Bringing together poets, composers, and performers.
Alison d'Amato and Corey Hamm at a SongSparks event during Art Song Lab 2015.
Photo credit: Christoph Rondeau
(Art) Song Lab is a collaborative institute facilitating creative interaction between writers, composers, and performers from around the world to advance the genre of contemporary art song. Offering a 6-month collaborative opportunity which culminates in a week-long intensive program, (Art) Song Lab sees its participating artists converge in Vancouver each summer (*this year in Winnipeg) for an annual public performance premiering new works.
Participant discussion at a SongSparks event during Art Song Lab 2015.
Photo credit: Christoph Rondeau
(Art) Song Lab enables composers and writers who are eager to broaden their creative experiences to engage with other disciplines and artistic traditions. Our structure is designed to stimulate participants’ individual crafts while cultivating conversations among partners and the public. As writers, composers, performers and listeners connect, they absorb each others’ visceral materials into diversely creative processes. The resulting works are direct expressions of contemporary experience. Since its conception in 2011, (Art) Song Lab has connected 74 writers with 78 composers, presenting world premiers of 95 new art songs.
Diversity is at the core of what (Art) Song Lab does. Bringing together poets, composers, and performers is just the first step in honoring the uniqueness of everyone involved. We welcome participants and applications from underrepresented groups including Indigenous people, people of colour, women, trans and gender variant people, Two-Spirit people, and people with disabilities. We are proud to provide a safe space where artists of all backgrounds can come together to celebrate the growth, learning, and expression that comes from making art songs.
(Art) Song Lab does not shy away from important issues. Topics addressed in the work created at (Art) Song Lab reflect the diversity of our participants. The need to meet a variety of accessibility requirements (mobility, neurodiversity, and cross-cultural borders) has encouraged us to reexamine our assumptions surrounding collaboration, and the program has become better because of it.
