Suoni | The Dark, Wicked, Warm and Absurd on the Same Dish

by Z Neto Vinheiras

Casa opens the doors in a charged, but carefully arranged, blend of dark-folk, neoclassical, noise and post-punk in the hands and voice of Fae Sirois, performing her project Girl Circles – “the art of spite and wxmenly sexual energy,” as she describes.

In a sombre yet intimate setting, Girl Circles is a space of spells and curses, of a very raw confession of embodying one’s own shadows and from there, finding light. Fae Sirois guides us through storytelling, from her raw, scratched violin to a very melodious, lyrical, one organic and tortured machinery, and screamo techniques.

In the midst of all the noise, sharp frequencies traversing the spectrum, whipping feedback – Fae listens attentively. She knows exactly what kind of power she embodies and experiments with.

Second act of the night is served by Ylang Ylang & Così e Così in a performance dedicated to everyone “who [was] present and anyone who spends a lot of time in hospitals.” The vulnerable, piercing poetry of Così e Così couldn’t fit in a better place than the warm bed of synths and thoughtful beats of Ylang Ylang. The duo transports us to the insides of a love letter, or else a sad glitchy flower, curating the soundtrack of the ride – it is soft and warm, melancholic yet comforting and somewhat energizing, nostalgic and so touching.

Trading Places: Un Échange artist-in-residence in collaboration with Suoni brings us Cordelia Donovan, originally from Manitoba and based in Vancouver. Donovan stretches the performative moment to a raw exploration of voice layering, texture and dynamics – she tells us about grief, inviting us to breathe together with and through it.

The headliners Ishi Tishi conquer our hearts and laughs with a playfully inventive set, scooping from the absurd and the slightly provocative while still being real about today’s doom – from keyboard synths, to vocal harmonising and electronic experiments, the trio embraces the weird and awkwardness of being a human in this mess, and does so with such a lightheartedness difficult to leave a place in a bad mood.

Jazz Fusion

FIJM | Azimuth: Brazilian Jazz Fusion of the Highest Order

by Michel Labrecque

The Azimuth band is a legend in Brazil. It started out in 1973, in Rio de Janeiro, juggling Brazilian popular music, rock and jazz. Over the years, the trio has become increasingly jazz-fusion, without ever abandoning its Brazilian roots.

Fifty-two years after his birth, Azimuth presented himself at the Gesu in spectacular form, and had the vast majority of the audience in his pocket from the very first piece, taken from his recent album Marca Passo, released this month.

Azimuth is a kind of Brazilian Weather Report, in a different form: a keyboardist, a bassist and a drummer. Of the original line-up, only bassist Alex Malheiros remains, still going strong despite his 78 years. Kiko Continento has officiated on keyboards since 2015, and Renato Massa Calmon handles drums and percussion.

The three musicians are very close-knit and offer music that is both complex and festive, sometimes a little dated because of the keyboards: a Korg synthesizer, a Rhodes electric piano and an organ whose brand I haven’t seen. Kiko Contentino, the 55-year-old youngster in the band, plays his instruments like a teenager, while being very versatile.

Alex Malheiros handles his bass with intelligence, occasionally using slap, but not excessively. In this kind of band, the bass is more than an accompaniment; it’s an essential instrument, and the moustachioed Brazilian also knows how to solo.

Rebato Calmon brought the crowd to its feet on several occasions with his drum solos. Personally, I find him best when he accompanies with great virtuosity, mixing Brazilian percussion with drums and cymbals.

This is jazz fusion of the highest order. But the most delightful and original moments came when the band displayed their Brazilian-ness. Wordless vocal harmonies, whistles, a percussion trio – the little things that make a difference. Having lived in Rio de Janeiro for two years and listened to a lot of Brazilian music, I particularly appreciate this.

I also often say that with this kind of virtuoso band, it’s when they play ballads or slow pieces that you really notice the quality.

In Azimuth’s case, that moment arrived when they opened with “Last Summer in Rio,” from Marca Passo. They had us singing along as they deployed their improvisational skills. And we, the audience, began to levitate.

