The NOW Orchestra, with guest artists Canadian composers Lina Allemano (Toronto/Berlin) and Kris Davis (New York City), presents the world premiere of Kris Davis' A meditation on Dristraction, commissioned by the NOW Society, as well as works by Lina Allemano and Lisa Cay Miller. Join us in the Exhibition Hall at 8pm, for a performance of NOW Society founder Paul Cram's work, Eternal Ice.

Program:

INTERMISSION

Kris Davis

Pianist-composer Kris Davis has blossomed as one of the singular talents on the New York jazz scene, a resolutely individual artist who offers “uncommon creative adventure” according to Jazz Times. The Vancouver-born, Brooklyn-residing Davis was dubbed one of the music’s leading voices in a 2012 New York Times article titled “New Pilots at the Keyboard,” with the newspaper saying: “One method for deciding where to hear jazz on a given night has been to track down the pianist Kris Davis.” Davis has released ten recordings as leader. Her 2016 release, Duopoly, features a series of duos with Bill Frisell, Craig Tabornand Marcus Gilmore. Duopoly made The New York Times, Pop Matters, NPR, LA Times, and Jazz Times best albums of 2016. Davis performs as a member of John Zorn’s Bagatelles project, is known for her ongoing work with the trio Paradoxical Frog with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and performs in a duo with Craig Taborn. Davis was voted Rising Star pianist in the 2017 annual Critics Poll. She received a Doris Duke Impact award in 2015 and multiple commissions to compose new works from The Shifting Foundation, The Jazz Gallery/Jerome Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts.

LINA ALLEMANO is a Canadian trumpeter, improviser, and composer based in Toronto ON since 1993, originally hailing from Edmonton AB.  She has an active international career, performing and recording cutting-edge contemporary music primarily in free-jazz/improvised/experimental/avant-garde settings.  Her trumpet playing, compositions, and artistic vision have gained her recognition as being "adventurous, expressive, compelling, forward thinking, inventive, and sophisticated".

As well as leading her longtime free-jazz band, LINA ALLEMANO FOUR, she also fronts a new improvising group, TITANIUM RIOT.  Lina appears on over 30 recordings, including 5 of her own critically acclaimed CDs with LINA ALLEMANO FOUR that feature her original compositions: Live at the Tranzac (2012), Jargon (2010), Gridjam (2008), Pinkeye (2006), and Concentric (2003).  Lina recently undertook advanced trumpet studies in Berlin with Axel Dörner and in New York City with Laurie Frink.  She was featured as one of the top innovative trumpeters for the future in DownBeat Magazine (2007), was winner of the CBC Galaxie Rising Star Award (2005), and was nominated for National Jazz Awards Trumpeter of the Year and SOCAN Composer of the Year (2009).