Going with the flow and making new music
Water takes center stage in new choral work to be presented by Grand Philharmonic Choir, KW Symphony
WATER HAS THE STAR RING ROLE as the Grand Philharmonic Choir presents a brand new choral work to celebrate its 100th season.
Water: an Environmental Oratorio brings together the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony and the Grand Philharmonic children’s, youth and adult choirs, as well as four professional soloists and a child soprano. The work is composed by Stephanie Martin, a native of St. Jacobs.
Martin is joined by playwright Paul Ciufo, who wrote the lyrics. She also received guidance from Vicki Monague, an Indigenous environmental activist. The event is conducted by Mark Vuorinen, associate pofessor and chair of music at Conrad Grebel University College.
“An oratorio is a largescale work for choir, solo singers and orchestra. Examples from the past would be Handel’s Messiah that is usually heard at Christmas, or Mendelssohn’s Elijah.
The difference here is that this new work is set in small-town Ontario, and it features water as a character,” said Martin.
Water: An Environmental Oratorio “tells the story of a small-town mayor struggling with whether she should vote for allowing a factory that will bring jobs and prosperity to her town, but will also pollute their pristine water source,” says Vuorinen.
“This evocative oratorio describes the wrenching debate that ensues, but also explores water on other levels – as an entity with a voice of its own, surrounded by water spirits; and as a life-giving element that has inspired Hildegard von Bingen, Confucius and Goethe, among others,” the organization says in a release.
Vuorinen says there were multiple points in the journey of the work’s completion where there was room for the choir to participate and offer feedback, which “helped create some ownership for the members of the choir to be part of this from the beginning.”
Vuorinen says Martin approached him about writing a new, large-scale work for the philharmonic about three years ago, at the right time when they were starting to plan their celebrations for the choir’s 100th year.
Martin says her oratorio presents two worlds, a fantastical world where “water is a person, surrounded by water spirits,” and an everyday southern Ontario community where “environmental protection confronts economic progress.”
She says the idea was originally “brewing” in 2018. The pandemic gave her the space to start the creative work and establish the partnerships needed to make it happen. She is clear that the project is a team effort, and new music of this size is not possible without many hands.
“Water is everywhere, around us and in us, yet we rarely stop to consider how much we rely on this essential element. We assume it will always be there when we need it, but we don’t appreciate how fragile and threatened this resource is. It’s helpful to consider this Anishinaabe teaching: it is a sacred duty to protect Water. Our existence depends on it,” said Martin.
Martin says she spent her early childhood on her family’s farm near St. Jacobs until she was about 7. After that, the family moved to New Brunswick, and then moved back to Ontario to farm near Listowel. She attended Wilfrid Laurier for her undergraduate degree before moving to Toronto, where she lives today.
“I am very excited to hear the whole massive group come together next week. One hundred singers and a full orchestra are going to make a glorious sound. I’ve attended one rehearsal with the choir, and they are doing a marvelous job of learning new music that no one has ever heard before,” she said.
Vuorinen says the music is beautiful, rich and varied. “Sometimes audiences are afraid of ‘new’ music, in part, because for a long time ‘new’ music often meant dissonant or challenging to listen to. This score is very melodic, very warm and accessible,” said Vuorinen.
“Creating a new work like this and bringing it to life is a huge undertaking – nearly three years of work, collaboration, and creating by the creative team and now weeks of rehearsals! You don’t want to miss this one!” he said.
“I hope that everyone feels welcome to attend this concert,” says Martin. “Endangered water is a serious subject, but there is humour in our story too, and it touches on human relationships, courageous leadership and will stir the imagination.”
Martin’s works have been performed across North America and internationally. Noted works include her cantata, Winter Nights; an opera, Llandovery
Castle (about nurses who perished in the First World War); and Babel: a choral symphony, written for the 40th anniversary of the WiIfrid Laurier University faculty of music.
Water: an Environmental Oratorio will be performed May 28 at
3 p.m. at the Centre In
The Square in Kitchener. The performance will be opened by Bruckner’s Te Deum. Tickets are available at www.centreinthesquare.com or by calling 519-578-1570.