Sound Travels Festival of Sound Art
New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA) launches the 28th edition of the Sound Travels Festival of Sound Art with summer-long events that opneinteractive exhibitions as well as the four day Sound Travels Intensive coinciding with World Listening Day on July 18. The festival opens on June 6 at 7 pm EDT with a Pride Concert. Featured is a performance by Kat Estacio as well as The Elemental Trilogy by Barry Truax, who recently was awarded the Order of Canada. The concert will be in-person and livestreamed with a Q&A component.
Performances
Sound Travels Pride Concert
In-Person and Online Performance presented in association with Almagiun Pride
By Barry Truax and Kat Estacio
June 6, 2026 at 6 pm Doors open at 5 pm for Café Service and a special video screening
In-Person at NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario, Canada.
Online audiences register in advance for access.
Tickets $15
In-Person and Online Performance presented in association with Almagiun Pride
By Barry Truax and Kat Estacio
June 6, 2026 at 6 pm Doors open at 5 pm for Café Service and a special video screening
In-Person at NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario, Canada.
Online audiences register in advance for access.
Tickets $15
The Sound Travels Festival of Sound Art opens with a Pride Concert celebrating two LGBQT2S artists from different generations. Featured is a performance by Kat Estacio as well as a multi-channel screening of The Elemental Trilogy of works by Barry Truax, who recently was awarded the Order of Canada. The concert will be in-person and livestreamed with a Q&A component.
Androgyne, Mon Amour by Barry Truax will be screened in the workshop studio prior to the concert from 5 to 6 pm and played online after the concert.
Androgyne, Mon Amour by Barry Truax will be screened in the workshop studio prior to the concert from 5 to 6 pm and played online after the concert.
Program:
I. What the Waters Told Me by Barry Truax
If we listen carefully to flowing water in all of its varied forms, we may begin to hear voices and ascribe human emotions to them. The voices may be argumentative, even angry, as at the start of our journey, but suddenly they become hushed as we enter a large cavern. A mysterious voice seems to give us commands as we await the next stage, while ethereal voices guide us along. The commands become more insistent until the waters burst forth with transcendent song in a celebration of water and life.
If we listen carefully to flowing water in all of its varied forms, we may begin to hear voices and ascribe human emotions to them. The voices may be argumentative, even angry, as at the start of our journey, but suddenly they become hushed as we enter a large cavern. A mysterious voice seems to give us commands as we await the next stage, while ethereal voices guide us along. The commands become more insistent until the waters burst forth with transcendent song in a celebration of water and life.
II. How the Winds Caressed Me by Barry Truax
The wind is a restless and devious presence in our lives, revealing itself as an invisible, tactile experience, and aurally only in what it is interacting with. It can pretend to speak to us with a voice when it passes through a narrow opening, or it can even resemble a musician when it activates a string — the Aeolian effect — or resonates a tube with its breath. And its moods can range from being a relentless, stormy foe, to the most gentle of caresses. This piece propels us through its repertoire, eventually enveloping us in an ocean of transcendence.
The wind is a restless and devious presence in our lives, revealing itself as an invisible, tactile experience, and aurally only in what it is interacting with. It can pretend to speak to us with a voice when it passes through a narrow opening, or it can even resemble a musician when it activates a string — the Aeolian effect — or resonates a tube with its breath. And its moods can range from being a relentless, stormy foe, to the most gentle of caresses. This piece propels us through its repertoire, eventually enveloping us in an ocean of transcendence.
III. When the Earth Mourned for Me by Barry Truax
With each passing day, we see evidence of our deteriorating environment and that evokes in us a personal and collective grief. We mourn for the earth, but if we listen to its cries, does it also mourn for us, the instigators of its demise? This piece invites us to listen to the voices of the earth that may emerge even from what we have extracted from it. The journey proceeds in four overlapping sections: Choir, Lament, Anguish, and Threnody.
With each passing day, we see evidence of our deteriorating environment and that evokes in us a personal and collective grief. We mourn for the earth, but if we listen to its cries, does it also mourn for us, the instigators of its demise? This piece invites us to listen to the voices of the earth that may emerge even from what we have extracted from it. The journey proceeds in four overlapping sections: Choir, Lament, Anguish, and Threnody.
IV. Kulintang and Electronics Performance by Kat Estacio
Emerging from the tidal estuaries of Pasig River with taga-ilog/Tagalog ancestry, soundmaker and researcher kat estacio has since flowed towards the Great Lakes and is now based in Tsí Tkaròn:to (Toronto). Anchoring kulintang, an Indigenous gong ensemble music tradition from Mindanao (Southern Philippines), as a site of divergence and retrieval, estacio is bridging archipelago narratives of percussive sound making and land-based tending from a diasporic perspective.
