A Place to Listen

10/07/2020

Happy to share what APTL's Maria Eduarda Martins and Alex Jang have been up to lately. They are making some new (old) music together, blending early music repertoire with electronic elements as Omni Temporum Duo.

"The Omni Temporum Duo believes that in times of fast-paced changes and contrasting cultures, it is of vital importance to not only accept different mindsets, but to understand that they are all part of the same evolving organism, called humanity. We are our past, we are our present."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2LpHk4Q9lE&fbclid=IwAR2t9vK1x5HZbHrwA2JSnRpwta4ArOu6U_Cg_iTSUeE19_eresZR8ZLKBjY

July 2020, Flow, my Tears (or Lachrimae), composed by John Dowland and published in 1600 (as part of The Second Booke of Songs or Ayres). Voice/electronics: ...

21/04/2020

We're proud to share this great video of APTL Ensemble member Chris Reiche -- also the librarian at the Victoria Symphony -- working from home these days 👏

16/03/2020

We have made the decision to postpone the A Place to Listen show originally scheduled for this Wednesday, March 18th. In light of the evolving and escalating situation around COVID-19 globally and here in British Columbia, we feel this is the best decision.

So much of A Place to Listen is about creating a space that is predicated on mutual care, trust, and compassion. In that spirit, we believe the best thing is to act in solidarity and take care of each other through social distancing. We do not want to compromise anyone’s well-being.

We will remount this program at a later date. We will let you know when.

In the meantime, we would still like to offer an opportunity for shared experience and connectedness—apart, yet together. In our most recent email, we have a link to Eva-Maria Houben’s score for The Table of Silence, which was to be the bulk of Wednesday’s concert. This piece can be performed by musicians and non-musicians alike. (If you aren't on our mailing list, let us know, and we can hook you up.)

We invite you to join us in performing this piece at home—perhaps on Wednesday at 7pm. A big thank you to Eva-Maria and Antoine Beuger at Edition Wandelweiser for allowing us to distribute the score.

Take care,
Laura & Daniel

09/03/2020

Our website has a new look! Check it out. It's easier to sign up for our email list now. And our full program archive is available, too. https://aplacetolisten.ca/

strange quiet beautiful music

03/03/2019

Here is our latest concert announcement with info about our next three shows. We hope to see you this month when we'll play new works by Gil Sansón and Daniel Brandes. If you want to receive these email announcements and aren't yet on our list, please let Laura or Daniel know! https://mailchi.mp/0663a2a73499/coming-up-march-20th-works-by-gil-sansn-daniel-brandes

On Wednesday March 20th, the A Place to Listen Ensemble will perform two new works by Venezuelan composer Gil Sansón and by APTL co-founder Daniel Brandes. In 2015, Gil began to think about composing a piece for A Place to Listen. He was inspired by the practice of quiet and careful listening foste...

13/11/2018

Excerpts from last month's concert. Thank you, Kristy Farkas. And thank you, Daniel Brandes, Laura Brandes, and Chris Reiche.

Sounds of belonging Composed by Kristy Farkas Performed at A Place to Listen, Victoria Canada October 17, 2018 Daniel Brandes - piano, melodica, voice Laura Brandes…

15/10/2018

Daniel Brandes, Laura Brandes, Kristy Farkas, and Chris Reiche rehearsing Sounds of belonging. Join us this Wednesday, October 17th at James Bay United Church at 7 p.m. This beautiful new work by Kristy will start our seventh season.

03/10/2018

Our new season kicks off October 17th with the new work "Sounds of belonging" by Victoria-based composer Kristy Farkas, performed by APTL Ensemble members Kristy Farkas, Daniel Brandes, Laura Brandes, Hollas Longton, and Chris Reiche. We hope you can join us! Read more: https://mailchi.mp/51c668ff0f08/sounds-of-belonging-october-17

24/06/2018

Thank you for this season! A note from APTL's Laura Brandes. https://mailchi.mp/4c6afcc65fd5/thank-you-for-this-season

Our sixth season is over. And as I reflect back on the past nine months of music-making, I feel grateful and tired and proud. Our final concert was on Wednesday, and on Thursday evening eight of us spent a pleasant 30-minutes in the wind and sunshine at Ogden Point Beach for a community realization....

19/06/2018

Join us at 7pm tomorrow night for the last concert of this season: A Place to Listen: Brandes, Jang, and Li! We rehearsed last night and it's sure to be a lovely, calm show. We hope to see you there.

Daniel Brandes, Laura Brandes, Kristy Farkas, Nathan Friedman, Alex Jang, Hollas Longton, Maria Eduarda Martins, and Chris Reiche will all be playing.

