As part of the Music Gallery's role as the central Festival Hub for the soundaXis Festival, we present the first of two FREE afternoon acoustic concerts in the beautiful courtyard of St. George the Martyr, at 197 John St.

3:30pm — Aki Takahashi & Jessica Stuart
Mixing traditional, pop and experimental Japanese and Western musics, Aki Takahashi (shamisen, voice) and Jessica Stuart (guitar, koto, voice) make their duo debut at soundaXis 2008. Aki is exteemed as a composer, shamisen and taiko player and as a creator/member of Japanese-inspired folk group Ten Ten. essica is also a composer, band-leader of art-pop group the Jessica Stuart Few, and a member of indie rock's Histrionics. The two met singing in Christine Duncan's Element Choir.

5pm & 6pm — Alex Lukashevsky (two sets)
For some 10 years, Alex Lukashevsky has been filling Toronto clubs with surreal sounds and wondrous words, most notably as bandleader for boisterous improv-rock ensemble Deep Dark United. Lukashevsky beholds an incomparably soulful, cigar-smoky voice, an amorphous approach to guitar playing and profound lyrical witticisms. In Toronto music circles Alex is known to many; his talent for writing songs and being a generous performer has been noted by his peers and the press. His music is very public, always social and expands the world more than it shrinks it: definitely a maximalist.