Emerging from the tidal estuaries of Pasig River with taga-ilog/Tagalog ancestry, soundmaker and researcher kat estacio has since flowed towards the Great Lakes and is now based in Tsí Tkaròn:to (Toronto). Anchoring kulintang, an Indigenous gong ensemble music tradition from Mindanao (Southern Philippines), as a site of divergence and retrieval, estacio is bridging archipelago narratives of percussive sound making and land-based tending from a diasporic perspective.
Installations
Waterscape
By Lina Choi
June 11 to September 7, 2026. Open 10 am to 4 pm Thursday to Monday
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
Waterscape is a sound sculpture by Lina Choi that produces water-like sounds through small motor-driven devices. Each element creates subtle drops and flows, forming an evolving, immersive sound environment.
Inspired by the movement of water, the work reinterprets these rhythms through mechanical systems, blurring the line between natural and artificial. The surrounding sounds invite listeners to slow down and experience a shifting sonic landscape.
By Lina Choi
June 11 to September 7, 2026. Open 10 am to 4 pm Thursday to Monday
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
Waterscape is a sound sculpture by Lina Choi that produces water-like sounds through small motor-driven devices. Each element creates subtle drops and flows, forming an evolving, immersive sound environment.
Inspired by the movement of water, the work reinterprets these rhythms through mechanical systems, blurring the line between natural and artificial. The surrounding sounds invite listeners to slow down and experience a shifting sonic landscape.
Voice of the Water
Interactive Installation
By Eric Powell
Ongoing, Thursday to Monday, 10 am to 4 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
Voice of the Water is an interactive rotary telephone-based listening station. Using sounds collected from inside the lakes and rivers around South River, Voice of the Water encourages listeners to connect with the local waterways as they explore the boundaries and overlaps between planes of existence. The Artist's goal is to create a venue for contemplation, catharsis, and a deeper engagement with the surrounding environment
Interactive Installation
By Eric Powell
Ongoing, Thursday to Monday, 10 am to 4 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
Admission by Donation
Voice of the Water is an interactive rotary telephone-based listening station. Using sounds collected from inside the lakes and rivers around South River, Voice of the Water encourages listeners to connect with the local waterways as they explore the boundaries and overlaps between planes of existence. The Artist's goal is to create a venue for contemplation, catharsis, and a deeper engagement with the surrounding environment
The Decomposing Piano
Open 24/7 in All Seasons
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
FREE, Join us August 9 and September 13 from 1 to 3 pm for an open Jam on the piano. All ages and abilities welcome.
Open 24/7 in All Seasons
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
FREE, Join us August 9 and September 13 from 1 to 3 pm for an open Jam on the piano. All ages and abilities welcome.
The Decomposing Piano is a semi-permanent outdoor installation that explores the effects of the Northern Ontario climate on an upright piano at its location at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River, Ontario, Canada. This is inspired by musical explorations in Australia of performing on - and of collecting - 'ruined' pianos - pianos left outside in the natural environment for an extended period of time (see https://bolleter.wixsite.com/warpsmusic for further insights).
The Decomposing Piano at NAISA was installed in December 2022 at a point where the upright piano was still playable despite some tuning deficiencies. As time goes on it is expected to become more and more difficult to play. However, in the gradual "decomposition" or "weathering" of the piano over time, new sounds should emerge - some of which might require increasing amounts of aid from recording and amplification to be experienced. Through its entire decomposition process, the public is invited to play the piano at NAISA and experience its transformation until it is deemed unsafe to play. The NAISATube YouTube Channel features a 24/7 webcam of the Decomposing Piano. Visit the Decomposing Piano webpage for more background and an archive of improvisations and demonstrations.
The Decomposing Piano at NAISA was installed in December 2022 at a point where the upright piano was still playable despite some tuning deficiencies. As time goes on it is expected to become more and more difficult to play. However, in the gradual "decomposition" or "weathering" of the piano over time, new sounds should emerge - some of which might require increasing amounts of aid from recording and amplification to be experienced. Through its entire decomposition process, the public is invited to play the piano at NAISA and experience its transformation until it is deemed unsafe to play. The NAISATube YouTube Channel features a 24/7 webcam of the Decomposing Piano. Visit the Decomposing Piano webpage for more background and an archive of improvisations and demonstrations.
The Sensation of Distribution
By Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters
Open 24/7 year round
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
By Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters
Open 24/7 year round
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
The Sensation of Distribution is a reprise of Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters’s 2019 work, The Distribution of Sensation, which they created while artists in residence at The Bentway, a large, urban public space situated under an elevated highway in downtown Toronto. The Distribution of Sensation was a sound sculpture composed of PVC pipes installed around The Bentway that invited visitors to listen through the natural resonance of the cylinders, creating a series of musical experiences across the site. Mimic the plumbing infrastructure of the site, the installation was meant to create aesthetic slippages that might potentially lead to confusion as to what exactly functioned or counted as art.