The almost-full Gesu remained in this state right up to the end.

Publicité panam

Jazz / jazz groove

FIJM | Anomalie and Lewis: Two hour Jam by Two Heavy Hitters

by Vitta Morales

The night of June 27th saw Le Gesù playing host to Montreal’s very own Anomalie as well as Toronto’s Larnell Lewis.

This was a pairing that Anomalie himself confirmed had never been done in any official capacity. Indeed, when the show was first announced it felt to me like a funny crossover episode of TV; here we had two heavy hitting Canadian fusion artists that seemed firmly in their own lanes but who were now suddenly collaborating. My initial reaction was of mild surprise which lasted only a moment before realizing: “Oh, yeah. That actually makes a lot of sense.” So how would the stylings of the man behind the groovy and slick sounds of Velours (2017) pair with those of the man responsible for the furious and driving sound on Snarky Puppy’s We Like it Here (2014)? Well, pretty well to be honest.

Prior to the show starting we were informed that what we were about to hear was improvised in its entirety. In other words, a two hour jam by two heavy hitters of fusion jazz. Anomalie, for his part, made use of all the sounds for which he is known including his many lead synths, piano, fast moving arpeggios, and pitch bent chords through the use of an expression pedal. Some soundscapes were sparse, some more groovy and ostinato based, and on a couple occasions he really let himself go with a burning solo. This however, really did only occur on a couple occasions. I don’t know whether it was by design, from nerves, or self-consciousness, but Anomalie ceded the spotlight quite a bit to Lewis who would play significantly more solos on the night. Seeing as it was a duo setting, I would have wanted this aspect to be more equal. And it would have been nice for him to take more risks in his playing as well. He seemingly clung to safety by playing things he knew he wouldn’t mess up. Oh, well. I won’t hold it against him.

Lewis, for his part, employed mallets and hotrod sticks when the music needed to be softer and more sparse, but he quickly ramped things up when necessary by playing dense fills around the kit, quick 16th note grooves on his bass drum with one foot, and even at one point playing quick 32nd notes on his hi-hat in a trap style. A splash cymbal placed on the snare at other points achieved the classic “stacked cymbal” sound. He also got a lot of mileage out of his cowbell grooves which of course made an appearance as well. Lewis, In other words, whether playing sparsely, quietly, or furiously, treated us to a seemingly endless vault of drum vocabulary.

Overall, I have to commend Anomalie and Lewis for a solid evening of music; but in particular their transitions were very impressive to me. Considering there are no real starts and ends to the “songs” in a jam, the transitions are the hardest thing to get right. The musical instincts and experience were on full display by both men, however, as they were able to play off each other and anticipate the other’s decisions. Many of the transitions sounded like they could have been rehearsed in fact. Anomalie even closed out the set with a jazzy cadenza on his piano which he faded out. With that, everyone in the audience seemed to understand that the night had come to an end. I think we may very well see these two play again in the future. And personally, if this was them improvising, I’m now wondering what they could achieve with some time to rehearse.

expérimental / contemporain / Indian Classical / Indie Pop / Jazz / South Asian / transculturel

FIJM | Thanya Iyer and Arooj Aftab, Perfect Transplants!

by Alain Brunet

The evening of Thursday June 26 was marked by an Indian and cross-cultural imprint. We’re all very excited about Arooj Aftab, who played to a packed house at Club Soda, but any music lover here must also see our South Asian jewel shine: Montrealer Thanya Iyer has been seducing audiences for a few years now, and we could tell on Thursday that the stone had been chiselled.

This Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist (violin, viola, keyboards, synthesizers, electronics) has an excellent taste for perfectly measured hybridizations in which she layers the melodies that carry the words of her interiority.

The microtonal undulations of classical Indian (Carnatic) music, indie pop, chamber pop, contemporary jazz, modern or contemporary Western classical music, ethereal wave, American minimalism … and this soft, airy voice that straddles these styles, influences and eras.

