In celebration of Asian Heritage Month, we present an evening of music and storytelling spanning many different cultures and countries. Artists include Asian Riffing Trio (pop/R&B), Janice Jo Lee (live looping artist and storyteller), Two.H (champion beatboxer from South Korea). Diana Tso (storyteller), the Chinese Canadian Choir of Toronto, and Neovoce Philharmonic Choir.
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Generously sponsored by Dr. Victoria Lee and Dr. Philip Hebért
Artist Bios:
Janice Jo Lee (she/they) 이승혜 is an award-winning queer interdisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto, Ontario. She is a second generation Canadian settler and twenty-seventh generation Korean. She is a contemporary folk-jazz singer, songwriter, composer, sound designer, spoken word poet, actor, clown, satirist, educator and equity consultant. She is a nationally-touring independent musician and bandleader. Her latest album Ancestor Song is a testament to healing and remembering your roots.
In 2024 Janice was the sound designer for Donna-Michelle St Bernard’s Three Fingers Back (Tarragon), and Jordan Tannahill’s Late Company (Green Light Arts.) Currently she performs with her band, composes for stage and film, is recording her next album Lullabyes for End Times, and directs a weekly physical theatre workshop at Sweet Action Theatre called Play Play. As an educator, she conducts workshops on anti-oppression, performance, and poetry. Janice is a member of the League of Canadian Poets, Associated Designers of Canada and ACTRA. Follow her work at janicejolee.ca @janjolee
Asian Riffing Trio - Chris Tsujiuchi, Kevin Wong, and Colin Asuncion. Separately, they are 3 prominent powers. Together, they unite to form 1 superpower; Asian Riffing Trio - or ART for short. These three multi-talented queer Asian artists subvert the boyband format simply by existing as a group. With their characteristic soulful vocals and innovative musical arrangements, ART has established itself as a true artistic force and one of Toronto’s best kept secrets.
@asianriffintrio
DIANA TSO 楓Diana Tso is a theatre artist, playwright, storyteller and Dora award winning actor. She's a theatre faculty member at George Brown College. She graduated from the University of Toronto in English Literature and of Ecole Internationale de Théâtre de Jacques Lecoq in France. She’s worked with diverse theatres internationally for over 25 years. Recent performances include: Modern Times Stage Company’s The Cherry Orchard, Theatre Smith-Gilmour’s Les Misérables and at the 2017 Stratford Festival in Bakkhai and The Komagata Maru Incident. As artistic director of Red Snow Collective, which creates compelling theatre drawn from eastern and western storytelling aesthetics, her productions focus on empowering the voices of women: www.redsnowcollective.ca Her plays, Red Snow (2012) and Comfort (2016) bring to light the resilience of women in war and her Monkey Queen stories are a re-imagining of mythologies from the female perspective. Her plays are available at Canadian Play Outlet
Two.H is a Korean beatboxer and the 2010 Korean Beatbox Champion. Two.H is considered a legendary beatboxer for his creatively original style and use of difficult techniques.
In 2017, Two.H completed his mandated military service and made his way back into the beatbox scene. He was invited to the Grand Beatbox Battle that year and made it through the elimination rounds.
IG: @youngheonha
NeoVoce Philharmonic Choir, officially established in Canada since early 2023, is a federally registered non-profit choral art group composed of vocal enthusiasts from various professions who love choral singing and pursue their musical goals.The choir shares one common mission: to demand singers with professionalism in rehearsals, to treat audiences with professionalism in concerts. NeoVoce has rich performance experiences covering a variety of Western traditional choral works, contemporary choral arrangements and compositions in diverse cultures and numerous languages.Since 2020, under the baton of the Artistic Director and Conductor Leo Li (Choral Canada board member), NeoVoce has undergone a series of systematic and rigorous choral trainings; the choristers’ choral literacy and skills have improved dramatically.The choir was selected in the open rehearsal at PODIUM2022, Canada’s national biennial bilingual choral conference, in Toronto. NeoVoce hosted its inaugural choral concert “Hearing the East” in 2023 and its second choral concert “Hearing the East” in 2024.NeoVoce has also participated in PODIUM2024’s the Digital Horizons Series in Montreal.
https://www.npchoir.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@jingc8609
The Chinese Canadian Choir of Toronto (CCCT) was founded in 1983 with the purpose ofpromoting both Chinese and Western music in the Greater Toronto Area. Since inception, the Choir has been under the direction of many distinguished maestros, especially Mr. YanqiaoWang who has become CCCT’s music director and conductor for 20 years since 1993. CCCT has participated in numerous concerts in the past. CCCT presents its own Annual Concert, participates in the multicultural concert – “Singing Together”, and the Annual Choral Concert of the Overseas Chinese Festival of the Arts. In the past, the Choir has participated in many major concerts, such as the Toronto Camarata, Gala Concert for the return of Hong Kong to China, Choral Gala on the 200th anniversary of the City of Scarborough, the Toronto Millennium Concert, and charity fundraising concerts. Most recently in 2015, CCCT successfully co-presented a large concert “Hometown Classics and Word Famous Music” at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, with Mr. Wang as the Music Director and Conductor; the program included theYellow River Cantata which involved a 70 musicians’ symphony and 250 choral members from 8 Chinese choir groups in Ontario.
