≈ 2 hours · With intermission
Last updated: September 16, 2019
Tonight’s soloists for Peer Gynt – Carmen Harris, Lynlee Wolstencroft and Ryan Hofman – are all graduates of the Master of Music vocal performance program at the University of Ottawa.
Chorus
Choristers from:
Ewashko Singers (ES)
Ensemble Calixa-Lavallée (CL)
Rehearsal Pianist: Claire Stevens
Soprano
Michelle Bawden CL
Ashley Bedard ES
Anastasiya Gorodnicha CL
Alison Kennedy ES
Ilene McKenna ES
Rosemary Cairns Way ES
Alto
Barb Ackison ES
Donna Ager ES
Wanda Allard ES
Shelly Arturo ES
Elizabeth Burbidge ES
Rachel Hotte ES
Caroline Johnston ES
Chloe Monette CL
Rebecca Taves ES
Tenor
Johnathan Bentley ES
David Lafranchise ES
Bryan Parker ES
Robert Ryan ES
Ryan Tonelli CL
Bass
Grant Cameron ES
Alain Franchomme ES
Braeden Kloke ES
James Kubina ES
Kevin Marimbu CL
Mathieu Jean Roy CL
Kyle Simpson CL
Stephen Slessor ES
Christopher Yordy ES
Repertoire
Ambe
Now living in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Of Cree descent, Andrew Balfour is an innovative composer/conductor/singer/sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, electro-acoustic and orchestral works, including Take the Indian (a vocal reflection on missing children), Empire Étrange: The Death of Louis Riel, Bawajigaywin (Vision Quest) and Manitou Sky, an orchestral tone poem. His new Indigenous opera, Mishabooz’s Realm, was commissioned by the Atelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and Highlands Opera Workshop.
The founder and Artistic Director of the vocal group Camerata Nova, now in its 22nd year of offering a concert series in Winnipeg, Balfour specializes in creating “concept concerts,” many with Indigenous subject matter. These innovative offerings explore a theme through an eclectic array of music, including new works, arrangements and innovative inter-genre and interdisciplinary collaborations.
He has become increasingly passionate about music education and outreach, par-ticularly on northern reserves and in inner-city Winnipeg schools where he has worked on behalf of the National Arts Centre, Camerata Nova, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and various Winnipeg school divisions.
In 2007, Andrew Balfour received the Mayor of Winnipeg’s “Making a Mark” Award, sponsored by the Winnipeg Arts Council to recognize the most promising midcareer artist in the city.
_______
This piece, Ambe, is based on an original song in Ojibway that was gifted by traditional drummer and singer Cory Campbell to Andrew Balfour and the University of Man-itoba Concert Choir. Campbell describes the song as “a call to the people to the ceremonial way of life or to the red road or, quite frankly, to whatever we have going on, because everything happens with spirit and in spirit.”
Inspired by Campbell’s song, Balfour created an original composition which uses the same text and echoes the steady rhythm of the drum, unifying the piece. The melodies are all original but hints of Campbell’s song remain. For Balfour, the steady beat throughout represents the heartbeat of Mother Earth, and the lyrical first soprano melody that emerges from this rhythmic texture at measure seven conveys the power-ful totem of the eagle which represents the teaching of love, wisdom and strength.
– Program note by Andrew Balfour
Dodo, mon tout petit*
Commissioned by the National Arts Centre and the Canadian Opera Company
Born in Midland, Ontario, August 24, 1981
Now living in Oakville, Ontario
Ian Cusson is a composer of art song, opera and orchestral work. Of Métis and French-Canadian descent, his work explores Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures. He studied composition with Jake Heggie (San Francisco) and Samuel Dolin, and piano with James Anagnoson at the Glenn Gould School. He was also mentored by Johannes Debus.
Cusson is the recipient of the Chalmers Professional Development Grant, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation Award, and grants through the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council. He was an inaugural Carrefour Composer with the National Arts Centre Orchestra from 2017–2019 and is Composer-in-Residence with the Canadian Opera Company for 2019–2021. He is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. He lives in Oakville with his wife and four children.
