Additional Information
Adrian Avendaño is a percussionist, improviser and composer from the Vancouver area, he’s spending a few days at the Suoni Per Il Popolo as an artist in residence. He is involved in many Suoni’s programs this week, and PAN M 360 could talk to him before his journey actually happens.
About this Trading Places path, here are the words from the Suoni:
« Forget what you know about stiff residencies. Un Échange: Trading Places: Trueque is an electrified, cross-border musical adventure that has been shaking up the scenes of Montreal and Vancouver since 2016. Imagine the most badass improv and experimental music communities from Montréal, Vancouver, and now for the first time this year, the sonic wonderland of Mexico City deciding to pack their bags, swap cities, and make some beautiful noise together. The minds behind the magic, the NOW Society, Suoni Per Il Popolo, and a crew of visionary curators in CDMX, are teaming up to create the ultimate playground for adventurous musicians. It’s all about forming deep, new connections, trading ideas through sound, and proving that the language of experimental music is the most fun and present dialect you’ll ever learn. Un Échange: Trading Places: Trueque is however. »
PAN M 360 : You’re an artist in residence this time in Montreal, so you’re coming very soon for a few concerts, you’re involved in different programs. So, can you, could you describe your role as an artist in residence this time at the Suonio Per Il Popolo?
Adrian Avendaño : Yes, absolutely. So yeah, this year I’ve been invited to be one of the artists visiting from Vancouver for Trading Places. Trading Places is the collaboration between Suoni and Now Society here in Vancouver. Now Society is a non-profit organization here in Vancouver that’s dedicated to improvised music. And so, Now Society has been operating for over 30 years. It’s been a very long time, and they’ve had a really important role in Vancouver promoting improvised music and experimental music. And so, my role being part of the Suoni is more or less being a collaborator in improvised music.
So, I’ll be playing all the shows that I’ll be playing will be improvised music with musicians that I have collaborated with in different contexts over the years. And also some that I will meet for the very first time and will be collaborating, you know. And so, this is something that’s really exciting for me because as an improviser, getting to know people on the bandstand, so to speak, is, I think, for me, one of the most fulfilling things about this art form.
I don’t know if there’s other ways in which people come together in this way, at least, you know, especially working with people that have had such an important trajectory in the music that they do, whether it’s improvised or, say, other styles. And so, I think being able to meet these folks and make music with, you know, the vocabulary that we all have and creating in the moment is something that I think is truly special. So, I’m really honored to have the opportunity to get to know these folks and to actually re-encounter people that, you know, I’ve collaborated with in the past.
PAN M 360 : Yeah! And when you talk about free improvisation, well, can you just be more specific in the programs or the events you’ll be involved in in Montreal?
Adrian Avendaño : So, coming up on the 18th of June, I will be playing alongside Roxanne Nesbitt, who actually is a former Vancouver resident for many years and has since relocated to Montreal. Yeah. And she’s an incredible artist who is a composer in her own right as well, but a big part of her practice these days is making her own percussion instruments and making them from ceramics and from metal. And she’s also a double bassist. So, yeah, that’s going to be one-third of the trio, and then the next person is a Montreal artist who I haven’t met yet. And so, I’m really excited to be collaborating with them in this trio set that we have.
PAN M 360 : The next program involving you is on the 20th of June, and let’s go on for the next program.
Adrian Avendaño : Yes, I’ll be part of one of the constellations as they’re calling it for an event presented via Black Door, which is an improvised music series that Jason, who is based in Montreal, who is actually one of the other guests for the Trading Places residency this year. And so, this is a series that he’s been curating that is featuring artists in the Montreal area to get together to celebrate one another through improvisation. And so, yeah, I’ll be playing in the first constellation that night with a bunch of folks from Montreal, including, I believe, James Goddard and Fahmid Nibesh, who I’ve had the pleasure of collaborating with in Mexico City.
And then Fahmid was one of the Trading Places artists in residence last year. And so, he was here with, playing alongside Allison Burik (saxophone and clarinet), who, I guess, will be playing with her, with them, rather, on the following gig on the 23rd. And so, yeah, this is going to be a really exciting event because there’s going to be lots of really amazing musicians on the bill.
And so, moving forward, as just mentioned, on the 23rd, I will be playing in the Get Free! Improv Night. So, this is one I’m really, really, really excited for this because I’ll be collaborating with Allison Burik, as previously mentioned, with Jared Sharif, who is an incredible saxophonist based in Calgary, here on the West Coast. And then we’ll be joined by the incredible Luke Stewart from Philadelphia and, I guess, I think New York-based now, but anyway, who’s a huge part of the band Irreversible Entanglements, which I’m a huge fan of.
