≈ 1 hour and 15 minutes · No intermission
Last updated: September 6, 2024
Welcome to SPHERE 2024!
SPHERE celebrates the near-endless artistic and intellectual inspiration that our natural world awakens in us. Through the eyes, ears, and bodies of artists, and in this city at the confluence of rivers, we will explore the symbiosis between our creativity and the surroundings that catalyze it. We will reflect on our fragile relationship with Mother Earth and how the confluence of art, science, and ethics will inform the coming chapters in our shared history. As a wave of brilliant and visionary artists from across genres and generations sweeps into Canada’s National Arts Centre, we warmly invite you to join them and us on this journey of multi-disciplinary discovery and artistic dialogue.
Welcome to SPHERE 2024!
A Note from Caroline Ohrt, Executive Producer, NAC Dance
Dear audiences,
When Alexander Shelley and Nelson McDougall came knocking on my door, mere moments after I was hired as the new Executive Producer of NAC Dance, and wanted to talk to me about a collaboration with visual artist Edward Burtynsky, I was instantly hooked on the idea! I have always been a great admirer of Edward Burtynsky, and the idea of working with Alexander and the NAC Orchestra was on the top of my wish list.
The 2024 SPHERE festival’s focus on rivers and our relationship to the Earth is undeniably an essential one. Choreographer Andrea Peña quickly came to mind as a natural and perfect fit to complete the artistic triumvirate. Andrea has a 360-degree view of creation, a strong sensibility towards the visual arts, a bold and engaged view on the world and a refined mind to be able to tackle such a subject. Throughout UAQUE’s fascinating creative process, one that has required sensitivity and generosity in equal measure, Andrea has risen to the occasion.
I am extremely proud to be working at the NAC where it is possible to stage such strong and committed artistic voices, and where audiences are willing and eager to receive them. Thank you.
I bow to all the artists involved in this project. Have a wonderful evening!
A Note from Andrea Peña, Artistic Director and Choreographer
With the humility taught to me by my indigenous grandfather, this work we present is an offering on behalf of the designers, performers, and talented creators at large. It is meant to move you in whatever form this may be—there is no right or wrong interpretation. This work aims to create a moment of stillness in space and time for collective imagination, a moment to sit together and receive each other’s human essence. In the wake of our times, centred around the immediacy of the Anthropocene, we are reminded of our responsibility to each other, to ourselves, and to all non-human creatures, urging us to surrender our individualistic tendencies.
Coming from Colombia, a landscape different from my Montreal home, this work also touches on the notion of complexity as a significant virtue and portal to our embodiment of a possible future. Complexity as a place that is undefined, pluriversal, containing multiple universes in coexistence. Complexity as a strength towards our human capacity. As the next generation, I imagine the future from a place of possibility, change, and radical vulnerability. To me, this is our contemporary punk: to be vulnerable.
Thank you to each member of the audience for receiving this work and experiencing the universe crafted by a family and community of artists. And to this talented creative family, I am deeply grateful to each one of you for believing in this vision and bringing it to life.
A Note from Edward Burtynsky, Photographer
Multidisciplinary projects have always captivated me, and UAQUE was particularly intriguing. The seamless integration of modern dance, music, and my still and motion images to depict the human story of our relationship with the earth and nature felt like an exciting evolution of storytelling. I have always believed in showing rather than telling, allowing the viewer to engage without being directed on what to think. This approach has been a hallmark of my exhibitions, books, and films.
Under the choreography and artistic direction of Andrea Peña and her talented team, UAQUE continues this important work, evoking deep emotions about the world we have created and the one we are yet to encounter. I am excited to see how our collaboration will inspire audiences, provoking thought and reflection through the powerful language of art. I eagerly anticipate opening night, where our collective vision will come to life.
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS
Thank you to our visionary donors Earle O’Born and Janice O’Born, C.M., O.Ont. for their generous support of SPHERE.
About UAQUE
Uaque (relative, neighbour, friend) in Colombian indigenous Muisca language
UAQUE unveils a narrative woven between the scars of our industrialized world and the interconnectedness of human existence with the landscapes we’ve shaped.
UAQUE is an interdisciplinary collaboration that intersects the radical choreographic universe of Andrea Peña & Artists with the evocative landscapes of Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky to reflect on the Anthropocene Epoch within a performative event. The seminal landscapes of Burtynsky, which capture the environmental catastrophes of human industrialization on the earth, are woven visually into this transgressive performance to question our interconnected relationship with the landscapes we have scarred.