_______
The NAC and Canadian Opera Company commissioned this new aria to replace the Kuyas aria that opens Act III of Harry Somers and Mavor Moore’s 1967 opera Louis Riel. The music for the original scene used a song from the Nisga’a people without permission. This new aria will have a permanent place in all future productions of the opera.
Participating in the composition of new music for this opera is about more than the composition itself. It is an opportunity to be part of the righting of an historic wrong, where an appropriated song is returned to its people. It is a tangible step in the direction of reconciliation.
The task of writing new music for a work like Louis Riel, often described as Canada’s most important opera, is not as straightforward as it might seem. It requires sober awareness of the expectations and criticism surrounding such a task. How does a person go about creating new music for an opera that has a history of divided public opinion and more than half a century of scholarly commentary?
I turned to the drama itself in order to dis-cover the path forward by considering the function of the scene in which the aria is found to the opera as a whole. The goal I set for myself was to capture the tone that this moment required.
Act III opens with Marguerite, the young wife of Louis Riel, singing their child to sleep. She sings of her hopes and dreams for the child – that he would have the legs of a deer to carry him across the prairies, the wings of an eagle, the heart of a man, the wisdom of the stars… This most intimate and personal moment is the heart of the opera. Its musical setting required a degree of simplicity and musical clarity, a pause before the opera’s climax where Riel returns to Canada to lead his people in a rebellion, ending in his execution by the Canadian state.
Giving voice to an historic person from my own community is a special thing. It is a looking back across time and generations. But it is also a looking forward to future generations of Indigenous people of this land. I write this work for all my relations.
– Program note by Ian Cusson
Zasakwaa (There is a Heavy Frost)
Born in Mnidoo Mnissing, 1966, Giniw dodem (golden eagle clan)
Now living in Mnidoo Mnissing and Halton, Ontario
Active internationally since 1995, Odawa First Nation composer Barbara Croall has had commissions and performances from leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists across Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Europe, Latin America and Asia. As a musician, she plays, performs and composes on the pipigwan and for voice in the traditional Anishinaabe way. Classically-trained, she holds music degrees and diplomas from Centre Acanthes (France), the Musikhochschule in Munich (Germany), the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto) and the University of Toronto. The child of a residential school survivor, Croall is also a direct descendant of hereditary chiefs who signed the major treaties in Ontario and who fought in major battles of the Indian Wars and War of 1812.
Recording credits of her music and per-formances include: CBC Radio One, CBC Radio Two, Bayerische Rundfunk-Bayern 3, Deutsche Radio Swiss (DRS-II), Radio France, Italian National Television, APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, Canada) and Kennedy Center Live Broadcasts (Washington, D.C.).
Awards include the Glenn Gould Award in Composition (1989), numerous scholarships at the Royal Conservatory of Music/Glenn Gould School (1992–1996), awards from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (1993–1998), three nominations for the K.M. Hunter Award (2003, 2007, 2012), a Visual and Expressive Arts Program Award (National Museum of the American Indian, 2009) and a Dora Mavor Award nomination (2012).
Croall is also the Founder and Director of Women of the Four Directions (WFD), promoting Indigenous women’s artistic and cultural activities. She has also served as an Advisory Board Member of the First Nations Composers’ Initiative (FNCI). She is currently Artist-in-Residence and Cultural Consultant with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra.
_______
This work for chamber string orchestra and mezzo-soprano, with flute soloist, greets the coming of winter from a female earth spirit perspective. In Nishnaabe (Odawa) cosmology we have Mindemoyenh (Old Woman) who is featured in our oral stories as an earth-rooted figure representing ancient feminine knowledge and guidance. On Mnidoo Mnissing (Manitoulin Island) as a child I swam so many countless times in the beautiful Lake Mindemoya, which is noted for its extended shallows and rippled sands on the eastern side and which has a large island that the Nishnaabeg have called Mindemoyenh – appearing like an old woman lying on her back surrounded by calm water. (Settlers renamed this island Treasure Island.) Many feel that she was the first ancient woman emerging out of the earth and rock as a guardian spirit when Mnidoo Mnissing was first formed. In fall, as the first heavy frosts arrive just before winter, a tranquil sense of calm is felt when this female island becomes immobilized by the ice and blanketed by snow drifts as many earth creatures enter their deep sleep for biboon (winter).
