Turkwaz & Medusa: The Feeling of Free

Spend your night with us under the stars! Access our terrace directly from Elgin Street, the canal, or the Mackenzie King Bridge and take in the best free beats offered in Ottawa this summer.

What do you get when you unite four feisty string players with four magnificent vocalists? A wild musical alchemy that lifts up Gorgons and Hags, reclaiming their legendary power. Together, Medusa and Turkwaz fuse polyphony, harmony, heterophony, and daring rhythmic play to create Hagerophony—a rich and resonant sound world that is entirely their own.

Turkwaz is a unique combination of four musician/singers, immersed in diverse traditions from mysterious Sufi devotional love songs, to rousing Thracian dance music. Each performer brings a special flavour to the group: Maryem Hassan Tollar draws on her Arabic language heritage; Jayne Brown and Sophia Grigoriadis bring their experience with Greek music; and Brenna MacCrimmon adds Turkish elements to this mix. They have a long-standing collective interest in Balkan traditions and bring Albanian, Bulgarian and Macedonian songs (and whatever else strikes their fancy) to their repertoire. The love and respect they have for the traditions they draw from are clear, but they are not afraid to arrange the tunes in new and unexpected ways, giving them a fresh spin.

Get ready to stomp your feet, laugh, cry, and hear sounds you've never heard before with the electrifying chamber-folk band Medusa Quartet. Wielding ancient fiddle-like instruments that could propel classical music scholars right out of their chairs, these four folk musicians are reimagining the Western string quartet. Medusa Quartet cross-pollinates traditional music from around the world with original tunes, engaging stories, and their one-of-a-kind stringed instruments to create a "must-see live show!" (Sam Boer, Exclaim!).

Admission is free, but space on the Wood Terrace is limited to 400 guests and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Seating is limited and cannot be reserved, so we recommend arriving early and bringing a chair to enjoy an evening of music and entertainment. For guests arriving after capacity is reached, an overflow seating area outside the Wood Terrace with an obstructed view will be available.