Beyond its programming, Le Vivier’s home is a unique place for meetings and discussions. We are eager to make new music in all its diversity better known and appreciated while promoting accessibility to musical events. Le Vivier is committed to advancing the practice of new music, especially among the next generation. We also produce cultural initiatives for citizens, families, schools and creators that include awareness-raising activities, accessibibility programs and outreach and development projects.

Since its creation, Le Vivier has made it a priority to share the pleasure of discovering new music with a large and inclusive audience.

Outreach at Le Vivier in the past 5 years:

  • 400 activities (workshops, event facilitation, video capsules, pre-concert lectures, etc.);
  • nearly 10,000 people have been reached and comprise adults, families and children.

  • Youth

    Youth Mediation

    Le Vivier offers musical workshops specially adapted for children living in families, day-care centres or primary schools in connection with its programming or creative projects.

     

    Photo of a school activity

     

    Family workshops

    Explore, play and invent music as a family while discovering astonishing sounds and universes, thanks to a palette of acoustic instruments and electronic musical devices made available according to the musical themes explored. Professional musicians accompany you in this discovery and lead you in the creation in a playful and sensory way, through collective games, improvisations and active listening to musical sequences. All the senses are awakened.

    Example of workshops :
    • Music, shapes and colours
    • The music of objects
    • Music and movements

     

    These workshops take place during Culture Days and Spring Break. They are intended for children accompanied by their parents from 3 to 5 years old and from 6 to 9 years old.

     

    Photo of a fammily workshop

  • Action Centre-Ville

    An introduction to new music for people 50 and over

    For the past three years, Le Vivier has been carrying out awareness-raising activities in creative music with members of the Action Centre-Ville community organization aimed at people aged 50 and over.

    Two to three series of ten workshops are offered each year on themes linked to Le Vivier’s programs.

    Participants discover works and compositional processes through active listening and meet with composers, musicians or artists from other disciplines. They then explore new music by inventing short collective musical pieces in the form of improvisations, graphic scores, recording and sound editing. Support is provided in such areas as percussion, voice, sound objects, I-Pads and electronic devices etc.

    Topics covered:

    2017-2018 season:
    • Autumn: The voice in all its forms
    • Winter: Rhythm and movement
    • Spring: Creating digital music
    2018-2019 season:
    • Autumn: Music and painting
    • Winter: Music and staging
    2019-2020 season:
    • The sounds of water
    2020-2021 season:
    • The sounds of trees

     

    Action Centre-ville activities are now for the fall of 2020. (We respect the health standards related to COVID-19, our spaces allow physical distancing for all participants. A protocol will be sent at the beginning of the session).

     

    Photo of an Action Centre-Ville activity
    Credit: Cécile Villard

  • The Sounds of Water

    As part of the Sounds of Water project, Le Vivier is highlighting the link between creative music and environmental issues.

    Several kinds of workshops are offered:

    The music of water

    For a very long time, composers have been drawn to water and nature, taking inspiration from the movement of the sea, the rivers and the animals that live there. Through several works composed in different historical periods, participants will discover how composers evoke water. This workshop will help in understanding instrumental, vocal and electroacoustic approaches and explore sound materials and the musical language used by composers for this aquatic evocation (compositional process, rhythmic patterns, harmony...). The program is based on three levels of activity: listening, creating and performing.

    Sound ecology: discovering the world of R. Murray Schafer

    This workshop introduces the concept of “soundscape” which will aid in understanding works by composers like Barry Truax, Hildegard Westerkamp and James O’Callaghan.

    It will provide an entertaining awareness of the sound environments of participants who will then create short musical pieces in the spirit of soundscape.

    “We encourage people to listen to the world as a vast musical composition – a composition in which we are, in part, its composers.” - R. Murray Schafer.

    The little sounds of water for children

    Waves, rivers, drops and splashes, all invite themselves into music. It’s about discovering the sounds of nature inspired by the movement of the sea, of rivers and the animals that live there. Then by playing on instruments and sound objects and using the voice, they will create their own water music and eventually transform it with an electronic device.

    These workshops can take place at Le Vivier, in schools, libraries, universities, or cultural centres and are adapted to the age of the audience and the context of the presentation.

    For all information contact us at info [at] levivier [dot] ca (info[at]levivier[dot]ca)

     

    Collage of photos from activities of the Sounds of water

  • Vivier Mobile

    Workshops with Vivier-Mobile

    The Vivier Mobile is a mobile audio-electro-digital machine that creates music: a "music and technology" space that uses several experimental and data devices linked together and arranged on six rolling mobile units.

    Created in collaboration with the CIRMMT (The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology) and with IDMIL (Input Devices and Music Interaction), VivierMobile stimulates the development of digital creation and opens the world of electronic music to the public using a variety of approaches.

    Workshops:

    The VivierMobile is a workshop tool for a wide range of children and adults for the exploration, discovery and creation of works for new music (mixed music, electroacoustic, electro-live, etc.). These workshops can take place at Le Vivier, in schools, libraries, universities, or cultural centres etc. They are led by a cultural mediator and a technician specializing in digital music.

    Examples of workshops:
    • Discovering sound spatialization:
      • Playing with sounds in space. Where does the sound come from?
      • How do you make sound travel to all four corners of a space?
    • Sound transformation:
      • Modify the sound of one’s voice, or live acoustic sounds, and then transform them via suggestions made by computer. Change pitch, reverberation, delay, granulation, etc.
    • Discovery of new electronic instruments:
      • Explore T-Sticks and the methods of playing and then invent music with this instrument.
      • Create music with electronically connected objects.

     

    For all information contact us at info [at] levivier [dot] ca (info[at]levivier[dot]ca)