The mezzo-soprano soloist is this ancient female island spirit, also recalling her own grandmother, Nookomis, the moon, who watches over all girls and women who celebrate and honour her in our Full Moon ceremonies. The flute soloist is a transformational figure – often depicting the cold winds and elemental spirit breath of life, as well as Bineshiinh (Small bird) who stays to keep Mindemoyenh company through the fall and winter – singing to her cheerfully to provide comfort and hope during her times of winter loneliness. The calls of Gookooko’oo (Owl) heard as Mindemoyenh finally slips into winter slumber are also a reminder of another protective guardian spirit, the owl, who watches over those who sleep and hunts with silent wings under the cloak of night and illumination of moonlight.
– Program note by Barbara Croall
Peer Gynt
Born in Bergen, June 15, 1843
Died in Bergen, September 4, 1907
The sights, sounds and folklore of Norway are deeply embedded in Grieg’s music, nowhere more so than in the incidental music he wrote for Henrik Ibsen’s poetic drama Peer Gynt (1867). Ibsen (1828–1906), Norway’s most famous playwright, initially had no intention of producing his huge play, more suitable for reading than for acting, with its elements of Norwegian fairy-tale, fantasy, satire and allegory. Eventually he changed his mind and asked Grieg to provide music for the production, which was first given on February 24, 1876 in Christiania (present-day Oslo). For revivals in Copenhagen (1885, 1892) and Christiania (1902), Grieg composed additional numbers.
What we hear tonight constitutes a generous, one-hour sequence of about two-thirds of the complete incidental music to Peer Gynt, including all eight numbers of the two popular suites plus assorted other material that involves chorus, narration and vocal soloists. Listeners familiar with the two suites will note that some of these numbers too involve vocal elements in their original form. Ibsen’s play relates the adventures of an egotist and all-around irresponsible, unpleasant character who leaves his home-land to roam the world in a restless search for happiness, his churlish behaviour earning him the contempt of everyone he encounters.
The story begins at a wedding party. Peer shows his true colours almost from the start, as he abducts the bride but soon abandons her. Soon afterwards we meet the herd girls, an unruly lot clamouring for their lost lovers (trolls), whereupon Peer offers his services as a lover to all of them. Peer next appears in the hall of the Mountain King, where hideous little trolls, representing man’s more undesirable qualities, chase and torment Peer. The Mountain King’s daughter is no beauty, and her ungainly dance drives Peer to mirth. In anger, the Mountain King sets his army of trolls upon Peer, a truly frightening scene.
After years of wandering, Peer returns home for the death of his loving mother Åse, who dies in his arms. This sorrowful scene, scored for strings alone, is built on the barest of musical materials, a rising three-note motif. Further travels take Peer to North Africa. “Morning Mood” depicts the idyllic beauty and stillness of sunrise over the desert. Peer is entertained by a bevy of beauties in the “Arabian Dance,” and later by Anitra alone, the chieftain's daughter. Peer woos Anitra in his serenade, the sole occasion in the play where the actor taking this role must sing. Solveig, Peer’s only true love, sings of her confidence that Peer will one day return to her waiting arms.
Eventually he returns to Norway for the last time, amidst stormy weather that is surely a metaphor for his troubled soul. He finds solace and forgiveness in Solveig’s arms as she sings the last music in the score, the infinitely tender and consoling “Cradle Song.”
– Program notes by Robert Markow
Artists
_cropped__square.jpg)
“A natural communicator, both on and off the podium” (The Telegraph), Alexander Shelley performs across six continents with the world’s finest orchestras and soloists.
