To organize the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival as well as a variety of off season events.
To present a diverse artistic program featuring a broad variety of creative approaches and an eclectic variety of experimental music and sound based genres.
To invite artists who rarely perform in Montreal and introduce new artists to new audiences.
To create more awareness about Montreal’s thriving independent music scene, not only nationally and internationally but also locally between divergent artistic communities.
To build links between artists and the public and involve the community in the festival through public workshops and other outreach activities.
To provide a dependable point of access for collaboration, innovation, improvisation, and for first-time presentations of new artistic works.
To showcase the relationship between music, sound and cinema and progressive social and political movements.
To support the growth of Canadian artists by maintaining 50% Canadian content and by ensuring that Canadian performers are paid fees equivalent to international artists.

Festival and
Off-Season Events

An annual three week festival of approximately fifty concerts is presented each June featuring an eclectic variety of avant-garde and experimental music and sound genres such as Free Jazz, Musique Actuelle, Out World, Avant Folk, Avant Rock, Noise/Electronics, Sound Art, Twentieth Century Classical, and Maverick/Outsider music and experimental film. High profile international artists are booked alongside up and coming artists.
The festival presents a flagship concert featuring a well known headline artist. This concert serves to raise the festival profile by drawing extra media attention and attracting new audiences.
The festival includes a series of Canadian artists from across the country and highlights their rich cultural diversity.
An ever increasing number of concerts and events are programmed during the off season period to maintain festival visibility. During the last fiscal year, twenty-five of these events were presented.

Local, National and International
Presentation Partnerships

The festival partners with an extensive list of local, national and international presenters such as the Off Festival de Jazz, ICASP (Improvisations, Community and Social Practice), Caribou Sonore, Sociéte Musique Contemporain de Québec, Traquen’art, Innovations en Concert, Blue Skies Turn Black, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Toronto’s Music Gallery, Toronto’s Wavelength Series and Winnipeg’s Send and Receive Festival. These partnerships permit the festival to share costs on presentations and to help make Canadian tours by visiting international artists financially feasible.

Beginning in 2011, the festival began to present a special film series with independent Montreal film house Blue Sunshine. This series features music and sound related programming.

An academic conference featuring national and international scholars researching the social implications of musical improvisation is regularly co-presented during the main festival period with McGill University’s Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP).

In the Community:
Education and Outreach

A workshop series entitled Music Addict is offered twice a week during most of the year to at risk youth, who participate in activities offered in collaboration with Head and Hands community centre.

A free workshop series entitled Tools of the Trade takes place during the festival and is open to the public. The series features world class contemporary musicians discussing and demonstrating their work. Other workshop activities include Improv Contact and a partnership with Caribou Sonore.

The Suoni has also joined and is actively involved in Montreal-area presenter networks such as Le Réseau LeVivier and Le Regroupement.

COVID Policy & Procedures
for Festival Shows 2022

Suoni Per Il Popolo has outlined the following safety guidelines to protect the health and well-being of attendees, festival staff, and performers at all festival events in 2022:

Masks are mandatory at all times for anyone aged 10 and older in attendance at an indoor event, for example: while using the washroom facilities, while ordering or paying for food and beverages, and while entering and exiting the venue. Masks for children between ages 2-9 are at the discretion of their caregiver. We recommended that you wear a well-fitted KN95 or N95 mask. Suoni will have a limited number of masks available for audience members at the door of every show.

Exceptional circumstances for masks include:

-Audience members may remove masks while stationary and consuming food/beverages but must put masks back on between bites/drinks.

-Performers may remove masks while on stage during their dedicated performance slot or during production hours with consent from the production staff.

-Workshop participants may remove masks while stationary and staying 6ft. away from other parties.

While outside a venue, or while attending an outdoor show, we encourage you to wear a mask any time you are within 6ft. of other parties.
We encourage you to administer a rapid test within 24 hours of attending an event. Free antigen tests are available at most pharmacies, more information on this is here.
As much as possible, wash your hands and use the hand sanitizer provided.
If you have any cold or flu-like symptoms, please stay home. Suoni is happy to arrange reimbursement for any advance tickets under these circumstances. For more information, please email amy@suoniperilpopolo.org

Staff members will notify you if your behavior appears to be unsafe. Staff members may also ask you to leave based on a perceived threat to collective health and well-being if you violate these guidelines.

Please note that we may change these prevention measures and procedures to adjust to new circumstances without prior notice and within a very short time frame.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

Past

"Rehearsals for Living" Book Launch: Robyn Maynard + Leanne Betasamosake Simpson