Harp, strings, choir, keyboards, guitar, bass. This extensive instrumentation implies fine arrangements in a diversity of proposals for a contemporary chamber orchestra. The arrangements were also conceived by Thanya Iyer, an exceptional talent. The material for this program can be found on the album Tide/Tied, released this spring. Don’t miss out!

This very first concert of my FIJM 2025 was followed by the much-anticipated Arooj Aftab, a Pakistani singer-songwriter transplanted to New York and frequented by top-quality artists. In 2023, we heard her alongside Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily on the excellent album Love in Exile.

This album is more exploratory than the recent Night Reign, closer to song forms, more consonant with the West, a little less marked by southern Asia. The approach is therefore a little smoother, more consensual, with harp, keyboards, guitars, vibraphone and so on.

It’s hardly surprising that the Night Reign album has had a greater indie pop impact in the West, since the reference points are overwhelmingly obvious. And this artist’s touch is contagious, to say the least! Superb centered voice, self-mockery, fierce stance against traditional morality, laughing cynicism: in short, this woman is free and takes what she wants from her past. And that’s why she performed to a packed Club Soda and a delighted audience.

Photo Julien Jaffré

Publicité panam

Jazz

FIJM 2025 | King Makaya triumphs again

by Frédéric Cardin

A total, irrepressible intensity, a strength of character that imposes its vision, leaving the acolytes to support (brilliantly, of course), never to deflect, the king in his musical velléités. This is a concert by drummer Makaya McCraven, a modern icon of jazz drumming. The propulsive power of this American is quite simply remarkable, and his genius for form, rhythmic metamorphosis and overall discourse is awe-inspiring. But that’s nothing new. Our colleague Alain Brunet, who was also present at the event, remarked that it resembled last year’s show. It’s been three years since McCraven released an album. To quote Alain: “Makaya, it’s really great, but we’re due for a new album.” Which will apparently be the case in September. By the way, in the last ten minutes or so, wasn’t that new material we were hearing? Anyway, it doesn’t matter, because I’d missed last year’s perfomance, which kept my listening a little “fresher.” And anyway, such an expressive personality can sustain repetition, so visceral and superior is it.

A rhythmic sax, sometimes atmospheric, never lyrical, a colorful vibraphone, a voluble but respectful bass. It’s what surrounds the master without taking up space. That’s the way it is, and we like it.

The opening act, Theon Cross (Sons of Kemet), brought the Club Soda to its feet with a plump, remarkably swift tuba groove. This guy is an amazing virtuoso. The depth of sound of this instrument doesn’t usually make it easy to understand what’s going on, but Cross apparently achieves the impossible, and does so by twirling more notes than would be humanly possible. A new album is due in July, very soon indeed. You won’t want to miss it.

Alt Folk / musique du monde / musique traditionnelle mexicaine

FIJM | Natalia Lafourcade Ignites a Place des Arts Gone Mexican

by Michel Labrecque

It’s become a cliché, but sometimes clichés just come to life. All you had to do was stroll through the corridors of Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier to understand and hear that the majority of the 3,000 spectators were Spanish-speaking, most of them Mexicans, who had come to listen to one of their artists who best embodies the soul of this great country.

Natalia Lafourcade was back at FIJM for the second year running, but with a radically different concert. In 2024, she presented her album De Todas Las Flores, accompanied by a group of brilliant musicians. This time, for her Cancionera tour, the title of her most recent album, she presented herself alone, with an amplified classical guitar and a bottle of Mezcal on a small table—just to be a singer.

Natalia Lafourcade is an exceptional artist. She always takes unpredictable paths. The album Cancionera, which I reviewed in our pages, is a highly polished album, with some fifteen musicians, which modernizes traditional Mexican and Latin styles in a very subtle way. But, in this ultra-intimate concert, Lafourcade largely abandons this album, keeping at most two pieces, and offers us in exchange a mix of songs that sum up her career, as well as traditional songs from her country.

