Christopher Willes

I’m so excited to share that @artmetropole is releasing a new publication (2XLP and book) I put together called 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘎𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨, which centers on the music of Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016). The publication documents a large-scale performance project of Oliveros’s music that occurred in Tkaronto—Toronto between 2017-2019, which involved contributions of nineteen interdisciplinary artists and concluded with a show at Council Chambers Toronto City Hall. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞-𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰 (𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐢𝐨)! Half of the proceeds are being donated to the @native_womens_resource_centre of Toronto. The release includes recordings of the city hall performance and a new sound poem by IONE (artist and Oliveros’ spouse) + a 64pg book (printed by at @colourcodepint ) with new writing, a previously unpublished text by Oliveros, archival materials, photography by Claire Harvie and a bonus flexi-disc with listening score. It ships out June 30th, and there’s a pre-release celebration June 4 1-4pm at Art Metropole. @isthisthomas is gonna DJ! This thing was a journey, made over several years with a lot of care and collaboration from @iodreams (poetry), @suckersarestuck (design), @claharv (photography), and many other contributors. It’s co-produced with @publicrecordings and 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐎𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐬 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭. I’m pretty much over the moon to share it with you! - Contributing Artists and Performers: Anne Bourne, Allison Cameron, Victoria Cheong, Ishan Davé, Prices Easy, Ellen Furey, Thom Gill, Claire Harvie, Ame Henderson, IONE, Brendan Jensen, Germaine Liu, Jeremy McCormick, JL Simonson, Kate Nankervis, Pauline Oliveros, Bee Pallomina, Liz Peterson, Heather Saumer, Brian Solomon, Anni Spadafora, Evan Webber, and Christopher Willes. Recorded by Paul Hodge and J.L Simonson. Mix: Christopher Willes. Mastering: Brandon Hocura. Created in partnership with @musicgalleryto , @seance_centre and Happy like a flower. With support from @canada.council , @ontarioartscouncil , and the @torontoartscouncil . Publicist: @riparianacoustics .

Here's a few sunlit moments from MANUAL at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow this past week, as part of Take Me Somewhere festival. MANUAL is a one-on-one piece that’s experienced covertly in a public library. In each performance a single viewer is guided by a performer through a series of experiments in looking and listening closely, using found materials in the library. These videos show some of @hannasybille 's interpretation of the work ❤. We were all really touched by the softness and presence that audiences brought to it. Like in the second last video here, from the end of the work, where the performer and participant take turns trying to describe an ambiguous image together. It was so beautiful to hear people put words to what they are seeing and feeling in that moment... after spending the better part of an hour in silence together. Thanks to everyone who came out, and to the wonderful folks at @tmsomewhere for making it all possible. --- Credits: Co-created by: Christopher Willes and @adamkinner___ Dramaturgy: Hanna Sybille Müller Glasgow performers: Adam Kinner, Hanna Sybille Müller, Christopher Willes, and Chao-Ying Rao (@femme.castratrice ) Performance contributions: Alexa Mardon, Denise Kenney. Audio contributions: Michael Davidson, Colin Fisher, @isthisthomas , Terri Hron, Philippe Lauzier, Germaine Liu, Philippe Melanson. @missngmusic , and @felicitywilliams . Production assistance: Seán Talbot, Sean, and @matildastrang . Special thank you to Dawn Valance (principle librarian). Created with the support of: Conseil des arts du Canada, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Ontario Arts Council, @ftamontreal , and through creation residencies at Take Me Somewhere (Glasgow), and @laserreartsvivants (Montreal). - The videos are filmed by @samscrvn (and a few have excerpts of the spatial audio that viewers experience... so maybe listen in headphones... 😊 ). Big thanks to MollyMae Whawell for offering to be the filmed participant. 🙏📚✨😍

This week I’ll be in Guelph for the ArtsEverywhere Festival, where I’ll be leading a two-day version of my workshop Collaborating Through Scores. The workshop runs May 7 (12–4pm) and May 8 (11am–3pm) — free, and open to participants with any background. There’s one or two spots left so check the festival website if you’re wanting to come. Thanks to @musagetesf and @amrbowen for organizing this. I’m feeling happy about this new reader/zine for the project I put together this week, and am looking forward to sharing it with folks. On May 10, I’ll also take part in a panel conversation called Bend Your Ear, with sound scholar and dramaturg meLê yamomo and composer/artist Lisa Conway (@lconofficial ), moderated by Anna Bowen.

