Four Canadian women celebrated through music, words and pictures
As a component of its True North Festival celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday, the CPO is hosting the National Arts Centre Orchestra in a single-night special concert entitled Life Reflected. The concert takes the form of a multimedia event that present portraits of four significant contemporary Canadian women: writer Alice Munro, anti-bullying advocate Amanda Todd, astronaut Roberta Bondar and the Indigenous poet Rita Joe.
Each section of this work has been composed by a different Canadian composer, and each section is approached in a different way. Together they provide a composite picture of important Canadian women, each of whom has contributed significantly to how contemporary Canada understands itself at this juncture in its history.
About the entire work, newly appointed conductor of the NAC, Alexander Shelley, commented: “What inspired me was looking at these four women who have found their voices, through different sacrifices and challenges.” Shelley approached four prominent Canadian composers to be part of the project: Zosha Di Castri, John Estacio, Nicole Lizee and Jocelyn Morlock. They all have collaborated with Donna Feore to create a multimedia work that, in the words of the Ottawa Citizen: “transcends biography to embrace universal themes of pain, forgiveness, beauty and hope.”
The first section is devoted to Munro’s semi-autobiographical story concerning the motherdaughter relationship. Composer Di Castri treats this story by em- ploying a narrator and a soprano to (in her words): “bridge the divide between the abstractness of the music and concreteness of the spoken word.” It was Munro’s “flashes of memories half-recalled, perhaps fictional, perhaps autobiographical” that drew her to this story and that inspired the music.
The second section is the work of Jocelyn Morlock and is entitled My name is Amanda Todd. The 15-year-old B.C. girl was a victim of cyber-bullying and assault and she committed suicide. Prior to her death, she posted a heartbreaking account of her torment on YouTube using flash cards. The composition engages the darkness of Amanda’s inner life in the context of the bullying she was subjected to, ultimately moving to “powerful, positive” music as an affirmation of the transformational inner strength of Todd.
Nicole Lizee is the composer of the Bondarsphere movement. She employs audio clips from Bondar’s activities in space as part of the musical score. Using original musical means, Lizee attempts to convey something of the world of “speaking from space,” drawing upon the poetry used by Bondar in her acceptance speech at Canada’s Walk of Fame. The piece has eight movements that, in Lizee’s words: “aim to sonically and visually express the impact that accomplishments have had on the world.”
The final section, entitled I Lost My Talk, come from the works of Mi’kmaw poet Rita Joe, and address the fear of losing one’s culture. The piece contains three interior movements, each of which meditate upon an aspect of the poem. These include a treatment
of the idea of innocence (solo flute), relentless oppression ( brass and percussion), leading ultimately to reconciliation (in the style of an anthem). Rita Joe’s words are narrated during the course of the piece.
A Life Reflected has already been performed in other Canadian cities to considerable acclaim, especially for its emotional power and the effectiveness of the multimedia aspects of the production. The performance takes place Thursday at Jack Singer Concert Hall at 8 p.m. It will be a unique opportunity to hear the NAC orchestra in new Canadian music, specially composed for the event, that celebrates in a variety of interconnected ways the privilege of being Canadian.