I confess: at first, I was surprised, as I love the highly sophisticated arrangements that Lafourcade and her director, Adan Jodorowsky, make as a group. But, like the vast majority of the audience, I was won over by this stripped-down concert, which gave way to the voice, soul and emotions of this extraordinary artist, who was awarded the Jazz Festival’s Antonio-Carlos Jobim Prize for her contribution to “world” music at the end of the concert.

Whether with the songs “De Todas Las Flores,” “Pajarito Colibri,” “La Soledad y el Mar,” “Mexicana Hermosa,” or with her reinterpretations of “La Llorona,” “La Bamba” and “Cucurucu Paloma,” Natalia Lafourcade took us deep into Mexican culture and her home region of Veracruz, and shared it with the crowd, encouraging everyone to sing along. The longer the concert went on, the more people sang around me.

Her classical guitar playing sometimes reminded me of Texan Willie Nelson or Uruguayan Jorge Drexler, with whom she often collaborated. Her playing filled the musical space very well. And that voice! It seems to me that it’s becoming more confident, more assertive, more emotional.

Natalia Lafourcade also spoke to us, largely in Spanish, about her love for Mexico, the sea and solitude, “which sometimes gives great ideas, but also terrible thoughts.” This tour is also a way for her to celebrate her 40th birthday, a sort of time for taking stock.

Natalia Lafourcade loves her country, its culture and landscapes, but she’s also aware of its problems and inequalities. She reminded us of this when she finished her concert with “El Derecho de Nacimiento,” a song written in 2012 in support of a student movement for greater social justice.

Natalia Lafourcade is whole and complete. A concentrate of soul! And the audience returned the favour.

We’ll be back tonight for a second concert.

Photo credit: Émanuel Novak-Bélanger

Publicité panam

expérimental / contemporain / Grindcore / Jazz / Métal

FIJM | Clown Core: the theatre of extremes, between Pennywise and Krusty

by Frédéric Cardin

Clown Core is a duo of anonymous musicians wearing clown masks who have achieved cult status since 2010. Despite only three albums, the longest of which is 17 minutes long, their totally truculent homemade videos (in a chemical toilet, in a van, etc.) and, above all, their violent mix of genres have made Clown Core famous among a fringe of the underground.

The two guys (we assume) from Nevada set the M Telus alight last night. How do we describe the CC product? Musically speaking, they go from hellish grindcore with added free jazz to cheap muzak, from deep growling to childish post-polka ritornello, without any transition and in flights of fancy that last no more than a few dozen seconds, for the most extended. Spiritual heirs to Mr. Bungle, less intellectual. All this with saxophone, drums and electronics.

But there’s so much more to a Clown Core show. The visuals and staging are reminiscent of trash-absurdist art, happening style. High art and low art copulating wildly. A giant screen projects images at breathtaking speed, from cosmic epics to morphing genitals and seniors’ porn to organic nausea and unhealthy food. A few dynamic breaks take us to an American suburb, or digital reefs of pieces of steak on a strange sea.

The mostly metal crowd was delighted, if occasionally impatient, with the very slow introduction that eventually led to the show itself. Clown Core is a bit provocative, you see. Case in point: for about twenty minutes before their entrance (itself delayed by long minutes of nothing on a background of astronomical images of planets), a masked guy (seen in their videos) sits in front of the audience, smokes a cigarette and listens to New Age tunes on his phone….

That said, the wait was rewarded with a performance that shattered eardrums and conventions alike. The audience screamed out loud (for joy). Montreal band Karneef had warmed up the room adequately beforehand, but it was mainly a picture of four cute orange-white kittens that got everyone excited before the clowns arrived, an honest mistake, or a strategic one? So much so that when it was removed, everyone wanted it back and started shouting “Cats, cats, cats!” Who said the hearts of metalheads were as hard as steel?

Clown Core is unclassifiable and, above all, memorable. Never bring your grandmother there unless she’s the coolest in history.

Contemporary Jazz / Modern Jazz

FIJM | Wynton & JLCO: Something of an Opening Ceremony

by Harry Skinner

With the Montreal Jazz Festival officially starting on June 26th, the June 25th performance by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra could be seen as something of an opening ceremony. This is somewhat fitting given the ambassadorial stature that Wynton Marsalis and co. have assumed over the years.

