After 25 years, Art of Time Ensemble’s Artistic Director Andrew Burashko has announced the beloved organization’s coda. Upon completion of the projects that are in development and the presentation of Art of Time’s 25th and final season of performances, Art of Time Ensemble will begin winding down in November of 2024.

we want to say our goodbyes with excitement and celebration. We invite you to help make this possible by contributing to the Art of Time’s “Coda” campaign. Our goal is to raise a total of $450,000 to go towards the following projects over the next 2 years:

- Coda concert season at Harbourfront Centre Theatre

  • TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT 8 | DECEMBER 7, 8 & 9, 2023

  • Dance to the abyss | february 23, 24 & 25 2024

  • both sides now | May 9, 10 & 11, 2024

- SANKOFA: A SOLDIER’S TALE RETOLD

- animated music and dance short film 

- Art of Time's Digital Archive

Your donations to this campaign will go directly to our network of artists and arts workers who will be working hard over the next year to bring these final AoTE projects to life. Every dollar counts! Your donation cheque, payable to Art of Time Ensemble, can be mailed to:

Art of Time Ensemble
596 St. Clair Ave W, Unit 4
Toronto, ON, M6C 1A6

Or visit us at canadahelps.org to donate by credit card. 

SANKOFA: A SOLDIER’S TALE RETOLD

Written during WWI while Stravinsky was stranded in Switzerland, L’Histoire du Soldat is unlike any other work in the canon of classical music. Based on three Russian folk tales and originally conceived for three actors, five dancers and seven musicians, L’Histoire du Soldat tells the story of a soldier who sells his soul to the devil for riches. Inspired by recent events, we have commissioned Nigerian born, Edmonton based poet, Titilope Sonuga to create a new libretto. Like the original, the new version will be composed in rhyming verse and will be based on the same three characters of Soldier, Devil and Narrator. Unlike the original, instead of basing the tale on Russian folk tales, we have taken the story of Canada’s WWI 2nd Construction Battalion as our point of departure. This battalion, comprised entirely of Black soldiers, was terribly mistreated by its white officers. It wasn’t until 2021 that the battalion members received a formal apology from Justin Trudeau.


Animated music and dance short film

This short film will be based on Nazi Germany's dance band rules and regulations taken from Josef Skvorecky’s novel, The Bass Saxophone. Skvorecky, who was a jazz musician in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, claimed to have remembered them word for word. Created to limit the range of expression and sensuality in jazz music, these rules banned certain musical conventions such as swing and syncopation as well as certain instruments and performance practices. We have created a raunchy version of Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher” which, through the application of these rules over four repetitions, is stripped of all its life. Choreography for two dancers will see these rules reflected in the human body. Illustrated, in the most visceral way, will be censorship of music and dance. The dancers will be filmed in motion capture suits and then abstracted and enhanced with animation. Star of the National Ballet of Canada, Guillaume Côté, will create the choreography and award-winning Canadian animator Justin Stephenson (The Secret Path) will both direct and animate. This film will be submitted to international film festivals. 


Digital Archive

For 25 years Art of Time Ensemble has brought together the best of the best from the worlds of music, dance, theatre, film and literature. With more than 400 concerts performed, over three hundred commissions of original music and arrangements, and collaborations with close to 350 artists, Art of Time Ensemble has amassed a wealth of audio and video recordings, as well as photography and press. Over the next two years we will thoroughly catalogue and showcase every Art of Time production along with all the media related to each individual project. This public archive accessible to all, will serve as an important reference for Canadian arts and culture, and a hub for artists and enthusiasts alike to explore our rich history. 


The Coda Concert Season

We are celebrating our 25th and final season with 3 incredible live performances:

TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT 8 DECEMBER 7, 8 & 9, 2023 The eighth and final presentation of what has become an AoTE holiday tradition. Join us in our celebration of the holiday season with the joy and irreverence you have come to expect. The program will feature the best of the best taken from the last seven years.

DANCE TO THE ABYSS FEBRUARY 23, 24 & 25, 2024 Experience the decadent cabaret and jazz-inspired music that captured the zeitgeist of a culture on a path to catastrophe. This program features music celebrated in the 1920s and later dismissed as “degenerate” by the Third Reich, including The Threepenny Opera Suite by Kurt Weill and music by Mischa Spoliansky, Erwin Schulhoff, and other artists whose names are largely lost to history. 

BOTH SIDES NOW MAY 9, 10 & 11, 2024 Spanning Joni Mitchell’s prolific career from her folk roots to her jazz experimentations, we will celebrate one of Canada’s greatest artists with seven singers performing brand new arrangements.