Vancouver New Music

10/15/2026

📹 Stasis by Sarah Pagé

Harp and koto player Sarah Pagé delivers a solo harp performance that showcases her virtuosity and experimentation, while drawing constellation-like paths across genres, borders, and musical histories. Employing a myriad of techniques and tools to accentuate the harp, Pagé capitalizes on both the very physical and altogether mystical tones inherent in the instrument. The mere range of sounds Pagé is able to pull out of the harp while remaining tethered to its essence is astounding.

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VNM Festival: Open Frequencies
Oct 22-24 | 8pm | Artist Talk 7:15pm each night
Pacific Spirit United Church (2190 W 45th Ave)

Featuring:
KUNIKO KATO QUARTET (Japan), percussion
OKKYUNG LEE (Korea), cello
MEREDITH BATES (Salt Spring Island), violin
SARAH PAGÉ (Montreal), harp
GORDON GRDINA (Vancouver), oud
PIU (Nanaimo), voice/electronics

Visit newmusic.org or link in bio

10/15/2026

In this interview with Stir Vancouver, percussionist Kuniko Kato discusses how she interprets the minimalist compositions of Steve Reich through a distinctive Japanese artistic sensibility.

Kuniko Kato Quartet will be performing a repertoire of Steve Reich's music in celebration of his 90th birthday at VNM Festival: Open Frequencies on Oct 22 in the Vancouver stop of their REICH90 North American tour. Get your tickets now! https://www.newmusic.org/vnm-festival/2026

As part of Vancouver New Music’s festival, the acclaimed percussionist relies on a traditional Japanese spirit of harmony that allows Reich’s precise patterns to breathe

10/12/2026

📹 Disillusionment by Meredith Bates

JUNO and WCMA award-winning violinist, violist, and composer Meredith Bates performs selections from her recently released album, The Observer Effect (2026). A reference to a key principle in quantum mechanics and philosophy—the notion that the act of observing alters that which is being observed—The Observer Effect is a meditation on “perception, illusion, and metamorphosis—the subtle processes through which sound, like identity, shifts under pressure.”

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VNM Festival: Open Frequencies
Oct 22-24 | 8pm | Artist Talk 7:15pm each night
Pacific Spirit United Church (2190 W 45th Ave)

Featuring:
KUNIKO KATO QUARTET (Japan), percussion
OKKYUNG LEE (Korea), cello
MEREDITH BATES (Salt Spring Island), violin
SARAH PAGÉ (Montreal), harp
GORDON GRDINA (Vancouver), oud
PIU (Nanaimo), voice/electronics

Visit newmusic.org or link in bio

10/10/2026

10/08/2026

Get your tickets now! Visit newmusic.org or link in bio

VNM Festival: Open Frequencies
Oct 22-24 | 8pm | Artist Talk 7:15pm each night
Pacific Spirit United Church (2190 W 45th Ave)

Featuring:

KUNIKO KATO QUARTET (Japan), percussion - Vancouver stop of the REICH90 tour in celebration of STEVE REICH’s 90th birthday

OKKYUNG LEE (Korea), cello

MEREDITH BATES (Salt Spring Island), violin

SARAH PAGÉ (Montreal), harp

GORDON GRDINA (Vancouver), oud

PIU (Nanaimo), voice/electronics

10/03/2026

🎶 Stasis by Sarah Pagé | 📷 video still from Disillusionment by Meredith Bates

VNM Festival: Open Frequencies
Oct 22-24 | 8pm | Artist Talk 7:15pm each night
Pacific Spirit United Church (2190 W 45th Ave)

Tickets on sale now! Visit newmusic.org

The annual VNM Festival returns with Open Frequencies, a three-day program spotlighting bold, globally engaged approaches to new music by artists working at the forefront of experimental, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural sound practices.

Featuring renowned percussionist KUNIKO KATO with HARUKA AOYAGI, KARIN TOZAKI, KOICHI HOSONO, and MISAKI MATSUNO (Japan) in a virtuosic performance dedicated to the music of STEVE REICH, cellist and composer OKKYUNG LEE (Korea), harpist SARAH PAGÉ (Montreal), and BC artists GORDON GRDINA (Vancouver), MEREDITH BATES (Salt Spring Island), and PIU (Nanaimo).

📹 Kuniko Kato Quartet in performance | Milao by Piu | Disillusionment by Meredith Bates | Stasis by Sarah Pagé

09/29/2026

VNM Festival: Open Frequencies - Artist Profile

PRIYANKA CHAKRABARTI (PIU) is a musician, composer, and producer who adorns ambient soundscapes with hard hitting synth riffs, raga-inspired vocals, and global rhythms. Her sound blends genres, cultures, and identities. Through both her studio practice and live performance, Piu invites listeners into carefully constructed sonic spaces designed for reflection, release, and intentional listening.

Anchored in her Indian classical training but pulled towards the frontiers of experimental and electronic music, Piu’s sound is simultaneously grounded and unbound. Her productions weave tactile synth textures, and field recordings, moving fluidly between genres.

