LOOKING FORWARD
RSO 2020-21 includes country star Moskaluke, Slean doing Joni, throat boxing and a drag queen on strings
As the Regina Symphony Orchestra’s 2019-20 season is on its way to becoming a COVID -19 casualty, music director Gordon Gerrard is looking forward to next year.
The 2020-21 season has something for everyone — at least, that’s Gerrard’s hope.
“Part of the challenge and what I think is so interesting about the job is we have an orchestra that is designed to serve a very wide range of people, different audiences and different tastes,” Gerrard said.
“Some people like Tchaikovsky and Mozart and Beethoven all the time, and some people like some of the more adventurous stuff.”
(Those classic classical composers are well-reflected next season, for the record.)
“I think from the Masterworks point of view, one of the things we’ve been trying to do is to take a look at who our audience is in Regina, in southern Saskatchewan, and try and program things that more reflect the people who live in our community,” added Gerrard, “which in some cases includes people that may not necessarily have been what we consider our traditional audience.”
Read on for some highlights.
STAR-CROSSED LOVERS
Next season’s Masterworks Series starts with Dragons, Butterflies, and Star-crossed Lovers on Sept. 26.
It includes a famous Chinese composition, The Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto, composed in 1959 by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang.
It’s “the Chinese retelling of the Romeo and Juliet story, and so I’m excited to pair that with the Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet, which is one of the great ballet scores, amazing music,” Gerrard said.
“So that’ll be a really fun concert that kind of has a foot in different worlds.”
LOOKING FORWARD
The Forward Currents festival, which has occurred in March the past two years, is set for November.
Its first incarnation in 2018 was focused on truth and reconciliation; its second explored mental health and featured Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies.
This third festival is “all about the ideas and the issues that are top of mind for all of us, but specifically for folks in the LGBTQ community. So I’m excited about that,” Gerrard said.
“I don’t think that enough orchestras are doing programming like that and I think they should, frankly.”
THROAT-BOXING
Nunavut musician Nelson Tagoona brings something new to the RSO stage on March 13, 2021, during Dance Revolution.
He’s a throat boxer, combining throat singing and beat boxing.
“That will definitely be something that’s new for everyone in our audience, I can guarantee you,” Gerrard said.
He’ll perform during Adizokan, which mixes dance and video with orchestra.
“We have some local traditional First Nations dancers that are joining us,” Gerrard said. “So that will be a big spectacle and again it sort of reaffirms our commitment to giving space to Indigenous creators and performers and integrating it into our regular programming, so I’m super-excited about that one.”
DRAG WITH STRINGS
Thorgy Thor, known from Rupaul’s Drag Race, will join the RSO on cello, viola and violin on March 27, 2021.
“She’s terrific, she’s a great player, but also the stories that inevitably come from the presentation, bringing different people into her audience, bringing our regular audience into a different head space, it’s pretty powerful, so I’m excited for that.”
SASKATCHEWAN’S COUNTRY QUEEN
Jess Moskaluke — many times winner of Canadian Country Music Awards and Juno Awards — will join the RSO on May 1, 2021.
“We don’t normally do country music shows, so I’m excited for that,” Gerrard said.
HOME ALONE, AGAIN
The symphony will play the score of this classic movie, about eight-year-old Kevin Mccallister protecting his house from robbers at Christmastime, on Dec. 12.
The RSO performed Home Alone for the first time in December, and the response “was pretty overwhelmingly positive and a lot of people we talked to said they wanted this to become their new holiday tradition, so we’re going to do it again, which I think will be great,” Gerrard said.
The symphony’s other tradition, Handel’s Messiah, will be back on Dec. 16.
CLIMATE CONCERTO
The theme on Nov. 29 is For Earth and Sky. It includes a new composition by Toronto’s Jordan Pal, Scylla: Concerto for trombone and orchestra.
“(It) has a story, it has a synopsis, and it was written to talk about climate change and what that means for us, how music can help us think about what climate change means, what our responsibilities might be, all those big questions that are so part of life in 2020,” Gerrard said.
Some people like Tchaikovsky and Mozart and Beethoven all the time, and some people like some of the more adventurous stuff.
POP AND ROCK
On Oct. 17, Sarah Slean will perform the music of Joni Mitchell.
On Feb. 27, 2021, the Gary Cable Project will perform rock classics from the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
Visit reginasymphony.com for more information.