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
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.
Talks
Listening to Water: Sound Installations and Performances
In-Person and Online Artist Talk
By Lina Choi
June 20, 2026, 1:00 pm
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
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
NAISA North Media Arts Centre, 313 Highway 124, South River, Ontario.
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.