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Since 2000, Suoni Per Il Popolo is a meeting ground of experimental music, art and activism presented by the non-profit organization Société des Arts Libres et Actuels (SALA).

Rooted in exploratory creative connections, SALA is committed to:

Organize the Suoni Per Il Popolo festival in June, along with off-season activities.
Present an artistic program featuring a wide range of creative approaches and an eclectic mix of genres based on experimental music and sound.
Showcase artists who rarely perform in Montreal and introduce new audiences to emerging talent.
Increase the visibility of Montreal’s independent music scene, both nationally and internationally, while engaging local, diverse artistic communities.
Build bridges between artists and the public through workshops, cultural mediation, and awareness-raising activities.
Provide a reliable platform for collaboration, innovation, improvisation, and the debut of new artistic creations.
Highlight the connection between music, sound, art, print, cinema, food, and progressive social and political movements.
Support the development of Canadian artists, ensuring Canadian content makes up over 50% of the programming.

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.

Trading Places: Un Échange is a vibrant residency program begun in 2016 that takes place in Montréal and Vancouver, two of Canada’s foremost centers of improvised music. The NOW Society and Suoni Per Il Popolo curate in collaboration, providing support for artistic practice and opportunities for growth through cultural exchange.

T. Gowdy + Steve Bates & Elizabeth Anka + Mat Ball & Ky Brooks + Nennen

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