Raven Chacon • Quatuor Bozzini • E27 • Oktoecho

Québec Musiques Parallèles, the traveling event of exploratory music and sound art, and the Quatuor Bozzini present a plural program at the crossroads of cultures, in collaboration with composer-artist Raven Chacon, the musicians of E27 musiques nouvelles, and the ensemble Oktoécho. The evening unfolds across two venues, connected by a musical procession.

At the heart of the event are works by Raven Chacon, a Diné artist from the Navajo Nation, renowned for his powerful pieces at the intersection of experimental art and political engagement. Chacon is the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner for Voiceless Mass, which opens the evening in the magnificent Chapelle de la Cité-des-Hospitalières. By exploiting the architecture of the space, the work questions the futility of giving a voice to those who have none, when relinquishing space is never an option for those who hold power. The septet Horse Notations, inspired by an 1874 article entitled The Paces of the Horse—walk, trot, canter, and gallop—as a source for rhythms, drum patterns, bow pressures, and arcs of volume, closes this first part.

It is to the sound of Tiguex: VI — Downhill Procession (Procession I), a work based on a precise geographical tracing of the performance site, that a brass band of eight musicians assembled for the occasion guides us a few blocks away to a more intimate second part of chamber works by Raven Chacon. This includes his two string quartets, Double Weaving and The Journey of the Horizontal People, as well as (Bury Me) Where The Lightning [Will] Never Find Me, with seasoned musicians Noam Bierstone (percussion) and Allison Burik (bass clarinet) joining the Quatuor Bozzini.

The third part takes place at La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines, where the ensemble Oktoécho and the musicians of E27 musiques nouvelles present the Montréal premiere of Écliptique (2025) by composer Katia Makdissi-Warren. Blending Inuit throat singing (katajjaq), percussion, flutes, and clarinets, this work proposes an unprecedented encounter between musical traditions of the north and south, east and west.

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Part One (42')
Grande Chapelle de la Cité des Hospitalières
(201 Avenue des Pins Ouest, Montréal)

Raven Chacon: Voiceless Mass
Raven Chacon: Horse Notations

Transition (12')
Avenue des Pins toward La Chapelle Scènes contemporaines

Raven Chacon: Tiguex VI: Downhill Procession (Procession 1)

Part Two (24')
La Chapelle Scènes contemporaines
(3700 Rue Saint-Dominique, Montréal)

Raven Chacon: Double Weaving
Raven Chacon: (Bury Me) Where The Lightning [Will] Never Find Me
Raven Chacon: The Journey of the Horizontal People

Part Three (40')
La Chapelle Scènes contemporaines
(3700 Rue Saint-Dominique, Montréal)

Katia Makdissi-Warren: Écliptique