SOLAR SESSION 2026
Join 2026 Connected Minds Artist-in-Residence Mani Mazinani and the SOLAR lab team as they introduce the Solar Organ project and lead an experimental improvisation session. In a mixed symposium/workshop format, SOLAR Team members will each give a brief introduction to their own work and research, followed by a Q&A. Next we’ll form an ad hoc ensemble to explore making music together, first exploring free improvisation and then experimenting with pentatonic scales. Everyone is welcome, regardless of experience or skill level! Musicians are welcome to bring an instrument, non-musicians will be welcome to play on instruments from the SOLAR Lab.
Date: Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Time: 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Location: Accolade East Building, Room 237
Register HERE
For additional information or assistance please contact: mazinani@yorku.ca
SOLAR [Solar Organ Lab Art & Research] Team:
Mani Mazinani is a Toronto-based artist making installation, video, film, sculpture, photographs, multiples, sound and music. His practice evolved from an early interest in sound recording, now working with the process of translating thoughts into recordings in various media. His visual work thinks about scale and perception, often combining subject matter and medium. Mazinani is currently researching origins of ancient thought, perceptual limitations of humans, and improvisation. Exhibition and performance history includes Evergreen Brick Works (2024), MOCA Toronto (2024), Tate Modern (2019), The Bentway, Toronto (2018), Tehran International Electronic Music Festival (2017), SIP Culture Centre, Suzhou (2016).
Omar Shabbar is a musician, researcher, sound artist, and audiophile based out of Toronto. Currently working towards a PhD in Digital Media at York University, Shabbar’s work explores expressive applications for new sound technologies through the creation of new instruments and sonic environments. Moving past traditional performance spaces like churches or performance halls, Shabbar’s recent work takes an ethnographic approach to examine, analyse, and recreate the many resonances of community spaces.
Aida Khorsandi is a composer-performer, sound synthesist, researcher, and educator whose approach to musicking emphasizes experimentation, embracing chaos and unpredictability, unlearning conventions, and decolonizing auditory hierarchies in musical practice. Aida’s work focuses on developing new technologies that enhance human interaction and embodied participation in music-making, fostering shared agency with computational systems. Aida is investigating the expressivity and accessibility of new musical instruments through workshopping with different tactile and gestural interfaces. Aida Khorsandi is a PhD candidate in the Music department at York University.
Arthur Bastos is a Toronto-based musician, composer and audio engineer with a background that bridges music and technology. He holds a degree in Computer Engineering (B.Sc. University of Toronto) and brings a strong technical foundation to both his creative and engineering work. As a guitarist and vocalist, Arthur has performed and recorded with projects including Mother Tongue, Orbital Ensemble, and his own project ARTU. In the studio, he has worked across Toronto at spaces such as Boombox Sound and Revolution Recording, collaborating with a wide range of artists. Beyond music production, Arthur is deeply involved in the Solar Organ project, working closely with Mani Mazinani to translate the creative vision of the project into a functioning instrument through computer programming, electronics design and assembly. He is also a founding member of the Caju Collective, an initiative dedicated to releasing limited-run 7” vinyl records showcasing local talent from Toronto’s diverse music community.
