A isnB次元官网网址檛 exactly the place youB次元官网网址檇 expect to see live music.
But VictoriaB次元官网网址檚 second annual celebration of the written word, happening at various venues Wednesday (Sept. 27) through Sunday, has grown since its inaugural year and engaging with writers means engaging with ideas.
The idea to stage a musical response to the work of some of CanadaB次元官网网址檚 best-known writers was something Jan Stirling and Barbara Black were immediately interested in. The pair has been writing and performing music together in Victoria for close to a decade, mainly jazz but occasionally branching off into unique projects like this one.
B次元官网网址淭he fact that we both write means we appreciate other authors and really understand the creative process that goes into writing a large body of work,B次元官网网址� Black says.
While Stirling composes the music on piano, Black is the lyricist and vocalist.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e quite excited,B次元官网网址� Stirling says. B次元官网网址淲e read all four books, three novels and a memoir. They were all so different, but Barbara was particularly interested Barbara Gowdy.B次元官网网址�
And so the thunderstorms that break in the pages of Little Sister, GowdyB次元官网网址檚 latest novel, served as the inspiration for what Stirling came to compose. She says she wanted to portray the eerie kind of sound that storms can embody.
B次元官网网址淵ou want your listeners to respond to the emotional journey of the characters,B次元官网网址� Black says, even if theyB次元官网网址檙e not presented in a typical human form.
When the Toronto-based sat down to breathe life into Little Sister, she had been indulging in old issues of National Geographic, reading about neuroscience. As a writer who tends to journey through her characterB次元官网网址檚 brains, she says it interests her to explore why people do and feel the things they do.
B次元官网网址淚B次元官网网址檓 aware that some of my writing is out there,B次元官网网址� Gowdy says, and while the new book B次元官网网址渄oesnB次元官网网址檛 take on anything shocking, itB次元官网网址檚 just unusual.B次元官网网址�
In the novel, itB次元官网网址檚 a band of storms that shifts the main character from one consciousness to another, something Gowdy thinks science is on the precipice of achieving. She believes it could provoke the kind of compassion and empathy humans need more of.
B次元官网网址淚 think a lot of bad behaviour is a lack of empathy, and a lack of empathy is a lack of imagination,B次元官网网址� she says.
But a lack of creativity is not what Gowdy will find when she joins , and onstage at Metro Theatre for Voices Lifted, When Art Begets Art.
One of numerous events on the festival schedule, Voices Lifted sees each author read from their work and then listen to, along with the audience for the first time, the responses evoked from Stirling and Black. Hosted by Joanne Roberts, the evening gets underway at 7:30 p.m. at the Metro Theatre.
B次元官网网址淲hatB次元官网网址檚 interesting about this festival, is that theyB次元官网网址檙e merging writing with other art forms,B次元官网网址� Black says. B次元官网网址淚t livens things a bit and shows you that the arts intersect.B次元官网网址�
The runs Sept. 27 to Oct. 1.
