Recording: Laura Ortman

Artist: Laura Ortman

Song: For Zitkála-Šá [excerpt] [composer: Raven Chacon]

Recorded at The Music Gallery @ 918 Bathurst (Raven Chacon mini-fest – Night 2), April 13, 2019.

Laura Ortman - For Zitkála-Šá [excerpt]

Three nights examining the work of composer/musician Raven Chacon from different angles served as an interesting mirror to the X Avant festival earlier in the season. I wasn't able to make the first night, with the Array Ensemble surveying some of Chacon's chamber pieces, but I was eager for this night. A tribute to the Dakota violin teacher, activist, and librettist for the first American Indian opera, "For Zitkála-Šá" is a modular composition, with a series of solo segments created by Chacon to deploy and challenge the skills of a series of specific collaborators. Each with a graphic score that provides structure but leaves a lot of room to interpretation, there was anguish, joy, and technically-demanding sounds from all the performers. This section, performed by violinist Laura Ortman, collapsed the bow/bough distinction, a tree branch sweeping across her strings and planting a forest of reverb.

At this posting, the archived livestream of the full concert is still available online:

Recording: Laura Ortman

Artist: Laura Ortman

Song: Words for Water

Recorded at 918 Bathurst (The Music Gallery's X AVANT XII – Night 1), October 11, 2017.

Laura Ortman - Words for Water

After an off-season of uncertainty and exiled from its home at St. George The Martyr Church, The Music Gallery has found refuge at 918 Bathurst. Vibewise, this has kept things in the same ballpark, with the new space sharing churchy origins and a wood-y acoustic space. The X Avant Festival was first big test for this arrangement of things, presenting four nights of shows there.

More than ever, the linkages between the Festival's performances was in the overarching theme of "Resistance", explored on this night from three female Indigenous perspectives. Last year the Music Gallery co-presented a panel with the the RPM music series entitled "What Sovereignty Sounds Like" and this further collaboration put that into practice.

With laptop and violin, Laura Ortman (of the White Mountain Apache and currently based in Brooklyn) mixed chops with shredding power and some deep bass rumbulations. This piece emerged from a performance at the Whitney Museum, and there also some pieces from her recent My Soul Remainer album.

[RPM's live series continues on Tuesday (November 14th) with a hip-hop infused show at Smiling Buddha featuring Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Dio Ganhdih, See Monsters and T-Rhyme.]