Casse-Tête: A Festival of Experimental Music
In 2013, a startlingly original music festival began in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada. It ran for five successful years before its founder and Artistic Director, Jeremy Stewart, relocated to BC’s lower mainland.
In 2023, Casse-Tête is returning with a new location on the Semiahmoo Peninsula (on the unceded traditional territory of the Semiahmoo First Nation). Casse-Tête is a production of the Casse-Tête Institute Society, co-produced with The Canadian Music Centre, and will feature a presentation stage as part of the White Rock Jazz & Blues Festival (in partnership with the White Rock BIA). The concerts are funded in part by the City of Surrey through a Cultural Grant. “Casse-Tête” is the French word for a puzzle, but it can also refer to a headache or a deafening noise.
Artistic Director Jeremy Stewart
Jeremy Stewart is a writer and musician. He lives in the White Rock area with this partner and children.
His book In Singing, He Composed a Song (U Calgary Press) was shortlisted for the 2022 ReLit Award. Stewart won the 2014 Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative Poetry for Hidden City (Invisible). He is also the author of (flood basement (Caitlin). Stewart holds a PhD in English Literature from Lancaster University.
For his work on Casse-Tête, Stewart was awarded the inaugural Barbara Pentland Award for extraordinary contribution to Canadian music. He once dropped a piano off a building.