Sunday morning at ArtsEverywhere Festival! ✨ Bend your ear: a panel conversation on listening With Christopher Willes, L CON (Lisa Conway), meLê yamomo How might listening collaboratively, listening to the periphery, and opening ourselves to the invitation nested within failure and slippage offer other ways of navigating this moment together? Join sound scholar and dramaturg meLê Yamomo, composer and artist Lisa Conway, and composer/musician and dramaturg Christopher Willes in a rich overlapping conversation about their sound practices and research. The panelists will explore how mistakes can contribute to wilder art practices; how Deep Listening practices and collaborative scoremaking invite deeper attention to community; and how listening and sounding the periphery offer ways of being together differently. They will draw on their diverse practices—from decolonizing early sound archives, glitch, error, and troubleshooting, to the relationship of sound to place. Curated and moderated by Anna Bowen. The conversation will include an embodied exercise led by meLê Yamomo. Sunday, May 10, 2026; 10:00 am - 12:00 pm 10C - Fourth Floor (Community Classroom) Space is accessible by elevator Free | No registration required

After a couple weeks of rehearsals MANUAL is up and running for the next three weekends at the Yamaguchi Central Library presented by @ycam_jp in Japan! We are super grateful for this amazing team that YCAM assembled, including six Yamaguchi based artists/performers and production staff. Deepest thanks to the performers for their careful work, and to everyone YCAM and the Yamaguchi City Central Library who made this project come to life. Here’s some of pictures from the process. - Co-creation: Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes Dramaturgy: Hanna Sybille Müller Performers: Adam Kinner, Hanna Sybille Müller, Soma Ishii, Akari Kato, Masahiro Hosoda (Shibainu Theater Company), Airi Fujiwara, Yuri Mizunuma, Megumi Miyazaki (Shibainu Theater Company, Studio Imaichi) Stage Managers: Soma Ishii, Hazuki Ohta* Assistant: Sae Ikeda, Hazuki Ohta* Translation and Coordination: Nao Miyauchi (arts knot), Soma Ishii Translation: Keiko Yamaguchi Rehearsal Support: Ai Kawase, Keiko Yamaguchi Graphic Design: Koharu Nezu Signage Production:Ayumi Takahara* Public Relations:Nanako Okuda*, Nozomi Miike* Documentation: Tomoya Watanabe* Production Stills: Kosuke Shiomi, Naoki Takehisa Procuced by Akiko Takeshita*, Kilarla Akiyama* *Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] staff Organized by Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion Supported by Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education Cooperation with Yamaguchi City Central Library, @kyotoexperiment , @ypamfringe Sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Technical. Cooperation with YCAM InterLab Produced by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM]

Here’s some images from the concluding event of Six Turntables, at @guelphjazz September 14 2025. This event concluded a two week workshop I co-facilitated with @my_bodys_in_troubleshoot with 12 students from @gcvichamberchoir which took place among the colourful chairs in the GCVI Auditorium. Thank you to @noisyjoe and Lane Osborn for making this possible, and to the participants for their beautiful work on this: Quinn Logue-Barei, Gaven Gulewitsch-Cleminson, Kali Gonsalves, Jupjeet Daroch, Rowan Dixon-McCoy, Gev Rimon, Jordan Lloyd, Maya Moreau, Max Friedberg, Julia Blakeney, Ariane Lachapelle-Poulin, and Sophie Lin. 📷 by @weldon.hov

The way one thing resonates beside another. Some details from the four day run of MANUAL we just closed at @lmfestivaali . Thanks to everyone who participated. We are feeling very lucky to have shared this moment with four wonderful dance artists from Riveria Outokumpu: Ella Valkola, Merimari Seppänen, Siri Dybdahl and Suvi Rinkineva. The piece is performed by one person at a time, but the connectivity between this group was deeply felt. Thanks to @kerstinschroth , Isabel González, Sara Nurminen, Nelli Tamminen from the festival team, and to Aino Toiviainen-Koskinen from Itäkeskus Library.

