Mile Zero Dance Space (June 6, 7, 13, 14) – 9931- 78 Avenue NW, Edmonton
Edmonton Moravian Church (June 8, 2025) – 9540 83 Ave NW, Edmonton
Look.
Listen.
Experience.
Here comes the one-and-only Now Hear This Festival! This year we’re bringing together new opera, avant-jazz, contemporary dance, free improvisation, chamber music, spectacular multi-media performances, and more. With work that is challenging and profound, yet incredibly joyous and inspiring, the festival is a brilliant, creative celebration of the diverse artists and sound-based practices for which our city is known!
The first weekend kicks off Friday June 6 with an amazing spectacle of musicians and dancers in an improvised show devised and curated by Biboye Onanuga. On Saturday June 7 we have a multimedia opera, Out Loud! created by guests Terri Hron, Helen Pridmore, and Jennifer Beattie, with live electronics, and a chorus of local improvisers. The first weekend closes on Sunday June 8, with a retrospective concert of chamber music and premieres by one of the great musical personalities of our city, George Andrix, with some of his favourite groups, bok brass, WindRose Trio, and The Strathcona String Quartet.
Our second weekend brings a heady double header on Friday and Saturday, as we feature, Here-Hearing, two triple bills of performances by Amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (Edmonton) artists. These shows are bound to surprise and excite all who attend, with risky, brilliant work including new guitar music, electronic music, dance, multimedia, harp and electronics, and… a whole bunch of tvs, telephones, toys, and more!
Conveniently scheduled over two weekends, the festival schedule is relaxed, and it’s easy to take in all of the shows, so grab a pass, and come join us for this great start to the summer solstice season!
June 6 – 14, 2025
CONCERT 1
Elements: Rhythm & Harmony (Curated by Biboye Onanuga)
Friday, June 6, 7:30 pm
Mile Zero Dance
9931- 78 Avenue NW, Edmonton
Returning to the Now Hear This Festival, Biboye Onanuga presents Rhythm & Harmony—an evening of boundary-pushing improvisation that deconstructs the two foundational elements of music. The Edmonton-based drummer and composer has curated an iconoclastic ensemble of local musicians, joined by two dancer-choreographers who will embody the music in real-time.
Onanuga has challenged the improvisers (most of whom have backgrounds in “jazz”) with constraints designed to disrupt convention and push them beyond their comfort zones. The first set explores improvisation with static or minimal rhythmic support, while the second forces players to navigate unconventional harmony. Throughout, the dancers respond in real-time, their movement evolving with the music’s shifting shape and encouraging a feedback loop with the sextet.
Movement and music entwine—shifting, responding, colliding—creating a fleeting world where sound and body move as one.
Featuring:
Sekou “Mr. Kou” Sonko-Boisclair – dance (Hip-Hop/House)
Gianna Vacirca – dance (Contemporary)
Rueben Spyker, drums
Evan Stewart, bass
Stephanie Urquhart, piano
Gareth Gilliland, guitar
Audrey Ochoa, trombone
Allison Balcetis, saxophone
CONCERT 2
Out Loud
Created and Performed by Helen Pridmore, Jennifer Beattie, and Terri Hron
Saturday, June 7, 7:30 pm
Mile Zero Dance
9931- 78 Avenue NW, Edmonton
New Music Edmonton welcomes this innovative, brilliant trio of risk-taking artists to present their original creation, Out Loud. This phenomenal multimedia experience is a two-part opera, and a contemporary feminist take on classic female characters in literature, Titania, from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Mermaid from The Little Mermaid. You may think you know these two, but in Out Loud, they are brilliantly redefined with complexity as strong leaders, with powerful connections to themselves and their ancestors.
CONCERT 3
A George Andrix Retrospective
Featuring: The Strathcona String Quartet, bok brass, WindRose Trio and George Andrix
Sunday, June 8, 7:30 pm
Edmonton Moravian Church
9540 83 Ave NW, Edmonton
New Music Edmonton is proud to put the focus on one of the key figures in contemporary music making here in our community, George Andrix, in collaboration with some of his most important collaborators. A hugely prolific and innovative composer, performer, educator, administrator, and more, George Andrix has been part of the scene here for decades. For this event, we are especially excited, for the first time, to bring together for the first time, three amazing local ensembles who have been collaborating with George Andrix for many years. They will share some of their favourites of his works, give the world premiere Andrix composition combining all 12 musicians!
CONCERT 4 and 5
Here-Hearing
Friday, June 13 and Saturday June 14, 7:30 pm
Mile Zero Dance
9931- 78 Avenue NW, Edmonton
Our community is absolutely teeming with amazing musicians and sound artists, and in 2025 we will give special emphasis to these amazing creatives in two nights of brilliant, and unique work. Curated primarily from an open call, these two shows in the fabulous Mile Zero Dance space are guaranteed to offer surprises and new ideas, and definitely a rich and inspiring mix of sound-oriented creativity. Classical composition, free improvisation, electronics, multimedia, and much more are all brought together in a 2-night double of brilliant local work. June 13: Marek Orszulik; Alicia Proudfoot; Red River Resonance (Louis Bouchier and Jen Dunford). June 14: Creamy Rainbow (Andrew Thorne and Anna Wildish); Soft Ions (Jenna Turner and Parker Thiessen); Codyma (Cole Dorchester, Makenna Graham, and Dylan Lindsay).