With a conducting technique described as “immaculate” (Yorkshire Post) and a “precision, distinction and beauty of gesture not seen since Lorin Maazel” (Le Devoir), Shelley is known for the clarity and integrity of his interpretations and the creativity and vision of his programming. To date, he has spearheaded over 40 major world premieres, highly praised cycles of Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms symphonies, operas, ballets and innovative multi-media productions.
Since 2015, he has served as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra and Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In April 2023, he was appointed Artistic and Music Director of Artis–Naples in Florida, providing artistic leadership for Naples Philharmonic and the entire multidisciplinary arts organization. The 2024-2025 season is Alexander’s inaugural season in this position.
Additional 2024-2025 season highlights include performances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Seattle Symphony, the Chicago Civic Orchestra and the National Symphony of Ireland. Shelley is a regular guest with some of the finest orchestras of Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia, including Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Helsinki, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Malaysian, Oslo, Rotterdam and Stockholm philharmonic orchestras and the Sao Paulo, Houston, Seattle, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Montreal, Toronto, Munich, Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney and New Zealand symphony orchestras.
In September 2015, Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, the youngest in its history. The ensemble has since been praised as “an orchestra transformed ... hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen), and his programming is credited for turning the orchestra “almost overnight ... into one of the more audacious orchestras in North America” (Maclean’s). Together, they have undertaken major tours of Canada, Europe and Carnegie Hall, where they premiered Philip Glass’s Symphony No. 13.
They have commissioned ground-breaking projects such as Life Reflected and Encount3rs, released multiple JUNO-nominated albums and, most recently, responded to the pandemic and social justice issues of the era with the NACO Live and Undisrupted video series.
In August 2017, Shelley concluded his eight-year tenure as Chief Conductor of the Nurnberger Symphoniker, a period hailed by press and audiences alike as a golden era for the orchestra.
Shelley’s operatic engagements have included The Merry Widow and Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet (Royal Danish Opera), La bohème (Opera Lyra/National Arts Centre), Louis Riel (Canadian Opera Company/National Arts Centre), lolanta (Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen), Così fan tutte (Opera National de Montpellier), The Marriage of Figaro (Opera North), Tosca (Innsbruck) and both Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni in semi-staged productions at the NAC.
Winner of the ECHO Music Prize and the Deutsche Grunderpreis, Shelley was conferred with the Cross of the Federal Order of Merit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in April 2023 in recognition of his services to music and culture.
Through his work as Founder and Artistic Director of the Schumann Camerata and their pioneering “440Hz” series in Dusseldorf, as founding Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen’s “Zukunftslabor” and through his regular tours leading Germany’s National Youth Orchestra, inspiring future generations of classical musicians and listeners has always been central to Alexander’s work.
He regularly gives informed and passionate pre- and post-concert talks on his programs, as well as numerous interviews and podcasts on the role of classical music in society. In Nuremberg alone, over nine years, he hosted over half a million people at the annual Klassik Open Air concert, Europe’s largest classical music event.
Born in London in October 1979 to celebrated concert pianists, Shelley studied cello and conducting in Germany and first gained widespread attention when he was unanimously awarded first prize at the 2005 Leeds Conductors’ Competition, with the press describing him as “the most exciting and gifted young conductor to have taken this highly prestigious award.”
The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., ONL, LL.D. (hc).
Praised by critics for the beauty, clarity and fluidity of her sound, impeccable phrasing and consummate musicality, Joanna G’froerer enjoys an exciting career as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist and educator. Principal Flute of Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra since 1992, Joanna was appointed to this position at age 20, one of the youngest musicians ever hired by the NAC Orchestra.
A native of Vancouver, Joanna comes from a family of professional musicians. She studied flute in Vancouver with Kathleen Rudolph and in Montreal with Timothy Hutchins, earning a Licentiate in Music from McGill University in 1993. Her education also included orchestral training at the Interlochen Arts Camp and with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
Joanna performs regularly as a soloist with the NAC Orchestra, appearing in over 30 programs since joining the orchestra. She has also performed concerti with many of Canada’s other fine ensembles, including the Vancouver, Victoria, and Quebec City symphony orchestras. Joanna is a past first prize winner of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition.