@studio303 is hosting the third edition of a workshop I lead called “Collaborating Through Scores”, January 7-9 (10:00-16:00) 2026. I love starting the new year with this gathering, which is about collaborative processes, and experimenting with new way of working. There can be a sense of possibility in the cool new year air. This year we’re doing it in a three day, 10-4pm intense format. I hope you can join us. Here’s the description below, and you can sign up on studio 303’s website. Description: “What is a score and what exceeds it? Beyond a means of preserving an author’s ideas, a score invites other people to interpret those ideas into new experiences. A score asks its readers to become curious, to listen, play, take action or break the rules, and in the process develop shared questions and navigate agency. A score has living in mind. And so, in a way, a score always has some kind of collaborative process at its core. Collaborating Through Scores is a workshop that explores the interdisciplinary possibilities of scores within collaborative art practices. Through reading, discussion, and hands-on experimentation, participants will examine diverse approaches to score-making and the ethical, practical, and aesthetic questions they can draw out. The goal of this gathering is for each participant reflect more deeply on the formal aspects of their own working contexts, and to come away with new ideas about collaborative work. The three day intensive workshop will explore various histories and practices of score-making––from events scores, sound-making scores, movement scores etc. Each day will oscillate between a period of “studying” (discussing and performing historical examples together) and “making” (creating and workshopping new scores ourselves). As the process unfolds, participants will collectively create an experimental reader—a resource they can take with them beyond the experience. This evolving document will compile provided materials, historical examples, and newly generated experiments, sketches, drawings, notes, and questions, serving as an ongoing tool for each participant’s work.”

For the coming four days in Itäkeskus Library, Stoa, you can experience this special one-on-one performance by Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes. 📚MANUAL reflects on the act of listening and the intimacy of reading with another person in a public space–guiding you through the library space–and inviting you to engage with it as a site of deep sensory awareness. 📍MANUAL in Stoa November 12th, 13th, 14th & 15th @adamkinner___ @christopherwilles @stoahelsinki @itakeskuksenkirjasto @quebecuk @tanssinkoulutusoutokumpu @riveriaoutokumpu #liikkeellamarraskuussa #movinginnovember #festivaali #festival #nykytanssi #contemporarydance #menovinkki #menovinkkihelsinki #helsinki #stoahelsinki #esitys #performance #oneononeperformance Photo: Anna Wansbrough

Also today im Helsinki: Montreal based artists @adamkinner___ and @christopherwilles hold their workshop at @lmfestivaali . Participants will be introduced to MANUAL, a one-on-one performance which turns a public library into a space of sensory encounter and heightened awareness. MANUAL will be presented in Helsinki from 12–15 November. 📸 Kazuki Yoshimoto #LifeLongBurning #CreativeEuropeEU #CapacityGrid

Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes have created a one-on-one performance that turns a public library into a space of sensory encounter and heightened awareness. MANUAL, staged covertly during the public hours of Itäkeskus Library, invites participants to arrive on site with instructions to meet a stranger in a particular place. MANUAL reflects on the act of listening and the intimacy of reading with another person in a public space. 📕📖📚 📍MANUAL is happening in Itäkeskus Library, Stoa. You can book your own slot in this participatory performance for 12th, 13th, 14th or 15 November. 🌀Book your tickets<3 more via @lmfestivaali bio @adamkinner___ @christopherwilles @stoahelsinki @itakeskuksenkirjasto @quebecuk @tanssinkoulutusoutokumpu @riveriaoutokumpu #liikkeellamarraskuussa #movinginnovember #festivaali #festival #nykytanssi #contemporarydance #menovinkki #menovinkkihelsinki #helsinki #stoahelsinki #esitys #performance #oneononeperformance #riveriaoutokumputanssinkoulutus Photo: Anna Wansbrough

MANUAL is up and running for tens days at @kyotoexperiment at the beautiful Ito Memorial Library , co-presented with @gallery_akcua ! Kyoto and it’s beautiful people have stolen my heart. @adamkinner___ , @hannasybille and I developed this iteration of MANUAL in collaboration with a team of incredible Kansai based artists and producers. It’s a joy to walk quietly with them around the library, day after day. We are sincerely grateful to everyone involved for their utter precision, their beautiful questions, and the overall generosity of spirit that was brought to the project… Performers Tatsunori Imamura, Ai Kawase, Yumi Kambayashi, Sho Takiguchi, Mika Masuda, Ana Miyaki, Keiko Yamaguchi. Interpretation & Translation by Keiko Yamaguchi. Production Coordinator is Yukina Yagi. And festival interns Akari Ichida and Manami Mori. 🙏🥰😍 Big thanks to you to @yokokawasaki2023 and @yuya_gonzo from Kyoto Experiment, and to the team at Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery—Mizuho Fujita, Miharu Seta, Natsuki Yamamoto, Kazuki Yoshimoto (photographer of slide #4 here)—for dreaming this up with us and making it happen. — Produced with the support of: the Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Ontario Arts Council. In co-operation with Délégation générale du Québec à Tokyo Supported by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan | Japan Arts Council, Japan Foundation for Regional Art Activities [Thinking about the body, history and identity through the performing arts] Presented by Kyoto Experiment and Kyoto City University of Arts.