Accompanied live by the National Arts Centre Orchestra, in dialogue with electronic music composer Eƨƨe Ran, ten performers are juxtaposed against the magnitude of Burtynsky’s images that viscerally reflect onto the audience our globalized effects on the land. The performers, stripped bare, embody both meditative and resilient states through the vulnerability of their own flesh, as they welcome us into nuanced reflections, a place of communion between humanity and the earth.
UAQUE is an interwoven symphony of multiple artistic disciplines—a visceral call to action and provocation for collective transformation. The work does not offer a definitive solution to the scale of our epoch, but rather prompts us, through Peña’s indigenous Colombian heritage, to reconsider union and unity, levelling the human and nonhuman form. UAQUE challenges the myth of human superiority, laying bare the consequences of our separation from the natural world by searching for a state of union, as referenced by the title meaning “kin, relative, neighbour, friend” in Peña’s ancestral indigenous Muisca language.
As we confront the devastating consequences of our actions, UAQUE proposes a transformative reflection in perspective—a recognition of our intrinsic connection to the earth as a collective ritual.
Music
UAQUE
An NAC Dance and NAC Orchestra co-commission
World premiere
EƧƧE RAN Untitled (2024)
ARVO PÄRT Symphony No. 4, “Los Angeles”*
I. Con sublimità
II. Affannoso
III. Deciso
ARVO PÄRT Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten*
KEIKO DEVAUX Excerpt from Listening Underwater
GYÖRGY LIGETI Ramifications**
GIACOMO PUCCINI Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums) for string orchestra
KNUT NYSTEDT “Immortal Bach” – “Komm, süßer Tod” (Come, sweet death)
There will be no intermission.
* Used by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company, Canadian and U.S. agent for Universal Edition Vienna, publisher and copyright owner.
** Used by arrangement with European American Music Distributors Company, sole Canadian and U.S. agent for Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG, Mainz, Germany, publisher and copyright owner.
Artists
Originating from Bogota, Colombia, and having honed her practice in the territory of Tiohti:áke, Montreal, Andrea Peña is a prolific Latinx artist who has built international renown as a designer, choreographer, and director of the multidisciplinary company AP&A (Andrea Peña & Artists). With a background in design and fashion, Andrea is a definitively multifaceted visionary who works seamlessly across disciplines. Rooted in extensive research and choreographic knowledge, she creates unique living universes that unify bodies and materials in performative, digital, and sculptural environments. Andrea’s artistic rigour has been recognized by numerous awards including the Ballet BC Emily Molnar Emerging Choreographer Award, whilst in 2023 she was the winner of the first international La Biennale di Venezia dance co-production. Complex, vulnerable, and raw, her work has been commissioned by TanzKassel, the National Arts Centre, PHI Centre, SAT, and Ballet Edmonton. She has presented work at prestigious institutions and festivals across the world, including Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Mattress Factory Museum Pittsburgh, TANZ Bremen, Tanzmesse, Theater Freiburg, Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama, Attakkalari India Biennial, Milano Festival, Hong Kong International Choreography Festival, Festival Internacional de Danza de la Ciudad de México, PRISMA - Festival de Danza Contemporánea, AADK Spain, and Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture in Greece, to name a few.
Edward Burtynsky is regarded as one of the world’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of humans on the planet. Burtynsky’s photographs are included in the collections of over 80 major museums around the world. Major (touring) exhibitions include: Anthropocene (2018); Water (2013) organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art & Contemporary Art Center, Louisiana; Oil (2009) at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC; China (2005 five-year tour); and Manufactured Landscapes (2003) at the National Gallery of Canada. Burtynsky’s distinctions include the inaugural TED Prize in 2005, which he shared with Bono and Robert Fischell; the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts; the Outreach Award at the Rencontres d’Arles; the Roloff Beny Book Award; and the 2018 Photo London Master of Photography Award. In 2019 he was the recipient of the Arts & Letters Award at the Canadian Association of New York’s annual Maple Leaf Ball and the 2019 Lucie Award for Achievement in Documentary Photography. In 2020 he was awarded a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship and in 2022 was honoured with the Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award by the World Photography Organization. In 2022 he was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame and was named the 2022 recipient for the annual Pollution Probe Award. Most recently he received the 2023 PHotoESPAÑA Award for Professional Career and was awarded with the 25th edition of the Pino Pascali Prize. Burtynsky was also a key production figure in the award-winning documentary trilogy Manufactured Landscapes (dir. Jennifer Baichwal, 2006), Watermark (dir. Baichwal and Burtynsky, 2013), and ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch (dir. Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Burtynsky, 2018). All three films continue to play in festivals around the world. Burtynsky currently holds eight honorary doctorate degrees.
