The Creators: Carol Gimbel

A conversation with creator Carol Gimbel, violist, founder and artistic director of Music in the Barns.

BY STEPHEN BEDE SCHARPER, NATALIE FRIJIA

JUL 2016 | 42.1 FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITIES

A\J: Can you tell us a bit about you and your art?

Carol Gimbel: I am a performer, producer and director. My passion is to explore the realm where the traditional and experimental meet. I find that the traditional is vitalized by drawing from and/or being juxtaposed with the experimental. The experimental’s roots are exemplified and thus enhanced next to the traditional. In bringing the two together, both should be preserved only so as to re-frame or utilize the other as a vehicle to enlivening an experience.

What does spirituality mean to you?

CG: Being an artist and creating art is a spiritual path – one in which we learn about ourselves, reflect on all levels of life, humanity, and express the “something more,” the “unspeakables”, the depths.

Does nature play a role in your art?

CG: My next production, Song of Extinction, reflects deeply on our human impact on the world around us. Nature, the beauty and laws of nature, human nature, the beauty and predicament of the human experience are all reflections deeply rooted in composition – for example the works of Bach or Beethoven. As we move through to current composition and performance we are reflecting our world around us, which also includes incorporating advanced technology, sound art including samples from nature and pop culture.

What role, if any, does hope play in your art?

CG: Hope is very important. Hope goes hand in hand with faith. First, we must believe in what is speaking through us as an artist. Many times this faith is the only shred we have to continue doing our work

Stephen Bede Scharper, a columnist for the Toronto Star, is an associate professor with the Centre for Environment at the University of Toronto. He is author of Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment and co-editor of The Natural City: Re-Envisioning the Built Environment.

MUSIC IN THE BARNS

Creating musical events in unusual spaces is one of the signature features of Music in the Barns, an organization founded in 2008 by violist Carol Gimbel. At the time, Gimbel had an artist studio in the Artscape Wychwood Barns building which was renovated from several large early 20th-century TTC streetcar garages to create a multi-use facility that contains individual artist studios, a farmers market, a greenhouse, an event space and arts organization offices. On June 2, Music in the Barns is staging a celebratory post-Covid return with different events happening in the various Barns’ spaces to create a multi-sensory experience for the audience. 

Anchoring the evening will be a concert to finally celebrate their 2019 album – Music in the Barns: Bolton, Godin & Oesterle (newfocusrecordings.com). As Gimbel explained to me during a recent phone conversation, they had previously championed the music on the album during their concerts at the Barns, and after recording it and spending many hours editing it, they never had a chance to do the album-launch concert properly before the lockdowns began. This concert will therefore be the chance for an extended evening of celebration with all those who worked on the album. 

One of the works on the album to be performed is Rose Bolton’s The Coming of Sobs, nominated in 2020 for a Juno Award in the Classical Composition of the Year category. This work represents a shift in Bolton’s compositional language, moving away from a more mathematical approach to embracing and expressing intense emotional elements. Another album composition to be performed is Michael Oesterle’s string quartet – Daydream Mechanics – that evokes childhood adventures of playing in the backyard while encountering all the possible threats contained in that unique environment.

The evening will begin on a meditative note with Scott Godin’s work Longing, to be followed by Steve Reich’s Proverb for five singers, keyboards and vibraphones, composed in 1995, and to be conducted by Véronique Lacroix, founder of the recently disbanded Ensemble contemporain de Montréal. This work is heavily influenced by the music of French medieval composer, Perotin, celebrated for developing the four-part polyphonic vocal style. In the hands of Reich with his approach to creating pulsating and interlocking patterns both melodically and rhythmically, the work will no doubt transport the listener into alternate realms. The concert will end on a more raucous tone, with Trash TV Trance by Italian composer Fausto Romitelli for electric guitar, a work Gimbel describes as being “wacky, dark and fun, like being on an acid trip.” As well, a newly commissioned work by Canadian Geof Holbrook – Brain Fills – with its “wildfire rock and roll quality” will conclude the evening in a spirit of high energy. Accompanying this full-on sonic experience will be live painting by visual artist John Coburn. Gimbel and Coburn met as neighbours at the Barns and some of Coburn’s drawings and paintings will also be on view at the Barns’ McKendrick Gallery from May 31 to June 3.

