November 13-15, 2026
Vancouver Independent Music Centre Society and SUM gallery present Fragile: Handle with Care.
Mark Takeshi McGregor, flute & movement | Parmela Attariwala, violin, movement & sound design
Sujit Vaidya, choreography & movement
Friday and Saturday, November 13-14: 7:30 pm | Doors and box office opens at 6:30 pm
Sunday Matinee, November 15: 2 pm | Doors and box office opens at 1 pm
Morrow, 910 Richards Street, Unit 204
How does performance adjust as our bodies age? How do performers change as we age? What becomes more important, what is less important? Sujit, Mark and Parmela explore the physical and sonic shifts time brings.
Presented by SUM gallery, VIM House, and Odd Meridian Society, Fragile: Handle with Care is the first draft presentation of a new collaborative work featuring new movement and music by three of Vancouver’s leading creative artists, flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor; composer/violinist Parmela Attariwala; and choreographer/dancer Sujit Vaidya.
Vulnerability, mythology, and memory are some of the themes explored in this three-part work, which blurs the lines between artistic disciplines: each performer actively contributes to the choreography, soundscape, and dramaturgy.
Described as a “mind-blowing” musician of “huge physical energy” (Times Colonist), flutist Mark Takeshi McGregor is a Vancouver-based soloist, chamber musician, and improvisor. Mark has performed with various ensemble across five continents including Innovations en Concert (Montreal), Ding Yi Chinese Chamber Music Festival (Singapore), Museo Leonora Carrington (San Luis Potosí, Mexico), Melos-Ethos (Bratislava), GroundSwell (Winnipeg) and Núcleo Música Nova International Symposium of New Music (Curitiba, Brazil). In 2021, he was honoured with the Friends of Canadian Music Award, which recognizes exceptional to Canadian composers and their music. He is artistic director of the Queer Arts Festival + SUM gallery, major platforms for 2SLGBTQIA+ art and artists. https://marktakeshimcgregor.com/
Born and raised in Mohkinstis (Calgary), Parmela Attariwala determined as a toddler that she had to play the violin after seeing one on television. She studied music formally in the United States and Europe, then cultivated an eclectic artistic practice over a twenty-five-year sojourn in Toronto, mixing traditional and non-traditional, cross-genre and interdisciplinary, performance and creation, socially progressive pedagogy and applied ethnomusicology. Parmela is particularly known for working with choreographers (as both composer and movement artist), for her Attar Project recordings featuring works for Western strings and North Indian tabla (“a cross-cultural handshake to set the mind spinning”), and for research on music and identity in Canada. Since moving to Vancouver in 2019, Parmela’s creative work has expanded to include sound scores for gallery installations (Esker Foundation, Peter Morin and Ayumi Goto’s the Salmon and the Crow are Everywhere and Morin’s NDN Lovesongs), dance film (Sujit Vaidya and Robert Kingsbury’s Sacred/Sacrilegeous), and opera (Marion Newman and Yvette Nolan’s Namwayut). She also co-founded the collaborative improvisation web series Understorysound.ca, and dedicates her spare time to tackling issues of equity and ethics in the music sector. https://parmela.com/
Choreographer Sujit Vaidya is an independent Vancouver dance artist trained in Bharatanatyam who works primarily as soloist. His artistic choices reflect the curiosities and experiences he holds as a queer artist of colour, while deeply engaging with an art form rooted in tradition. His choreographies question the narrative and relevance of non-inclusive traditional texts. He aims to create space for queer expression within the context of Bharatanatyam. His works have been programmed in festivals such as Vancouver International Dance Festival, Dancing On The Edge and MAI Montreal. https://sujitvaidya.ca/
One of only a handful of permanent spaces worldwide dedicated to the presentation of queer art, SUM gallery brings diverse communities together to support artistic risk-taking, incite creative collaboration and experimentation, and celebrate the rich heritage of queer artists and art. SUM produces, presents and exhibits challenging, thought-provoking multidisciplinary art, including up to six exhibitions a year, a concert series, the SUM-AiR artist residency program, and multiple workshops and public engagement initiatives. From its roots in the Pride in Art Society (PiA), SUM gallery was founded in 2018 as a space for year-round programming of the Queer Arts Festival. https://sumgallery.ca/
Vancouver Independent Music Centre Society (VIM) is a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to developing an accessible, sustainable, and culturally diverse music centre in Vancouver. Its vision is shaped by extensive community consultation and ongoing support for local music ecosystems. https://vimhouse.ca/
Fragile: Handle with Care takes place on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish) and səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations.
This event is presented in partnership with Odd Meridian Society. The Vancouver Independent Music Society and SUM gallery gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia and the City of Vancouver; Canadian Heritage; the JTC Heersink Foundation; and the Canada Council for the Arts through DKAM for this special presentation.
