Music on Main
The Kessler Academy 2021 (Jan Gates).
Dálava at the Listening. Together. Festival (Mike Southworth).
Graveyards and Gardens. Photo by David Cooper
Music that brings us together: this is the heart, soul, and goal of Music on Main.
Founded in 2006 by artistic director David Pay, Music on Main promises excellent, engaging music by incredible artists in unconventional formats. Storytelling for a post-classical age, the series provides a chance to meet the musicians, make new friends, and simply relax in a casual environment (with a top-notch playlist). If the idea of seeing a classical or contemporary music concert seems intimidating or unfun, Music on Main is for you: events are meant to put musicians and listeners at ease. The artists are seriously talented, but the atmosphere is inviting, light-hearted, and friendly.
Pay, whose background includes taking sitar lessons in India and singing in choirs, has a degree in classical saxophone performance. An in-demand performer and speaker, he has been a visiting artist at the Banff Centre. He’s endlessly curious about the way different musical genres and eras illuminate each other. Mostly, he just wants to keep bringing people together over the moving power of great music.
Since its start, Music on Main has produced more than 400 events featuring well over 1,000 musicians and 100 world premieres where everyone is welcome. Concerts typically take place at Heritage Hall in Mount Pleasant, the Fox Cabaret, and other cool, unexpected venues throughout Metro Vancouver. Its music connects artists, listeners, and fans with each other here at home and around the world. The series also proudly has Composer in Residence and Artist in Residence programs.
Amid the wide-ranging, top-flight artists who have graced its stages are sound artist Nancy Tam; groundbreaking cellist-researcher Elinor Frey; musician-storyteller Gabriel Kahane; Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw; percussion innovators Infamy Too!, and violin virtuoso Jennifer Koh.
In 2010, Music on Main launched the annual Modulus Festival, which focuses on the post-classical scene, expanding Western Canadian audiences’ sonic tastes and experiences.
In 2020-21, the organization stepped up with a series of innovative experiences to try to connect audiences kept apart by venue shutdowns. Pay’s response to the pandemic, the critically lauded As dreams are made, created intimate, one-on-one concerts featuring Vancouver musicians such as flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor and santour player Saina Khaledi. Music on Main also marked the premiere of dancer Vanessa Goodman and Caroline Shaw’s hit online performance Graveyards and Gardens. Elsewhere, it presesnted a free online festival called Listening. Together., and hosted a series of pop-up outdoor concerts in Mount Pleasant Park.
Music on Main has developed a strong digital presence, with more than 100 videos on its YouTube Channel, featuring everything from gorgeous string quartets to crazy, avant garde works by young composers, connecting to an ever-widening audience.
