ARRAY’S 50TH:
CELEBRATION
APRIL 20, 2022 @ 7PM ET
- Livestream Online: Free
On April 20th, 1972, six emerging composers from the University of Toronto presented the first ever Array concert, featuring their own works performed by friends and colleagues. Now, on this day, we mark the happy occasion of Array’s 50th birthday. We hope you will be able to join us this evening as we come together online to celebrate 50 remarkable years of Arraymusic!
Fifty years and hundreds of concerts later, individuals, spaces, technologies, and aesthetic trends have come and gone, but that same sense of community remains unchanged. Arraymusic is still a place where likeminded creators and listeners, friends and colleagues, come together and experience something new.
For our commemorative event tonight, we will:
- Reveal some exciting 2022/23 50th Anniversary Season plans.
- Webcast a short ‘video love letter’ by filmmaker Laurie Kwasnik to help us mark the day, and speak with Laurie.
- Make a special announcement to share some exciting news.
- Interview one of our favourite composers – Bruce Russell.
- Leave you with a beautiful reprisal of a performance by Stephen Clarke of a work by Bruce, Tijani – III. Young Afro Future (2014); it is the last movement from Children’s Suite from Arraymusic’s November, 2020 concert (runtime: 22:56-27:10).
- Unveil a new ezine Artistic Director David Schotzko curated and Executive Director Sandra Bell designed called ’50 Works For 50 Years’.
In this, we share a curated selection of 50 links celebrating Array’s community – works we have been sharing on FB for 50 days leading up to today.
Some are single pieces of music, others whole concerts, some are performances by the Array Ensemble or at The Array Space, and many are by friends, colleagues and even occasionally people we don’t know but are connected to by only a few degrees of separation. All the Artistic Directors are represented, as well as many of Array’s past commissions from composers established and emerging across Canada and abroad. There are household names, and a few surprises as well.
It was a blast putting this list together and trying to encapsulate 50 years of creative music making and community building into such a short grouping of things to listen to. The possibilities were endless and we know we could have made five more just like this and not run out of material.
We want to thank Arraymusic’s founders – Alex Pauk, Clifford Ford, Marjan Mozetich, Gary Hayes, Robert Bauer and John Fodi – for your vision, tenacity, and passion to launch and sustain Arraymusic all those many years ago.
We hope that you’ll enjoy our little kickoff event to Arraymusic’s 50th Anniversary season tonight! And there’s going to be a lot more celebrating to come over the next 12 months, so stay tuned!
We especially send our heartfelt gratitude to our audience, community, and participants – to everyone who has attended an Arraymusic, Array Ensemble, Array Space, and/or Array co-presented event! You make us want to share another 50 wonder-full years of wild, risk-taking, surprising and inspiring music.
Importantly, we want to thank The Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council, The Toronto Arts Council, and the SOCAN Foundation for their ongoing meaningful generous contributions of support over the many years, without which we would not be here to celebrate with you today.
We sincerely thank all the many amazing, talented, adventurous artists – composers, musicians, sound artists, singers, dancers, filmmakers, poets, visual artists, and others – along with our staff, board directors, donors, partners, and volunteers over the years, who have been instrumental in making Arraymusic the exceptional arts organization it is today.
HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY ARRAY!
Warmest regards
The Array Team: David, Sandra, Dan, Conor, Mark, Kendall