The past six month have left me dearly missing the typically endless supply of live music in Toronto in any given week. To help fill the live music void in my life, I have found myself increasingly turning towards online concerts.

I am, therefore, very excited to share a live music streaming platform newly available to libraries called Qwest TV, available through University of Toronto Libraries for at least the next year. Co-founded by music legend Quincy Jones and jazz impresario and producer Reza Ackbaraly, Qwest TV features a diverse collection of hundreds of concerts and documentaries, with a focus on Jazz, Soul, Funk, Blues, African music, Latin music, Indian music and more. This platform will serve as an excellent companion to classical-focused streaming services like Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall and Medici.TV.

I am really impressed with the diversity and quality of content in the Qwest TV video collection so far. Highlights of my initial exploration of Qwest TV include a fascinating 1971 documentary on Ravi Shankar entitled Raga - A Film Journey into the Soul of India, as well as a spellbinding 2012 live concert film, Ravi & Anoushka Shankar - Live In Bangalore. I also enjoyed a remarkable set from the late great Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings from 2014 in Paris, as well as a notably 80s-influenced, but nonetheless great, set of jazz fusion from John McLaughlin and the Mahavishu Orchestra, Live at Lugano Estival Jazz 1986. I have still only barely grazed the surface of all the wonderful content available on the platform and look forward to Qwest providing me with a rich and warm soundtrack for the upcoming chilly months ahead.

Click here to connect to Qwest TV (you will be prompted to enter your UTORid and password and then redirected to the platform).*

*Please note that there have been some issues in our initial tests with videos not loading. Qwest TV is aware of this issue and it is not isolated to University of Toronto Libraries. If you experience issues accessing the content via the instructions above, there are a couple things you can try:

Clear your cache or open the link in a different browser or private browsing window.
Log in using the institutional portal.
1. Go to https://education.qwest.tv/auth/edu
2. Search for and select ‘University of Toronto’ in the ‘Find your Institution' field.
3. Click the green ‘Login’ icon.
4. Enter your UTORid and password.

Happy exploring! If you have any questions or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact me at trevor.deck@utoronto.ca.

Qwest TV announcement