This free performance for local students and members of the Eskasoni community on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, will be a highlight of the NAC Orchestra Canada 150 Tour.

Local singer, Kalolin Johnson, will open the performance singing We Shall Remain with full orchestra. The NAC Orchestra will then perform the triumphant and exciting final movement to Dvorjak’s “New World Symphony.” Violin-virtuoso James Ehnes will follow with the lightening-fast third movement of the Sibelius violin concerto.

The concert will culminate with I Lost My Talk by Edmonton-based composer John Estacio based on the poem by Mi'kmaw elder and poet Rita Joe, C.M., about her experience at Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia. It will be performed with film presentation and live narration by Guna and Rappahannock actor Monique Mojica. Bringing this performance to Eskasoni will have special meaning as it is the largest Mi'kmaq community in the world.

The day will also include a band clinic day for more than 200 Cape Breton students on Cape Breton Island at Eskasoni First Nation.

*I Lost My Talk was commissioned for the NAC Orchestra by the family of The Right Honourable Joe Clark, P.C., C.C., A.O.E., to commemorate his 75th birthday.