Catherine writes:

The show went well. Very well. One of the great advantages of having Pidgoyomon performed in it’s own time spot was that we could freely arrange the seating as we wished. The seats closely encircled the performance space reinforcing the intimacy that the music demanded. The technical aspects of the show, the projections, lighting, recorded audio etc. went off without a hitch. This is quite something when you consider that this was our first fell length performance of the show and that we didn’t have time for a proper dress rehearsal, just a cue to cue. Definitely great credit and thanks to Julie Fournier for that!

A goal that Terri and I made early on in the process was that within the show structure that we create, we would allow a generous space for improvisation, for awareness of the moment, our place and sense within ourselves and most importantly together. We created and performed our music with that in mind at all times with the result that our performances and rehearsals throughout the winter. Vibrant, exciting, frightening, gratifying, moving … fun.
We got a good crowd out for our Sunday eve with about 40 people attending. A number still allowing us to maintain that important intimacy.

Speaking for myself, it is difficult to say how the show went exactly. Difficult to have an outside perspective. It was a moment. I felt sad that it was the end, satisfied that it was the end, unsure because it was the end. It feels like a dream to me now that I am writing this. During and after the performance, I remember feeling full of life, solid on the ground, that time was suspended and lived in it’s own place. Over the years, I have realised that that feeling represents to me an authentic experience, that an honest statement was made. Terri and I plan to continue with the project at the end of the winter of 2010 at the Banff Centre with some further creation and recording.

Terri adds:

Looking back on PIDGOYOMON now a month and a half later, it does seem like a dream. At the same time, the integrity of the perforamance makes it very present for me. I know that the next steps of the project will be much less appetizing than the creative flurry we were in at the Banff Centre: trying to find opportunities to perform the piece and develop it again in other places for other occasions. We’ve been busy already planning a recording of the material and are scouting out the right places to perform. Baby steps.

With the generous help of the Music & Sound department at the Banff Centre, Terri and I found a time for the performance of Pidgoyomon in Rolston Hall on Sunday March 8. We created a work a little longer than 70 minutes and had free rein to present our vision as fully as possible with staging, electronics and seating. Michael Markowsky designed some beautiful banners for us appliquéing cut coloured felt pieces onto 14′ x 18″ strips of white felt. He did his work, earlier in the winter, while Terri and I played in the space with Michael responding directly to the sounds he was hearing.

We used the banners as a freely hung frame placed in front of four floor to ceiling lengths of white broadcloth which served as a projection screen for the video elements of the show that Terri wonderfully prepared using sounds and images that she and I collected during our winter in Banff. Each of these projected sections represent the overall theme and serve as a division for the three sections in Pidgoyomon: the passenger pigeon, the coyote and the salmon.

Julie Fournier was our stage manager and lighting designer. She and her amazing spirit helped us to get the show up and running. Starting at noon, we got everything set and ready with a good hour to spare before the performance began.
Martin Finnerty helped with figuring out some logistics … hanging the screen and banners, organising the projector, finding cables etc.
Maria Kantorowitz recorded the show and Juliana Leite videotaped for us. Many thanks for the help!
Many thanks also to Barry, Geoff, Mhiran and everyone else in the Banff Centre music & sound department for helping us to get Pidgoyomon staged.

Terri adds:

PIDGOYOMON would not have had such a smooth and natural development had we not been in the welcoming and supportive space that is Music & Sound at the Banff Centre. Not only the staff but our fellow residents were unfailing pillars for us, who provided help, feedback, hugs and their eyes and ears. Their spirit is also in our piece, as it is a reflection of a specific space at a specific time.
The natural beauty of Banff, its hotsprings, its Wildflour Café, its locals and all its other quirks felt like home and the perfect place to be.

During the winter of 2009 at the Banff Centre, Terri and I had a number of Pidgoyomon related performances, some casual and spontaneous and others more formal, culminating in a full length, 70 minute presentation in The Banff Centre’s Rolston Hall on Sunday March 8. We worked together for just over 2 months on the project. It was a great, intense period of creation. A Pidgoyomon highlight for me were the many fields trips Terri and I had collecting sounds and images, talking, imagining. That’s something is miss terribly, those outings. It was a wonderful time of connecting. We were challenged, we pushed personal boundaries and we made something. The time was forever and ended in a second. There were moments of despair where I wanted to quit, to leave and moments when I felt as full of life and living as I ever have. 

Terri adds:

The intensity both of putting together so much new material in such a short space of time and of doing it in such a personal and intimate way was a completely new experience for me.  Catherine and I didn’t have any agendas going in, other than my desire to make something staged, and to make it in some way connected to the place we were in. At the same time, it was not the kind of project I had ever done before, and it was a constant exhiliration to see what seemed to come to us completely of itself, and also a constant fight to keep expectations and preconceptions at bay. I feel the result was the most heartfelt and personal work I have been involved in.

come back soon to read our stories, listen to our sounds and watch our shows unfolding.

terri & catherine