It is with terribly heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our dear collaborator and friend, Phil Strong. An award-winning composer and sound designer of epic repute, I was thrilled that he said 'yes' when I invited him to build sound for studio opening of Getting to Know your Fruit's in 2018. Phil had bigger stages and projects to work on, but he brought his impish humour, expansive intellect and boundless creative - and punning - self into rehearsal with me. He extended the geometric theory of a 'ray' into Ray Charles, and made the mathematical discovery that the the 'Y' axis held many absurdist questions: "Y am I doing this?" Phil contributed so much more than sound and music to collaborations with Sara Porter over the past 4 years, animating works like Getting to know your Fruit (stage, 2019), and the stage and film versions of This is my Math Dance, as well as last year's studio premiere of L-E-A-K at IGAC studio, Artscape Youngplace. When Phil entered the rehearsal, things always became more lively, vibrant and alive.

Phil's work lives on in the art and projects and relationships he so fully inhabited when he was among us.