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for specific outdoor environments. His Music for Wilderness Lakefrom 1979 will be performed at 7am on July 19, 20 and 21 along theshores of the Avon River. Imagine 12 trombones spread amongst themists of the riverbank, combined with an aria from another sunrisework — Princess of the Stars. Definitely worth an early morningrising. And if you’re up for experiencing something quite out of theordinary, you could sign up to participate in a workshop performanceof Asterion — the latest in his Patria series. The piece is an outdoorlabyrinth located near Peterborough that has a series of rooms andpassages participants must navigate alone as they encounter bothperformers and the environment along the way. Designed to be anintense and transformative soul journey, I couldn’t help but connectthe dots to the Abramović installation designed with a similar intention.Happening through June and July, go to patria.org if you aredrawn to join in.Returning to Stratford Summer Music, we find that the entire castand crew for a concert of Canadian contemporary opera excerptshas arrived via bicycle. The Bicycle Opera Project began last summer,touring from town to city via pedal power. This year, not only will theybe performing in Stratford, but also in Toronto (July 4 to 7), and ontour from July 11 to 25 in Hamilton, Guelph, Elora, Fergus, Kitchener,Waterloo, Bayfield and London, arriving in Stratford for performancesfrom July 26 to 28. This year’s repertoire focuses on telling the storiesof women, featuring works from six different Canadian composers.For further details of the tour, check out bicycleopera.ca. Alsoappearing at Stratford Summer Music will be the acclaimed accordionistand contemporary music champion Joseph Macerollo in sixweekend concerts, starting July 20 to 21 and ending August 24 to 25.Not far from Stratford is the town of Elora, host to a summer musicfestival of many different styles. Works by contemporary composerscan be heard on July 13 with the New Zealand String Quartet (JackBody) and on July 14 with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (PhilipGlass). The Elora Festival Singers will celebrate the 100th anniversaryof Benjamin Britten in their concert on July 28.August takes us back to the leading edges of sound and electronicswith two festivals of sound art alongside the well-loved OttawaChamberfest. For the last seven years in Meaford, Ontario, over theAugust long weekend, the award-winning composer Gordon Monahanhas been directing the Electric Eclectics festival of experimentalmusic and sound art. With camping on-site, this year’s festival runsfrom August 2 to 4 and includes an extensive lineup of performancesand installations, including New Yorkers Shelley Hirsch (experimentalvocals) and Keiko Uenishi (laptop electronics), a long-awaitedreturn by former Musicworks editor Tina Pearson (Victoria), a sound/light performance by Music for Lamps (Montreal) and the Sunda Duo(Toronto) with Bill parsons and The WholeNote’s Andrew Timar.Over in Ottawa, musical experimentation on the long weekend atthe Ottawa Chamberfest begins on August 2 with the improvisationbasedElement Choir. Led by Christine Duncan, who uses a seriesof hand cues to sculpt real-time compositions, singers from Toronto,Ottawa and Montreal will be joined by Jim Lewis (trumpet) and JeanMartin (drums) to create a wild and energetic musical ride. Thisyear’s festival also offers the New Music Now series with six concertsoffered throughout the daytime hours on August 5 and 6. Performersand composers presented include pianist and multimedia artistMegumi Masaki, the Gryphon Trio (Lutoslawski, Ohana), EnsembleTransmission (Sokolović), the JACK quartet (Zorn, Lachenmann,Butterfield), choral works (Whittall, Kurtág, Berio) and a concert ofworks by Xenakis. In addition to this series, the festival is offering“snapshot” performances to ticket holders of the evening’s SiskindConcerts, including performances by Lori Freedman and the JACKquartet and presentations on the works of John Weinzweig andXenakis. And if you are a fan of American composer Eric Whitacre, theElora Festival Singers will perform three of his works in their concerton August 7, including Sleep — his online virtual choir hit.Mid-month, from August 14 to 17, it’s the Toronto ElectroacousticSymposium with multiple performances and presentations. Featuredthis year are two giants of Canadian electroacoustic music: FrancisDhomont (also the keynote speaker) and Barry Truax. Co-producedwith NAISA, all concerts will be diffused using a multi-speakerspatialization system. And as the summer days slowly become shorter,the Summer Music in the Garden series presented at Harbourfront’soutdoor Music Garden will feature the sounds of the TorQ PercussionQuartet on August 29. Performing compositions by Steve Reich,John Luther Adams, Richard Burrows and Daniel Morphy and animprovisation on clay instruments by the ensemble, the focus is onthe natural elements of earth, water, air and fire. Overall, it’s a greatsummer lineup for discovering what’s cooking in the experimentalsonic stew.In addition: June 20 at Gallery 345, Kathryn Ladano on bassclarinet has two sets of improvised music including electronics andspecial guests.July 19 at 7pm, Soundstreams Salon 21 presents “Summer SoundWalk,” a free tour through the different acoustic spaces of the GardinerMuseum and surrounding area. The event will feature vocalist, cellistand practitioner of Deep Listening, Anne Bourne, who will leadparticipants in guided listening exercises and invite them to listento the sounds of the evening mingled with improvised live music.Definitely an event not to miss!Wendalyn Bartley is a Toronto-based composer and electrovocalsound artist. Contact her at sounddreaming@gmail.com.14 | June 7 – September 7, 2013 thewholenote.com