Joanna’s recordings include a CBC disc of Mozart’s Flute Quartets with Pinchas Zukerman, Martin Beaver, and Amanda Forsyth, named Best Canadian Chamber Music Recording of 2002 by Opus magazine. A Naxos recording of Rodrigo’s Flute Concerto and Fantasía para un gentilhombre with the Asturias Symphony under Maestro Maximiano Valdes was “exquisitely played by the Canadian virtuoso Joanna G’froerer” (Anthony Holden, The Observer). Also, for Naxos, Saint-Saens’ Music for Wind Instruments was a Gramophone magazine Editor’s Pick in 2011. A new recording of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, with Jens Lindemann, James Ehnes, Jon Kimura Parker, and Charles Hamann, was nominated for a JUNO Award in 2021.
Joanna has been featured in the chamber music festivals of Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa, as well as in Halifax’s Scotia Festival, the Campos do Jordao Festival in Brazil, and the Affinis Festival in Japan. She is a member of the National Arts Centre Wind Quintet and the G’froerer Gott Duo with harpist Michelle Gott.
Joanna co-founded the Classical Unbound Festival in Prince Edward County, Ontario, and served as Co-Artistic Director during its first three seasons.
As an educator, Joanna has taught flute at the NAC Summer Music Institute, at Domaine Forget and the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and presented masterclasses at universities and conservatories throughout Canada, as well as in the United States, Europe and Asia. She is presently on the music faculty at McGill University in Montreal.
Joanna G’froerer is a Wm. S. Haynes Artist, playing a custom 19.5 K gold Haynes flute with lightweight silver mechanism and headjoints in 19.5K and 14K gold.
A critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano of Kwagiulth and Stó:lō First Nations, English, Irish and Scottish heritage, Marion Newman is sought-after as one of Canada’s most accomplished singers in works ranging from Vivaldi to Vivier, and operatic roles including Carmen and Rosina in The Barber of Seville. Nominated for a Dora Award for her leading role in the world premiere of Shanawdithit (Nolan/Burry) with Toronto’s Tapestry Opera, Ian Ritchie wrote “she invests her character with towering dignity and courage”.
Marion is a guest curator at University of British Columbia’s Chan Centre for the Performing Arts for a new series of concerts featuring the work of Indigenous artists, and the new host of CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera.
Marion portrayed Dr. Wilson in the premiere of Missing (Clements/Current) with Vancouver City Opera/Pacific Opera Victoria, which gives voice, in English and Gitxsan, to the story of Canada’s missing and murdered Indigenous women, and starred as Tsianina Redfeather in Jani Lauzon’s music-drama I Call Myself Princess at Regina’s Globe Theatre.
On the North American concert stage, Marion has performed with Symphony Nova Scotia, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Emily Carr String Quartet, Continuum Contemporary Music, Elora Festival Singers, Elmer Iseler Singers, Portland Baroque Orchestra, and Montreal’s Chœur St- Laurent.
Concert highlights for Marion this season include Mozart’s Requiem, a co-production with Canadian Opera Company and Against the Grain Theatre, the livestream/workshop presentation of The Echoes Project with Gryphon Trio, and the string quartet version of Five Orchestral Songs on Poems of Marilyn Dumont (Cusson) with the New Orford String Quartet for Cecilia Concerts in Halifax.
In 2022, Marion debuts with Anchorage Opera as Dr. Wilson in a new production of Missing, and creates the role of Dawn with Welsh National Opera in the upcoming world premiere of Migrations, with stories by five writers based on their personal experiences of migrations and working with refugees.
Most recently, Marion curated and performed in What is classical Indigenous Music? with Toronto’s Confluence Concerts and debuted with Rhode Island Symphony in Handel’s Messiah.
