FORM

Nov 22, 2025 · Peggy Corkum Music Room · Halifax, Nova Scotia

FORM launched Alkali Collective’s sixth season with the world premiere of Formations, a new work commissioned from Toronto-based composer Paolo Griffin. Featuring guest percussionist Nathan Petitpas, the program explored shape, structure, texture, and transformation through two works by Griffin alongside music by Gabriella Smith, Nova Pon, and several more.

Paolo Griffin’s return to Alkali Collective’s programming built on an existing artistic relationship through the creation and premiere of a new commission. Griffin’s practice centres on close collaboration with performers and spans notated music, improvisation, performance installation, and text/event scores, with particular attention to tuning, sonic form, structure, and interactions between musical processes. Alkali Collective was thrilled to commission a new work from him for the ensemble.

Nathan Petitpas is a longtime colleague of the ensemble’s artists from Acadia University and a member of Toronto’s Thin Edge New Music Collective. Petitpas’s work is dedicated to music by living composers and has included the premieres of dozens of new works in performances across Canada and internationally.

Guest Artist: Nathan Petitpas

Nathan Petitpas is a percussionist, composer, and educator dedicated to the performance of contemporary music by living composers. A member of Thin Edge New Music Collective since 2012, he has worked with organizations including Esprit Orchestra, Array Music, Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Arts Centre’s English Theatre, Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Cirque du Soleil, FAWN Chamber Creative, and Freesound.

Petitpas has premiered dozens of works by living composers and performed throughout Canada as well as in the United States, Europe, and South America. His practice spans contemporary chamber music, orchestral performance, opera and musical theatre, popular music, gamelan, radio drama, and interdisciplinary performance. He holds a Master of Music from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Music from Acadia University.

Guest Composer: Paolo Griffin

Paolo Griffin is a composer and curator based in Toronto/Tkarón:to whose work centres on co-creation with performers. His practice spans sound, performance, text, improvisation, notated music, live performance installations, and text/event scores, with a compositional approach combining explorations of tuning systems with process-based approaches to form and interaction.

Griffin is Artistic & Executive Director of Freesound, a Toronto-based contemporary music collective emphasizing collaboration and experimentation, and Managing Director of Xenia Concerts, where his work includes adaptive, accessible, and sensory-friendly concerts for autism and disability communities. His music and artistic practice have been supported by organizations including the Canada Council for the Arts, Toronto Arts Council, Canadian Music Centre, Ontario Arts Council, SOCAN Foundation, and Canadian New Music Network.

From the Artistic Directors

Welcome to FORM, the first concert of Alkali Collective’s sixth season!

We’re kicking off Season Six with an exciting lineup, and we’re thrilled to open the year with a program that celebrates shape, structure, and transformation in contemporary sound.

Tonight, we’re joined by two remarkable artists from Toronto’s vibrant new music scene: Paolo Griffin and Nathan Petitpas. Paolo — composer, Artistic and Executive Director of Freesound, and Managing Director of Xenia Concerts — brings a uniquely imaginative voice to each of his projects. Having performed his music in the past, we’re especially excited to be commissioning and premiering a brand new work from him this evening. Nathan, a longtime friend of the ensemble from Acadia University, is a dynamic percussionist whose work with Thin Edge New Music Collective and freelance projects throughout Toronto continually pushes the boundaries of new music. We’re so glad to have both of them here in Halifax, sharing ideas, energy, and inspiration across our communities.

Alongside two works by Paolo, tonight’s program also features a work by Nova Pon, a fantastic Canadian composer from the West Coast, as well as our second exploration of the music of Gabriella Smith, whose sonic imagination continues to challenge and inspire us.

Thank you for joining us as we launch a new season of adventurous, collaborative, and endlessly curious contemporary music. We can’t wait to share what’s ahead.

– Megan Thibeault & Shauna DeGruchy