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Alexander Shelley succeeded Pinchas Zukerman as Music Director of Canada’s NAC Orchestra in September 2015. The ensemble has since been praised as being “transformed, hungry, bold, and unleashed” (Ottawa Citizen) and Shelley’s programming credited for turning the Orchestra into “one of the more audacious in North America” (Maclean’s).
Shelley is a champion of Canadian creation. Recent hallmarks include multimedia projects Life Reflected and UNDISRUPTED and three major new ballets in partnership with NAC Dance for Encount3rs. He is passionate about arts education and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He is an Ambassador for Ottawa’s OrKidstra, a charitable social development program that teaches children life skills through making music together.
In April 2022, Alexander Shelley made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the NAC Orchestra in its long-awaited return, and in the spring of 2019, he led the Orchestra on its critically acclaimed 50th-anniversary European tour, with stops in London, Paris, Copenhagen, and Stockholm.
Shelley is also the Principal Associate Conductor of London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and, starting with the 2024–2025 season, the Music Director of Artis-Naples and the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, USA. Previous releases with the NAC Orchestra include the Juno-nominated New Worlds, Life Reflected, ENCOUNT3RS, The Bounds of Our Dreams, the acclaimed multi-volume Clara - Robert - Johannes series, all with Canadian label Analekta, as well as Truth in Our Time with Orange Mountain Music.
The Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., ONL, LL.D. (hc).
Since its debut in 1969, the National Arts Centre (NAC) Orchestra has been praised for the passion and clarity of its performances, its visionary educational programs, and its prominent role in nurturing Canadian creativity. Under the leadership of Music Director Alexander Shelley, the NAC Orchestra reflects the fabric and values of Canada, reaching and representing the diverse communities we live in with daring programming, powerful storytelling, inspiring artistry, and innovative partnerships.
Alexander Shelley began his tenure as Music Director in 2015, following Pinchas Zukerman’s 16 seasons at the helm. Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and former Chief Conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra (2009–2017), he has been in demand around the world, conducting the Rotterdam Philharmonic, DSO Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, and Stockholm Philharmonic, among others, and maintains a regular relationship with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the German National Youth Orchestra.
Each season, the NAC Orchestra features world-class artists such as the newly appointed Artist-in-Residence James Ehnes, Angela Hewitt, Joshua Bell, Xian Zhang, Gabriela Montero, Stewart Goodyear, Jan Lisiecki, and Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds. As one of the most accessible, inclusive, and collaborative orchestras in the world, the NAC Orchestra uses music as a universal language to communicate the deepest of human emotions and connect people through shared experiences.
Andrea Peña & Artists is a multidisciplinary company that merges the universes of choreography and design. Based in Montreal, Quebec in the territory of Tiohti:áke, the company merges the body and materiality in performative, digital, and sculptural works to create living arts universes. AP&A’s multifaceted practice explores the peripheries of social imaginaries, as futuring hybrid narratives that nurture the collision of different fields, disciplines, and individuals through AP&A’s collaborating artists.
Andrea Peña, born in Bogota, Colombia, created AP&A after a career as performer with Ballet BC and Les Ballets Jazz Montréal, and is now recognized in Canada and internationally for her creations as critical, alternative, and spatial encounters that break with our notions of a sensitive humanity. With a master’s degree in industrial design from Concordia University, Peña’s work imagines cross-disciplinary approaches that challenge the choreographic practice as a source of collective experimentation and knowledge. As a bi-cultural artist, Peña is known for her complex layered systems that engage in deep encounters between the physical body and a highly conceptual research approach.
From Canada, Japan, USA, Germany, Italy, France, Mexico, Greece, Spain, India, and others, Peña’s works are recognized for her inter-artistic rigour that manifests spatio-material experiences that challenge hybrid practices. Andrea is recognized with numerous awards and commissions for her conceptual creations, most recently the Hong Kong International Choreography Award (2018) and the Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Award (2019) given to an emerging Canadian artist in recognition for her highly rigorous creation 6.58: Manifesto, which was selected to open the internationally renowned Tanzmesse in Dusseldorf (2022). AP&A’s latest large-scale creation, BOGOTA (2023), was the winner of La Biennale di Venezia’s first foreign choreographic co-production.