From the start of the program it was clear that the repertoire was selected deliberately to allude to the current political climate in the United States – the band began with three notable works of black protest music: Marsalis’ own Black Codes from the Underground, Charles Mingus’ Fables of Faubus, and John Coltrane’s Alabama. The latter was well served by a somewhat minimalist arrangement that left plenty of room for baritone saxophonist Paul Nedzela’s interpretation of Coltrane’s melody. The soft muted chords played by the rest of the horn section contributed to a beautiful and haunting soundscape. The most direct political message, however, came during Fables of Faubus. Trombonists Chris Crenshaw and Vincent Gardner sang Mingus’ original lyrics, which explicitly criticize Nazis, fascism, and the KKK – a poignant sentiment with the current rise of right wing extremism in the US and around the world.

The band went on to showcase compositions by several of its members; Carlos Enriquez, Chris Crenshaw, Elliot Mason, and Vincent Gardner, with a highlight being Crenshaw’s Bearden (The Block). This gospel-influenced piece cycled through several contrasting grooves, while kept grounded by consistent harmonic language. It featured one of the highlights of the set – a tasteful yet understated tenor saxophone solo by Chris Lewis – and finished with a vocal call and response section that had the ensemble gradually getting softer in a way that was reminiscent of a faded ending on a record.

At the tail end of the set there was a warm reception for an interpretation of March Past, the seventh movement from Oscar Peterson’s Canadiana Suite, arranged by Vincent Gardner.

With this year being his centennial, the Montreal crowd were especially keen to show their appreciation for such a local legend, and that energy was matched in the performance. The band then concluded the set with a Gardner original, entitled Up From Down. Marsalis had few words to say about this piece, simply stating, “It’s about these times.” The piece featured plenty of dissonant harmonies and overlapping, discordant rhythms, with brief moments of levity in resolution, which could be taken to illustrate the practice of finding joy during difficult times.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is often the subject of discourse surrounding ‘old vs. new’ debates in jazz, and is often seen as a proponent of the tradition – a comment often levied at Marsalis himself. While there is truth to the sentiment, it feels like a narrow perspective, as the ensemble consistently brings new ideas to the table when playing the music of the late jazz greats. Their renditions of Mingus, Coltrane, and Peterson don’t feel like exhibits in a museum; they are filled with contemporary ideas and interpretations. We see this in the makeup of the band, with several younger musicians mixing in seamlessly with the more established members, emphasizing the importance of keeping one foot in the past and one in the future.

Experimental / Contemporary / Groove / Hip Hop / Soul/R&B

SUONI | Kalmunity: STARS SHINE DARKLY in a night of powerful words, words of love and raging roars, healing grooves and dissent manners

by Z Neto Vinheiras

Active since 2003, the oldest and largest improv collective in Canada, Kalmunity, presents us STARS SHINE DARLKY – a full night of powerful words, words of love and raging roars, healing grooves and dissent manners. Soul of the project Jahsun, curated a special evening of solos, duos and trios of musicians, poets and creatives to come together and improvise the night away. A night that felt like community, that echoed gratitude and resistance.

In a world where “leaders” and governments keep failing us, genocide is live streamed, racism and deportation cracks the land open, separates and traumatises families, the poet D-na reminds us of the age of this collective wound – “Are you done now?”, she asks repeatedly accompanied by the swirling saxophone of Aaron Leaney, while Stella Adjokê reminds us the power of poetry, confessing why she decided to become a poet – “poetry is a way to viscerally explain the explosion”, – followed by a healing preach-like poem about love and fear, to the sound of Aaron Leaney’s and Eric Hove’s saxophones.

The loquacious pianist Zach Frampton and the inspired, and inspiring, poet and improviser Zibz BlacKurrent slammed the piano and the words together into a conversation on nostalgia, gratitude, who you are and where you go, – BlacKurrent doesn’t let us part without demanding to “STOP it in Gaza, Sudan and Congo”.