In addition to her extensive performing career, she is a co-founder of Amplified Opera and has worked in many facets of the performing arts as a curator, arts administrator, speaker, and teacher. Marion is the dramaturge for Namwayut/We Are All One, a new opera in creation with IBPOC artists and Calgary Opera.
Marion has performed in many works that speak to her First Nations identity, including Ancestral Voices (Tovey) with the Vancouver Symphony, Nuyamł-ił Kulhulmx–Singing the Earth (Höstman) with the Victoria Symphony, and Five Orchestral Songs on Poems of Marilyn Dumont (Cusson) with the Regina Symphony Orchestra.
Former conductor of the Vienna Boys’ Choir and Cantata Singers of Ottawa, Laurence Ewashko celebrates his 35th season of choral activity in the National Capital Region. As a choral clinician, vocal coach and adjudicator, he makes a significant contribution to the quality and appreciation of vocal music in Canada and abroad. Laurence has prepared choruses for many prestigious conductors, as he regularly does at the National Arts Centre.
A Full Professor of Choral Studies at the University of Ottawa, he conducts the School of Music’s two choirs. Laurence is a recipient of the prestigious Leslie Bell Prize for Choral Conducting and numerous awards from the Canada Council of the Arts. He is the founding conductor of Ewashko Singers which was established in 1992.
Formed in 1992 for a live broadcast marking 50 years of Radio Canada International, Ewashko Singers has developed into one of the most flexible vocal ensembles in the National Capital Region.
From Beethoven, Mahler, and Verdi to Richard Rodgers and Howard Shore, they skillfully perform music across a wide range of genres and languages. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Laurence Ewashko, Ewashko Singers regularly highlights Canadian composers and showcases young Canadian talent. In addition to their own concerts, they often collaborate with other local choirs and music ensembles. Recent highlights with the National Arts Centre Orchestra include the Juno Award–winning live recording of Ana Sokolović’s Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, and Harry Somers’s opera Louis Riel as part of Canada 150 celebrations.
The Calixa-Lavallée Ensemble is the chamber choir of the School of Music of the University of Ottawa. Participation in this ensemble, which is conducted by Laurence Ewashko, allows singers to expand their knowledge in many ways: by performing a wide variety of vocal styles and repertoire; by developing a sense of blend; and by improving their sight-reading, linguistic, and vocal/choral ensemble skills. The Calixa-Lavallée Choir performs regularly throughout the school year in a variety of concerts, both at the university and within the community at large.
Of Cree descent, Andrew Balfour is an innovative composer/conductor/singer/sound designer with a large body of choral, instrumental, electro-acoustic and orchestral works, including Take the Indian (a vocal reflection on missing children), Empire Étrange: The Death of Louis Riel, Bawajigaywin (Vision Quest) and Manitou Sky, an orchestral tone poem. His new Indigenous opera, Mishaboozʼs Realm, was commissioned by LʼAtelier Lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal and Highlands Opera Workshop.
Andrew is also the founder and Artistic Director of the vocal group Camerata Nova, now in its 22nd year of offering a concert series in Winnipeg. With Camerata Nova, Andrew specializes in creating “concept concerts”, many with Indigenous subject matter. These innovative offerings explore a theme through an eclectic array of music, including new works, arrangements and innovative inter-genre and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Andrew has become increasingly passionate about music education and outreach, particularly on northern reserves and in inner-city Winnipeg schools where he has worked on behalf of the National Arts Centre, Camerata Nova, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and various Winnipeg school divisions.
In 2007 Andrew received the Mayor of Winnipegʼs Making a Mark Award, sponsored by the Winnipeg Arts Council to recognize the most promising midcareer artist in the City.
Music Alive Program Options:
- Classical Composers (Possible Composers: Vivaldi, Mozart, or R. Murray Schafer)
- Indigenous Arts (Possible Themes: Music & Nature, Family & Friends, or Listening & Creativity)
- Cross-Cultural Experience (Possible Themes: Music & Nature, Family & Friends, or Listening & Creativity)
Ian Cusson (b. 1981) is a composer of art song, opera, and orchestral work. Of Métis (Georgian Bay Métis Community) and French-Canadian descent, his work explores Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures.
