ANIMA

Cuando existe amor sincero
Se diluyen las fronteras,
Ni la raza ni la piel
Le pueden poner barreras.
— A Orillas del Rio Sil, M. Malou

Join us for Border Ballads, tomorrow/Friday evening (Oct. 24th, 8 p.m.) at The Registry Theatre in Kitchener (ON): 'When there is sincere love borders dissolve. Neither race nor skin can put barriers in its way.'

Dear Friends, Come one, come all to a free public presentation of our program WEDDED PRIDE, tomorrow (Wed. Oct. 8th) at 12 noon at the Conrad Grebel University Chapel, 140 Westmount Rd N, Waterloo, ON.

This program, featuring performers Daniel Cabena, Luke Hathaway, Henry Oswald Peirson, & Lesley Emma Bouza, is a celebration of q***r love, friendship & marriage, in honour of the 20th anniversary of the Civil Marriage Act.

The program was premiered in June 2025; this repeat performance brings a distilled version to the audience of Conrad Grebel's Noon Hour Concerts series. Admission is free & all are welcome. Please join us!

Many thanks to our hosts — and to the generations of 2SLGBTQIA+ friends and lovers who have the sought blessings of community for our diverse families.

https://uwaterloo.ca/music/events/noon-hour-concert-wedded-pride

Come one, come all to Mme Sosostris’ Canteen R***e! We’re so excited to share with you this workshop showing of excerpts from Caeneus, a new work of music theatre. Seats are available in person at 10C Shared Space in Guelph, Ontario; and there’ll be a livestream, too!

MME SOSOSTRIS' CANTEEN R***E https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/mme-sosostris-canteen-revue-tickets-962471497157?utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=wsa&aff=ebdsshwebmobile

music by James Rolfe | words by Luke Hathaway
dir. Guillaume Bernardi | assistant direction Henry Peirson
music dir. Daniel Cabena | assistant musical direction GaRRy Williams
stage management Elyssia Giancola | active listening & production assistance Claire Yurkovich

Featuring:
Henry Oswald Peirson as PATRICK
Asitha Tennekoon as EUGENE
Daniel Cabena as BIRD
Brian McQueen as LUCY
Lesley Emma Bouza as REMI
Paul Genyk-Berezowsky as BEN
&
MME SOSOSTRIS' CANTEEN HOUSE BAND:
Richard Burrows (percussion), Aliayta Foon-Dancoes (violin), Juliet Palmer (clarinet), Garry Williams (piano), and Joe Phillips (bass)

A bronze-age transition story retold in 1940s America — retold in and for our own time.
Caeneus presents us with a q***r world in which the Army sanctions G.I. drag … only to turn around and criminalize/pathologize same-sex love and gender variance.
The music, by James Rolfe, draws on 1940s soundworlds of vaudeville and cabaret — infused with older soundworlds that gesture to this story’s complex, ancient, and intercultural origins.

For more information, or to reserve your spot (PWYC), please visit the Eventbrite link above

Madame Sosostris’s Cantine!
A beggar can become a queen,
a queen become a corporal,
the corporal can trade his stripes
for civvies of a Friday night —
and slip into his lover’s bed
and lovers paint the whole town red —
You wanna ditch an MPO,
come on, I’ll tell you where to go —
Madame Sosostris’s Cantine!

ANIMA Canadian early music ensemble

ANIMA presents a concert in celebration of Pride

Friday, June 7th, 2024 | 7:30pm | Guelph Civic Museum (52 Norfolk Street, Guelph)
Tickets available at the door (Pay-What-You-Can)

Membra Jesu nostri: a sung devotion

Music by Dietrich Buxtehude
Poetry by Luke Hathaway & Arnulf of Leuven

featuring:

Lilly Gutierrez, soprano
Lesley Emma Bouza, soprano
Daniel Cabena, countertenor
Chris Fischer, tenor
Paul Genyk-Berezowsky, baritone
Jonathan Oldengarm, harpsichord & organ
Joëlle Morton, violone
&
The Cardinal Consort of Viols
Sheila Smyth, treble viol & violin
Linda Deshman, tenor viol
Sara Blake, bass viol
Valerie Sylvester, bass viol & violin

*

Our Membra Jesu nostri is a q***r and trans-y reenactment of the devotional rhythms of this beautiful Medieval hymn, as set to music by Dietrich Buxtehude in 1680.

A work of spiritual reclamation and erotic celebration, this work also celebrates the quotidian rhythms of caregiving, and acknowledges the agony of grief.

This sung devotion is a coming together of music and texts and of friends old & new. It’s a work of breath and movement and of heartfelt listening.

The gentle conversation of this première performance has been made possible by the Canada Council for the Arts and the kind offices of composer James Rolfe (https://www.jamesrolfe.ca), who edited our musical scores.

A chapbook with new words by Luke Hathaway and an afterword by Daniel Cabena is printed and published by Karen Schindler, Baseline Press (https://www.baselinepress.ca).

Please feel free to write to us at [email protected] or visit ANIMA (https://www.animaearlymusic.com) to learn more about our work.

ANIMA Canadian early music ensemble