Bringing together poets, composers, and performers.
Alison d'Amato and Corey Hamm at a SongSparks event during Art Song Lab 2015.
Photo credit: Christoph Rondeau
(Art) Song Lab facilitates collaborative interaction between writers, composers, and performers to advance the genre of contemporary art song. Offering a 6-month creative period which culminates in a week-long intensive program, (Art) Song Lab sees international participating artists converge in Vancouver each summer for an annual public performance premiering new works.
Participant discussion at a SongSparks event during Art Song Lab 2015.
Photo credit: Christoph Rondeau
(Art) Song Lab enables composers and writers to engage with various artistic practices and traditions. As writers, composers, performers and listeners connect, they absorb each others’ visceral materials into diversely creative processes. The resulting works are direct expressions of contemporary experience. Since its conception in 2011, (Art) Song Lab has connected 70 writers with 108 composers, presenting world premieres of 128 new art songs.
Diversity is at the core of (Art) Song Lab, and our work reflects—and gives voice to—the lived experiences and histories of our participants. We welcome participants and applications from underrepresented groups including Indigenous people, people of colour, women, trans and gender variant people, Two-Spirit people, and people with a variety of accessibility requirements. We are proud to provide a safe space where artists of all backgrounds and lived experiences can come together to celebrate creativity and conversations that come from making art songs.