Kathleen Yearwood, Michael Pisaro-Liu amd Hermitess

At the knife edge of winter we offer three creators, each reflecting on a different dimension of life’s end through experimental sound and song.

Calgary’s own ‘reclusive witch’, the critically acclaimed songstress, harpist, and composer Hermitess will open the evening with songs from her 2025 record ‘Death and the Fool’.

Following this, an ad-hoc ensemble of Calgary classical and experimental musicians (rebecca bruton, Jiajia Li, Kelsey Noble, Laura Reid, Isaac Szeto & Holly DeCaigny) will perform Wandelweiser composer Michael Pisaro-Liu’s ‘Tombstones’

This collection of miniature, indeterminate compositions, loosely characterized as experimental pop, features fragments of ‘old and not-so-old songs [put into an] experimental music situation, introducing them to a kind of chaos’.

Headlining the evening visionary Northern Alberta vocalist, guitarist, and composer Kathleen Yearwood will give a world-premiere performance of her 2025 opus ‘Yes, You Were Born to Die’. Through this uncompromising, noise-inflected sonic reverie Kathleen’s penetrating soprano voice responds to the ancient Sacred Harp question, ‘And am I born to die?’.