Aleks Schürmer is a musician and multidisciplinary artist who lives in Montréal.
He straddles the 'classical' and popular worlds, playing with orchestras and with rock bands. His work aims to narrow the gap between what is art music and what is popular music.
His ensemble, les tabarnaks d'époque was started in 2007 as a project to interweave baroque music with modern culture (be it art, dance, fashion, film, or just hanging out and getting drunk at a bar); an anachronistic way to recreate the excitement of 18th century performances. In 2009 they gathered as 12 musicians, soprano Ariane Girard, poet/musician/supermodel Irina Lazareanu, contemporary dancers Dana Michel, Andrew Tay, Mélissa Raymond, Loïc Richard, and Manuel Shink, cardboard puppets and a giant 18th century cardboard theatre made by illustrator Jonathan Sévigny for Party Like it's 1699: A Postmodern Baroque Spectacle. They were featured in the Hour, the Mirror, Nightlife Magazine, Midnight Poutine, and Le Devoir.
As a baroque flute player, he has performed with the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Arion, Les Idées heureuses, and worked under the direction of Kent Nagano. He has performed in Montréal, Toronto, New York City, Halifax, Bruges, and Vermont and was a finalist in the 2006 Early Music America competition. His playing has been called "particularly brilliant" (Claude Gingras, La Presse, Montréal).
Aleks has been a recital partner with bassoonist Nadina Mackie-Jackson, with whom he has performed at the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival and University of Toronto New Music Festival, and recorded several of his original compositions for bassoon and piano. His works have been called “major discoveries” (Stephen Ritter, America Record Guide 2003).
Current projects include a performance art piece taking 21st century pop songs (by Rihanna, Britney Spears, Shakira, the Jonas Brothers, etc) and re-imagining them as 'serious' songs by indie artists (like Xiu Xiu, Daniel Johnston, and Patrick Wolf), pop songs for Baroque Orchestra commissioned from the Aradia Ensemble, and five shows during Pop Montreal with Teen Sleuth & the Freed Cyborg Choir.
