Artistic statement
An encounter between visual arts, poetry and music presides over the approach of Egypto-québécois composer and sound artist Nour Symon. Leaving aside the conventional writing of notes attached to a staff, the Montrealer’s music is rather read and interpreted from a set of drawings forming what is known as graphic scores. Inhabited by the worlds of composers-performers Pauline Oliveiros and Cecil Taylor, by the sound world of Egyptian diva Oum Kalthoum, then by Cy Twombly’s flowing lines and drawn colours, Nour positions themself in a filiation of the score as a space of precision and freedom, as well as of ambiguity and mixing between canonical genres and influences. They thus propose lyrical, noisy and intimate works driven by a desire to revalue the complexity of interactions between their identities – queer, migratory, in love with the noise of the world.
Their works reflect an ever-renewed quest for the de-hierarchization of the composer’s authority in favour of working closely with the performers. Indeed, their scores require great precision from the musicians, but also an extended set of playing techniques (including breath control for wind instruments or exploration of friction for strings, for example) aimed at taking into account the performance personally and intimately. The basics of understanding the scores remain simple and intuitive: the horizontal axis indicates duration and the vertical axis indicates the pitch of a sound, while a dark line calls for a louder sound, a thinner and blurred line, a softer sound. It is therefore to a look in the form of listening, at once curious, generous and intuitive, that the composer invites us.
Bio
Egyptian-Quebecer Nour Symon offers lyrical, noise-based and intimate works, driven by a desire to bring back into focus the complexity of the interactions between their identities — queer, migratory, in love with the complexity of the world. A desiring encounter between visual art, concert music and poetry lies at the heart of their practice. This transdisciplinarity is reflected most clearly in their sound paintings — graphic scores performed here and elsewhere by musicians and artists whose paths are as winding as possible.
Their most recent books, خول Khawal ou le privilège de la beauté (poetic essay) and Doux rêves, belles personnes (children’s book), have just been published by Éditions du Noroît and Dent-de-lion, respectively. Their poetry and sound painting collection L’amour des oiseaux moches (2020) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Awards and the Émile-Nelligan Prize. Their poetic suite “Enfance grenade” earned them the 2025 Prix Félix-Antoine-Savard de poésie.
Nour has been the artistic and music director of numerous projects — personal and collaborative — since 2008. Among their regular collaborators is Ensemble SuperMusique, which premiered and recorded their two most important graphic scores: je suis calme et enragé·e (2022, recording 2025) and voir dans le vent qui hurle les étoiles rire, et rire (l’un·e sans l’autre) (2016–2018, recording 2020). Nour Symon is also an accomplished musique actuelle (free improvisation) pianist who has performed around the world, surrounded by magnificent human beings.
Their visual work has been exhibited at Usine C, La Charpente des fauves (Quebec City), Maison de la culture du Plateau-Mont-Royal, the Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, as well as the Palazzo Ducale di Lucca. Their major transdisciplinary works include the opera adaptation of Nicole Brossard’s novel Le désert mauve, which has been heard from Stockholm to Calgary, via Montréal, Québec City, Jonquière, Edmonton and Oulu (Finland). voir dans le vent qui hurle les étoiles rire, et rire, a 40-minute sound painting co-composed with Yannick Plamondon for the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and marimbist Anne-Julie Caron, was presented to celebrate the opening of the Lassonde Pavilion at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (2016).
Nour Symon is also an independent researcher: their writings have appeared on many platforms, including Circuit – musiques contemporaines, Les Cahiers de la SQRM, the site cettevilleetrange.org and the journal Écosystème of La Chambre Blanche. They are frequently invited as a speaker, in their capacity as an author, composer and researcher, notably at the Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Université Paris-Sorbonne, McGill University, Simon Fraser University, Western University, Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, Vincent-d’Indy and various conservatories of music in Quebec and France.
(Last updated: November 2025)
Nour Symon 