TREVOR COPP

1. Children's Audiences: The Carnival of Animals

 

Saint-Saëns' The Carnival of Animals is often used to introduce children to the world of classical Western music with movements devoted to elephants, chickens, and turtles. Our production features Trevor Copp's interpretation of these animals - watch him become a clucking, growling, and flapping parade of animals who bridge this wonderful music to the hearts of children and adults alike. 

 

Each animal will also be introduced by  poems considering the ecological role these animals play in this world we share, poems that were finalists for the 2025 Canadian Society for Children's Literature awards. 

 

Video trailer, photos, and more are here: https://www.totteringbiped.ca/carnival-of-the-animals

 

 

2. New Audience Outreach: Pictures at an Exhibition

 

Developed by a non-musician, Hearing 'Pictures at an Exhibition' is a hybrid live concert/science experiment that asks how classical music is best experienced. Audiences are guided through the composition Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky, with each movement used as an experiment to explore the sound through the senses, the imagination, and story. In La Jardin des Tuilleries, the audience smells perfumes, during Baba Yaga a traditional Baba Yaga folktale is spoken, during Old Castle prompts are provided for the audience to create their own narrative to the music. We finish with a vote where the audience decides if the experiment was a success.

 

This is the perfect audience outreach to people who don't think they belong in an orchestra's audience.

 

Hearing 'Pictures at an Exhibition' was created by Trevor Copp and Mimi Han and premiered with pianist Alexander Tselyakov at the Festival of the Sound in Parry Sound.

 

 

3. Pride event/Queer Centred work: Liquid Lead

 

As a former professional Latin/Ballroom dancer, I was dissatisfied with the outdated ideas around sex and gender embedded in Ballroom dance. I worked with my dance partner, Jeff Fox, to create a new system of partner dancing that discards the idea that gender is associated with who leads and who follows. This concept was curated into the TEDx Montreal series and subsequently picked up by TED.com in a talk which has garnered over 800,000 views to date. Trevor and Jeff tour internationally delivering the talk and workshops, promoting the idea of gender equality in dance and life. 

 

We are available to perform alongside orchestras to deliver this message of hope and vitality for people of all genders, either as dance demonstrations with orchestras or dances with the talk itself. Details, including the TED Talk, can be found here: https://www.totteringbiped.ca/liquid-lead