Contest: Labyrinth Ensemble with Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma

Labyrinth Ensemble with Ross Daly and Kelly Thoma

Saturday, November 8th @ Aga Khan Museum

In the seventh incarnation of their series of intensive workshops as preparations for a concert spectacular, the Labyrinth Ensemble has come full circle in a way. It was back in 2018, as the Labyrinth organization was growing its ambitions and gathering a community of musicians (but before the Ensemble itself was founded) that they brought Ross Daly (the founder of the original Labyrinth in Crete) and his longtime collaborator Kelly Thoma to Toronto to collaborate. That concert at Eastminster United Church saw the pair joined by locals Pedram Khavarzamini and Araz Salek as the This Tale of Ours Quartet, for a night of mesmerizing music.

This Tale of Ours Quartet - Little Black Dog + Neveser 14

This Tale of Ours Quartet - Synkathistos

Later this month, the pair return to share more wisdom with the full ensemble, which will lead to a tour reaching across Ontario — and starting off with a night at the Aga Khan. (And as always, the group is packed full of musicians that MFS-inclined folks will know well and love to see in action!)

TICKETS + MORE INFO

Tickets are $50 ($45 for Friends of the museum), with a limited number of rush tickets available for in-person purchase 30 minutes before the doors open. As with the past several Labyrinth shows at the Aga Khan, this show will almost certainly sell out!

CONTEST

Thanks to Labyrinth, I have a pair of tickets to give away for this show! To enter, shoot me an email to mechanicalforestsound@gmail.com, with "contest" in the title and your full name in the body. I'll randomly draw a winner at noon on Tuesday, November 4th.

Recording: This Tale of Ours Quartet

Artist: This Tale of Ours Quartet

Songs: Little Black Dog + Neveser 14 / Synkathistos

Recorded at Eastminster United Church (Labyrinth Musical Workshop Ontario Concert Series), May 12, 2018.

This Tale of Ours Quartet - Little Black Dog + Neveser 14

This Tale of Ours Quartet - Synkathistos

This was the first in a series of concerts that were the public-facing segment for a busy first year of the Labyrinth Musical Workshop. Labyrinth's central component was a series of workshops giving students a chance to have close-up encounters with masters of different modal traditions from around the world — and the chance to hear many of those same masters making rare local concert appearances was the icing on the cake. This opening show saw an ongoing project that mixes two amazing local musicians (Pedram Khavarzamini: tombak; Araz Salek, tar) with two of the founders (Ross Daly: lyra, tarhu, and rabab; Kelly Thoma, lyra) of the original Labyrinth Workshop on Crete.

Two sets of music from the quartet mixed traditional tunes with new compositions and saw solo turns all around become embroidered by the group's effortless collective flow. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make any of the other shows in the series, but I kept hearing amazing things about the visiting headliners as well as the emerging local musicians who opened the shows — and the skills and techniques learned will linger on in the practices of a whole host of local players. Labyrinth is truly something that our "music city" needs more of, so hopefully the conditions will be put in place for this concept to thrive in our soil.