Jahsun and Fred Bazil unite for an explosive set, with a grounded but frantic at times drumming and a roaring saxophone; Engone Endong embarks us into the rich and tasty journey of texture, sampling and sound design and Jason “Blackbird” Selman shares with us his feelings of Caribbean manhood, alongside his poem “8 things that make a black man cry”, a very heartfelt exchange accompanied by the grooviest bass lines by the legend Mark Alan Haynes.

Closer to an end but not quite, Skin Tone, Jairus Sharif and Mustafa Rafiq come together not only in a musical journey but a spiritual one in all its beautiful encounters and twisted turns where noise fusions with drone, free jazz and electronic – the sounds of hope, freedom and vision.

On a third and last set, Brussels based self taught bassist Farida Amadou, who played her solo show on the same stage the day after, joins Jahsun and Engone Endong in an unbridled performance, making the way to the iconic group Dark Maatr’ and a final all-together improvisation moment that leaves Casa flooding in electrifying sound waves and a holy-like energy.

Improvisation is not just a moment of play, but an intentional and rather emotional, intimate, empowering space for community, nourishment and care; challenging structures and systems and not just musical ones; listening, giving and taking space, liberating one self and one another – Kalmunity is the project that brings the very musical and the very political sounding unison on the stage and outside of it; that brings the realness of life and struggle into hope, celebration, love, gratitude and resistance.

Avant-Garde / Contemporary / expérimental / contemporain / Free Jazz

Suoni 2025 | Farida Amadou ++: an apotheosis of adrenaline discharge

by Frédéric Cardin

I didn’t go to all the concerts at Suoni 2025 (I’d need the gift of ubiquity for that), but my respectable experience of shows of all kinds leads me to think that last night was probably one of the most memorable of this edition of the avant-garde and experimental music festival.

The Alberta-based duo of Jairus Sharif and Mustafa Rafiq, the Montreal quartet Egyptian Cotton Arkestra and Brussels bassist Farida Amadou followed each other on stage. The intensity of the different musics on offer brought a broad smile to the faces of the many music lovers at the Casa del Popolo.

Jairus Sharif et Mustafa Rafiq Suoni 2025 cr.: Pierre Langlois

Sharif and Rafiq (sax and guitar + electronic) kicked off the evening with their waves of molecular abstraction, building to an enveloping tide of timbral saturation. This was followed by the four members of the Egyptian Cotton Arkestra (James Goddard, saxophone, Lucas Huang, percussion, Markus Lake, bass, and Ari Swan, violin) and their slow but irremediable, and above all irresistibly exciting, constructions, like an imposing crescendo from almost nothing to an unleashing of free power. This band is to jazz what Godspeed is to rock.

Farida Amadou, alone with her bass, did not let herself be imposed upon. She extracted a remarkable sonic punch from her instrument, which she plays both traditionally and as a percussion instrument (laid flat on her knees, and struck in all sorts of ways and with all sorts of sticks). Her musical architectures are made up of rhythmic drones through which a few thematic motifs thread their way. Pulsating noise that’s both inspiring and addictive!

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS BY FARIDA AMADOU, ON BANDCAMP

And then, as a big bonus for the attentive and participative audience, Jairus, Mustafa and the four acolytes of the Egyptian Cotton Arkestra hopped on stage with Farida and jammed together two thrilling adrenalin discharges, veritable sonic tsunamis of musical freedom and creative incandescence. We would have taken another hour of this, easily. I’d even go so far as to suggest that Jairus, Mustafa and Farida move to Montreal just to hear them regularly offer us this kind of holistic and liberating catharsis. It wouldn’t be kind to Alberta or Brussels, but when it’s as good as this, being selfish is justifiable.

More! More!

Avant-Garde / expérimental / contemporain / Post-Minimalist

Suoni 2025 | Bozzini + Sarah Hennies: contrasts in post-minimalism

by Frédéric Cardin

Sarah Hennies is an American percussionist and composer who currently teaches at Bard College in New York State. Suoni per il popolo welcomed her last night in a two-part performance strongly marked by contrasting post-minimalisms.

