March 2024

We invite Tanya Tagaq - a prolific artist, composer, singer, culture-bearer, climate activist, and radical voice for her people and her lands - to engage with the Brown and Rhode Island communities this March. For nearly twenty years, Tagaq has uplifted the art of throat singing while disrupting and inspiring both the pop and classical music worlds through collaborations with Bjork, Kronos Quartet, Paola Prestini, and others. An award-winning artist, Tagaq has bravely upended a wide variety of disciplines: five studio albums, music, and sounds for Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and for TV (Artic Air, True Detective: Night Country), a fictional memoir and audiobook (Split Tooth, 2018), and, in 2022, collaborated with filmmaker Chelsea McMullan to produce the documentary film, Ever Deadly, and Ajagutaq, a short VR work with artist Driftnote.

In honor of her enduring partnerships, as well as her innovative strides to disrupt disciplinary boundaries, we welcome Tagaq to campus this spring, along with some of her collaborators mentioned above, for a conversation with Indigenous climate activists (co-hosted by Providence-based FirstWorks) and two evening concerts in The Lindemann (future visits will focus on Tagaq’s literary and film works).

Climate Change: Our Response as Artivists

Tanya Tagaq and Small Island Big Song: In Conversation

Co-Hosted with FirstWorks
Tuesday, March 12, 2024, 5:30 PM-7:00 PM
Martinos Auditorium, Granoff Center for the Creative Arts

On the occasion of multi-hyphenate artist Tanya Tagaq’s residency at Brown and the presentation of the music, film, and performing arts project Small Island Big Song (SIBS) in Providence, Brown Arts Institute and FirstWorks co-host a conversation between Tagaq and SIBS company members about the responsibilities of artist-activists to address the urgent issues of climate change. Conversants ask us the question: “What will we tell our children if we fail to protect our planet?” Selections from documentary and creative film works by Tagaq and SIBS will also be shared. Moderated by Bao Bao Chen, co-founder and creative producer of Small Island Big Song.

Tanya Tagaq and Special Guests: In Concert

Featuring Paola Prestini, Jeffrey Zeigler, Christine Duncan, and Jean Martin; with Nancy Mike, Cynthia Pitsiulak, Charlotte Qamaniq, Varna Marianne Nielsen, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project

Thursday, March 14, 2024, 7:00 PM
Main Hall, The Lindemann Performing Arts Center

The first of two evenings of innovative, genre-bending music by improvisational singer, avant-garde composer, and bestselling author Tanya Tagaq (Ikaluktutiak, Cambridge Bay, Nunavut). A member of the Order of Canada, Polaris Music Prize, and JUNO Award winner, Tagaq curates a special program of compositions performed by and with a number of long-time collaborators including Christine Duncan (improvisational singer and conductor), Jean Martin (drummer and electronic artist), Paola Prestini (classical music composer), and Jeffrey Zeigler (cello). For portions of the evening, Tagaq is accompanied by a groundbreaking Inuit throat singing choir featuring Nancy Mike, Cynthia Pitsiulak, Charlotte Qamaniq, and Varna Marianne Nielsen. Gil Rose conducts the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, with second conductor Christine Duncan.

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Tanya Tagaq and Kronos Quartet

In celebration of Kronos Quartet: Five Decades

Featuring Nancy Mike, Cynthia Pitsiulak, Charlotte Qamaniq, and Varna Marianne Nielsen

Sunday, March 17, 2024, 7:00 PM
Main Hall, The Lindemann Performing Arts Center

Tanya Tagaq, in celebration of Kronos Quartet: Five Decades tour, invites her long-time collaborators Kronos Quartet to premiere their new collaborative work, commissioned by Brown Arts Institute. The evening’s program also includes performances by Tagaq with an Inuit throat singing choir featuring Nancy Mike, Cynthia Pitsiulak, Charlotte Qamaniq, and Varna Marianne Nielsen, music performed by Kronos Quartet, as well as Tagaq/Kronos collaborations Sivunittinni (2015, composed by T. Tagaq for 50 For The Future: The Kronos Learning Repertoire, arranged by Jacob Garchik) and Colonizer (arranged by T. Tagaq, performed with Kronos Quartet on her album Tongues, 2022).