After a year of cancelled concerts and arts uncertainty, in person live performances are starting to return to Manitoba’s stages. One of the true highlights of the return to live concerts is the return of Winnipeg’s foremost new music organization GroundSwell
This Friday, October 22nd at 8:00 at the Muriel Richardson Auditorium at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Groundswell will make its triumphant return with a live concert featuring cellist Leanne Zacharias.
Leanne’s music life has been described as extreme sport. She is known to have collaborated with artists across all disciplines, and her performances often make use of multi-media resources to help engage the audience and create a vibrant musical experience for the listener.
This Friday’s concert is called “Not Seeing is a Flower,” and will feature Leanne Zacharias with some of Winnipeg’s foremost musicians. The concert will also make use of various multi-media platforms to enrich and entertain audience members. It will truly be a multi-sensory event that features amazing soundscapes, but also mind-bending visual elements.
The concert is really a celebration of two things at once. The first of which is the release of Zacharias’ first solo album “Music for Spaces” which came out this past summer. The other being the celebration of the return to live concerts. As Zacharias states, “The show is taking advantage of the opportunity of a live performance to do something different… not simply re-create what’s been recorded but embrace that which is unique and special about live performances which just cannot be captured in any other way.”
The show will feature some of the pieces on Zacharias’ new disc “Music for Spaces”, but will also feature three world premieres. One of the pieces to be premiered will be a new work by Canadian composer Nicole Lizee, which was commissioned by Zacharias. “Not Seeing is a Flower” is a min-cello concerto that makes use of electronic effects, and a small chamber ensemble that consists of some of Manitoba’s best musicians.
Other solo pieces on the program will implement media from a variety of sources. Of note is a piece that will make use of an extraordinary stop motion video using collage techniques, which was created by Winnipeg musician and artist Christine Fellows.
Other highlights include a dance video created by Winnipeg dancer and choreographer Lesandra Dodson, which will accompany Zacharias. Artist Casey Koyczan has created a projection element to one of Zacharias’s pieces that will react in real time to her performance.
This concert promises to be a feast for all of the senses. Amazing musicians, combined with video, electronics and dance, ensures that all audience members will be entertained to the utmost degree in a concert of vibrant sounds and visual effects.
The concert takes place this Friday at 8:00pm the Muriel Richardson Auditorium at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. The cost is pay what you can; $5.00 or $30.00; it’s up to you! Proof of vaccination will be required, as well as the wearing of masks. For more information on this concert click here:
https://gswell.ca/feature-page/live/gs1-not-seeing-is-a-flower/
To hear Chris Wolf’s conversation with cellist Leanne Zacharias click here