Thu, Aug 27, 20267pm

BEING: PASCALKAIJA

The Happenstancers

A hybrid ensemble for the 21st century, communicating powerful narratives about the world we live in.

Free Admission
No tickets required

 

About

Charting a course from without to within and back again, The Happenstancers present a dual-portrait concert in palindromic form. In BEING: PASCALKAIJA, chamber works by Pascal Dusapin and Kaija Saariaho are used to imagine an entry-path to the deepest crevices of the composer’s mind. By experiencing these most personal (and searing) musical gestures, The Happenstancers propose we can inhabit the depths of the artist’s psyche.

The Happenstancers will be premiering a new arrangement by Danika Loren commissioned by Harbourfront Centre for the Summer Music in the Garden 2026 season.

About The Happenstancers

Recognized by The Whole Note as “the future of chamber music,” and as “Toronto’s chamber supergroup,” by Ludwig Van Toronto, The Happenstancers is a hybrid ensemble for the twenty-first century — part laboratory for experimentation with innovative curatorial techniques and concert forms, and part mixed vocal/instrumental contemporary chamber music ensemble. Formed in 2019 and based in Toronto, The Happenstancers specialize in performances that utilize diverse and demanding contemporary repertoire to communicate powerful and surprising theatrical narratives.

Set List

  1. Brief Transitional Improvisation – solo percussion 
  2. Dusapin, Imago ii. – 4’, solo cello 
  3. Dusapin, Ohé – 9’, clar/cello 
  4. Dusapin, So Full of Shapes is Fancy – 5’, voice/clar 
  5. Dusapin, Two Walking (excerpts) – 3-5’, 2 voices 
  6. DANIKA LORÈN – New Harbourfront Commission –  3’, 2 voices 
  7. Saariaho – From the Grammar of Dreams (excerpts) – 7-9’, 2 voices 
  8. Saariaho – Du Gick, Flög – 4’, voice/cello 
  9. Saariaho – Oi Kuu – 6’, clar/cello 
  10. Saariaho – LONG LIVE LOVE – 1’, solo cello 
  11. Brief Transitional Improvisation – 1’, solo perc 

Dates & Times

Thu, August 27
7:00pm 8:00pm

Tickets

Free admission
No tickets required

Venue

Visitor map showing venue location
Toronto Music Garden
Toronto Music Garden

479 Queens Quay West,
Toronto, ON

Main image: Photo by Thomas Li.