The company’s most recent works include 6.58: Manifesto (2021), which won the Banff Centre’s Clifford E. Lee Award and opened the 2022 internationally renowned Tanzmesse; and Untitled I (2018) and Untitled I + III (2019), which won the prix Hong Kong International Choreography. AP&A has been presented by the National Arts Centre (2021), Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2021), Arsenal Contemporain Art (2016), Usine C (2019), Agora de la Danse (2021), TANZ Bremen (2022), Tanzmesse (2022), Cinars, New Italian Dance Platform (2022), Festival Trajectoires (2022), Theater Freiburg (2021), Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama (2020), the Canadian Centre for Architecture (2019), Attakkalari India Biennial (2018), MILANoLTRE Festival (2022), Festival Quartiers Danses (2022), Hong Kong International Choreography Festival (2018), Festival Internacional de Danza de la Ciudad de México (2017), PRISMA - Festival de Danza Contemporánea (2016), AADK Spain (2017), and Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture (2016), among others. Andrea’s work has been commissioned by the PHI Centre, Laval Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Edmonton, the 375th Anniversary of Montreal, Pro Arte Danse, École de danse contemporaine de Montréal, Transformation, and Springboard Program.
Eƨƨe Ran is an uprising techno producer and DJ from Montreal and owner of Humidex Records. He started outputting techno into the form of hardware live set with his duo Musique Nouvelle (alongside S.Chioini, cofounder of Humidex Records). From 2017 until 2019, they not only flooded the underground Montreal rave scene, but also played in international festivals such as Mutek Mexico, Mutek Buenos Aires, and Mutek Montreal.
In 2020 Eƨƨe Ran released his first EP on vinyl under his previous alias, Absurde. Since then, he has produced two surprisingly creative textured techno EPs: Derelict Memories and Constant Decay, on his own label.
At the beginning of 2023, he completed a DJ tour in Tokyo, playing in one of the most important clubs of Shibuya: ENTER.
He started collaborating with Andrea Peña at the beginning of 2024. UAQUE is their second collaboration in which he takes the electronic music composition part.
Born and raised in Montreal, Canada, Bobby León is a self-taught director and photographer. Having spent many years in dance studios with the Canadian company AP&A, she developed a profound love and admiration for movement, which took her to all corners of the world, touring with the company as their visual director and board member, and influencing her artistic approach.
From advertising to music videos, short films and fashion films, or projection designs for the stage, Bobby’s interests are varied, making her a prolific and curious artist, always seeking to make space for humanness and difference in front of the camera.
Her work, a true reflection of her talent, has been showcased at the prestigious Venice Biennale in 2023; nominated at Les Victoires de la Musique in 2024; and has received numerous accolades and awards, notably at the Independent Shorts Awards (LA), Berlin Indie Film Festival, Mirada Cortada, Berlin Fashion Film Festival, and Tokyo Cinema Awards, solidifying her international recognition. She also has been selected as one of Canada’s top emerging directors to keep an eye on by LBBOnline.
She currently lives in London, UK, and frequently travels between London, Paris, and Canada for projects.
