These trailblazers are reinforcing and strengthening an artistic and cultural experience unique to Toronto.

With a DIY flair and twist of cool, FAWN Chamber Creative has established themselves as one of the savviest classical music presenters in the city.

[…] tucked away in the middle of a bunch of abandoned industrial spaces just off Bloor Street in the West End of Toronto, I found myself amongst an incredibly diverse audience for FAWN Chamber Creative […]: hipsters and opera groupies mingling with some of the artsiest people on the Toronto Scene.

[…] by the combination of space, movement and music and audience feedback will be used to select three of the composers for the next phase of the project. It’s an intriguing approach to creating a potentially genre busting piece that will resonate with FAWN’s established audience.

FAWN opera are one of Toronto’s the most exciting newcomers to the indie opera scene. They’re a fearless company dedicated to bringing home-made opera repertoire to Toronto’s hippest opera scenesters.

It’s significant that Fawn Opera & New Music presented a Canadian opera in French, I think it’s the first Canadian piece I’ve seen in a while that’s really got legs. I’m really looking forward to seeing the whole opera.

Stage director and Fawn Opera Artistic Director Amanda Smith made a little go a long way with this presentation. Her simple set worked in tandem with multimedia projections by Brady Bothwell […]. It suited the affect of the music beautifully. It’s something that I noticed about L’homme et le ciel, and that’s that everyone was on the same aesthetic page. The music, the singers’ performance, the set design, they were all congruent. I think that’s quite rare […]

I witnessed a clinic on how to create buzz.

[…] carried away by the combination of the mysterious images before me, the singers and Scime’s composition.

This is the most operatic new work I have seen in a long time.

The show featured something that I have never seen before at a new music event – a grimacing nightclub-style bouncer standing at the door with his arms crossed. They even made people line-up  outside, which made me check the address to see if I was at the right place. FAWN made Toronto’s Brockton Studio into a bonafide new music nightclub – that’s a first!

[FAWN events are often] informal affairs, with intermissions spent strolling about venues drinking beer and chatting about the latest films and bands making the scene. This is about classical music and popular culture sitting down like old pals and having a beer together.

FAWN shows are typically packed, and people are often found sitting on the floor, with their legs stretched out, enjoying not only the music, but each other’s company. There are no contentions here – just music written and performed by highly trained classical musicians for people who enjoy it.

For me this was like a genuine laboratory, a study of the art of film music from first principles.

Is it my imagination, or was this more fun & even festive experience precisely because it wasn’t opera?  In this atmosphere everyone was safe to experiment, accepted & appreciated for their adventurousness, something I don’t always experience in the operatic realm.

… avant-garde performances … innovative and ambitious minds at work in Toronto’s contemporary art scene …

… as though I was entering one of Andy Warhol’s factory parties – with a 21st-century techno-twist.

… charged performances and innovative compositions.

A good opera should be like an argument advocating for the medium, making you want to hear more operas, and that’s exactly what I felt watching Scime’s opera.

FAWN, through the vision of Amanda Smith their artistic director, have taken a very singular path, building this opera even though it has taken the past couple of years.  It was worth the wait.

The score is one of the most interesting I have heard in a while.  It integrates electronics, a small chamber ensemble and the three singers extremely well.  It’s often very sparse, recalling perhaps Messiaen.  At other points we get multiple layers and textures in something that sounds much more late/post romantic […] the singers get real music to sing.

These trailblazers are reinforcing and strengthening an artistic and cultural experience unique to Toronto.

With a DIY flair and twist of cool, FAWN Chamber Creative has established themselves as one of the savviest classical music presenters in the city.

[…] tucked away in the middle of a bunch of abandoned industrial spaces just off Bloor Street in the West End of Toronto, I found myself amongst an incredibly diverse audience for FAWN Chamber Creative […]: hipsters and opera groupies mingling with some of the artsiest people on the Toronto Scene.

[…] by the combination of space, movement and music and audience feedback will be used to select three of the composers for the next phase of the project. It’s an intriguing approach to creating a potentially genre busting piece that will resonate with FAWN’s established audience.

FAWN opera are one of Toronto’s the most exciting newcomers to the indie opera scene. They’re a fearless company dedicated to bringing home-made opera repertoire to Toronto’s hippest opera scenesters.

It’s significant that Fawn Opera & New Music presented a Canadian opera in French, I think it’s the first Canadian piece I’ve seen in a while that’s really got legs. I’m really looking forward to seeing the whole opera.

Stage director and Fawn Opera Artistic Director Amanda Smith made a little go a long way with this presentation. Her simple set worked in tandem with multimedia projections by Brady Bothwell […]. It suited the affect of the music beautifully. It’s something that I noticed about L’homme et le ciel, and that’s that everyone was on the same aesthetic page. The music, the singers’ performance, the set design, they were all congruent. I think that’s quite rare […]

I witnessed a clinic on how to create buzz.

[…] carried away by the combination of the mysterious images before me, the singers and Scime’s composition.

This is the most operatic new work I have seen in a long time.

The show featured something that I have never seen before at a new music event – a grimacing nightclub-style bouncer standing at the door with his arms crossed. They even made people line-up  outside, which made me check the address to see if I was at the right place. FAWN made Toronto’s Brockton Studio into a bonafide new music nightclub – that’s a first!

[FAWN events are often] informal affairs, with intermissions spent strolling about venues drinking beer and chatting about the latest films and bands making the scene. This is about classical music and popular culture sitting down like old pals and having a beer together.

FAWN shows are typically packed, and people are often found sitting on the floor, with their legs stretched out, enjoying not only the music, but each other’s company. There are no contentions here – just music written and performed by highly trained classical musicians for people who enjoy it.

For me this was like a genuine laboratory, a study of the art of film music from first principles.

Is it my imagination, or was this more fun & even festive experience precisely because it wasn’t opera?  In this atmosphere everyone was safe to experiment, accepted & appreciated for their adventurousness, something I don’t always experience in the operatic realm.

… avant-garde performances … innovative and ambitious minds at work in Toronto’s contemporary art scene …

… as though I was entering one of Andy Warhol’s factory parties – with a 21st-century techno-twist.

… charged performances and innovative compositions.

A good opera should be like an argument advocating for the medium, making you want to hear more operas, and that’s exactly what I felt watching Scime’s opera.

FAWN, through the vision of Amanda Smith their artistic director, have taken a very singular path, building this opera even though it has taken the past couple of years.  It was worth the wait.

The score is one of the most interesting I have heard in a while.  It integrates electronics, a small chamber ensemble and the three singers extremely well.  It’s often very sparse, recalling perhaps Messiaen.  At other points we get multiple layers and textures in something that sounds much more late/post romantic […] the singers get real music to sing.