagram: @ninalouise_art, or visit her website: www.ninalouise.art . PREVIOUS NEXT

Robert Lepage A conversation with the director, actor, playwright, on The Library at Night. WORDS BY CAMILLA MIKOLAJEWSKA | CHICAGO | VISUAL ARTS MAR 21, 2023 | ISSUE 3 “Biblio”, by Stephane Bourgeois ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE Robert Lepage by Ella Mazur Robert Lepage by Tony Hauser sM | How did this collaboration with Lighthouse Immersive evolve, and what might the future hold between Ex Machina and Lighthouse Immersive in the VR space? RL — We were all very seduced by their approach to the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit , and how open they were to alternative methods of presentation. The whole world of immersion is fascinating; it’s not just putting something on your head and saying, “Oh, I’m immersed.” It’s about where you go, what it smells like, the people there who you share it with, and I think that’s what the team at Lighthouse Immersive has understood. It’s not just some gadget that you download; it’s a collective, communal event. Lighthouse Immersive are extraordinary collaborators because they’re incredibly open. The ways in which you bring grand culture to the masses is so important, and they understand that. That’s why it’s such a strong collaboration, because they can introduce and include audiences who may experience difficulties hearing music, for example, or difficulty reading poetry, or understanding art that’s too abstract. These are things that people can sometimes be afraid of—dirty words, even! And that’s the wonderful thing about Lighthouse Immersive; the possibilities available are as wide as the space in which we present these different events. We have also been quite obsessed with introducing new technologies. For a long time, our work has been consumed by wanting to invite all the new tools in, to see how it triggers new ideas. We’re always telling the same stories, over and over again, so it’s about asking questions like, “What new things can we use to deepen these stories, or showcase them in a new light?” You need spaces for that to happen, you need people to think in that way, and from the get-go we knew that we were dealing with people who were inviting these new mediums into a place that’s human and sensuous. When you think of VR and immersion, it can become “gadgety.” It’s always a debate between technicians. But Lighthouse Immersive has found a way of understanding how to make it popular, how to bring it to the masses, and we’re very excited. We’ve been discussing so many crazy, innovative ideas, and we’ll see how they come to fruition. I’m very interested in virtual reality, but I think that I’d be even more interested in developing an augmented reality project with them. That’s yet another new vocabulary. sM | In his narration, Alberto Manguel said that “The private library is the autobiography of its reader.” What might someone walking through your private library deduce about you as an artist and individual? RL — Well, it’s extremely well organized, but I’m not the organizer! Every new theatre project or cultural project comes with a huge amount of research, so I don’t only have theatre books in my library, I have a wide variety of texts. Every project comes with its own continent; oftentimes, I will need to know not only about costumes and sets and period music, but about humanity and psychology. I have geography books, architecture books, and many more. So, it’s a very large, very rich library with a lot of references that needs a lot of guidance. I think people would be a bit shocked to see it; there are so many colour codes! Also, I have a large collection of magazines that I use. There is a full collection of Life magazines, from around 1946 right up to the last published, probably near the beginning of the 2000s, I would guess. There are as many magazines in that library as there are what we might call “serious books!” sM | It was recently announced that you will be narrating a partly-autobiographical one-man-show, Courville . What are the inspirations behind this project, particularly the use of Bunraku puppetry on stage? RL — I’ve always been interested in puppets. I’ve staged a few puppet shows, I’ve done opera with puppets, so I know a lot about them but I’ve never been a puppeteer myself or performed with them! In that way, it feels like a bit of a danger-zone, because there are still so many things for me to understand about the craft. Courville is set in the 1970s and it’s about those teenage years, but it’s not like your typical American movie about teenage life. Of course, you can’t talk about that period of time without some of the usual suspects, but it’s a very mature approach and analysis of what teenage years are about, both in my own experiences and in general. A child has debates and inner conflicts between his head and his heart, but when adolescence arrives, suddenly sexuality comes in and it’s like you become pulled in three different directions. That’s also what a Bunraku puppet is all about; it’s a puppet that is manipulated by three people, representing different levels of consciousness. Of course, the three parts strive to work in harmony—to make the puppet behave realistically—but at times the puppet is torn between contradicting forces and I’ve always been fascinated by that. I thought how interesting it would be, instead of having an actor showing the torture of this time, to have this poetic being who