Vancouver Improvised Arts Society

We leveled up with some super sweet stamps! Thanks Ruby Singh for the idea and Natalie Sorenson for the grapefruit design!

Hey art lovers! Want to become a VIAS member? Membership is $5/year and you get a gorgeous grapefruit pin to signal to the world that you get down with improvised art! Your membership $$$ goes directly toward paying a fair fee to the insanely talented artists who gift us with their creative offerings. There's a fancy-pants new form at www.improvisedarts.ca where you can sign up lickety-split! ***if money is a barrier, no worries! We’ll be posting lots of volunteer opportunities where you can trade your awesome skills, time, energy or whatever else we dream up together to get your cute pin and be a part of what VIAS is doing. Just show up and we’ll figure it out as a community!

There are two really wonderful musical offerings from Cat Toren and Marina Hasselberg, respectively, on our new VIAS YouTube Channel right now. These videos are valuable beyond words or quantitative analysis. Please take a moment out of your day to experience them. Revisit them at your leisure! They are there to make you feel good. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmleJGSPs2d-wi6UuytQKhw/

We're thrilled to present Marina Hasselberg's VIAS livestream concert on our new YouTube Channel! Please enjoy this brilliant concert, recorded back in April, and, while you're there, take a second to subscribe to our channel. We'll be posting tons of quality videos for your listening (and viewing) pleasure. https://youtu.be/58LeZh5XggE

Today we're launching our VIAS YouTube Channel! Please follow the link to subscribe. We'll be releasing a new live concert each week for the next month! Our first offering is a wonderful performance by Vancouver born, New York based pianist Cat Toren. It's a heartfelt and riveting concert that showcases Cat's virtuosity and musicianship. The concert was recorded live from Cat's NYC apartment on May 31st. I encourage you all to check it out and stay tuned for her upcoming release with her fabulous quintet, Human Kind, due out on September 11th!

We are delighted to be presenting Breathing Machines on Saturday, August 22nd, 5pm, at McSpadden Park. This will be the second in our park pop-up series and it is sure to be a great one! Breathing Machines is an absolute gem of an ensemble and it is rare to get to hear them live. This is your chance, East Van!

Our next park pop-up is going to be awesome! Saturday, August 22nd at 5pm! Mark your calendars and stay tuned for details!

This Saturday at 5pm the Canadian 1/2 of Like the Mind will perform a pop-up park concert. We’ll be missing our better half, the wonderful Swedes, but it may be a while until we can see them again, so this is what we can do IRL for now. HOPE YOU CAN COME!

VIAS was recently featured in the The Vancouver Sun! Thanks to Stuart Derdeyn for speaking with our AD, Meredith Bates and highlighting some of our goals, namely diversity, inclusion, and fair pay for artists. We are taking some time now to step back and learn, plan how we can best support our community, and establish a set of policies that pursue equity and justice within our field of improvised arts. Our aim is to grow as an organization slowly, thoughtfully, and in communication with the artists we serve in order to create something really special.

It's time to give a shout out to another one of our amazing Vancouver Improvised Arts Society board members! Sarah Wheeler is one of the most positive, enthusiastic, talented, rocking, intelligent, eloquent, thoughtful, and loving people I know and if there's ever been a time that the world needs UNADULTERATED LOVE, it's now. Sarah is not only a tour de force of love and positivity, but an awesome queer songwriter and a cancer survivor who has been creating empowering art on the Vancouver scene and teaching ALL of the instruments to adults and youth for over two decades. Check out Sarah's West End Wednesdays with Small Stage performance TONIGHT AT 9PM here:

Looking for something brighten up your day? Cat Toren performs live right here today at 3pm PDT! Looking for something brighten up your day? Cat Toren performs live right here today at 3pm PDT!

Sunday, May 31st (TOMORROW!) at 3pm PDT (6pm EDT), Cat Toren (NYC) performs a solo piano set live (here) on our Vancouver Improvised Arts Society page. We're proud to present her beautiful playing and hope you enjoy! If you're in the position to buy a ticket to our online concert, please follow this PayPal link to make a donation to support the artist and our arts society: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr We value your support! See you tomorrow!

Today, we'd like to take a second to highlight a great achievement of one of our own! Vancouver Improvised Arts Society board member, Ruby Singh has recently released a truly epic album into the world and we'd like to recognize how lucky we, as an organization, and all of us, as members of the Vancouver creative community, are to have them creating wonderful art in our midst. Check out Jhalaak: A Sufi Hip Hop project that leans back to mystic poetry from the 13th century and rides that current into the future with global bass sounds. It's awesome! Stay tuned for more posts about our super stacked board!

Coming up this Sunday! Cat Toren will play a livestream concert on our Vancouver Improvised Arts Society's Page on Sunday, May 31st at 3pm PDT (6pm EDT). Can't wait!

Our AD, violinist Meredith Bates, got a nice shout out from Coastal Jazz today!

Cat Toren is RAD and on Sunday, May 31st she'll be playing our next Salon Series at 3pm PDT (6pm EDT), livestreaming right here on our Vancouver Improvised Arts Society's Page. Tune in for the magic!