Article Type Archives

I have often stopped to listen to the trees during a walk in a forest on a breezy day. Only recently, however, did I realize that it is possible to stop and listen to the fungi. Mycelium is the underground network of fungal threads that connects the roots of different plants and provides a kindContinue reading “We Are All Connected”

This is Musicworks’ final issue of 2018, our fortieth-anniversary year. You will find no best-of or top-ten lists here, no reprints or “where are they now” pieces. The retrospective activity, both casual and curatorial, has largely taken place offline, so to speak, at gatherings where music-listening, story-swapping, and artifact-handling (old newsprint is delicate!) have broughtContinue reading “Who’s Telling the Story”

In my five years as editor of Musicworks, I cannot recall a more action-packed time than the three-day whirlwind of stimulating events, conversations, and music I experienced last May. All the chatting and typing and reading and listening that I do in front of (or holding) a screen certainly keeps me connected to my colleaguesContinue reading “Getting Out More Often”

I “Like,” “Love,” “Follow,” and otherwise engage with an array of working musicians and music people—from coast to coast and beyond—through my Musicworks and personal social-media channels. They share news of residencies or gigs or recordings, commiserate, debate, and celebrate. And when they’re researching sound equipment or places to crash—or specialized things like score proofreaders—theyContinue reading “the art of crowdsourcing”

Are you experienced? Even if you haven’t strapped on a virtual reality headset to interact with brave new computer-simulated worlds or to visit real-life remote locations (Mount Everest!) or to watch 360° music videos, news documentaries, and pro-sports games, you know that V.R. is here. Earlier this year, I started wondering about the role ofContinue reading “the centre is wherever”

In the summer of 2013, I was on the hunt for photos of Charlemagne Palestine and was put in touch with crys cole, the artistic director of Winnipeg’s Send + Receive festival. She had invited Palestine to perform at the festival, and our friendly email exchange (with attachments!) not only helped me out but alsoContinue reading “How We Listen”

The title of this post is borrowed from Toronto percussionist Germaine Liu. You’ll have to read Mary Dickie’s lovely story in the Fall 2015 issue to see how Germaine uses the words. You’ll find an entirely different spin on the notion of friendly exchanges in Greg J. Smith’s Visions of Sound centrespread piece on Montreal’sContinue reading “Friendly Exchanges: Musicworks Fall 2015”

For twenty years I’ve been roommates with a mahogany-stained Heintzman upright piano that has been in my family for five decades. I’ve played numerous black Yamaha uprights and Steinway grands; once, I performed Chopin pieces on an enormous brown Bösendorfer that put me so in the moment that the piano seemed to be playing itself.Continue reading “Play Your Piano”