He studied composition with Jake Heggie and Samuel Dolin, and piano with James Anagnoson at the Glenn Gould School. He is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Chalmers Professional Development Grant, the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation Award, and several grants through the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council.
Ian was an inaugural Carrefour Composer-in-Residence with the National Arts Centre Orchestra for 2017–2019 and was Composer-in-Residence for the Canadian Opera Company for 2019–2021. He was a Co-artistic Director of Opera in the 21st Century at the Banff Centre and the recipient of the 2021 Jan V. Matejcek Classical Music Award from SOCAN and the 2021 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. Ian is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers.
He lives in Oakville with his wife and four children.
Barbara Assiginaak, C.M., O.Ont.
Composer and musician Barbara Assiginaak is Anishinaabekwe (Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi; Mnidoo Mnissing, Giniw Dodem) and balances her time composing with performing and teaching music, spending time with elders in traditional ceremonies, and engaging in land-based environmental activities and teaching work rooted in traditional Anishinaabek teachings. Composing for the pipigwan (traditional wood flute), dewe’igan (drum), and voice in the oral/aural traditions of the Anishinaabe way since an early age, Barbara is also classically trained.
She is a graduate of the University of Toronto (Bachelor of Music with Honours in Composition), Musikhochschule in München, Germany (Meisterklassendiplom in Komposition, Aufbaustudium), and Centre Acanthes, and also holds an ARCT Diploma (Piano Performance).
Professionally active since 1995, Barbara has an extensive body of works that includes solo, chamber, art song, choir and orchestral (including concerti) compositions, and she has written for theatre, dance, film, opera, and multimedia and interdisciplinary projects. Barbara often performs her own solo, chamber and orchestral works as a soloist (vocals, pipigwan, drums, and other Anishinaabe instruments).
As the direct descendant of hereditary chiefs who were signatories of treaties in Ontario and as the child and grandchild of residential school survivors, many of her creative projects are centered on these histories, and she has been active over many years in Truth and Reconciliation Commission activities. In 1992, one of her chamber ensemble works honoured her mother’s recollections of experiences at residential school, stories of which were disclosed to Barbara at a young age growing up.
Barbara’s awards and honours include the Glenn Gould Award in Composition (University of Toronto), a Dora nomination, being shortlisted three times for the Hunter Award in the Arts, numerous scholarships at the Glenn Gould School/Royal Conservatory of Music and from the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (1992-96), and a Visual and Expressive Arts Program Award from the National Museum of the American Indian. Barbara’s works have been broadcast on CBC Radio One and Two, Bayerische Rundfunk (Bayern 3), Deutsche Radio Swiss (DRS-II), Radio France, Italian National Television, APTN, and other online streaming broadcasts. Barbara is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Composition at the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University.
Tobi Hunt McCoy is enjoying another year as season Stage Manager with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. In past seasons, she stage-managed Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Christopher Plummer in 2001 and Colm Feore in 2014. She co-produced the 1940s Pops show On the Air with Jack Everly for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, a show they co-produced in 2007 for the NAC Orchestra.
In 2018, McCoy made her Southam Hall acting debut in the role of Stage Manager in the Magic Circle Mime Co.’s production of Orchestra from Planet X. Additional professional duties have included aiding Susanna and the Countess in schooling the Count and Figaro on the finer points of marital love during The Marriage of Figaro, keeping her eyes open (for the first time ever) during the flying monkey scene in The Wizard of Oz, mistakenly asking Patrick Watson for proof of identity backstage, holding her breath while marvelling at the athletic ability of the cast during Cirque Goes Broadway, continuing to implement feedback on her British-Columbian French with the choruses of Ottawa, and cheering on Luke and Princess Leia with Charlie Ross, Émilie Fournier, and Eric Osner during the Star Wars Pops concert.
In her spare time, McCoy is the Head of Arts, Drama, English, and Library at Lisgar Collegiate Institute.
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees