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Burq Off! – Theatre / Music / More

Feb 18, 2015

The Small World Centre has proven itself to be a great addition to the downtown cultural scene from music and film to recording and workshops. Coming next month, we’re excited to announce our first theatre presentation – a one-woman show that’s already created an international buzz.Burq Off!, an autobiographical play written and performed by Nadia P. Manzoor, is a jaunty tour through madly opposing worlds. The glowing promise of modern London versus the glum realities of a conservative Pakistani Muslim home are punctuated by fierce Bollywood dance moves and at least one blackout drinking incident.  Embodying 21 different characters, Nadia illuminates her conflicted sense of identity while questioning repressive cultural norms. Moving, funny, deeply personal and yet universal, none other than Deepak Chopra called it ‘a gutsy, honest, hilarious must-see!’ It runs Wednesday March 18 – Saturday March 21 and tickets are on sale now! Check out the video below to get a glimpse of the show!Next weekend on the 27th & 28th, an intriguing event co-presented by Cahoots Theatre and the Music Gallery follows the stories of two musicians, one from Southern Ontario and one from Sudan. John & Waleed features two of our old friends – singer and composer John Millard and multi-instrumentalist / singer Waleed Abdulhamid. Part concert, part theatre work, this unlikely duo explore their musical traditions and migrations, carried with them on their journey towards becoming artists, Torontonians, and ultimately, friends.

                                         
Executive Director

Vusi Mahlasela & Hugh Masekela

Saturday February 28th, Koerner Hall

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Camané

Friday March 13th, Winter Garden Theatre

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Burq Off!

Sunday March 18, 19, 20, 21, The Drake Underground

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Tal National

Sunday March 29th, The Drake Underground

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Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits w. Special Guest Kinob

Saturday April 18th, Koerner Hall

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Community Events

Small World Music supports our community partners and family of world music artists performing around the greater Toronto area. Visit the Small World Music site to learn more about all the great events happening in the city.

Support Small World

Small World Music Society is a charitable organization and presenter of culturally diverse music, supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Toronto Arts Council, as well as community and corporate partners.

Meditations / Permutations & Free Tickets for Valentine’s!

Feb 11, 2015

DroneDoctor performs the third instalment of their ongoing series at the Small World Centre  Sunday evening. They’re winning a following amongst people looking for a meditative musical experience and this weekend they’ll bring guests that will add a powerful rhythmic element to the mix – ‘a little drumming with your drone’ as they put it. DroneDoctor’s original sound has been described as “healing, meditative, playful and joyful”, fusing influences of the East and West in the creative approach of Jaro Czerwinec (accordion), John Timmins (banjo), Daniela Gassi (viola), and Francesca Milne (bass), with this weekend’s special guests, Sricamalan Pathmanathan (tabla) and Bhrapa Bhrapakaran (dholak).In what promises to be a highlight of Black History Month, two of South Africa’s greatest stars perform at Koerner Hall as Vusi Mahlasela and Hugh Masekela take the stage on the 28th. Should be sweet.Our friends at Link Music have a double-header at Revival that looks like a fine way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Sina Salimi is a santur player and singer who blends Persian music with new sounds. From Montreal, Briga will bring their Balkanized ‘turbo folk’ that energized the audience for us at Yonge-Dundas Square a couple years ago and will be a guaranteed dance floor filler. We have a few pairs of FREE tickets for Saturday. The  first respondents to ali@smallworldmusic.com can take their sweetheart out on us!

 

                                         
Executive Director

Vusi Mahlasela & Hugh Masekela

Saturday February 28th, Koerner Hall

Get Tickets

Camané

Friday March 13th, Winter Garden Theatre

Get Tickets

Tal National

Sunday March 29th, The Drake Underground

Get Tickets

Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits w. Special Guest Kinobe

Saturday April 18th, Koerner Hall

Get Tickets

Community Events

Small World Music supports our community partners and family of world music artists performing around the greater Toronto area. Visit the Small World Music site to learn more about all the great events happening in the city.

Support Small World

Small World Music Society is a charitable organization and presenter of culturally diverse music, supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Toronto Arts Council, as well as community and corporate partners.

Africa to Java – Ticket Giveaway and more!

Feb 04, 2015

This weekend marks the First Anniversary of the opening of the Small World Music Centre. We’re very proud of our little concert hall and the great events that have place there so far. If the first twelve months are any indication, the Centre has a bright future and will grow up to become a highly regarded part of Toronto’s cultural mix.So, it’s appropriate that this week also features our inaugural film screening, showing off our recently-installed, cinema-quality screen and projector system The Stirring of a Thousand Bells, a musical travelogue of Javanese culture, along with a live trio performance of Indonesian music will be a beautiful sonic and visual experience on Friday evening.On Sunday, Joe Driscoll  & Sekou Kouyate take the stage of Lula Lounge for what promises to be a stormin’ night. This collaboration between a rapper/ / singer-songwriter from Syracuse, NY and an African kora sensation from Guinea pushes genre boundaries and has earns raves globally. As Songlines magazine put it, it’s “a boundary-trampling high-octane hybrid in which the lightning fast licks of Kouyate are matched by the explosive energy of Driscoll‘s rhyming.” Get a taste of their sound in the video link below!

Keeping with the African vibe and looking a way down the road, we have an exciting announcement – on March 29th at the Drake Hotel, we’ll present the Toronto debut of Tal National, in association with Batuki Music. These West African rockers hail from the small nation of Niger which is home to Songhai, Fulani, Hausa and Tuareg people, all of whom are represented in the group. Powerful vocals alongside guitar and percussion-driven grooves that are bursting with fiery energy make for a killer party band. We have FREE tickets for this show! First replies to ali@smallworldmusic.com get the prize!

                                         
Executive Director

Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate

Sunday February 8th, Lula Lounge

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Vusi Mahlasela & Hugh Masekela

Saturday February 28th, Koerner Hall

Get Tickets

Camané

Friday March 13th, Winter Garden Theatre

Get Tickets

Tal National

Sunday March 29th, The Drake Underground

Get Tickets

Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits w. Special Guest Kinobe

Saturday April 18th, Koerner Hall

Get Tickets

The Stirring of a Thousand Bells

Friday February 6th, The Small World Music Centre

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THE SAROD PROJECT with
AMJAD ALI KHAN, AMAAN ALI KHAN & AYAAN ALI KHAN
Sunday, February 8, 8 pm
Flato Markham Theatre
*Special Offer – Any Seat $43 (Promo Code BKM)

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s concerts have been called magical. As a sarod virtuoso he is a superstar in India, revered for his expressive, vocalized playing. In his hands, the sarod’s 25 strings produce a rich palette of overtones mimicking the complex tone colours and expressive range of the human voice. With his two sons, Amaan and Ayaan, this trio transcends a musical lineage of seven generations, making the instrument timeless.

 

Get Tickets

Community Events

Small World Music supports our community partners and family of world music artists performing around the greater Toronto area. Visit the Small World Music site to learn more about all the great events happening in the city.

Support Small World

Small World Music Society is a charitable organization and presenter of culturally diverse music, supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Toronto Arts Council, as well as community and corporate partners.

Gongs, Strings, Film and More!

Jan 29, 2015

‘World Music Needs More Gamelan!’ That was the memorable slogan on a t-shirt I saw at WOMEX many years ago and I still agree wholeheartedly. The uniquely wonderful music of Indonesia really does deserve more exposure. Fortunately, we’re doing our small part next week with an evening combining a film screening and live performance of Javanese music. The Stirring of a Thousand Bells film along with a trio performance of Sundanese music by Andrew Timar, Bill Parsons and Matt Dunning will offer a rare treat for enthusiasts of the evocative sounds of these traditions next Friday February 6th. Get a taste from the trailer below.Along those lines, I recently revisited music by an amazing group we presented some years ago – Sambasunda thoroughly blew away the audience at a show at Lula Lounge. And their CD ‘Rahwana’s Cry’, on Network Records, brought it all back. This stunningly exuberant display of Sundanese traditions merged with a contemporary approach hasn’t aged a bit since its 2005 release. Highly recommended.The same weekend, Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate return to town after their memorable debut at Harbourfront last summer. A genre-busting combination of West African grooves and hip hop, they’ll rock the stage at Lula on the 8th.

Two events of note in the coming weeks at the Flato Markham Theatre spanning South Asian and Brazilian star artists. ‘The Sarod Project’ features South Asia’s ‘first family of the sarod’, with Amjad, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Kahn. Songlines Magazine called Amjad Ali Khan “One of the 20th century’s greatest masters of the Sarod” and there’s no doubt, he is a superstar of South Asian music.  With his two sons, Amaan and Ayaan, this trio transcends a musical lineage of seven generations, making the instrument timeless.

The following week, they host Samba Exótico – The Assad Brothers with Romero Lubambo. Two of Brazil’s most celebrated classical guitarists team up with one of the country’s most sought after jazz guitarists for a remarkable evening of string virtuosity.

                                         
Executive Director

Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate

Sunday February 8th, Lula Lounge

Get Tickets

Vusi Mahlasela & Hugh Masekela

Saturday February 28th, Koerner Hall

Get Tickets

Camané

Friday March 13th, Winter Garden Theatre

Get Tickets

Oliver Mtukudzi and the Black Spirits w. Special Guest Kinobe

Saturday April 18th, Koerner Hall

Get Tickets

The Stirring of a Thousand Bells

Friday February 6th, The Small World Music Centre

Get Tickets

THE SAROD PROJECT WITH
AMJAD ALI KHAN, AMAAN ALI KHAN & AYAAN ALI KHAN
Sunday, February 8, 8 pm

Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s concerts have been called magical. As a sarod virtuoso he is a superstar in India, revered for his expressive, vocalized playing. In his hands, the sarod’s 25 strings produce a rich palette of overtones mimicking the complex tone colours and expressive range of the human voice. With his two sons, Amaan and Ayaan, this trio transcends a musical lineage of seven generations, making the instrument timeless.

 

Get Tickets

Community Events

Small World Music supports our community partners and family of world music artists performing around the greater Toronto area. Visit the Small World Music site to learn more about all the great events happening in the city.

Support Small World

Small World Music Society is a charitable organization and presenter of culturally diverse music, supported by the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Trillium Foundation and the Toronto Arts Council, as well as community and corporate partners.