Gabriel Dharmoo, PhD

Biography

Gabriel Dharmoo's multidirectional artistic practice encompasses musical composition, vocal performance, drag artistry, interdisciplinary arts and research. His works often explore voice, mixed-identity, brownness, queerness, imaginary culture, satire as well as the interplay between tradition and subversion.

As a composer, his works have been performed across Canada, the U.S.A, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Estonia, Poland, Australia, Singapore and South Africa. He has received many awards for his compositions, such as the Canada Council for the Arts Jules Léger Prize for his chamber work Wanmansho (2017) and the Conseil Québécois de la Musique Opus Award for his opera À chaque ventre son monstre (2018). He recently released Vestiges d’une fable (2024), an album of his chamber music in collaboration with Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra .

His solo show Anthropologies imaginaires has toured internationally (Usine C, PuSh Festival, Sydney Festival, EXPERIMENTICA) and was awarded at the Amsterdam Fringe Festival (2015) and the SummerWorks Performance Festival (2016). He has been developing his drag persona Bijuriya since 2018, working towards his 2022 solo production Bijuriya, presented at Montréal Arts Interculturels, the Queer Arts Festival (Vancouver), the Music Gallery (Toronto), Springboard Performance’s Fluid Fest (Calgary), Open Ears Festival (Kitchener) and 5 times in the Montreal Maisons de la culture de Montréal, via the CAM en Tournée program in 2023-24.

He has researched Carnatic music with 4 renowned masters in Chennai (India) in 2008 and 2011. He has also participated in many cross-cultural and intertraditional musical projects, many being led by Sandeep Bhagwati in Montreal (Sound of Montreal, Ville étrange) and in Berlin (Zungenmusiken, Miyagi Haikus).

He holds a PhD in research-creation from the Individualized Program of Concordia University.

PhD Thesis

2024  « Seeking Vocal Alignment », PhD Thesis available on Spectrum

Published articles

2024  « Vocal Alignment » in The Canadian Theatre Review, issue 196

2022  « Bijuriya Chamke! Curating my Drag Sound » in Post45, Feel Your Fantasy: The Drag Race Cluster

2021   « Queer Perspectives in New Music » in Circuit Volume 31, No 1, 2021.

2020   « Reflets de la colonialité dans la scène des musiques nouvelles » for special issue of Intersections « Decolonizing Pedagogies. » Queen’s University – co-editors : Robin Attas, Margaret Walker

2019  « Anthropologies imaginaires: Critique des attitudes colonialistes par la voix et la satire » in Anthropologie et Sociétés, Champs sonores, 43-2, 2019.

Solo Performance Projects

2022 Bijuriya – Music and Drag show presented at Montréal Arts Interculturels, Queer Arts Festival (Vancouver), Music Gallery (Toronto), Fluid Fest / Springboard Performance (Calgary), 5 dates in Montreal’s CAM en Tournée program, Open Ears Festival (Kitchener) – upcoming performances at Buddies in Bad Time (Toronto)

2014 Anthropologies imaginaires – Solo performance presented over 40 times internationally (Canada, United-States, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, UK, Turkey) won awards at Amsterdam Fringe and Summerworks Festival in Toronto

Stage Works (selection)

Upcoming Sugar music Theatre-Music stage show for 1 performer and 6 musicians

2018 À chaque ventre son monstre Opera for 3 voices and 6 instruments
Music: Gabriel Dharmoo Texts: Françoise Major
Commissioned by Ensemble Paramirabo, with support from the Canada Council for the Arts
Award : Prix Opus Création de l'année 2017/2018

Discography (selection)

2024  Vestiges d’une fable – with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, chamber music, on Centrediscs
2022  Bijuriya Chamke – drag-music EP as Bijuriya
2020  Quelques fictions – solo vocal album on DAME