NEWS RELEASE
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR CRITICAL STUDIES IN IMPROVISATION
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The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) is thrilled to welcome the Susanna Hood Trio and Sarah Belle Reid for an inspiring evening of music and movement at ImprovLab, IICSI’s new state-of-the-art research and performance facility on the University of Guelph campus—“the best sounding room in Guelph” (Bry Webb). Tickets are $15 or PWYC and available online through IICSI’s Eventbrite page. While tickets will be made available at the door, attendees are encouraged to reserve tickets ahead of time.
Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang/Montreal-based bandleader and vocalist-dancer, Susanna Hood, along with the superb Tkaronto/Toronto-based musicians, Tania Gill (piano) and Kayla Milmine (soprano saxophone) bring poet Judith Malina and composer Steve Lacy’s 1995 “Packet” suite to life through sound and movement. These audacious new arrangements blur the lines between what is heard and what is seen. Heart-felt, yet unsentimental, these eight songs hold no punches as they bring voice to a woman’s later life, grappling with imperfection, sexism, paradox, grit, beauty, regret, invisibility, death, and love.
In Sarah Belle Reid's improvisations and compositions, musical notation is often experimental and graphical—an invitation to explore a new sonic universe. This spirit for exploration has led her to collaborate with musicians and artists of all genres, including experimental electronic musician David Rosenboom, thereminist Carolina Eyck, and baroque-pop artist Julia Holter. Reid recorded trumpet and electronics on Holter's 2019 record Aviary, and recently wrapped up an extensive tour throughout North America, Europe, and Australia as a member of her band. Reid's own compositions have been premiered and performed by a number of renowned musicians, most recently pianist Vicki Ray and trumpeter Nate Wooley. In 2017 her composition “Flux” for amplified percussion quartet won the Grammy-nominated Los Angeles Percussion Quartet’s Next Wave Composer Initiative.
The double bill will be preceded by a panel discussion moderated by Marie Zimmerman in which the artists will contextualize the work they will be presenting, and share insights about the role that improvisation plays in what they do.
The event also marks the first show in IICSI’s new “Live @ImprovLab” concert and performance series that serves to showcase touring artists working in a variety of improvisatory idioms. Curated by IICSI Director Dr. Ajay Heble (Founder and former Artistic Director of the Guelph Jazz Festival and 2023 Killam Prize winner), the new series, says Heble,“aims to celebrate live improvised performances and to spotlight our beautiful new venue.”
More about the artists:
Susanna Hood has devoted her career to synthesizing voice and movement, creating intimate, sensual and dynamic performances both in dance-theatre and improvised music contexts. Founder of her interdisciplinary performance company hum dansoundart (2000-2013) her work has been marked by significant collaborations with musical artists Nilan Perera (She’s Gone Away, Shudder), John Oswald (Spinvolver), and Scott Thomson (The Rent – Musique de Steve Lacy, The Muted Note – songs and dances setting the poetry of P.K. Page).
Recent creations (Music Is, 2016, and Impossibly Happy, 2019) have been driven by her own musical compositions arranging voices, instruments and movement. Other collaborations of note include Tortues Vapeur, a duo with Montreal turntablist, Martin Tétreault, mixing turntables, electronics, synthesizers, vocals and objects. (DAME’s Mikroclimat label, 2019); a duo with Belgian bassist, Peter Jacquemyn; and performances with the French trio Rrève Sélavy (Frédéric BBriet, double bass; Nicolas Pointard, drums; and Christophe Rocher, clarinettes). Unpacked, the first project with her trio with Toronto/Tkaronto musicians Tania Gill (piano) and Kayla Milmine (soprano saxophone), is a new arrangement and interpretation of the Packet suite by late American poet, Judith Malina and late American jazz composer, Steve Lacy. unPacked will be released as a recording in early 2024 on Quebec’s DAME label. Awards include the 1998 K.M. Hunter Emerging Artists Award in Dance, 2006 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance, and the 2008 Canada Council Victor Martin Lynch-Staunton Award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Dance. For more information, please follow this link to Susanna’s website.
Sarah Belle Reid is a performer-composer who plays trumpet, modular synthesizer, and an ever-growing collection of handcrafted electronic instruments. Her unique musical voice explores the intersections between contemporary classical music, experimental and interactive electronics, visual arts, noise music, and improvisation. Often praised for her ability to transport audience members through vivid sonic adventures, Reid's sonic palette has been described as ranging from "graceful" and "danceable" all the way to "silk-falling-through-space," and "pit-full-of-centipedes" (San Francisco Classical Voice).
Reid holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from California Institute of the Arts, with a research focus on the development of new electronic instruments and musical notation systems as interfaces for exploring temporal perception and co-creation. Her debut album for trumpet and interactive electronics, "Underneath and Sonder," was released on pfMENTUM in October, 2019. In March 2024 she released a tape-music inspired electroacoustic record titled “MASS”, featuring trumpet, voice, electronics, and amplified objects, on Aurora Central Records.
In addition to her performance and compositional work, Reid runs an online music education company dedicated to teaching sound synthesis and electroacoustic composition to professional and hobbyist musicians. She has mentored thousands of musicians from around the world in her online programs, and is a frequent guest lecturer at notable institutions in the US and Canada including Stanford University, University of Victoria, California Institute of the Arts, New York University (NYU), among others. For more information, please follow this link to Sarah’s website.
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