is tortured by inner consciousness. There’s also the pivotal question of the body on stage. If you want to talk about the awakening of sexual desires in teenagers on stage, you can’t do that with a teenage actor; the evolution of the body is so important, and by using a puppet or a dummy, you have more leeway to explore and express that in a way that’s appropriate. Also, a puppet is a poetic being. You cannot talk about life and love and death in the same way if it’s filtered through a puppet, and I was very intrigued by that idea. It allows me to move into a more surreal world; puppets allow you to float about, dismantle, and do all these crazy things that you can’t really do to the same extent with an actor. Additionally, the main character recounting these stories is a painter and a sculptor, so it would be natural for him to want to sculpt the story of his younger years. sM | What is your advice to young directors and playwrights in their 20s and 30s who are facing a unique set of challenges with the pandemic, in terms of maintaining their creative independence as well as career stability? RL — I think that within the arts, we have this concept of what a theatre company is, how you should create it, and the relationship and hierarchy that needs to exist between writers, directors, and actors. To fund these companies and have freedom within the economic system, we follow the example of our peers and the people who’ve been there before us. However, when we started to do what we do in the mid 80s, there was no money for us; there was no structure and there were no subsidies, so we had to invent a new way to find our economic independence. By chance, we started to play in festivals in Toronto, and then other festivals around Canada, and eventually festivals around the world. By doing so, we discovered a wealth of audiences who identify with what we do and who truly love our work. By not thinking “locally” in that sense, we were able to find freedom, because the funding and the partnership of our projects comes predominantly from abroad. It comes from collaborations between other cities and Canada, so we're not too concerned about or reliant upon the local economic reality. I think that today a lot of young companies believe their audience is their city, their neighbourhood. Hopefully that’s part of it, but maybe your audience is somewhere else. Maybe it’s in some other country where people identify more strongly with what you do, and sometimes they will have the means to help you. Very early on in the development of the company, we didn’t get that many subsidies. Now we have more because we are some 20 or 30 years old, so it changes with time. Though we still only get around 20 percent of our funding from federal and provincial sources, and the rest is from international collaborations. There’s a whole world out there, but a lot of people in Canada don't think that they're worthy of interest to somebody in another province or country. There’s a huge community of people, even beyond language barriers. Your audience may be somewhere else, and from the moment you start thinking that way, you connect. In the 80s, we didn’t have the internet or the means that younger artists have today, to liaise and to find connections. And yet, very early on, we experienced such pleasure in touring or going to festivals, and we found many other people in our situation. That was a springboard to numerous opportunities. If you can get support from your local government, your city, or your community—that’s all welcome of course—but don’t count on that. Count on the specificity of what you do, its unique colour and taste, and remember that your audience could be somewhere else, and that’s more than OK. ​ sM | With the reckoning of Indigenous history in Canada over the past year, how has it informed your artistry and citizenry? I strongly believe that the relationship we have with Indigenous People in this country must start locally. In Quebec, we all have First Nations blood somewhere or other; if you want to start understanding what it’s about and who you are, you should look at the community around you and the people that you choose to work with. It’s difficult because it’s inherently complex. A few years ago, we wanted to do a project about First Nations and the community with a company that was maybe one-third Afghan refugees in France. We naively thought that if we brought them to Canada, they’d understand what the whole thing is about, but as we travelled across Canada and communicated with different communities, we saw just how complex and individual it is. You can’t look at the history as a whole and say, “This is what it’s about.” Every First Nation has their own agenda, their own problems, their own history, and their own relationship with our history. For example, you can feel the difference when you’re speaking with people on the West Coast of Canada, where the relationship between the white colonizer and the First Nations community is around 150 years old. A lot of scars and wounds are very fresh, and the conversation can be fraught with tension, at times even violent. In the eastern part of Canada, there is around 400 years of history; we went from a relationship between First Nations and the French, and then the English came and the French related to The First Nations. Then, eventually, under the menace of the British, we betrayed our First Nations blood brothers, and so that situation is radically different from other parts of Canada. I think there’s been a huge effort in the past couple of years to try to understand what that’s all about, but I also believe you have a better chance of fully understanding it in the context of your local reality. I now realize it was naïve on my part to try to have an overview of where Canada’s relationship with the First Nations people is, when in fact there are huge differences according to location. There might be an overall way to look at it, but it is so multifaceted, and we should be careful not to homogenize the different First Nations. They each have their own relationship with spirituality, art, culture, politics. I’ve regrouped and tried to communicate more with people around me, the ones who share my reality, to see how I can relate, how I can help, and to invite them into my work and my world. sM | How do you envision the relationship between popular criticism and artistic self expression in the present landscape? RL — I can’t really speak for the entirety of Canada but, for example, in Quebec City or Montreal, there’s been a huge effort in the past couple of years to try to integrate. However, some people are trying to do this by starting at the end instead of the beginning. I believe that we should train people to write their own stories, to express themselves, to have them speak first, and after that I believe that everything else will fall into place. Castings will be “colourblind,” and people will be able to tell their own stories. But you must start there, and that’s not where people are starting right now. They start by casting people, and I always feel a bit uncomfortable about that because I think, “Yes, these people deserve to be cast, they’re good actors or designers or directors, but what about the good writers, the people who are the voices of these communities?” Right now, I think we are starting at the end and are too concerned with appearances. Offering what’s been called “colourblind casting” is OK in a sense, because people need to be given a chance in the first place, but that’s not where it should start. I think it’s more fundamental; I think you have to offer people the opportunity to create, write, and speak on their own experiences and from there, you won’t even have to even talk about casting because it’ll cast itself. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Emmet Cohen: FOREVER MODERN Renowned Jazz pianist takes the pandemic in stride WORDS BY JOHN NYMAN | NEW YORK | MUSIC ELLINGTON APR 11, 2023 | ISSUE 5 Emmet Cohen by Kalya Ramu ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Joining in from the book-and-houseplant-lined walls of his Harlem walk-up minutes after getting off the yoga mat, renowned jazz pianist Emmet Cohen cut a different figure from his slick, tuxedo-clad appearance on the cover of his newest album, Future Stride . Both personas, however, are very much part of Cohen’s creative philosophy. Buoyed by his deep gratitude for both the contemporary New York jazz community and the older generation of jazz masters he’s studied and performed with in his ongoing Masters Legacy Series, Cohen’s thoughts give an invigorating glimpse at the insight and innovation behind his contributions to a genre he calls “forever modern.” sM | We’ve been hearing a lot about how “New York is back”. What’s your sense of the current artistic atmosphere? EC — It seems like we’re almost on the other side of it now, but a lot of people were in dire straits this year, and I think it was a tough period to get through—particularly for people who made their rent doing a $100 gig here and there. Seeing that economy evaporate created a lot of dissonance among freelance, independent artists. I think it was very difficult to know what to do at that time. But there were a few people who stepped up for the community at large. My friend Benny Benack III, who plays trumpet, was out on the streets playing outdoor gigs, creating environments where people could come and play outside at a socially distanced jam session. We were out there playing in the freezing cold! But you adjust. Jazz music has always adjusted, and it’s always adapted. That’s what it preaches and teaches: it’s about flexibility, it’s about adaptation, and it’s been amazing to see how the music has evolved in that time and space. That’s what we tried to do with Live from Emmet’s Place through a virtual channel. It’s 100 years after the roaring 20s, since the Harlem Renaissance, since Prohibition, and here we are 100 years later throwing a Harlem rent party—in the same spot, on the same street. I live on Edgecombe Avenue, the same avenue Duke Ellington and his whole band lived on, in addition to Billie Holiday and so many others. And we’re doing our modern-day Harlem rent party virtually, which is an adaptation a century later. I think what it really comes down to is the sense of community—and how we can continue to feed life and energy into that sense of community for people who need it most, especially when they can’t get together in person. sM | How has the pandemic inspired you to think differently about the New York jazz scene and your role within it? EC — What I’ve noticed about the jazz scene now is that I’ve become someone who can offer opportunities, who can raise someone up who needs to be discovered. It’s become less about me me me me me, and more about how I can help the people who need it. I try to take it one day at a time. The longer distances can be harder to look ahead to, but as we look at the next year or year and a half, things are opening back up, so I’m going to be on the road a lot more. Probably more than I was even before the pandemic, since everyone’s trying to make up for everything that was cancelled, and there are new things on top of that. People want us to license Emmet’s Place and take it around the country. So, a lot of exciting things are happening, but at the same time I’m trying to remember to be whole, pure, and down to earth. sM | What is the inspiration behind the name Future Stride , and how did the events of the last year or so contribute to the atmosphere and spirit of the album? EC — Funny enough, the album was recorded before the pandemic. But the concept, basically, is that there are so many paradoxes in jazz. Like in life, there are so many opposite forces that work to create the balance of what something is or can be. With Future Stride , we have really gone back into the lexicon as a group and as a community. There are many people in our New York jazz community, like Joe Saylor, Bryan Carter, Evan Sherman, Yasushi Nakamura, Tivon Pennicott, Bruce Harris, Patrick Bartley, Benny Benack III, and Ruben Fox. These are all people I grew up playing around and in a community with. The whole trend of the community really reached back into the history: we wanted to know about all the decades and eras of jazz. One particular style and movement we were interested in was the early jazz movement, from people like Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Mary Lou Williams, Earl Hines, and James P. Johnson. I didn’t find much of their music in the New York scene that I was part of, so I really wanted to go back and explore that, and I spent many years dealing with their music. I really wanted to find a way to incorporate it, because this stuff is forever modern. It can make people feel things that are current and relevant in this time. When I play stride on the piano, people react to it like it’s affecting them currently—it’s not like I’m playing this old, antiquated thing. It’s very much now, very much present, and very much forever modern. In that sense, it’s like all great art. So, Future Stride is about dealing with that music, revitalizing it, incorporating it, and mixing it into the other styles of music and other decades of jazz. It’s about dealing with 100 years of music, but in a natural way. It’s not about how to put all this stuff together mathematically. It’s about the fact that we love all this stuff, and we’re going to play it! Maybe we’ll take the solo piano piece and orchestrate it out into a piano trio, then play it for 20 days in a row on the road, and all of a sudden it’s our own. That’s how so much of the music was developed. The other part of the album is that we’re looking into the future, and how we can affect the atmosphere and the landscape of music and humanity. And stride right into it, smooth. You know, smooth the edges. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

FLOWERS: Rebecca Louise Law How floral sculptures open the door to the “third place” WORDS BY AMELIA JOHANSSEN | TYWYN | MATERIALS MATERIALS JUN 21, 2023 | ISSUE 12 Rebecca Louise Law - by Fabio Affuso. Rebecca Louise Law is a British visionary whose captivating floral installations blur the boundaries between art and reality, offering an immersive experience unlike any other. "Painting in the air," as she describes it, allows her creations to transcend traditional mediums, where flowers replace pigments, and open space becomes her canvas. With installations spread all over the world, and comprising over a million preserved flowers, Law’s work serves as a gateway to a deeper understanding of our relationship with the natural world, provoking us to question the fragility of this bond and our responsibility to protect it. Yet, Law's artistry goes beyond aesthetics; it echoes the urgent call of our times─the imminent climate crisis. How do we find harmony between the stillness of introspection encouraged by gallery spaces, and the urgent need to address climate change head-on? It is amidst this urgency that Law's perspective emerges to emphasise the transformative power of time spent in nature, and the significance of community connections. This meditation culminates for Law in the concept of the "third place", that leisurely space beyond the confines of home and work, where communities are strengthened. Galleries, in that sense, are prime real estate for establishing a third place, and Law’s installations bring this concept to vivid life by engaging the most immersive medium of all: nature. www.rebeccalouiselaw.com | @rebeccalouiselaw From Life in Death Rebecca Law - Solo Exhibition Bo.Lee Gallery - Photo by Jeff Eden. ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE From Community - Solo Exhibition Toldeo Museum of Art Dust Pile Solo Exhibition Bo.Lee Gallery EVOLUTION sM | Did you begin as a florist that evolved into a visual artist, or the other way around? RLL ── I studied Fine Art and began my practice as a painter but the discovery of installation art allowed me to explore the boundaries of painting outside of the canvas. I like to think of my work as ‘painting in the air’ where the viewer can enter into the painting, swapping my paints with flowers and my canvas with the space. I made my first installation with flowers in 2003 and I have been learning about my medium ever since. Working with natural materials has allowed me to explore the fragility of our human relationship with nature. I have tried to preserve every flower that I have sculpted with since I began my practice. CLIMATE URGENCY sM | Though your art plays with temporality, it also responds to a time-sensitive threat: the climate crisis. What is your approach to mediating between the value of stillness and leisure on one hand, and the immediate action that climate change calls for on the other hand? RLL ── I believe that you can implement change by shifting core values. Putting time into our resources and our relationships is key. Each installation I make looks at the value of all nature, including us. Being with what the Earth provides and being together is time spent valuing life. The stillness of the artworks I make allow the viewer time to observe nature. Often a connection to nature can enrich and evoke energy to take action. The climate urgency can only be tackled if we slow down consumerism. Consumerism can only slow down if we are content, and we can only feel content when we feel we have enough. Create with what we have, grow, recycle, adapt, and fix. Know your neighbours, spend time with your community and fill in the gaps, meet the needs of those who cannot. Stand up for those that cannot. THE THIRD PLACE sM | What role does the “third place” — that leisurely space outside of home and work — play in strengthening community? RLL ── The ‘third place’ is a privilege. If you are lucky enough to have it, use your time wisely. Look after yourself otherwise you cannot look after others. I personally think it is important to spend time in nature and connect to nature. I also think it is vitally important to know your neighbours even if it means you need to have patience and agree to disagree. So much time is spent on a screen today and this is not great for our souls. Talking to a neighbour regularly can lead to accountability and responsibility. It is in doing this that we can strengthen communities because despite differing beliefs. From Community - Solo Exhibition Toldeo Museum of Art - Photo by Richard Todd. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

Raw Poetic “Pull from everywhere, because we didn’t belong anywhere” WORDS BY MILES FORRESTER | D.C. | PERFORMING ARTS ALT.ITUDE FEB 28, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Raw Poetic by Earl Davis ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 In this nascent decade, Washington D.C's alternative rap mavens, Raw Poetic and Damu the Fudgemunk (Jason Moore and Earl Davis, respectively), have released five albums together: Ocean Bridges , Moment of Change , BIG tiny Planet , Laminated Skies , and Space Beyond the Solar System . Each album feels distinct, but at a length of two hours, Space is the most sonically ambitious of the set, oscillating between spiritual jazz orchestration, funky psychedelia, and prog interludes patched through a plenitude of juicy synths. Moore collaborated with his uncle, the canonical saxophonist Archie Shepp, for 2020's roomy, combo-oriented jazz album, Ocean Bridges. Shepp returns to bookend Poetic and Damu's quintet in Space . His expressive tonality floats amidst the backdrop of Damu's digital soundscape, a daemonic counterpoint to Raw Poetic's flow. There have been many exciting recent intersections between free jazz and electronica, but this meeting between generations refreshingly eschews the current... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture

When Immersive Theatre Goes Too Far Dangers of participatory theatre are present even in the correction to Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty WORDS BY HAILEY SCOTT | NEW YORK | ARTS & LETTERS FEB 28, 2023 | ISSUE 11 Illustration By Alicia Jungwirth ​ ​ Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily LISTEN NOW https://loveinexile.lnk.to/preorder Cody Fry LISTEN NOW www.codyfry.com Víkingur Ólafsson ON TOUR NOW www.vikingurolafsson.com Samara Joy LISTEN NOW www.samarajoy.com Bruce Liu ON TOUR NOW www.bruce-liu.com Disney Animation: Immersive Experience TICKETS ON SALE NOW CLICK HERE ​ ​ Continue reading in Issue 11 A trip to New York landed me in the lobby of Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, a three-hour immersive performance. As I wandered the six-story warehouse by myself, I found a lone actor who took my hand and pulled me into an empty room. He quickly barricaded the door, pulled down the window shutters, and took off my mask, leaving me to question whether this was a part of the performance. He caressed my face and kissed me on the forehead before allowing me to escape. Sleep No More’s mantra, “fortune favours the bold,” mirrors this actor’s dramaturgically integrated performance, which hinges on audiences stepping far beyond their comfort zones and into the arms of strangers. Teetering between reality and performance, my violating encounter might have left some feeling traumatised; however, the allure of the intimate performance instead left me feeling exhilarated. Participatory theatre has transformed our understanding of what being an audience can entail. Rather than sitting on velvet seats in a dark venue, spectators can now experience an interactive journey alongside actors. “Performance” begins to inch closer to reality, both in terms of the experience and... ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ FIND US IN PRINT 2-ISSUE PACKAGE | 3-ISSUE PACKAGE | 5-ISSUE PACKAGE Supported by Nominated for Best Magazine: Art, Literary, & Culture