Violinist’s series celebrates collaboration
Head of Vancouver Improvised Arts Society aims to support, showcase artists across genres
The Vancouver Improvised Arts Society started this year as an organization dedicated to furthering the development of new works born out of spontaneous invention.
Multi-genre and collaborative, VIAS arrived with a nifty cross-section of an orange logo and a very clear two-point mission statement: “Diverse at its core, VIAS is grounded in its mission to pay artists fairly and to raise the bar for interdisciplinary programming that celebrates the intersections of gender, race and social status by encouraging the mingling of mediums and genres.”
Launched just in time to coincide with a global pandemic, the Vancouver Improvised Arts Society: Salon Series #1 took place in Studio Full Bloom on Jan. 18. Then the postponements began. But on March 20, the duo Crowman played the first VIAS online show, splitting donations between the artists and the society. A steady serving of shows followed from such celebrated local improvisers as cellist Marina Hasselberg to Juno award-winning pianist Cat Toren (Pugs and Crows) performing from her Brooklyn flat and so on.
Violinist Meredith Bates (Pugs and Crows, Gentle Party, Ford Pier and the Strength of Materials String Quartet, others) is the artistic director of VIAS. She chatted with Postmedia about VIAS.
Q You’ve been an active musician for a long time building a resume that runs the gamut of styles. What brought you to improvised music?
A I’ve been gigging as a teenager actively involved in fiddle music and the Celtic scene, so I decided that I would travel to the other coast and get more immersed in that scene. What ended up happening in Halifax was that I met absolutely no Celtic fiddlers or musicians there, but only improvising jazz musicians like Paul Cram and others in the Upstream Ensemble. When I returned to Vancouver, I met all the group of jazz musicians coming from Capilano University who wanted me to play their grad show and met guitarist Cole Schmidt who formed Pugs and Crows in 2008. I’ve been active in that scene since.
Q As members of that band have spread out to various places, you’ve also established bands with international scope. Is that easy to do?
A Sound Circus is a band I formed out of colleagues from the Banff Centre during my first tour there in 2009. Everyone is from a different country, but I created a tour of Europe where we stopped over in Denmark to record an album. So that was a one-hit wonder. I just wound-up a residency in Stockholm with a similar project called Like the Mind before COVID-19 hit. There was a lot of work this summer. Q All of which means you have a lot more time than you expected to work on establishing VIAS, I guess. When did you decide you wanted to put this together? A
I had founded an artist-run space called Merge in 2013, which had a good five-year run until we were renovicted. Prior to that, I had presented a house concert series on Pandora for three years, so it’s clear I like presenting. But this time, I felt rather than setting up another DIY space, I wanted to do something above board so I could access public funding and more money for the artists we hire. Right now, too many people are being asked to create free online content, which puts those in an already precarious situation into one that is far worse.
Q The VIAS board is certainly representative of a wide-range of players and tastes who all seem ready and raring to go. Did the pandemic kind of halt you in your tracks?
A Well, it is a dream team with powerhouse musicians like Sarah Wheeler, Aram Bajakian and Ruby Singh, as well as super legit arts administrators and more. Because of the way the funding structure for young organizations is set up, we need about two years time to be able to access that. In a way, the pandemic has bought us some time to take advantage of creating more content online and make more connections expanding our links across virtual reality to communities and organizations all over the world.
Q That’s a positive spin. Do you think there could be pluses for local performers in terms of touring, collaborating and so forth from those connections?
A My programming always has gender parity in mind and I’m making a concerted effort to balance things and pursue thoughtful choices in artists, but it’s been a bit insular due to the present realities. We just had a board meeting about reaching out and expanding to other communities, so I’m starting into that. I would really like to see more dance incorporated.