Queer Songbook Orchestra in Swift Current tonight

The 12-piece chamber ensemble the Queer Songbook Orchestra will be on the Lyric Theatre stage tonight.

The Toronto-based group will be in Swift Current as part of an 11 date western concert tour which ventures into locations they have not played before. The chamber pop ensemble is dedicated to exploring and uplifting queer narrative through music and storytelling to provide a powerful communication voice.

“I think it’s important to have a project come through that is very visible,” explained Shaun Brodie, Artistic Director of the Queer Songbook Orchestra.

“I think that for people of a local community who are queer, it is an important thing to have that visibility so that they see it’s something that they might connect to. And for people who are not part of the queer community, I think it’s important too and an opportunity to deepen ones understanding of the experience of others and queer experience.”

This is the longest tour they have embarked on after a series of shorter tours to the West Coast, through Alberta, plus around Ottawa and Montreal.

They have entitled this 11-date road trip the Tour of Heart & Mind, which is part is a reference to a Joni Mitchell song.

“It’s also reflective of what the show is about. It is sort of an emotional and intellectual journey in the show. So it just seemed fitting,” Brodie explained.

In the days leading up to their Sept. 30 tour start in Whitehorse, Yukon, the group was rehearsing the newly arranged songs they would be sharing on the road.

In their live performance during this tour, there will be a selection of songs along with personal narratives from 11 members of the 2SLGBTQ community from across the country.

“It’s all personal stories of lived queer experience that we’re building the show from. We did a call out for people to send us stories of queer experiences that are connected to a certain song. And we selected from those.”

“So when people see us, we’ll be telling those stories, and they sort of act as introductions to the songs. So you’re kind of led into the songs through this memory of queer experience.”

Tonight’s concert at the Lyric Theatre begins at 7 p.m., and tickets are available at the door .