Mid Day Moon or Apocalyptic Times with Robert Fletcher or I ❤️ Winnipeg
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I addressed three degrees worth of student loan payments to the Robert Fletcher Building. Now I walk by it in strange weather on the route from my house to my husband’s DJ set. Life is . . . Life.
REVIEW
« An extremely intricate and beautifully intimate album. Recommended. Go check. Especially if Björk’s most ethereal and stripped down tunes from around the mid-90s struck a chord with you for a reason even though there is no direct parallels or specific connections to be drawn out here. » Nitestylez.de @baze.djunkiii
Dream of Heat est paru il y a déjà quelques mois, et récolte encore de très belles critiques!
/2026/04/toninato-thiessen-dream-of-heat.html
Dream of Heat (LP / NUM) via actuellecd ou Bandcamp
Toninato & Thiessen (Ida Toninato, saxophone baryton, voix, synthétiseur; Jennifer Thiessen, alto, voix, synthétiseur)
Jason Sharp, synthétiseur
Jason Sharp, réalisateur
Enregistré aux Lost River Studio et hotel2tango
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, Shae Brossard, prise de son
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, montage, mixage
Harris Newman, Grey Market Mastering, matriçage
Robin Pineda Gould, photos
Marie-Pierre Morin, graphisme
@idatoninato@violajen@jasonsharpmusic@radwanghazimoumneh@shaebrossard@harrisnewman12@robinpgould@empimorin
Who am I grateful to be sharing the ups and downs of caring for a giant epileptic dog and a number of complex cats in a 100-year old house with? This guy. His name is Ben. You may know him as a genre-bending drum genius, and I value this about him also, but around here he is the go to guy for the best cuddles when you’re feeling anxious (see photo) and damn can he keep his wits about him during dog seizures. Much love and gratitude to our @bnreimer ❤️
⚡️ We wanted a classic album cover feel for Dream of Heat. It started with this sweet photo by @rpgould , then @idatoninato styled the lettering.
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Once we had the vinyl in hand I kept thinking it looked like a Heart album and I finally found the one! 🤩 Toninato & Thiessen is in good company with Ann & Nancy Wilson ❤️❤️
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Want our cover in your collection? Message me or order online via the link in my bio. 🫶
A huge thank you to @thomastoews@violajen and @nahthan.me for sharing an incredible 2.5 hr improvised ambient music set at the studio this past @firstfridayswinnipeg
And thanks to everyone who came out to take part!
Hope to see you again soon
Happy Place✨
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I have much more to say these days but can’t find the words yet. Something about it being one year since my dad passed away, and about remembering his morning prayer that we would find “joy and ability in our work.” Something about dedicating my own work to him so often these days with that phrase in mind, and playing my Lachrimae for him tonight.
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There’s something else about the choices I made for my work after he passed last year, and how the brutal clarity of that time planted me back in my own soil, seeking joy and ability in my work with a dog by my side.
✨COMMENTARIES @wpgbaroquefest concert this week: Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, 8 p.m., Westminster United Church, 2nd floor.
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TICKET link in bio (Find "Commentaries" in the list, choose number of tickets, click "Add to Cart", proceed to payment)
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Soprano @larasecord and tenor @nolan_kehler join forces with violist Jennifer Thiessen, pianist Lisa Rumpel @lisa_bree , and organist Josh Zentner-Barrett to present English baroque song and 20th century music directly referencing it.
🎻 Preparing LACHRYMAE; Reflections on a song of Dowland by Benjamin Britten to play with @lisa_bree Lisa Rumpel next week on a @wpgbaroquefest program of 20th century music inspired by John Dowland, curated by @nolan_kehler and @larasecord . April 1, 8 PM. Details to follow. ✨
April 3 First Friday
Create a sketch in response to the soundscape as Jennifer Thiessen, NAHTHAN and Thomas Toews bring live, ambient, and experimental music to the studio.
7pm - 9:30pm
66 King Street, floor 4
𝙅𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙧 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙣 is a viola player, songwriter, and sound artist whose work bridges baroque, classical, contemporary and experimental music. She creates original music with violas, voices, poetry, field recordings, and electronics.
𝙉𝘼𝙃𝙏𝙃𝘼𝙉 is the experimental media project of Canadian artist Nathan Reimer, longtime keyboardist for Winnipeg funk/fusion group MOSES MAYES. NAHTHAN explores sonic textures looking for the spaces between noise and music. It is an attempt to write free from rules, whether imposed by genre or habit. It is a project rooted in curiosity, shaped by the moment, and driven by a love of sound.
𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙨 𝙏𝙤𝙚𝙬𝙨 is an experimental musician from Winnipeg MB. His improvised live performances explore feedback and harmony at multiple levels of abstraction. Utilizing “no-input mixing” as the primary method of sound generation, he explores landscapes of texture that flow into, and inform each other.
Dream of heat
Dream of green
While eating the last stores
And breathing in the winter way
Winter’s sharpest knife
Will not kill
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— Some winter wisdom I once had and need again. A poem that became lyrics on new Dream of Heat album by Toninato & Thiessen with @idatoninato (link in bio). ✨
I am grateful to my sunny partner @bnreimer who makes cold and dark times better with his warm heart.❤️
On International Women’s Day, some low hanging fruit comes to mind in my professional sphere in considering our ongoing pursuit of equality:
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1. An arts organization that has never reached their annually publicized gender parity goal because . . . they keep hiring men. I was once in a meeting where two items on the agenda were: ideas about how to do better at reaching gender parity, and ideas for next season, which were all men. I kicked myself for not simply saying, “To reach gender parity you just need to hire people of different genders.”
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Change can happen quickly in a small organization! However, putting diversity mandates into action means people have to actually want the equality, not just the benefit of the claim (arts council funding, performative marketing).
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2. In my first season as an artistic director in 2022, I booked an elegant program by Montreal ensemble Infusion Baroque featuring compositions by and for European women musicians of the baroque period, as well as by Vivaldi and Vandini (so, 4 women and 2 men composers on a show by 4 women performers). It was henceforth called “Jennifer’s experimental program” by the executive director and much ado was made about the extensive cost that would be required to market such a program so that anyone at all would attend. Other comments from board and audience at that time included, “We can see what you’re trying to do here, with all these women,” and “Are there even any men in your season?” To be fair, there were a lot of women in my season (approximately half) as well as musicians from lots of different communities and identities. The admonition that I still lose sleep over is, “We never intended the diversity mandate to go this far.”
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Let’s go far with our mandates and actions. Let’s go all the way. With all the people. It’s going to be beautiful.
