Rara Avis (2015)
Rara Avis was presented on Saturday, 25 July, 2015 in the Parc National du Bic, near Rimouski, Québec.
Rara Avis was commissioned by the Rimouski production company, Tour de Bras, for their large ensemble, le Grand groupe régional d’improvisation libéré (le GGRIL). It is a 90-minute work for the trails and shoreline along le Chemin du nord, a particularly picturesque part of this most beautiful park. The piece featured a musical relay, of sorts, in which single musicians traveled while playing along the route, meeting with other musicians at designated places where short, small-group improvisations would take place. This principal component of the piece was complemented by various composed, spatialized interventions designed to support the music underway and to animate the various physical spaces where they were played.
Rara Avis was performed by le GGRIL: Gabriel Rochette (trombone), Sébastien Côrriveau (bass clarinet), Olivier D’Amours (baritone guitar), Thomas Gaudet-Asselin (bass guitar, percussion), Raphaël Arsenault (violin), Jean-Étienne Joubert (percussion), Mathieu Gosselin (baritone saxophone), Catherine Massicotte (violin, percussion), Robin Servant (accordion), Tom Jacques (xylophone, udu drum), Éric Normand (bass guitar, percussion), Robert Bastien (guitar, amplified objects, percussion), Luke Dawson (double bass, percussion), Elizabeth Lima (clarinet, voice, percussion), Susanna Hood (voice, dance, percussion) & Scott Thomson (trombone, percussion)
Rara Avis is dedicated to Ornette Coleman, songbird nonpareil.
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