11/06/2018

Our latest e-news went out yesterday! Read on for details about our last concert of the season on June 20th, and a special community performance at Ogden Point Beach for Make Music Day on June 21st! https://mailchi.mp/a5b0822f1ec6/last-concert-of-season-plus-invitation-to-make-music-day-public-performance

The final concert of A Place to Listen's 2017/2018 season will feature works by local composers Daniel Brandes and Alex Jang, as well as Bin Li (b. Fuzhou, China), a composer based in New York City. "The three pieces on this program invite particular (but unsayable) ways of being in community throu...

29/03/2018

Photos from the Gentle Traces Festival. Thank you to everyone who composed, performed, and came to listen! Thank you also to James Bay United Church and Musicworks Magazine for their support.

22/03/2018

Anyone going to be in Portland April 21st who wants to help out a great series?

21/03/2018

Two more sleeps!

15/03/2018

Thank you to Kevin Bazzana and the Times Colonist for profiling our upcoming Gentle Traces festival in today's paper. The festival starts one week from today! http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/go/classical-music-victoria-s-telemann-moment-not-over-1.23202099

Georg Philipp Telemann died in 1767, age 86, and the 250th anniversary of his death has been much celebrated here.

10/03/2018

If you like what we do, would you consider giving a gift of money to A Place to Listen? We know not everyone is in a position to donate financially, and we completely understand and respect that. If you would like to donate, we can accept donations online or by cheque. Your personal financial support will help further our work creating a dedicated space for experimental music rarely performed in Canada. More info at this link: https://aplacetolisten.ca/donate/

Your personal financial support will help further our work creating a dedicated space for experimental music rarely performed in Canada. The buttons below allow for three donation levels ($20, $50,…

10/03/2018

Thank you to Alex Ross, music critic of The New Yorker, for highlighting our upcoming Gentle Traces music festival in the most recent "Miscellany" on his blog. He links to loads of other interesting stuff, too! http://www.therestisnoise.com/2018/03/miscellany.html

The richly appointed new season of Mostly Mozart includes Ashley Fure's The Force of Things, John Adams and Lucinda Childs's Available Light (with sets by Frank Gehry), Bernstein's Mass, Michael Pisaro's A wave and waves, and a big new outdoor...

09/03/2018

Our Gentle Traces festival is starting in 13 days! Today, we're thrilled to share the festival poster designed by the lovely Kristy Farkas. Kristy will also be having a new piece premiered at the Thursday, March 22nd show! We hope to see you there.

06/03/2018

06/03/2018

06/03/2018

05/03/2018

Here is our official announcement about the upcoming Gentle Traces festival. We hope to see you there! (If you didn't receive this announcement via email and want to get on our mailing list, please let us know! It really is the best way to stay up to date on what we're up to.) http://mailchi.mp/e69623ad1f80/gentle-traces-music-festival-march-22-24

To celebrate A Place to Listen’s 50th concert milestone, APTL is organizing the three-day festival Gentle Traces: A Festival of Experimental Music, from March 22 to 24, 2018, featuring special guest artist Antoine Beuger (Germany) and the APTL Ensemble. “Antoine is a world-renowned composer.....

03/03/2018

March 2018 marks A Place to Listen’s 50th concert milestone! To celebrate, we are organizing the three-day festival “Gentle Traces: A Festival of Experimental Music,” featuring special guest artist Antoine Beuger (Germany) and the APTL Ensemble (Erik Abbink, Daniel Brandes, Laura Brandes, Kristy Farkas, Nathan Friedman, Alex Jang, Hollas Longton, Maria Eduarda Martins, Chris Reiche).

Beuger’s music has been a significant inspiration for APTL, and we are excited to give Victoria listeners a rare opportunity to hear this extraordinary musician live. Antoine is a world-renowned composer, flutist, teacher, and concert presenter, as well as the director of Edition Wandelweiser.

More info: https://aplacetolisten.ca/gentle-traces-festival/

298 followers

26/02/2018

A Place to Listen is now accepting donations through its website. If you would like to offer financial support to APTL, please check out our most recent email campaign for details. http://mailchi.mp/c53209dda698/support-a-place-to-listen

Dear Friends and Supporters of A Place to Listen, We are writing today to ask you to support A Place to Listen. Your personal financial support will help further our work creating a dedicated space for experimental music rarely performed in Canada.

22/02/2018

We have decided to CANCEL tonight's show. A snowfall warning has been issued for Greater Victoria, and we want to ensure everyone stays safe tonight. We will remount this program later this season.

22/02/2018

It's snowing outside! In case you're wondering, tonight's concert is still on. (If the weather worsens and we do need to cancel, we will post a notice here and send an email out to our email list.)

