Performances
Here's where you can catch some "pop up" performances of the Toronto Complaints Choir! Brought to you by World Stage at Harbourfront Centre.
Date | Time | Location |
Tuesday, March 22, 2011 | 12pm-1pm | St. Lawrence Market |
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 | 6:45pm-8pm | AGO (Walker Court) |
Thursday, March 24, 2011 | 6:30pm-8pm | The Distillery District |
Saturday, March 26, 2011 | 3:15pm-3:45pm | The boardwalk just south of Harbourfront Centre |
YOUR COMPLAINTS Move your mouse over the complaints to pause
Hey Toronto! Do you have something to say?
World Stage wants to hear from you. We're creating a Complaints Choir and we want YOU to be a part of it!
What's a Complaints Choir?
Complaints Choir is a growing, global movement that started in Birmingham, UK (via Helsinki) that gives a musical platform for people to vent their complaints and have those complaints turned into a song. Complaints can range from your noisy neighbours to global warming and beyond. The more inventive, the better!
How does it work?
Once the World Stage team has received everyone's complaints, our resident composer and lyricist, will create a song using the complaints as lyrics. From there, we'll form a choir to rehearse and sing this entirely new and unique piece of music. You don't have to be a professional singer to join in. The music is created so that anyone can take part. And if you really don't want to sing, you can come and watch as your complaints ring from the rooftops.
By submitting your written complaint, you waive all rights to Harbourfront Centre to use, not use and/or edit your complaint for the Complaints Choir's song, including but not limited to live and/or recorded performances. There will be no monetary compensation and/or accreditation for any complaint submitted, used, not used and/or edited by Harbourfront Centre.
By entering your complaint, you agree to the above terms and conditions.
The Complaints Choir got started during a winter day walk of Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen in Helsinki. Perhaps it was due to the coldness of the day that they ended up discussing the possibility of transforming the huge energy people put into complaining into something else. Perhaps not directly into heat – but into something powerful anyway.
After the first Complaints Choir in Birmingham, Kalleinen and Kochta-Kalleinen have facilitated Complaints Choir workshops in Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, Chicago, Singapore and Copenhagen. Meanwhile several Complaints Choirs have been initiated by other people around the world. It started with the Poikkilaakso Complaints Choir formed at a school near Helsinki by Matti Salo and Elisa Hilli, the Bodø Complaints Choir, organized by Kari Koksvik and Mikael Rönnberg and the Pittsburgh Complaints Choir, initiated by Jenn and Ray Strobel.
An award-winning composer, Kulak has performed with symphony orchestras and in theatrical world premieres. Often compared to the great songwriters of the original cabaret era, Kulak carries the torch of this compelling genre into the new century.