FIMAV 42 | 15 May Programming

FRIDAY | 3 p.m.

FRIENDLY RICH LES OISEAUX DE MARSVILLE

Scène Pierre-Bruneau | Place Ste-Victoire | free

Friendly Rich brings his portable carnival to town. Les Oiseaux de Marsville is a long-form composition for and performance on the orchestrion, an automated wooden pump organ, plus a truckload of other instruments and noisemakers. With these, he plays the fantastical songs of dozens of bizarre birds from the lost, mythic isle of Marsville. Musique actuelle street theatre for all ages.

FRIDAY | 5 p.m.

BEAST

Centre des Congrès | Hôtel le Victorin | $25

Utterly contemporary music on Early instruments. Beast delves into the rich textural space that drones on this instrumental combination afford. These are interlaced with brief, mostly melodic, interjections that dance within that space. Combining deep historical knowledge with thoroughly contemporary, experimental sensibilities, Clark and Grossman weave a timeless tapestry in sound.

FRIDAY | 6 p.m.

INFORMAL CONCERT IN THE Q.G.

Quartier général FIMAV | Carré 150 | free

Limited capacity; first come first served.
Festival passeports do not guarantee access.

Visit the brand-new FIMAV Quartier général –– the Festival Hub –– in the Studio Monique-Bourgeois, Carré 150! There, between afternoon and evening concerts, festival artists will have the time and space to play informal concerts of freely improvised music. Grab a drink, grab a sandwich, and hear FIMAV artists up close in first-time musical encounters, all for free!

FRIDAY | 7:30 p.m.

SAKINA ABDOU, TOMA GOUBAND & MARTA WARELIS

Salle les-frères-Lemaire | Carré 150 | $30

Following her unforgettable solo concert at the 2024 FIMAV, French saxophonist Sakina Abdou returns with her Hammer, Roll and Leaf trio with indescribable percussionist Toma Gouband and a brilliant newer voice on piano, Marta Warelis. The sound of Abdou’s saxophone is a powerfully grounding experience, at once palpably new and eternal.

FRIDAY | 9:30 p.m.

JOSH ZUBOT STRINGS

Cabaret Guy-Aubert | Carré 150 | $30

This dazzling West Coast string ensemble plays Josh Zubot’s music with an uncommon combination of drive and sensitivity, animating music that draws on myriad sources, from the most rootedly folkish to the most loftily modern, like Béla Bartók for the 21st century. They will feature a brand-new suite Zubot has composed for this FIMAV appearance.

FRIDAY | 11 p.m.

JOHN OSWALD PLUNDERPHONICOVERALLS

Quartier général FIMAV | Carré 150 | free

Limited capacity; first come first served.
Festival passeports do not guarantee access.

Toronto polymath artist John Oswald pioneered the compositional approach, Plunderphonics, primarily as a recorded project making familiar music unfamiliar through radical re-creation –– Michael Jackson is an infamous example. Coveralls is a live version of the concept that he sums up as “karaoke in reverse”; he will play the isolated vocal tracks of known singers – while three groups of festival musicians, each on a different night and hand-picked by Oswald, will improvise strange and wonderful accompaniments.

Artistic Vision 2026

“At FIMAV 42 you can hear world-class artists from Quebec, Canada, and abroad in formal settings with which long-time festival audiences will be familiar. Darius Jones, Pat Thomas, Rafael Toral, Amirtha Kidambi, and Eric Chenaux, for example, have never played FIMAV before. With our additional series of free informal concerts and satellite event, audiences will have different kinds of access to many of them as well. This edition will be ‘up close and personal’ and we think it will be more festive because of it!”

-Scott Thomson, Artistic Director