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VNM Festival 2026
Open Frequencies: Day 3
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The annual VNM Festival returns with Open Frequencies, a three-day program spotlighting bold, globally engaged approaches to new music by artists working at the forefront of experimental, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural sound practices.
Harp and koto player Sarah Pagé delivers a solo harp performance that showcases her virtuosity and experimentation, while drawing constellation-like paths across genres, borders, and musical histories. Employing a myriad of techniques and tools to accentuate the harp, Pagé capitalizes on both the very physical and altogether mystical tones inherent in the instrument. The mere range of sounds Pagé is able to pull out of the harp while remaining tethered to its essence is astounding.
JUNO award-winning oud and guitar player Gordon Grdina offers a solo set on the oud. An exploration at the cutting edge of contemporary jazz and classical heritage, this performance presents an original synthesis that bridges mainstream jazz, free improvisation, and classical Arabic music. Grdina masterfully utilizes the oud—the ancestral Middle Eastern stringed instrument and predecessor to the European lute—to chart a distinct language that reflects deep modernity existing fluidly within traditional Persian and Arabic roots.
A dynamic live performance by musician, composer, and producer Priyanka Chakrabarti (Piu), blending live electronics, raga-inspired vocals, and field recordings. Traversing genres and cultures, the set moves between contemplative and energetic moments, creating an immersive and deeply textured listening experience.
This work is also informed by material from her debut album Milao (2026), presented in a reimagined live rendition that expands the compositions. Milao, which means “to come together,” is an exploration of memory, time, and the shifting landscapes of belonging. Inspired by Indian raga and folk music, the album weaves analog textures, live vocals, and field recordings, creating a rich sonic experience.
Layering modular and analog synthesizers with her own vocals and organic textures, Milao becomes a meeting ground: of cultures and places, of past and present, of grief and renewal. It is an act of gathering and holding memory while reshaping it into something that can move forward.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, Nadah El Shazly is no longer able to perform this evening.
To purchase a Festival Pass for all three nights, please visit: Open Frequencies - Festival Pass
Tracing the musical trajectory of harpist, composer, producer Sarah Pagé is quite the task—one would have to draw long, constellation-like shapes across genres, borders and histories. She is perhaps best known as a founding and longtime member of roots rockers The Barr Brothers, but a brief consideration of her resume reveals the fact that she’s equally at home within traditions as without them. Her first two solo LPs, Dose Curves and Voda, affirm this versatility and reveal Pagé as one of Canada’s most accomplished experimentalists. She has also been heard alongside such luminaries as Lhasa, Nadah El Shazly, Juana Molina, Joni Void and as a member of Sam Shalabi's Land of Kush.
Gordon Grdina is a JUNO Award–winning oud and guitar playerbased in Vancouver, Canada, whose work spans avant-garde jazz, free improvisation,Arabic maqam, and Persian classical music. Over more than two decades, he hasdeveloped a distinctive musical language that brings together deep knowledge oftradition with a highly exploratory and contemporary approach.
His playing is marked by microtonal precision, rhythmiccomplexity, and a strong physical presence, creating music that moves fluidlybetween composed structures and open improvisation. Drawing equally from MiddleEastern musical systems and experimental practices, Grdina’s work resists fixedcategories, instead focusing on collaboration, sonic research, and evolvingforms.
He has performed and recorded with leading internationalartists including Gary Peacock, Paul Motian, Marc Ribot, Mats Gustafsson, MyraMelford, Ghalia Benali, Jerry Granelli, Evan Parker, and Jim Black. His collaboratorsreflect his position at the intersection of global traditions and contemporaryimprovised music.
As a bandleader, Grdina has created a wide range of projectsincluding Haram, Nomad Trio, Grdina/Lillinger, Square Peg, Gordon GrdinaQuartet, Peregrine Falls, and The Marrow, each exploring differentcompositional and improvisational systems. His recent ensemble RU’YA bringstogether international musicians to explore Arabic poetry, maqam, and contemporaryimprovisation in a cross-cultural context.
His discography as a leader includes over 30 recordings onlabels such as Attaboygirl, Songlines, Astral Spirits, NOT TWO, and Clean Feed. His album China Cloud received the JUNO Award for Instrumental Album of the Year,with multiple additional nominations recognizing his work.
Priyanka Chakrabarti (Piu) is a musician, composer, and producer who adorns ambient soundscapes with hard hitting synth riffs, raga-inspired vocals, and global rhythms. Her sound blends genres, cultures, and identities. Through both her studio practice and live performance, Piu invites listeners into carefully constructed sonic spaces designed for reflection, release, and intentional listening.
Anchored in her Indian classical training but pulled towards the frontiers of experimental and electronic music, Piu’s sound is simultaneously grounded and unbound. Her productions weave tactile synth textures, and field recordings, moving fluidly between genres.
Piu has released several singles, an EP, Illusion (2024), and her debut full-length album will be released in Summer 2026. She has performed at major Canadian electronic music festivals including MUTEK Montréal, and collaborates widely with artists across genres and continents.
She is also the co-founder of Margins of Sound Society, where she helps produce and curate events that support experimental music, interdisciplinary performances, and education in British Columbia, Canada.