17/02/2018

Here's the announcement about this Wednesday's concert, as well as preview of the three-day experimental music festival we're organizing for next month! If you aren't on our email list and want to be, Daniel or Laura can always add you! http://mailchi.mp/2292f7a85ff8/february-21-concert-announcement

The February 2018 A Place to Listen concert is being curated by Victoria-based composer, clarinetist, and APTL Ensemble member Nathan Friedman. The program centres around the work and influence of nineteenth century Hungarian composer Franz Liszt and will feature works by Franz Liszt and Leo Svirs.....

10/01/2018

Victoria Composers Cultivate a Place to Listen | Musicworks magazine

We are pleased to share that the feature article Nick Storring wrote for Musicworks Magazine about A Place to Listen and the vibrant community of composers in Victoria, B.C. is now available online! https://www.musicworks.ca/victoria-composers-cultivate-place-listen

If you're interested, we definitely still recommend picking up a hard copy of the magazine. The print article has many more photos taken by Adrian Paradis, capturing the atmosphere of our shows, and the accompanying CD has music composed by a number of APTL Ensemble members: Daniel Brandes, Kristy Farkas, Alex Jang, Hollas Longton, Maria Eduarda Martins, and Chris Reiche. Plus, the National Magazine Awards recently named Musicworks Magazine one of Canada's Best Magazines!

The Brandes’ decision to stay emerged organically. The couple committed to another year beyond Daniel Brandes’ completion of his Master of Music, in order to experience more of Victoria outside the confines of the campus. A Place To Listen was one of several outcomes of Daniel Brandes’ three-w...

05/01/2018

Duo 1010 at A Place to Listen

The best way to stay up to date on APTL is via our email list. Please let Laura or Daniel know if you'd like to subscribe. Here is our January concert update, which also includes a preview of our February show and the three-day festival we have in the works to celebrate our 50th concert in March (more details on that coming soon)! http://mailchi.mp/32ea05bc1685/duo-1010-at-a-place-to-listen

20/12/2017

We are honoured that A Place to Listen and so many of our APTL Ensemble members are featured in the latest issue of Musicworks Magazine. Thank you so much to Nick Storring for the thoughtful article and to Adrian Paradis for the beautiful photos -- both really capture the energy and intention of APTL. We love being part of Victoria's vibrant new music community and feel grateful to work with such an active, creative, and sensitive group of local artists.

The magazine is currently available for purchase, and the article will be posted on the Musicworks Magazine website in the coming weeks. We'll be sure to share it widely when it is!

cc: Erik Abbink, Daniel Brandes, Laura Brandes, Kristy Farkas, Nathan Friedman, Alex Jang, Hollas Longton, Maria Eduarda Martins, Chris Reiche

05/12/2017

A Place to Listen

A Place to Listen's December concert update!

Here is our December concert update, which was emailed out yesterday. We hope to see you on December 20th! Works by Eva-Maria Houben and Anastassis Philippakopoulos will be performed by APTL Ensemble members Daniel Brandes, Kristy Farkas, Erik Abbink, Alex Jang, Nathan Friedman, Chris Reiche, Hollas Longton, and Maria Eduarda Martins.

If you aren't on the A Place to Listen email list and want to be, just let Laura or Daniel know!

http://mailchi.mp/06df6bc983f7/songs-of-the-day-and-night-dec-20th

05/12/2017

Songs of the Day and Night Dec. 20th

Here is our December concert update, which was emailed out yesterday. We hope to see you on December 20th! Works by Eva-Maria Houben and Anastassis Philippakopoulos will be performed by APTL Ensemble members Daniel Brandes, Kristy Farkas, Erik Abbink, Alex Jang, Nathan Friedman, Chris Reiche, Hollas Longton, and Maria Eduarda Martins.

If you aren't on the A Place to Listen email list and want to be, just let Laura or Daniel know!

http://mailchi.mp/06df6bc983f7/songs-of-the-day-and-night-dec-20th

This concert will feature works by Wandelweiser composers Eva-Maria Houben (Germany) & Anastassis Philippokopoulos (Greece), including two world premieres. Eva-Maria's song X was composed in 2016 as part of an ongoing series of works she is composing called songs of the day and night. It will...

17/11/2017

Kevin Bazzana: Classical Music: Medieval song, romance and drama for the ages

Thank you to Kevin Bazzana at the Times Colonist for the great preview of Saturday's show, Chik White at A Place to Listen (about halfway down the article). "...sounds irresistibly weird: an appearance by the Nova Scotia-based musician, writer and filmmaker Darcy Spidle, who, under the sobriquet “chik white,” performs on the jaw harp — yes, that twang-twangy thing you hold in your mouth and pluck."

So, if you're into "irresistibly weird," come on out!

http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/music/classical-music/kevin-bazzana-classical-music-medieval-song-romance-and-drama-for-the-ages-1.23095683

On Saturday, the Early Music Society of the Islands will sponsor an intimate concert of 15th-century love songs from the court of the dukes of Burgundy, featuring just two singers with lute . . .