Counterstasis Trio with special guest Kathryn Ladano

Counterstasis is a collaborative improvisation trio formed in 2016, featuring Glen Hall (woodwinds, electroacoustics), Bill Gilliam (piano, prepared piano) and Joe Sorbara (drums, percussion). We work to counter stasis, to foster change, to create a music in which our individual voices can be refracted through the sounds of our co-conspirators.

Our spontaneously composed explorations of gestures and sonorities are connected to new chamber music, free jazz, sound art, experimental, and other creative music traditions. Counterstasis draws on a wide variety of traditional and extended techniques and employs both conventional and bent approaches to melodicism, groove, and chromatic harmony.

In 2019, we released our inaugural CD “Counterstasis – Refracted Voices”, produced with the support of the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council. Our music has been featured by All That Jazz, Electric Sense, One Man’s Jazz radio and Dispersion Lab. As a trio and collaborating with other improvising musicians, we have performed at venues in Toronto and Montreal including shows with guest improvisors such as clarinetist Lori Freedman and vocalist Christine Duncan.

Dr. Kathryn Ladano has established herself as one of Canada’s foremost bass clarinetists. As a specialist of contemporary music and free improvisation, Ladano is a dynamic soloist and in-demand collaborator. She is currently the Artistic Director of NUMUS concerts, the Director of ICE (Improvisation Concerts Ensemble) and instructor of improvisation at Wilfrid Laurier University. Kathryn has released two solo albums, “Open” (2010) and “Masked” (2019).