SAPPHONIX COLLETIVE

With the “Salon Nights”, Sapphonix creates a performance atmosphere that is safe and accepting, in which musicians can perform in the manner most affirming to their personal identity. Mai/Son, the venue that we partnered with for these Salons, contains three floors, with different rooms on each floor. The main music recital takes place on the ground floor, while the upstairs rooms host rotating lists of artists and musicians (such as local tattoo artists, sculptors, harpists, visual artists creating live), so that audience members can wander around the mansion and experience different art from Montreal artists. The basement staircase contains a large windowsill, which serves as a tarot-reading nook. An example of a “Sapphic Salon” program includes works from composers and poets ranging from Sappho (c. 630-570 BCE), to Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), to Amy Beach (1867-1944), to Hania Rani (b. 1990). This program celebrates artistic works by women throughout the millennia, presenting them to an audience mainly composed of queer youth under 30. The performance venue provides a warm, homey atmosphere, reminiscent of the original salons; sharing art amongst friends, and building community.

The Nuit Blanche event

Nuit Blanche is an annual event in Montreal where cultural institutions keep their doors open all night long, and there are all night performances and activities, often featuring experimental art. We created a performance in the neo gothic space of Christ Church Cathedral exploring the experience of living in queer bodies, and anthropomorphizing nature (especially water) through a queer and sapphic lens.

Sapphonix Colletive

Blending organ, electronics, sculptures, lighting, projections, and dance, we created a fluid, immersive experience. We collaborated with another experimental organ group, Earth World Collaborative. They took a different approach to the theme of bodies to create continuity, and we shared lighting, projections, and electronic set up. Together, we created multiple circular screens out of shower curtains and pvc pipes and hung them at the front of the church. A professional projection artist projected footage we had shot over the period of months onto the constellation of hanging screens. Dancers performed in three different stations in the cathedral, gradually emerging to change stations, or dance together in the front. We each played an original composition, as well as works by Olivier Messiaen, Hania Rani, Florence Price, and Philip Glass. We were very excited to create a very alternative experience to the average organ concert, which appealed to both seasoned organists, young queer people, and many others - almost 3000 people attended throughout the night.

The Dancing down the aisle event (Becoming)

Our launch concert, “Becoming”, took place last August. We structured this concert into three sections, meant to represent the journey towards self-acceptance and self-love, especially through the lens of a queer person struggling with their identity. These three sections were “Youth”, “Adolescence”, and “Maturity”.

Sapphonix Colletive

We selected poetry for each section, moving from poems about shame and guilt in the “Youth” section, to poems about navigating homophobia and falling in love for the first time in the “Adolescence” section, and finally, poems about love, tenderness, and self-acceptance in the “Maturity” section. We matched musical selections to the poems, and improvised on the texts while our collaborator (a local theatre student) provided a dramatic reading of the poems. During the more uplifting musical selections, another collaborator (a local dance student) danced through the church aisles.

What trends are you seeing in the organ world

We see a lot of traditional organ concerts, which are important to maintain, but we often find that at least in Montreal, they are primarily attended by other organists. We are inspired by trends which are gaining traction with a wider audience, such as the experimental uses of the organ explored by organizations and people including Orgel Park, Earth World Collaborative, Kali Malone, Kara-lis Coverdale, and FUJI||||||||||TA (FUJITA Yosuke). We also see the rise in the usage of social media among young organists, and we are inspired to use different platforms to connect with others and share snippets of what it’s like to be a working organist, and to run an arts collective.

How does Sapphonix collective marry itself up with sacred music and sacred spaces?

The church has historically had a difficult relationship with queer people, and many queer people we know have had painful experiences related to religion.