In the first part, she was accompanied by her colleague Tristan Kasten-Krause on double bass, in a piece that unfolded slowly and built like a dynamic arch. Frictional drones on both double bass and vibraphone (Hennies rubs the keys of the instrument with the bow) open the piece, which is eventually disrupted by the use of objects such as a metal bar, cowbells and other resonant instruments. Then it’s back to the high-pitched rubbing, plunging the Sala Rossa into a bath of intense tinnitus. If Kitty and Puppy had been there, they would have had epileptic fits. That said, I really enjoyed this offering, a kind of study of timbres that are as much fusional as they are clashing.

In the second half, Hennies made way for the Quatuor Bozzini, who performed her score Borrowed Light, a Canadian premiere. A substantial and demanding work lasting an hour, it requires sustained concentration to grasp the subtleties of the transformations created in the endlessly repeated motifs.

To me, the first half seemed to lack breath and discursive purpose. Seduction too. I would have cut a good part of it. In this genre, Morton Feldman does it better, and more poetically. I was just about to give up when the second half-hour gathered momentum and became more interesting, with more dynamic architectural constructions that held the attention better. A friend present at the venue, who is used to the avant-garde and has seasoned ears, thought the opposite: she enjoyed the first half more, the second much less. Of course, I make no claim to the truth.

All in all, an evening of music of mixed quality and pleasure, but of impressive quality nonetheless.

Classical

Montreal Chamber Music Festival | But it was a nice concert…

by Frédéric Cardin

The next-to-last concert of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, last Saturday, marked two days associated with June 21: the 40th anniversary of the Ordre national du Québec and National Aboriginal Peoples’ Day. After a blessing by spiritual leader Kevin Deer, the “official” theme of the Order, a neo-romantic miniature composed by Steve Barakatt, was played by a string quartet, followed by a number of arias sung by Elisabeth St-Gelais, in exquisite form. Two melodies by Métis-born composer Ian Cusson, bathed in post-French melodie writing, were logically followed by two (melodically superior) examples by Cécile Chaminade, Villanelle and Infini, which the Innu soprano recorded on her album released last year (a gem, which you can READ THE REVIEW of here). A short but lovely piece for violin and piano by Andrew Balfour followed (Karakett Nitotem), before moving on to the evening’s “classical” repertoire: Debussy’s Sonata for violin and piano in G minor, L. 140 and Dvorak’s Serenade for strings. Mohawk violinist Tara-Louise Montour gave a distinctive performance of Debussy, and the Festival strings played Dvorak with élan.

It was a lovely concert, even if the coherence of the program left one dubious. Your humble servant had the impression that the “native” had been artificially “glued on”, as if to check the item off a “to-do list”. But above all, this concert was bathed in a feeling of infinite sadness, as the Bourgie Hall audience was famishing, and I weigh the word. About 50 people were there (and how many of them had received free tickets?). Bourgie can accommodate 450. That’s 10% of the hall. 10%. I asked around: the 2025 season was “difficult”, attendance-wise. Not as bad as this 10%, which was the worst performance, but averaging around 50%, which is disappointing. The following day’s final concert at the Maison symphonique did better, with violinist Kerson Leong exerting his strong pull, of course, but in a special, reduced gauge (audience on stage and in the back bleachers).

What’s happening with the Montreal Chamber Music Festival? Marketing? Event branding? Personality? Programming? Compared with the Montreal Baroque Festival, which took place (and ended, as it was much shorter) on the same weekend, the difference is striking: the latter gives an impression of dynamism, youth and community involvement. Several concerts are sold out (albeit in smaller venues), and most are filled to appreciable levels (READ MY REVIEWS OF TWO MONTREAL BAROQUE FEST CONCERTS HERE and HERE). One has energy, the other seems out of fuel.

In short, it’s time to think about the future of the Chamber Music Festival. A city like Montreal can’t afford not to have a large-scale, unifying chamber music event – it would be a disgrace. But right now, we’re wondering how long it can last like this.