And so, it’s an honor to be able to play with these folks all together. And I’m not sure if it’s confirmed, but I’ve had some information that isn’t so consistent, but potentially Andy Moor from The Ex will be joining us that evening in that configuration. So, whether that happens or not, it’ll be amazing.
And then on the 24th, I’ll be playing with the Trading Places artists who are visiting from Mexico City. So, this year, it’s a really special year for the Trading Places residency. And this is because there’s a new hub, I guess, a new place that has been introduced into the exchange.
And that is Mexico City. And so, in this quartet on the 24th, I’ll be playing with Alejandro Motta and Elia Perez, who are representing Mexico City. And alongside their comrades, Eli Pina on saxophone and Eliana Camacho on double bass. So, these folks are definitely part of that crew as well. And I think they will have a heavy hand in what happens with Trading Places next year for Mexico City. So, it’s a bit of a sneak peek, I guess, of what’s to come.
But I’m really, really excited for this quartet.
PAN M 360 : Now let’s talk about your own background as a percussion player, improviser and composer.
Adrian Avendaño : So, I basically came up playing the drums kind of by accident, to be honest. But a very happy accident. And I’m really grateful for it. I obviously have to thank my parents, specifically my mom, who was really encouraging when I was young for me to try different things.
And one of those things was to try to learn music. And so when I was about 12, she was just like, hey, Adrian, you want to check out this music school that’s close to our house? I know maybe it’s something of interest to you. And I’m like, oh, yeah, sure. I was pretty open minded. So we went. And at the bottom of the list of all the lessons you could take were drums.
And so I was like, oh, I don’t know why they kind of, you know, they kind of struck me. And so I was I picked the drums and I had a few lessons with my teacher. And that was kind of it.
You know, I just kept going. I started playing in elementary school and all the bands. And when I was in high school, same thing. I was in the orchestral band. I was in the jazz bands in high school as well. And I was kind of lucky that I guess in middle high school, I’m not sure how it works out in Montreal, but here there’s like grade 10.
So it’s kind of like, you know, the last year before you become a senior in high school. And so at that point in time, there weren’t any other drummers in the older grades. And so essentially, I was doing double duty.
So I was playing with the junior bands, the orchestral band and the jazz band. And I was doing the same with the senior kids, jazz band and orchestral band. And so I was basically playing every day in my school, which has been incredible for me, as I was just, you know, learning so much and getting to know music from, you know, different eras and different contexts.
And then I eventually, you know, graduated and actually didn’t study music after high school until many years later. I kind of took a different path, but I came back to it maybe in 2017. And I started studying at the Vancouver Community College here, which was instrumental to kind of where I am now, because this is where I’ve been able to engage actually more thoroughly with experimental music, contemporary music, a little bit of jazz.
I wouldn’t say I studied, you know, that in such a thorough way, maybe to like say other musicians may have been. It’s definitely part of my background, but I wouldn’t say it’s the foundation, if that makes any sense. But this was a really fertile, you know, time for me because I was exposed to the different methodologies of experimental music, contemporary music, and specifically improvised music.
And so this is huge thanks to my mentors there. One in particular, Giorgio Manganelli , who is an incredible artist, still doing lots of stuff today and, yeah, really opened up our minds in the new music ensemble that he led. And also importantly for me, as a percussionist, it opened my ears to gamelan music.
So yeah, that’s a bit of my trajectory there in terms of like, kind of like my education and kind of thing to note, which is recent. So in 2024, I was really fortunate to receive a professional development grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, which has enabled me to study with one of my heroes of percussion music today. He’s a drummer named Pedro Ojeda from Bogota, Colombia. He’s kind of at the forefront of the new cumbia scene and experimental music in his city in Bogota, in Colombia. And so I had the huge honor to go to learn with him in person for about a month. And I’ve been studying with him for many years over the internet and just getting, you know, trying to connect as thoroughly as I can with, you know, my Latin American heritage.
And I’ve been really lucky that, you know, Vancouver, even though it’s, you know, it’s maybe a smaller city, there’s still lots of like, you know, really amazing people doing music here. And honestly, it’s been kind of incredible, especially in the last six years, the amount of people passing through to Vancouver, like from all over the world, you know, top musicians who are presenting their projects or presenting their solo works. And so I’ve been really lucky to be here as people are just kind of coming through here and getting to meet them and connect with them.