Music in the Barns has recently been involved in the development of a digital violin that will function as a video game controller. “Instead of having the controller in your hand with a series of buttons, you will use the violin bow,” Gimbel explained. Part of the process of creating this instrument involved a series of conversations with teachers and students across Canada, some of whom will be present to view the prototype on display in the gallery. The evening will end with the firing up of The Stop’s pizza oven and an intermingling of all in the Barns’ gardens. This animation of the multi-use Wychwood Barns facility is a fulfillment of the original vision of the creators of this space, something that Gimbel finds deeply satisfying to participate in. It was during the recent reflective time that Covid offered that she came to realize that each event that Music in the Barns has been involved in is “a prototype, an experiment and a hypothesis.” This event is the next step in that journey. 

July’s Awesome Ottawa award goes to Carol Gimbel to support a mass participatory concert in Wellington West, as part of Chamberfest.

“Young musician, avid amateur, seasoned pro, and enthusiastic concert attendee – all are welcome at #1000Strings,” says Carol. “The outdoor performance will feature award-winning composer John Oswald's seminal work Spectre, which was commissioned by the Kronos Quartet in 1990 and combines live quartet with multi-layered overdub, creating the illusion of a 1000-piece string orchestra. With #1000Strings, the community joins forces to make that illusion a reality.”

Play violin, viola, cello, or bass and want to join in? Signing up to participate is free. Want to just enjoy the show? It takes place Saturday, August 3rd, at 11 AM, in Hintonburg Park.

Carol is a performer, producer, and director. She is also Secretary of the Canadian Viola Society and founder of Music in the Barns, which specializes in repurposing alternative performance venues for bespoke, site-specific “installation concerts.”

Carol Gimbel- Artistic Director, Music in the Barns

YOUNG MUSIC MAKERS - PART II

By Sharon Lee | December 2012

Carol Gimbel’s series, Music in the Barns, is the result of 8-9 years of brainstorming and seeing ideas evolve. Prior to her move to Toronto, Carol spent several years in New York City, where she partook in an artist collective. This experience served as the basis for creating something extraordinary in Toronto.

Carol’s keen interest in chamber music and music of our time has led the ensemble to some very memorable collaborations including giving the Toronto premiere of a string quartet written by Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire, which they will be performing again on March 1st at the Academy of Lions as part of the Canadian Music Centre’s New Music in New Places Festival.

The series has some honest grassroots beginnings with the first concert having been enabled by a private sponsor for a private concert, and the rest snowballing from that. They advanced rather quickly, receiving a Canada Council grant for their final concert last season.

Only in its second season, Music in the Barns opens its series with a thought-provoking program that ties together otherwise unrelated aspects of the world we live in.

Carol uses the date of the concert, December 8th, as inspiration for her programming. December 8th marks the first day of Hanukkah, as well as the anniversary of John Lennon’s death. John Lennon’s death is commemorated by the Imagine Peace Tower, consisting of 15 searchlights, created for him by Yoko Ono.

Entitled “Light,” the program explores presence and absence of light (because one is indistinguishable without the other), featuring works by Stravinsky, Arvo Pärt, Xenakis and Crumb.

Joining the Music in the Barns Chamber Ensemble is percussionist David Schotzko, who will enjoy a separate stage for a number where the audience is welcome to get out of their seats and swarm him. The percussion set-up serves as an art instillation when not being performed.

While planning the program, Carol took a trip to NYC where she caught the ‘Creatures of Light’ exhibition, which explores the world of bioluminescence at the Museum of Natural History. Projected images bioluminescent creatures, such as jellyfish and fireflies, will accompany the performance on December 8th. Cash bar on site.

Keep up to date on concerts via their website.