Music, film, and physics converge in Patterns from Nature, unfolding through the dynamics of flow and fracture.
Conceived and directed by Brooklyn-based composer and saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff, the film was developed collaboratively with physicist Stephen Morris (Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto) and filmmakers Tina de Groot (Netherlands), Lee Hutzulak (Canada), Gita Blak (New York), and Udo Prinsen (Netherlands).
Inspired in part by the writing of science author Philip Ball, the film draws on Morris’s research into emergent patterns—not to illustrate scientific ideas, but to build an original artistic structure where sound, image, and concept carry equal weight.
Musicians
Soloists
Matt Mitchell – piano
Molinari String Quartet
Satoshi Takeishi – percussion
Carlo De Rosa – bass
François Houle – clarinet
Quinsin Nachoff – tenor saxophone
Ryan Keberle – trombone
Ensemble
Roberta Michel – flute
Sara Schoenbeck – bassoon
Tony Kadleck – trumpet
John Clark – French horn
Aaron Edgcomb – percussion
Conductor
JC Sanford
Upcoming Release:
Audio album forthcoming on Whirlwind Recordings (January 2026)
Production Info
Premieres (multimedia concert version):
October 16, 2023 – Lang Recital Hall, Hunter College (New York)
November 4, 2023 – Isabel Bader Theatre (Toronto)
Studio Recording:
October 18–19, 2023 – Oktaven Audio, New York
Support:
Canada Council for the Arts
Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences
Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec
University of Toronto Department of Physics
Québec Government Office in New York
Quinsin Nachoff is a composer and saxophonist whose music blends intricate composition with improvisation, balancing structure and spontaneity. His recent work intertwines music with scientific ideas, film, and visual art as part of an evolving exploration. Based in Brooklyn and originally from Toronto, he creates ambitious works where sound and concept converge.
He directed Patterns from Nature, a film developed in collaboration with physicist Dr. Stephen Morris and four filmmakers—Tina de Groot, Lee Hutzulak, Gita Blak, and Udo Prinsen—each responding visually to a different natural process, from branching and flow to cracks and ripples. The result is a work where music, image, and narrative unfold together with equal weight and presence. The project builds on earlier work with Morris including Winding Tessellations, a saxophone concerto premiered at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, as well as a series of commissioned short films—Bounce (Hutzulak), March Macabre (Blak), and Splatter (Prinsen)—created for Path of Totality, Nachoff’s album nominated for a JUNO Award, Canada’s top music honour.
Nachoff’s work draws on ideas of perception, natural processes, and myth, using them as architecture that shapes the evolving forms of his music. This approach runs through his recordings Flux, Path of Totality, Pivotal Arc, and Stars & Constellations, which have earned multiple JUNO nominations and recognition for their inventive orchestration, ambition, and depth.
http://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~smorris
Dr. Stephen Morris is a Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Toronto whose research explores the experimental science of pattern formation. His work investigates the spontaneous emergence of form and order in physical systems such as fluid flow, cracks, icicles, granular media and more. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the recipient of several awards for teaching excellence.
He regularly gives public talks, has exhibited scientific imagery in gallery settings, and has been featured on CBC, Discovery Channel, and in The Globe and Mail. His outreach work emphasizes the visual beauty of patterns and the connections between physics and art.
Featuring pianist Matt Mitchell (NYC) and Santiago Leibson (Toronto)
Tina de Groot is an animator based in the Netherlands, known for her use of oil paint and sand on glass to create painterly, hand-made animations. She graduated from the Utrecht School of Arts in 2017 with a degree in 2D animation. Since then, she has created a range of short films, commercials, and music videos. Her films combine traditional painting techniques with modern animation tools to create a painterly, poetic aesthetic that takes the viewer on a dreamlike journey.
Her work has included music videos such as The Wanderer and collaborations with Dutch broadcasters including VPRO and DWDD. She also contributed to educational animation projects such as The Art of Narration (Part II): Places. Tina’s work often centers on nature and internal landscapes, and reflects a hands-on, process-driven approach that bridges visual art and animation.
Lee Hutzulak is a Vancouver-based artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans video, music, and painting. He began making videos in the early 1990s while studying at the Alberta College of Art, using 8mm film and Video8 to accompany his long-running music project, Dixie’s Death Pool. With the rise of compact digital cameras and online platforms, he returned to video in the 2000s, sharing hundreds of works that range from live performance captures to collage-based experiments using self-shot footage and intuitive editing.
In parallel, Lee has developed a painting practice focused on naive, cartoon-like figures in loosely constructed tableaus. His visual work has been exhibited at Uplink (Tokyo), Lucky’s (Vancouver), Deluge (Victoria), Magic Pony (Toronto), and other independent spaces across Vancouver’s experimental scene. He also leads music projects including Leisure Thief, Zen Escalator, and Hot Towers, producing lushly detailed recordings, combining collage, composition, and improvisation in his home-studio. His work across disciplines is grounded in a tactile, exploratory approach and a visual sensibility that resists categorization.
Željka Blakšić AKA Gita Blak is a New York-based visual artist and filmmaker. Her work explores the performativity of archival practices and countercultural histories. She works with analogue film and found footage, altering the surface directly through painting, scratching, etching, and collage to create layered works grounded in experimental cinema.
Her work has been exhibited internationally at MoMA (New York), Alserkal Avenue (UAE), Kunsthalle Exnergasse (Vienna), Framer Framed (Amsterdam), AIR Gallery and The Kitchen (New York), Gallery Augusta (Helsinki), and the National Gallery of Kosovo. She holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts and has received recognition from NYFA, the 25FPS Festival (Zagreb), the National Endowment for the Arts, MuseumsQuartier (Vienna), Residency Unlimited, and Visual Studies Workshop.
Udo Prinsen is a Dutch visual artist whose work spans animation, short film, documentary, and installation. His projects often explore the relationship between nature, science, and visual storytelling, with a strong emphasis on collaboration across disciplines. He has participated in several art-science residencies in the Arctic and developed works that incorporate long exposure photography, projection, and hand-drawn animation.
His films and installations have been presented at acclaimed animation festivals including Annecy and Hiroshima and have been on display in museums including the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.) and Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam). He has also developed new work through residencies and commissions in Canada, Spitsbergen, Iceland, and the UK.
