The Intercultural and Creative Music Fellowship (ICMF) became the cynosure of the night for its fifth year in a row at the Aga Khan museum, shepherded by Humber Polytechnic students who assisted in preparation for some to perform at Toronto’s upcoming Nuit Blanche celebration.
The Aga Khan Museum welcomed back its yearly 16-week multidisciplinary music fellowship with a concert and documentary by the Tessera Collective on Sept. 14.
Comprised of nine Humber Polytechnic students, the ensemble was advised by 2025 Juno-nominated, Iraqi-Canadian artist, Ahmed Moneka.
Kai Gaboury played tenor saxophone, Laura Rovetti provided vocals and acoustic guitar, Domonique Wade added vocals and keys, Ben Culver and Theo Dykstra handled drums, percussion, and vocals, and Serena Mancuso played bass and sang. Owen Bulger played electric guitar and synthesizer. Rahul Raheja and Kien Mac made both documentaries.
The performance is an initiative that advances emerging artists’ professional experiences while also promoting an intercultural understanding of Muslim heritage in music and film.
Humber and the Aga Khan Museum share a belief that multicultural groups of artists and performers could notably dismantle social barriers.
Motivated by the mission of the Aga Khan Museum and the idea of “unity through multiplicity,” each of the seven musical fellows wrote a composition based on their unique artistic style, producing seven original pieces honouring uniqueness and community.
One of the vocalists, Laura Rovetti, who is in her last year of the Bachelor of Music program focusing on vocals at Humber Lakeshore, said she wanted her vocal piece to include the different connections people make between cultures and places, acknowledging that they have more in common than they realize.
“My piece called Intertwined, it's kind of about the sacred connections between people, time, nature, all these little connections that we have,” Rovetti said. “And sometimes they're hidden or we don't see them, but they're there.”
Moved by the Aga Khan mandate, Rovetti wanted to capture the truth that while we may come from diverse backgrounds, those differences shouldn’t segregate people. It should be a reminder of the connections people have with each other, making up different versions of humanity.
“That idea, and also all of us being so different as musicians, we all come from different backgrounds, musical styles, and we come together as one,” Rovetti said. “That's what our band name means as well, Tessera basically is a word for like a single piece of mosaic, once you put all of us together, we make beautiful art, literally.”
For other members of the ensemble, being given the opportunity was an accomplishment in itself, one that will leave a lasting, indelible experience.
In his fourth year of Bachelor of Music Performance in drums and percussion, Ben Culver said this experience changed his perspective on what it means to be an artist.
“Honestly, I wouldn't have called myself an artist until this summer,” Culver said. “Coming back has given me a lot of perspective about the value of the community, value of knowledge, value of opportunity, and of course, this opportunity was so monumental for me.”
Already immersed in a plethora of multicultural musical instruments and events, such as those from Middle Eastern and Central Asian cultures, Culver said this piece was more than understanding polarizing backgrounds, but also how these cultures can be taken and transcend beyond our known capabilities.
“But they're trying to find people who are interested in connecting with other cultures. And people who are willing to collaborate and create a new piece of art. Something that is, you know, either experimental or, you know, pushing you out of your boundaries,” Culver said.
Peter Holbrook, the project coordinator for the Centre for Creative Business Innovation (CCBI) at Humber and a member of the original group that launched IMCF at Aga Khan five years ago, has coordinated with the fellows over the past two years.
Journeying with the fellows as they progressed, Holbrook found the artists extremely thoughtful in their creative spur, and asked if there was "more than one ‘right’ way to view something?
“The idea of pluralism is the idea of being able to see things from multiple perspectives, and multiplicity in general. Kind of accepting that there's more than one correct way to view any type of situation or circumstance,” he said.
“There's not necessarily this one exact correct worldview. And I feel like that is what the fellows really dug into this year. The idea of being able to view something so many different ways from so many different perspectives,“ Holbrook said.
Perceived by some, the ensemble was a musical spectacle. In other interpretations, it was an odyssey of reflections on human relationships.
The Tessera Collective hopes to follow this expedition and spread these ideals to larger crowds at Nuit Blanche on Oct. 4.
“We're going to play Nuit Blanche, and we're going to have our album out in the next month,” Rovetti said.
Rovetti said she hopes people walk away from their recent and upcoming performance on a journey of self-discovery, to realize that backgrounds change, but blood doesn't.
“We're not really all so different. We're actually more connected than we realize. And our uniqueness can almost make us one in a sense.”