Piu has released several singles, an EP, Illusion (2024), and her recently released debut full-length album Milao (2026). She has performed at major Canadian electronic music festivals including MUTEK Montréal, and collaborates widely with artists across genres and continents.

She is the co-founder of Margins of Sound Society, where she helps produce and curate events that support experimental music, interdisciplinary performances, and education in British Columbia, Canada.

Piu will be performing on Oct 24, Day 3 of the festival. Tickets: https://www.newmusic.org/events/festival-2026-day-3

VNM Festival: Open Frequencies
Oct 22-24 | 8pm⁠ | Artist Talk 7:15pm each night
Pacific Spirit United Church (2195 West 45th Ave)

📷 by Britney Gill

09/28/2026

VNM Festival: Open Frequencies - Artist Profile

GORDON GRDINA is a JUNO Award–winning oud and guitar player based in Vancouver, Canada, whose work spans avant-garde jazz, free improvisation, Arabic maqam, and Persian classical music. Over more than two decades, he has developed a distinctive musical language that brings together deep knowledge of tradition with a highly exploratory and contemporary approach.

His playing is marked by microtonal precision, rhythmic complexity, and a strong physical presence, creating music that moves fluidly between composed structures and open improvisation. Drawing equally from Middle Eastern musical systems and experimental practices, Grdina’s work resists fixed categories, instead focusing on collaboration, sonic research, and evolving forms.

He has performed and recorded with leading international artists including Gary Peacock, Paul Motian, Marc Ribot, Mats Gustafsson, Myra Melford, Ghalia Benali, Jerry Granelli, Evan Parker, and Jim Black. His collaborators reflect his position at the intersection of global traditions and contemporary improvised music.

As a bandleader, Grdina has created a wide range of projects including Haram, Nomad Trio, Grdina/Lillinger, Square Peg, Gordon Grdina Quartet, Peregrine Falls, and The Marrow, each exploring different compositional and improvisational systems. His recent ensemble RU’YA brings together international musicians to explore Arabic poetry, maqam, and contemporary improvisation in a cross-cultural context.

His discography as a leader includes over 30 recordings on labels such as Attaboygirl, Songlines, Astral Spirits, NOT TWO, and Clean Feed. His album China Cloud received the JUNO Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, with multiple additional nominations recognizing his work.

Gordon Grdina will be performing on Oct 24, Day 3 of the festival. Tickets: https://www.newmusic.org/events/festival-2026-day-3

VNM Festival: Open Frequencies
Oct 22-24 | 8pm⁠ | Artist Talk 7:15pm each night
Pacific Spirit United Church (2195 West 45th Ave)

📷 by Genevieve Monro

09/27/2026

VNM Festival: Open Frequencies - Artist Profile

Tracing the musical trajectory of harpist, composer, producer SARAH PAGÉ is quite the task—one would have to draw long, constellation-like shapes across genres, borders and histories. She is perhaps best known as a founding and longtime member of roots rockers The Barr Brothers, but a brief consideration of her resume reveals the fact that she’s equally at home within traditions as without them. Her first two solo LPs, Dose Curves and Voda, affirm this versatility and reveal Pagé as one of Canada’s most accomplished experimentalists. She has also been heard alongside such luminaries as Lhasa, Nadah El Shazly, Juana Molina, Joni Void and as a member of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush.

Employing a myriad of techniques and tools to accentuate the harp, Pagé capitalizes on both the very physical and altogether mystical tones inherent in the instrument. The mere range of sounds Pagé is able to pull out of the harp while remaining tethered to its essence is astounding.

Sarah Pagé will be performing on Oct 24, Day 3 of the festival. Tickets: https://www.newmusic.org/events/festival-2026-day-3

VNM Festival: Open Frequencies
Oct 22-24 | 8pm⁠ | Artist Talk 7:15pm each night
Pacific Spirit United Church (2195 West 45th Ave)

📷 by Shannon Harris

09/26/2026

The 45th Vancouver International Film Festival returns October 1–11, 2026, bringing 11 days of bold cinema, unforgettable performances and artists from around the world to Vancouver. Explore the full program and get tickets at viff.org.

Vancouver New Music is excited to be a community partner for the VIFF Live presentation of Kelly Moran!

Kelly Moran
with Bahar Khazei
October 4, 2026
Tickets: viff.org/ticket-info/

Experience a rare live AV performance by acclaimed pianist, producer, and composer Kelly Moran, an artist known for conjuring hypnotic textures and charting unconventional sonic pathways through classical, avant-garde, and electronic sound. Renowned for her explorations and manipulations of acoustic sounds, Moran has released a number of highly regarded albums and collaborated with notable contemporaries — FKA twigs, Yves Tumor, Kelsey Lu, Oneohtrix Point Never, and the Avalanches among them. For this unique VIFF Live presentation, she performs material from her celebrated 2025 album Don’t Trust Mirrors, released on Warp Records, which has been called a “sterling achievement … of commanding beauty” (Treble Zine).

Vancouver electronic musician and composer Bahar Khazei presents a special live AV set to open the evening.