Artist In Residence
About the Program
2023/24 marks the fifth year for suddenlyLISTEN’s Artist in Residence program. sL Artists in Residence are chosen through an open call to artists from any discipline working with improvisation. Artists come to Halifax to work on a project, supported by suddenlyLISTEN. During their residency, they are encouraged to interact with as many local people as possible to spread knowledge, build relationships and make music together.
Open Call
Artist-in-Residence
(Winter/Spring 2024)
suddenlyLISTEN Music will soon be seeking proposals for our Artist-In-Residence Program for the Winter/Spring of 2024. Watch this space for the call when it comes out. If you'd like to contact us in advance to insure you hear from us, please email us. The address is below.
suddenlyLISTEN will be accepting proposals from all established and emerging interdisciplinary artists who maintain forward-looking art practices driven by sound and improvisation.
For this 5-7 day residency, suddenlyLISTEN will provide: Artist Fee ($1000), a live/work space, a travel stipend ($500), and needed equipment. Our goals for this residency are to provide a creative space for discovery. Results will be driven by the nature of the project, and final outcomes can be discussed. Informal sharing with members of the local community will be arranged during the residency.
Only applications submitted in full, and on time will be considered. Any additional funding is the responsibility of the artist, but documentation or letters needed for funding assistance can be provided by suddenlyLISTEN.
Questions? Contact: connect@suddenlylisten.com.
Weston Olencki (Winter 2024)
Weston Olencki is a composer, musician, and audio engineer; originally from South Carolina, but living and working now in Berlin. They are currently making work focused around questions of instrumental music and its contexts/constructs, various mediated practices of listening and improvisation, and the technological, material, and cultural histories of vernacular art-making. Their recent music deals with the non-linear relationships and unexpected resonances between experimental sound, geography, historicity, and (mostly American) musical traditions.
They have previously performed and presented work at the Borealis Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Musica Nova, Lampo, Ghent Jazz Festival, Black Mountain College, philharmonie luxembourg, Squeaky Wheel, Festival Musica, Märzmusik, transmediale/CTM, the American Academy in Rome, Roulette Intermedium, Jalopy Theatre, Frequency Festival, Pioneer Works, and the OPTION series. Additionally, Weston has performed as a soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic, SWR Symphonieorchester, and LA-based chamber orchestra wildUp!, and was awarded the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis from the 2016 Darmstadt Ferienkurse. They have collaborated with a diverse array of sonic luminaries, including George Lewis, Scott Walker, Liza Lim, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Wet Ink Ensemble, Nate Wooley, and Phill Niblock, and are currently preparing an evening-length performance with NYC-based TAK Ensemble, generously supported by the Fromm Music Foundation.
Weston has held guest residencies at the University of Huddersfield, Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, Northwestern, and has been a visiting artist at CalArts (2018) and Stoveworks (2023). Various recording projects, both as a leader and side-person, have been released by HatHut, Sound American, Carrier Records, New Amsterdam, Clean Feed, Dinzu Artefacts, SUPERPANG, Creative Sources, Tripticks Tapes, KAIROS, Lobby Art, PAGANS, Full Spectrum, Hideous Replica, Sound Holes, Astral Spirits, Out of Your Head, and more. Their latest recording/performance project, Old Time Music, was featured on Bandcamp Daily’s Best Experimental Music of 2022, among many other year-end lists. They are an active member of RAGE THORMBONES, Harmonic Space Orchestra, Ensemblekollektiv Berlin, Mary Halvorson's Clone Decay, and perform regularly as a soloist and ensemble member on low brass instruments, winds, banjo, organs, and various electronic media. http://www.westonolencki.com/
Past Artists
Kim Zombik (Spring 2023)
Kim Zombik is known for her unembellished, poignant style, twice nominated as one of top ten “Best Female Jazz Vocalists” by Japan’s SWING Journal Jazz Magazine. With over 12 albums, one can hear her evolving path through pop, choral, funk, jazz and her new studies of Indian Classical singing. Kim aims to create music that brushes the heart with honesty and pleasure. She has performed in the Montreal International Jazz Festival (2005, 2009, 2014), the L’OFF Jazz Festival (2014, 2018), the Ginza Jazz Festival (Japan 2007), the “New York Blues” Festival in Siberia (2008), as well as toured and recorded with 90-piece New World Orchestra in Japan (2009 under Joe Hisaichi). Kim has opened for Parliament Funkadelic, Maceo Parker, Jimmy Cliff, and sung with Olu Dara and William Parker. Heading her own jazz trio since her move to Montreal 14 years ago, she appears regularly in venues throughout the Montreal.
