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As the days shorten and the colour scheme turns various shades of amber, autumn arrives with its own rhythm. There’s something about autumn that demands our attention—not with noise, but with subtlety. The crisp shift in the air, the soft rustle of leaves underfoot, the shadows stretching across city sidewalks. It’s a season for listening.

To music, yes, but also to what lingers beneath the surface. The echo of a lyric that won’t leave you. The conversations we have with ourselves as the world turns inward. In this autumn edition, Issue 106, we explore artists who are shaping the sound of now. One such voice is Charlotte Day Wilson, whose warm, unhurried soul seems to speak directly to this season. Her music, intimate and deeply textured, is the kind you feel in your chest—a soundtrack for walking alone in a city in transition. “Charlotte Day Wilson Is in Her Multicolour Era” begins on page 94.

NUVO editor Claudia Cusano.

Earlier this year, while in New York, I had the privilege to spend some time with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, a dynamo of a conductor who understands that to create music is to craft connection. Once upon a time, the classical podium was a place of stiff collars and invisible personalities. Not anymore. With his couture-meets-comfort wardrobe and boundless emotional intensity, Nézet-Séguin is redefining what it means to be a conductor in the 21st century. As the music director of the Metropolitan Opera, artistic and music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and artistic director and principal conductor at L’Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, Nézet-Séguin leads with more than just a baton—instead doing so with heart, instinct, and style. Offstage, he’s as comfortable in Prada as he is in rehearsal blacks—often with bare tattooed arms and Rolex visible—bringing bold personal expression to a traditionally buttoned-up world. The Montreal native is the type of music man I wish I had the chance to play for during my years playing violin and viola—my profile of him, “Modern-Day Maestro,” begins on page 64.

Across the creative spectrum, a chorus of Canadian voices emerge in this issue: Dana Lee crafting timeless wardrobe essentials on Bowen Island for her fashion label Dana Lee Brown; the team at Ste Marie Studio building environments that speak without words; Jennifer Carvalho, the visual artist whose paintings explore the blurred threshold between presence and perception; and Darren MacLean, who approaches food as narrative. Turn the volume up—or down. And listen. The season has something to say.

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