Flux Festival is a new Montreal experimental music festival that will take place between October 4 and 10, 2024. It is a collaboration initiated by Arts in the Margins with Innovations en Concert, Mardi Spaghetti, Le Vivier, Canadian New Music Network, McGill University’s Laboratory of Urban Culture and the International Institute for the Critical Studies of Improvisation.

Innovations en concert is delighted to present Amahl Arulanandam’s virtuoso video performance of Julius Eastman’s The Holy Presence of Joan D’Arc on October 10 as part of Flux Festival. Also on the programme: Architek Percussion performing Julius Eastman’s Gay Guerilla and a new work by Montreal composer Andrea Young!

The Holy Presence of Joan D’Arc

Composed by Julius Eastman and transcribed by Clarice Jensen

Camera: Justin Moy / Sound recording: Paul Hodge Audio

Video editing: Vicky Mettler, Concrete Sound Studios

Produced and directed by Isak Goldschneider

Julius Eastman was an openly queer African- American composer, pianist and vocalist, who was an early augur of post-minimalism. While his work received considerable acclaim (his compositions presaged the later work of Arthur Russell and Rhys Chatham, and his recording of Peter Maxwell Davies’ Songs for a Mad King is considered a classic) he was systematically excluded from all but the most precarious of employment and died homeless in 1990. His death was not reported until eight months later.

The Holy Presence of Joan D’Arc was originally premiered at the Kitchen in 1981, but the score was lost, and all that remained was an archival recording which composer Clarice Jensen used to painstakingly construct a transcription.

In this video recording, cellist Amahl Arulanandam performs all The Holy Presence of Joan D’Arc’s ten cello parts in split screen format – a virtuoso feat which involved recording and synchronizing more than three hours of video footage! 

Amahl Arulanandam is a Toronto-based cellist known for his musical versatility and ability to adapt to many different genres ranging from baroque to death metal. Feeling at home in studios, small clubs, and large concert-halls, Amahl is known as a strong advocate for the music of our time, performing with ensembles such as Soundstreams, New Music Concerts, Tapestry Opera and Esprit Orchestra, as well as regular appearances at the 21C Music Festival. He has had the opportunity to work closely with leading composers such as Salvatore Sciarrino, Marco Stroppa, Ana Sokolovic, Luna Pearl Woolf, and Brian Current. As a soloist and chamber musician, Amahl has presented several recitals and performed alongside artists such as David Geringas, Robert Aitken, Steven Dann, Angela Cheng, and Jeffrey Beecher. He toured the US with Matt Haimovitz’s all-cello ensemble, Uccello, and was a featured artist at the Salzburg Chamber Music Festival and Ottawa Chamberfest.

The concert will also include two major works performed by Architek Percussion. Angel’s Share (2020) by Montreal composer Andrea Young, a meditative work for percussion quartet, explores the complex and evolving universe of scotch aromas, inspired by three rare single malt whiskies from the Ardbeg distillery. Young’s exploration of deep timbres, dense sound masses, and the haunting melancholy of musical saws invites the audience to a sensory synaesthetic experience between taste and hearing. Architek Percussion then joins Montreal pianists Pamela Reimer and Daniel Añez for a performance of Julius Eastman’s seminal minimalist work, Gay Guerrilla. This performance helps to reaffirm Eastman’s place as one of the most innovative composers of his time, a status that was initially denied to him because of his race and sexual orientation.