Project brings creative culture home
Little Chamber Music’s collection captures the works that artists are performing in isolation
Cultural historians researching the creative work coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 will be thankful for the Little Chamber Music Isolation Commissions (littlechambermusic. com).
This collection of four-minute-long films of home performances by B.C.-based musicians captures the kind of art that artists are making in isolation. Each performance is the result of a $200 pledge by a member of the public who chooses their artist who then can play a classic, something new, an improvisation. Cutting across all genres, the Isolation Commissions provide a window into the myriad talents active in the local music scene.
Isolation Commission #1 features flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor performing Bergère captive by composer Pierre-Octave Ferroud. It was commissioned by Jennifer Butler and Michael Begg and posted online on March 23.
The cutoff for new commissions was May 31.
“We have at least 110 confirmed and more are coming in,” said Little Chamber Music artistic director Mark Haney. “The pace we have been going is about 10 a week, and we expect that it will be going into July to get them all completed. I’d say that it’s a pretty spectacular response.”
Celebrated for staging large-scale events such as the Midsummer at Mountainview and annual Remembrance Day concerts, Little Chamber Music is a non-profit organization devoted to increasing public engagement with the arts. Devoted to Canadian music with a focus on B.C.based and Vancouver composers and players, Little Chamber Music started in 1990 and quickly gained a reputation for high-calibre original work. When the coronavirus hit, Haney hit upon the Isolation Commissions idea as a way of maintaining support for the musical community.
“Creative problem solving is just one of my strengths, and when it hit the fan and became pretty clear that no one was going to be performing for a long time and how do we help with that?” said Haney. “Vancouver is full of arts patrons and people who love the arts, so how could we get those people with the means to directly help the artists that they care about. And here it is, a model that has been embraced by all involved.”
Among those involved has been Music on Main’s artistic director David Pay. Since 2006, the organization has produced over 350 events and built an international reputation as a presenter and supporter of classical and contemporary new music programming. Looking ahead to a full year of performances, artists-in-residence and the like, Pay saw the Isolation Commissions as a way to continue some of Music On Main’s programming. They commissioned the eight artists who have been supported over the past three seasons in the Emerge On Main program for new, up-and-coming artists in multiple genres. These range from Aaron Graham’s lovely version of the Beatles’
Blackbird on marimba (Isolation Commissions #48) to a hypnotizing original work from Iranian-Canadian composer and electronic artist Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi (Isolation Commissions #43) and others.
“We had some stuff in the pipeline, and have over 100 performances on our Music On Main YouTube channel, but Mark’s idea was such a beautiful way to get the money to the artists and develop such a beautiful ecology,” said Pay. “So we spoke to
Mark about commissioning the eight artists we’ve supported over the past three years through Emerge on Main and hoped we could aid in expanding the audience for this great project. Having travelled a lot over the years, I’ve seen how the communities can be in other places, and this is very much Vancouver where when someone has a good idea, others are going to reach out and offer to help.”
Pay notes that Haney often volunteers at Music On Main shows. There is no question that this spirit of supportive collaboration comes in handy, making a project like the Isolation Commissions such a success.
“We really wanted this to include as many people as it could, so we’ve also been collecting smaller donations and, when they reach $200, selecting artists of our own choosing as well,” said Haney. “All the money goes to the artist and we kick in a little extra for the production and some Facebook advertising so that we can get these seen by as big an audience as possible. Quite a few of the artists were people I didn’t know about, such as Elspeth Tremblay (Isolation Commission #4), so that has been really fun for me, too.”
Commissioners have ranged from a Grade 12 teacher who wanted something rousing for her students to hear before they wrote exams, which was provided by trumpeter Mark D’Angelo (not posted at press time) playing the Superman theme, to someone wanting to give exposure to an emerging young artist in Langley. Haney says that having worked as a genre-jumping bassist in multiple genres of music, theatre, film and more, he is lucky to have a wide range of contacts to involve in the project. The final result is certain to have a lasting legacy.
“It’s nice to have all these artists collected in one place who might not otherwise be as easy for people to get exposed to,” said Haney. “People can look and discover the depth of what is going on here and it’s a lot. They will live online on our website and on our YouTube station.”
Little Chamber Music’s next major public performance was scheduled to be an Aug. 6 concert in honour of the 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Fifty string players were to perform Trinity by Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, as well as new commissions from Vancouver-based composers Rita Ueda, Jordan Nobles and Robyn Jacob. At press time, Haney was working out the logistics of staging the event remotely and livestreaming it.
Above all else, Tales of Ming Courtesans is about the strength of female friendships.
After becoming “obsessed” with the topic while conducting research for her new book, Vancouver author Alice Poon says she was eager to highlight an area of emotional bonding that she holds dear in her own life.
“This was important to me because female friendship has greatly enriched my life,” she says. “I just feel so blessed to have a loving sister and a number of generous and caring female friends.”
We caught up with Poon in advance of the book release to learn more. Q For those who aren’t familiar, what is Tales of Ming Courtesans about? A It’s a historical novel set in the transition period straddling the Ming and Qing dynasties (17th century China) that tells the tragic stories of three of the era’s most beautiful and artistically talented courtesans, highlighting their struggle for survival and dignity in a deeply misogynistic society — and how they transcend their challenges to create goodness around them. Q How would you describe it in three words?
A Glimmer in darkness. Q What made this the right time to write this story? A I think for a lot of historical novelists, myself included, the tendency is to write on subjects and historical periods that interest us most, that we feel impassioned about, rather than to be concerned with catching the right time to write a novel.
The tragic stories of Liu Rushi, Chen Yuanyuan and Li Xiangjun made me obsessed with a particular story theme, and that’s the theme of female friendship and solidarity. At that time, while I was aware of the #MeToo movement gaining momentum, I wasn’t, in fact, mulling on its relevance to my novel.
One day my publisher hinted to me that the experiences of the three protagonists rhyme with those of the present-day #MeToo victims.
It then dawned on me that both groups of victims, albeit four centuries apart, suffer in a similar manner unspeakable humiliation and affliction at the hands of patriarchal predators, but still find the strength and moral courage to soldier on. Both groups inspire those around them while trying to seek justice. Both groups look for female solidarity as a major psychological prop. In this sense, I guess my novel is coming out at the “right” time. Q The book highlights strong female bonds. What more can you share about this — and why was this important to you? A By chance, the three protagonists of my novel are thrown into each other’s company and, sharing a common fate of being orphaned in childhood and having no siblings, they’re able to forge a strong bond which becomes their lifeline in moments of excruciating suffering as they struggle against a cruel patriarchy.
Inspired by the customary practice among courtesans in that era to form sworn sisterhoods by exchanging handkerchiefs as a token, calling themselves “kerchief sisters,” I imagined it would only be natural for my protagonists to go through the same ritual in their moment of desperation, as they have little else to make life worth living for them. The sisterly pledge would make them feel familial warmth and love, which is sorely lacking in their lives, and endow them with strength and desire to soldier on. Q The book is set in 17th century China. What was it about this period that made you want to highlight it in your latest book?
A
I have a particular interest in this period because, growing up, I had learned from books, operas, movies and TV dramas about some intriguing and poignant human stories of love, sacrifice, divided loyalties and patriarchal tyranny that took place in that stretch of history. As a grown-up, I’ve found that these stories are highly relatable and mirror our present-day human condition. Q Is there anything about this book that might surprise readers? A Readers, especially Western readers, may not be familiar with the historical fact of human trafficking and slavery prevalent in certain parts of China in the time period in question. The business of buying and selling slave girls was referred to as the “thinhorse trade.” Q What do you hope readers take away from this book? A I hope the book sends a positive message: that tenacity and hope will ultimately triumph over adversity. And that compassion always trumps oppression.