Credits
NAC Orchestra
First Violins
Yosuke Kawasaki (concertmaster)
Jessica Linnebach (associate concertmaster)
Noémi Racine Gaudreault (assistant concertmaster)
Jeremy Mastrangelo
Carissa Klopoushak
Jeffrey Dyrda
Manuela Milani
**Marjolaine Lambert
*Andréa Armijo Fortin
*Martine Dubé
*Oleg Chelpanov
*Renée London
*Heather Schnarr
Second Violins
Emily Kruspe (principal)
Emily Westell
Frédéric Moisan
Leah Roseman
Jessy Kim
Mark Friedman
Edvard Skerjanc
Winston Webber
Karoly Sziladi
*Erica Miller
Violas
Jethro Marks (principal)
David Marks (associate principal)
David Goldblatt (assistant principal)
David Thies-Thompson
Paul Casey
**Tovin Allers
*Sonya Probst
*Pamela Fay
*Emily Kistemaker
Cellos
Rachel Mercer (principal)
Julia MacLaine (assistant principal)
Leah Wyber
Timothy McCoy
Marc-André Riberdy
*Karen Kang
Double Basses
Sam Loeck (principal)
Max Cardilli (assistant principal)
Vincent Gendron
Marjolaine Fournier
Flutes
Joanna G’froerer (principal)
Stephanie Morin
Oboes
Charles Hamann (principal)
Anna Petersen
English Horn
Anna Petersen
Clarinets
Kimball Sykes (principal)
Sean Rice
Bassoons
Darren Hicks (principal)
Vincent Parizeau
Horns
Julie Fauteux (associate principal)
Lauren Anker
Louis-Pierre Bergeron
*Olivier Brisson
Trumpets
Karen Donnelly (principal)
Steven van Gulik
Trombones
*Harry Gonzalez (guest principal)
*Nate Fanning
Bass Trombone
Zachary Bond
Tuba
Chris Lee (principal)
Timpani
*Charles Lampert (guest principal)
Percussion
Jonathan Wade
Andrew Johnson
*Andrew Harris
Harp
*Angela Schwarzkopf (guest principal)
Principal Librarian
Nancy Elbeck
Assistant Librarian
Corey Rempel
Personnel Manager
Meiko Lydall
Assistant Personnel Manager
Ruth Rodriguez Rivera
Orchestra Personnel Coordinator
Laurie Shannon
*Additional musicians
**On leave
UAQUE Creative Team
Artistic Direction
Andrea Peña
Choreography and Creative Concept
Andrea Peña & Artists
Music Director and Conductor
Alexander Shelley
Music
National Arts Centre Orchestra
Electronic Music Composer
Eƨƨe Ran
Photography and Video
Edward Burtynsky
Projection Design
Bobby León
Performers
Gabrielle Kachan
Jontae McCrory
Jo Laïny Trozzo-Mounet
Francois Richard
Rebecca Margolick
James Phillips
Myriam Arseneault
James Viveiros
Justin Calvadores
Lighting Design
Hugo Dalphond
Scenography
Jonathan Saucier
Producer (Andrea Peña & Artists)
Isabella Salas
Communications and Logistics
Polina Boltova
Technical Director
Vladimir Cara
Video Chief
Gabriel Ranon
Digital Asset Coordination and Consultation
Jim Panou
Production Consultant
Marcus Schubert
Promotional Photography
Jeanne Tétreault
Bobby León
Jonathan Auger
Rodolfo Rueda
Video Direction (Teaser)
Bobby León
Director of Photography, Promotional Video
Jonathan Auger
Documentary Video
Agustina Isidori
Special thanks to the staff of Edward Burtynsky Photography:
McKenzie Gray
Julia Johnson
Karen Machtinger
Jim Panou
Paul Sargeant
Marcus Schubert
Alanna Smith
Andrea Peña & Artists has received support from:
Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Conseil des arts de Montréal, National Arts Centre
Production Team, Southam Hall
Head Carpenter
Jim Reynolds
Head Electrician
Shane Learmonth
Assistant Electrician
Fred Malpass
Property Master
Timothy Shannon
Head Sound Engineer
Daniel Holmes
Assistant Sound Engineer
Thomas Stubinski
Head Flyman
Ross Brayne
Head Projectionist
David Milliard
NAC Orchestra Team
Managing Director
Nelson McDougall
Senior Manager of Artistic Planning
Daphne Burt
Project Manager, Production
Alex Gazalé
Festival Manager (SPHERE)
David Gazaille
NAC Dance Team
Executive Producer
Caroline Ohrt
Senior Producer
Tina Legari
Special Projects Coordinator and Assistant to the Executive Producer
Mireille Nicholas
Company Manager
Sophie Anka
Education Associate and Teaching Artist
Siôned Watkins
Technical Director
Brian Britton
Communications Strategist
Alexandra Campeau
Marketing Strategist
Marie-Chantale Labbé-Jacques
The National Arts Centre Foundation would like to thank Mark Motors Group, Official Car of the NAC Orchestra, and Earle O’Born & Janice O’Born, C.M., O.Ont. The NAC Orchestra Music Director role is supported by Elinor Gill Ratcliffe, C.M., O.N.L., LLD (hc). We also thank the Official Hotel Partner of NAC Dance, The Lord Elgin Hotel. The role of the Executive Producer, Dance at the NAC is generously supported by an anonymous donor.
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Official Car of the NAC Orchestra
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Official Hotel Partner
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees