Vancouver New Music announces 2024-25 season spanning "sci-fi turntablism" and a Casavant Frères pipe organ
Organization’s 51st year of programming opens on September 27 with Ugandan electronic musician Afrorack and closes with Toronto-based artist SlowPitchSound
Afrorack. Photo by Lorenzo Palmieri
VANCOUVER NEW MUSIC has just announced its 2024-25 season, which spans an Italian theorbo virtuoso, a Toronto-based turntable artist spinning sci-fi sounds, and an epic post-50th-anniversary bash to celebrate the organization’s community impact as it enters its 51st year of programming.
Kicking off the season on September 27 at 8 pm is the highly anticipated presentation of Ugandan multimedia artist Afrorack (also known as Bamanya Brian) in his North American debut at Red Gate, rescheduled from a postponed show in April. Afrorack’s sound melds electronic music, African traditions, and polyrhythmic structures—and most impressively, he’ll be performing on a homemade modular synth built using computer parts sourced from repair shops throughout his hometown of Kampala. Supporting artists Goo, Phen Ray, and Jacob Audrey Taves will join him for the show, and a free demo presentation and Q&A will take place the following day at the same venue.
From October 17 to 19, Vancouver New Music will copresent PROPULSION with VIVO Media Arts Centre, its annual music festival. This year’s edition—curated by Kendra Place, Anju Singh, and Reylinn—promises a dozen visionary emerging artists presenting futuristic new works, including Montreal-based, Juno-nominated electronic musician Markus Floats; L.A.-based sound artist FITNESSS; local budots (Filipino EDM) artist DJ Zygote (also known as Simon Grefiel) with dancers Josh Ongcol, Rae, and ADAM, and plenty more.
FITNESSS.
VNM 50th Anniversary: All Yesterday’s Parties at VIVO Media Arts Centre on November 23 will honour Vancouver New Music’s 50-plus-year commitment to fostering innovative music in the city, featuring performances by PROPULSION curator Singh, Matthew Ariaratnam, Andromeda Monk, and Sapphire Haze.
Heading into the new year, Montreal composer-musician Kara-Lis Coverdale will blend traditional organ music with contemporary electronics while playing the Pacific Spirit United Church’s magnificent Casavant Frères pipe organ on February 22; and the seventh installment in VNM’s Parallel series will take place at the Annex on March 15 with U.K.-based artist Martin Howse, who uses an experimental approach to investigate the links between the Earth, software, and the human psyche.
Kara-Lis Coverdale. Photo by Adam Feingold
At the Pacific Spirit United Church on April 26, Italy’s Stefano Maiorana will play Secret Pages on the theorbo, a setting which pairs ancient works by the likes of Giovanni Girolamo Kapsperger with newly composed works from such minds as Claudio Ambrosini. The season will wrap on May 10 at the Annex with SlowPitchSound (also known as Cheldon Paterson), a turntable artist from Toronto whose dystopian, experimental approach—dubbed “sci-fi turntablism”—incorporates live sampling, field recordings, and cinema into its folds.
Throughout the course of its upcoming season, Vancouver New Music is also hosting the beginning phase of its On Curation Mentorship Project, which pairs experienced and emerging artists for new explorations of the curation process. The project will produce programming for the 2025-26 season, and features mentors Raven Chacon, Peter Hatch, Laura Netz, and Aki Onda with mentees Singh, Grefiel, Terri Hron, and Freya Zinovieff.
Tickets for the 2024-25 season are now officially on sale through Vancouver New Music. 
SlowPitchSound. Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
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