Her newest project is a duo called Silvervest with Nicolas Caloia. Silvervest cruxes intimacy at the heart of their compositions. Playing in the field of storytelling, pop, soundscapes, jazz and jangling, Silvervest offers fresh music that is intuitive and unique. They place primary importance on creation that has structure yet allows following their ears into wider spaces. The duo, ever open to possibilities, explores the nuts and bolts of humanity’s mortal coil with tenderness, humour and tunefulness. www.kimzombik.com/
Terri Hron (Fall 2022)
Terri Hron is a musician, a performer and a multimedia artist. Her work explores historical performance practice, field recording, invented ceramic instruments and videoscores. She often works in close collaboration with others and produces performances, gatherings and events. Terri studied musicology and art history at the University of Alberta, historical and contemporary performance at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and electroacoustic composition at the Université de Montréal.
Her research focuses on collaborative practice and scoring in multimedia performance art. She is Executive Director of the Canadian New Music Network, where she has developed programs focusing on pluralism and sustainability. Recent collaborators include Monty Adkins, Charlotte Hug, Paula Matthusen, Helen Pridmore and Jennifer Beattie (Out Loud), Katelyn Clark, Jennifer Thiessen and Myriam Boucher (Medusa Selfie). Latest commissions include Ensemble Paramirabó, GreyWing Ensemble, Dead of Night, Splinter Reeds and Ensemble Supermusique. www.terrihron.com
Roxanne Nesbitt (Spring 2022)
Trained as an architect and orchestral contrabassist, Roxanne Nesbitt is a multidisciplinary artist, exploring the interaction between sound and design. Roxanne's research includes experimental instrument design, composition, improvisation, sound installation, and performance.
Roxanne is a frequent performer and collaborator in the vibrant Vancouver arts scene, and travels the world frequently to exhibit, collaborate and learn.
Louis-Charles Dionne (Spring 2021)
Louis-Charles Dionne is a multidisciplinary artist and educator from the South shore of Montreal QC, now based in Halifax NS. He holds a BFA in Sculpture and Art History from Concordia University, a graduate diploma in Post-Secondary Education from the Université du Québec à Montréal, and an MFA in Fine and Media Arts from NSCAD University. His practice is anchored in sculpture, installation, and public art, and has evolved from foundry work; mostly with bronze and cast iron. Recently, Dionne has been working in stone carving and installation, and he has been developing a performance collective and a collaborative curatorial practice. Dionne repositions mundane artifacts in order to twist and question relations with everyday objects. His work reorients the material cultures around us through slight shifts in their composition, framing, and utility. Dionne currently teaches in the Extended Studies, Art Education, and Art History and Contemporary Culture divisions at NSCAD University where he has also been working as a course developer.
Robin Servant (Fall 2021)
Robin Servant is a musician with a passion for traditional musics, improvisation and composition. He has worked in many traditional music groups (trio Salicorne, Tord-Vis, la Marée montante) and improvised music groups (GGRIL, Escarbilles). He tries to make connections between popular traditions and contemporary musics. His work is organised around 2 axes : sharing the experience and experience of the moment.
With Du souffle et de l’espace, he explores the acoustic of the places he visits by making them vibrate with his accordion, drivers and electronics. Robin also works as a composer and a sound designer for the screen. He has collaborated in over 50 productions over the years.
In addition to his solo recording, he also released this year Double entendre a pandemic postal collaboration with Halifax guitarist extraordinaire Geordie Haley, both available on Tour de Bras.
Snapshots from Robin's Residency
Emily Kennedy (Fall 2020)
Emily Kennedy is a cellist and composer based in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Often seen collaborating with electronic musicians, dancers, visual artists, and songwriting projects, her personal practice is an opportunity to synthesize her classical training with her interests in improvisation, minimalism, field recordings, and pop music. She mulls over translation, repetition, self reflection, and time in her work, using loop and effect pedals to expand the possibilities of her instrument. She is a graduate of the performance program at the University of Ottawa and Wilfrid Laurier University. Her interest in performing and writing new music has brought her to Banff’s Concert in the 21st Century residency, the Britten-Pears: Composition, Alternative Performance and Performance Art program in Aldeburgh, UK, Montreal Contemporary Music Lab, and RE:FLUX Festival in Moncton, NB with improv trio Terre Wa. Emily was fortunate to be the Emerging Musician in Residence at the University of New Brunswick’s 2017-18 season. As a classical musician, she frequently performs with the Elm City String Quartet, guitarist Steven Peacock, Symphony New Brunswick, Atlantic Sinfonia, and as a part of UNB's musicUNB Performance Series. Outside of the classical music world, Emily is active in genre-crossing projects, collaborating with poets, textile artists, and dancers. She has toured Eastern Canada with electronic project Siding (formerly Property//), created installation work with all female electronic improv trio Terre Wa, and writes and sings for the string duo Pallmer. Emily has taught cello at Mount Allison University, and maintains a full private teaching studio in Fredericton.
Jennifer Thiessen (Spring 2020)
In the winter of 2020, Montreal violist Jennifer Thiessen was our first A in R and we couldn’t have been more pleased with her time in Halifax. Jen got a long of exploration done, she performed on the final concert before lockdown on March 13. As well, and perhaps most importantly for our community, Jen visited with, played with and drank coffee with 11 local artists, ranging from emerging improvisers to established composers.
Check out Jennifer's blog on her personal website: