Instruments of Happiness

A reverberating tribute to George Harrison by 100 electric guitarists led by Montreal virtuoso Tim Brady and hundreds of Doane Uschool ukulele students

PRESENTED BY

FREE EVENT

June 16 , 2018

11 AM – 3:30 PM

Where:

Brookfield Place

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WITH SUPPORT FROM

WITH ASSISTANCE FROM

The J.P. Bickell Foundation

Since 2015, composer/guitarist Tim Brady has been creating site-specific works for mass ensembles of electric guitars, enlivening shopping malls, old railway buildings and hockey arenas. Now, Luminato has commissioned him to write a new work for spatialized guitars to pay homage to George Harrison, who would have been 75 years old in 2018. With a mix of professional and community musicians, While 100 Guitars Gently Weep – Concerto for George is a monumental new work that celebrates the electric guitar and the sheer joy of playing it out loud, in public for all to hear!

To further celebrate George Harrison – a well-known advocate of the humble ukulele and its amazing capacity for making music – hundreds of young ukulele players from Toronto’s Doane Uschool, led by Melanie Doane, will put their twist on Harrison’s songs and other music with "My Sweet Uke, A Tribute to George Harrison".

Come honour the “quiet Beatle” as we make a lot of joyful noise with this powerful celebration of strings.

Duration & Times:
11 am and 3:30 pm Guitars only at 20 mins
12:30 pm and 2 pm Full program at 40 mins

Conductors:
Brian Current
Brian Current has conducted a wide range of contemporary repertoire, has championed over 70 new works by Canadian composers and has appeared as conductor with numerous professional orchestras and ensembles including Symphony Nova Scotia and the National Arts Centre Orchestra. Since 2006 Brian has been the director of the New Music Ensemble of The Glenn Gould School (The Royal Conservatory). As a composer, Brian Current’s music has been programmed by all major symphony orchestras in Canada and by dozens of outstanding orchestras, ensembles, soloists and opera companies abroad.

Scott Good
Musical “chameleon” Scott Good is a composer, conductor, trombonist, and concert curator who works with a variety of ensembles in the Toronto area, and Canada at large. Ensembles he has composed for include Kitchener-Waterloo, Montreal, National Arts Centre, Winnipeg Vancouver Symphonies, the Gryphon Trio, ECM+, the Hard Rubber Jazz Orchestra, and Esprit. During 2008-12, he was composer-in-residence with the Vancouver Symphony. In his current CIR role with the London Symphonia, Good often leads from the podium conducting his original arrangements running from songs of Danny Michel to concerts of Middle Eastern classical music. As a trombonist has been heard with numerous orchestras, as well as with jazz, rock, and world music ensembles

Gregory Oh
Gregory Oh tends to wander the genres, appearing in places from the legendary Berlin techno club Berghain to the Lincoln Centre. Last year he conducted Bearing at the Luminato Festival and appeared as the piano soloist in (fellow conductor) Scott Good’s Hands of Orlac with the London Symphonia. This summer will take him to Rwanda and the UK with Neema Bickersteth and Century Song, and in the fall he will be featured at the Shanghai New Music Festival. Other credits: Continuum, Soundstreams, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Canadian Opera Company, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, Volcano Theatre, Tapestry New Opera and San Diego Opera. He teaches at the University of Toronto and NYO Canada.

While 100 Guitars Gently Weep, concerto for George commissioned by Luminato from Bradyworks.
Event presented by Luminato.

Reviews

“Brady is a true mad scientist of guitar sound, placed on Earth, it seems, to smash the barriers between high and low culture.”
– Hour Weekly

“Say this for Brady: He writes pieces you want to hear again… Playing was sonorous, committed and technically impeccable. The crowd went nuts.”
– Montréal Gazette

“One of the 30 most important guitarists in the world for the future of the electric guitar”
– Guitar Player Magazine (USA)

Artists

Tim Brady

Composer / guitarist Tim Brady simply defies categorization - an electric guitar virtuoso who writes operas, plays concertos and feels as comfortable with a laptop electronic improvisation or jazz group as with a string quartet. His solo concerts concentrate on the multi-textured music he has been creating for solo guitar and electronics for the past 30 years. The guitar as orchestra - from intimate solos to massive multiple guitar loops and samples, the music is a highly personal synthesis of new music, jazz, rock and electronics.

For the past 25 years he has toured Canada, the United States, Australia and Europe both as a soloist and with his group Bradyworks. In 2004 he was awarded the Prix Opus as Composer of the Year by the Conseil québécois de la musique, and in 2007 he was awarded the Jan. V. Matecjek award by SOCAN. He has performed at many national and international festivals and events, including the Montreal International Jazz Festival, Festival Présence in Paris, The South Bank Centre (London, UK), the Darwin Guitar Festival in Australia, the Festival international de musique actuelle de Victoriaville, and in 2010 he was distinguished guest composer at the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s international New Music Festival. From 2008 to 2013 he was composer in residence with the Orchestre symphonique de Laval. One of his most recent CD, “Atacama: Symphony #3”, was named “Création de l’année” for 2012 at the Prix Opus, and was nominated for a JUNO award in 2014, in the category: Best Classical Composition.

His orchestral music has been commissioned or performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Winnipeg Symphony, the Orchestre symphonique de Québec, the Esprit Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony, Symphony Nova Scotia, the Thunder Bay Symphony, the Orcehstre symphonique de Laval, and the Regina Symphony.

His innovative electric guitar project “Instruments of Happiness” creates site-specific works for multiple guitars, in an imaginative collaboration between professional and community musicians. Since 2015 the project has played to large crowds in Montréal, Vancouver and Stratford, and videos of the project have had thousands of views on YouTube.

As artistic director of one of Montreal’s best-known new music groups, Bradyworks, he has commissioned and performed dozens of new pieces by Quebec, Canadian and international artists. From 1994 - 2004 he was founding artistic director of Innovations en concert, one of Montréal’s most important new music producers. He is currently on the board of Le Groupe Le Vivier, Montréal’s new music coalition, as well as being past president of the Canadian New Music Network.

His chamber and orchestral music is often influenced by strong jazz and rock rhythms, combined with a subtle sense of harmony and texture, and a flair for dramatic forms and structures. Delicate melodies inhabit the same world as dense, jagged, syncopated chords, giving the music a sense of openness, surprise and intrigue. 22 CDs, 4 operas, 8 symphonies, and dozens of international tours later, his music continues to engage listeners around the world.

Doane Uschool