The re-installation of this work at NAISA blends the pipe sculptures into a more domestic vernacular. Mounted on NAISA’s exterior walls to impersonate furnace vents and erupting from the ground to suggest rogue plumbing gone awry, The Sensation of Distribution re-invites visitors to explore the unnoticed or imminent sonic and aesthetic potential of our built environment.
The re-installation of this work at NAISA blends the pipe sculptures into a more domestic vernacular. Mounted on NAISA’s exterior walls to impersonate furnace vents and erupting from the ground to suggest rogue plumbing gone awry, The Sensation of Distribution re-invites visitors to explore the unnoticed or imminent sonic and aesthetic potential of our built environment.
SOUNDwalks
No upcoming events programmed yet. Please check later for updates.Workshops
Sound Travels 4-day Workshop Intensive
July 16 to 20, 2026
Warbler’s Roost, 3785D Eagle Lake Road, South River, Ontario
$678 with 4 nights accommodation and $495 with no accommodation
July 16 to 20, 2026
Warbler’s Roost, 3785D Eagle Lake Road, South River, Ontario
$678 with 4 nights accommodation and $495 with no accommodation
Advance Registration Required
This Sound Travels 4-day Workshop Intensive is for artists of all levels of experience to create sound art works in situ and/or that include outdoor elements embedded in their works. This will be a creative and very personal way to celebrate World Listening Day, an occasion to reflect on the sound-making of all organisms that inhabit the soundscapes we have the privilege of experiencing.
The workshop will be located at Warbler’s Roost and will be facilitated by NAISA Artistic Director Darren Copeland as well as workshop components delivered by guest artists Fred Pinto, Christine Charette and Gordon Monahan.
Participants should bring any portable materials or equipment they wish to use. Audio Playback equipment will be provided.
Warbler’s Roost is located in the unorganized rural Township of Lount which is 22 KM west of the village of South River, Ontario, Canada and is in the same biosphere as Algonquin Park and equidistant between the cities of North Bay and Huntsville. There are comfortable indoor accommodations at Warbler's Roost with kitchens and bathrooms that are shared among the guests. Breakfast is provided each day. Participants are responsible for self-catering other meals.
This Sound Travels 4-day Workshop Intensive is for artists of all levels of experience to create sound art works in situ and/or that include outdoor elements embedded in their works. This will be a creative and very personal way to celebrate World Listening Day, an occasion to reflect on the sound-making of all organisms that inhabit the soundscapes we have the privilege of experiencing.
The workshop will be located at Warbler’s Roost and will be facilitated by NAISA Artistic Director Darren Copeland as well as workshop components delivered by guest artists Fred Pinto, Christine Charette and Gordon Monahan.
- Fred Pinto, naturalist, forester, and birder in North Bay, will lead a workshop on the geologic history of the Parry Sound region and how it shapes the vegetation around Warbler's Roost. He will lead a walk striking rock pebbles to uncover different bedrock types.
- Christine Charette will share background on her multi-disciplinary approach of combining text, soundscape recording and visual art to create outdoor site-specific works, two of which include pieces made for Warbler's Roost.
- Gordon Monahan will join online to talk about his sound installations using pianos in outdoor sites. He will set the framework for a workshop activity using the Weathered Piano site at Warbler's Roost.
Participants should bring any portable materials or equipment they wish to use. Audio Playback equipment will be provided.
Warbler’s Roost is located in the unorganized rural Township of Lount which is 22 KM west of the village of South River, Ontario, Canada and is in the same biosphere as Algonquin Park and equidistant between the cities of North Bay and Huntsville. There are comfortable indoor accommodations at Warbler's Roost with kitchens and bathrooms that are shared among the guests. Breakfast is provided each day. Participants are responsible for self-catering other meals.
The Decomposing Piano Jam
August 9 and September 13, 1 to 3 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
FREE
August 9 and September 13, 1 to 3 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario
FREE
An interesting way to learn about improvisation is to play an instrument that is always changing. The Decomposing Piano has been transforming outdoors since December 2022. It continues to challenge expectations and transform possibilities, revealing new sound colours and tunings as time passes on. People of all ages and abilities are welcome to join NAISA Executive Director Nadene Thériault-Copeland in the discovery process. Visit the Decomposing Piano page for an archive of past improvisations and performances.
Talks
Listening to Water: Sound Installations and Performances
In-Person and Online Artist Talk
By Lina Choi
June 20, 2026, 1:00 pm
In-Person at NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario, Canada.
Online audiences register in advance for access.
Admission by Donation
Montréal artist Lina Choi explains her work in performance and installation using water sounds to creates experiences that evoke fluidity, memory, and sensory experience. Photo by Àlex Espuny.
In-Person and Online Artist Talk
By Lina Choi
June 20, 2026, 1:00 pm
In-Person at NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario, Canada.
Online audiences register in advance for access.
Admission by Donation
Montréal artist Lina Choi explains her work in performance and installation using water sounds to creates experiences that evoke fluidity, memory, and sensory experience. Photo by Àlex Espuny.