The X Avant New Music Festival in Toronto is set to return in 2020 with a new virtual edition dubbed "Transmissions."
Taking place from October 1 to 18 at the city's Music Gallery at the 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education, as well as at some offsite venues, the festival's 15th edition will be available to stream online in its entirety for free.
Performers in this year's edition include Ok Miss, Kaie Kellough and Jason Sharp, Tara Kannangara, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Mingjia, Rich Brown, c_RL and more.
Additionally, the festival will host panel conversations including NOW Magazine and Musicworks' Chaka V. Grier interviewing Norman Otis Richmond, the co-founder of the Toronto chapter of the Black Music Association; a celebration of Ron Gaskin, the late curator and host of Radio Music Gallery; and a "hybrid lab" from Bonjay's Alanna Stuart, who will present Simma, "a documentary-style conversation that gathers Jamaican-Canadian artists and supporters of different eras around a community meal."
In the absence of in-person festivities, X Avant organizers hope to focus on "what it means to transmit artistic knowledge and creative vision to our audiences and each other, while re-imagining what a music festival can look like in a pandemic."
"The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything for everyone; never has arts presentation faced such existential questions as it does today," reads a release. "While we fear viral transmissions, we need to continue cultural transmissions in order to maintain a semblance of ourselves during this time."
X Avant "Transmissions" was curated by Music Gallery artistic associates Pratishtha Kohli and Olivia Shortt.
See the full schedule of events at the Music Gallery's website.
Taking place from October 1 to 18 at the city's Music Gallery at the 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education, as well as at some offsite venues, the festival's 15th edition will be available to stream online in its entirety for free.
Performers in this year's edition include Ok Miss, Kaie Kellough and Jason Sharp, Tara Kannangara, Thin Edge New Music Collective, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Mingjia, Rich Brown, c_RL and more.
Additionally, the festival will host panel conversations including NOW Magazine and Musicworks' Chaka V. Grier interviewing Norman Otis Richmond, the co-founder of the Toronto chapter of the Black Music Association; a celebration of Ron Gaskin, the late curator and host of Radio Music Gallery; and a "hybrid lab" from Bonjay's Alanna Stuart, who will present Simma, "a documentary-style conversation that gathers Jamaican-Canadian artists and supporters of different eras around a community meal."
In the absence of in-person festivities, X Avant organizers hope to focus on "what it means to transmit artistic knowledge and creative vision to our audiences and each other, while re-imagining what a music festival can look like in a pandemic."
"The COVID-19 pandemic has changed everything for everyone; never has arts presentation faced such existential questions as it does today," reads a release. "While we fear viral transmissions, we need to continue cultural transmissions in order to maintain a semblance of ourselves during this time."
X Avant "Transmissions" was curated by Music Gallery artistic associates Pratishtha Kohli and Olivia Shortt.
See the full schedule of events at the Music Gallery's website.
