Nuit Blanche 2025: Voices of the City
Saturday, October 4–Sunday, October 5, 2025
Aga Khan Museum, Aga Khan Park, Atrium, Bellerive Room, Courtyard, Ismaili Centre Toronto
This Nuit Blanche, the Aga Khan Museum, the Aga Khan Park, and the Ismaili Centre, Toronto, will transform into a hub of art, music, and cultural exchange. Journey through the many voices that shape our city in an all-night experience featuring captivating installations, live performances, poetry, and visual art, all in celebration of the city-wide theme, Translating the City.
Spend the night at the Museum and enjoy:
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An Immersive sonic installation by Justin Gray, featuring recordings of 38 Toronto musicians.
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Shoe Dreams – dancers and musicians performing with instruments and footwear they created themselves.
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Poems in Passage – receive a custom poem written live, then projected in multiple languages across the Museum’s façade.
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Captivating live performances – from a North Indian classical flute duet to midnight whirling dervishes with Persian Sufi music.
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Devotional songs by Yahya Hussein Abdallah.
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Extended gallery hours until 2 am and free admission.
Featured Installation
Circle of Sound: An Immersive Musical Journey
Justin Gray and collaborators
Circle of Sound: An Immersive Musical Journey is a sensory-rich installation that brings new life to the Qasida Al Burda, a revered devotional poem, through spatial sound and live performance. At its heart is a new recording by the acclaimed Qawwali ensemble Fareed Ayaz and Abu Muhammad. Presented in a glowing dome with a 9.1.6 surround sound system, the experience envelops audiences in layered, multidirectional audio.
Led by JUNO-winning producer Justin Gray, the piece features contributions from Toronto musicians Andrew Kay (saxophone, singing bowls), Pankaj Mishra (sarangi), and Naghmeh Farahmand (daf), blending classical, contemporary, and sacred traditions. Commissioned by the Aga Khan Museum, Al Burda Immersed responds to the 2025 Nuit Blanche theme, Translating the City, exploring how sacred traditions are transformed through place and collaboration. The result is an urban ritual — an intimate, spatial encounter with poetry, music, and memory, reimagined for contemporary Toronto.
About the Artist
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Justin Gray
The Museum’s Performing Arts programming is generously supported by the Nanji Family Foundation.
Nuit Blanche is presented by:
TD Pop-Up Performances are sponsored by:
Programming partners
Government Partners
