You're Invited To 'Play The City'

 'PLAY THE CITY'

You may not know it, but the City of Nanaimo is a musical instrument. On Saturday, June 12th at 1:30 PM, you are invited to Diana Krall Plaza to ‘Play the City.’
 
At the ‘Play the City’ event the walls, sculpture and pavement of Diana Krall Plaza will be transformed into music-like instruments and the live sound will be mixed with recorded sounds of the core of our city.
 
“This is one of our most exciting and ground-breaking projects,” said Nanaimo Arts Council (NAC) board member Valerie Alia, a writer, photographer and arts critic. “It brings together new and established artists with cutting-edge approaches to acoustic and electronic musical composition.”
 
Since January, dozens of adventurous Nanaimo-ites have gathered sound recordings of the city, guided by Bill Perison, Steve Rush, Tamara Martella, Dave Roth, Leah Hokanson and Tim Mills. These local professional artists range from DJ extraordinaire to symphony sound sizzler. Project leader Bill Perison is a singer, pianist, composer, recording engineer, educator and author.
 
“The intention is to bring together community members of all ages to explore the sounds of our outstanding city” says Bill. “Together we will create aural textures from prerecorded sounds collected by community members mixed with you (yes, you) playing the walls, ground and bike racks of Diana Krall plaza”.
 
Those involved in recording sound bites from the Nanaimo core include the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society, Nanaimo Youth Services Association – One Stop Program, CHLY Radio, Paradise Isle Seniors Society, and Pauline Haarer School. Also, Boutique MAC provided the venue for a demonstration sound mix using Ableton Live. This Arts-Based Community Development project is sponsored by the British Columbia Arts Council.