In support of the exhibition Yoko Ono: THE RIVERBED and co-presented with The Music Gallery.

How can one scream? In Voice Piece for Soprano, an instruction painting included in Yoko Ono’s 1964 artist’s book Grapefruit, the reader is given three ways in which to cry out: first “against the wind”, then “against the wall”, and finally “against the sky.”

This conceptual art instruction gives readers free rein to embrace the therapeutic possibility of the hysterical scream. For an artist well-versed in compositional techniques (music was, after all, her first creative medium), Ono plays with the strictness of musical scoring by visualizing the out-of-control female voice pushed to its supposed limits.

This intimate concert presentation will explore the legacy of Yoko Ono’s instructions, and present new works by three local artists: The Element Choir, an improvising choir directed by Christine Duncan, Lillian Allen, the internationally recognized godmother of dub poetry in Canada, and AMALIA, the former lead singer of the Juno-nominated contemporary jazz troupe Sekoya.