Polycoro is back with RE:VISIONS – the first concert in their 2022/23 season which aims to present new works for a new world.
A thought-provoking program endeavouring to explore themes of truth and reconciliation through music of Indigenous composers.
"Artists commenting on art through art,” explains Zohreh Gervais, executive and creative director of Polycoro. The concert title, a play on words, referencing not only an artist’s vision and what they present through their music and creation but also revising colonial history through an Indigenous lens, says Gervais.
Visually, Polycoro welcomes multimedia artist Taylor McArthur of Pheasant Rump Nakota First Nation to present a visual representation of what is heard being performed.
A synesthete (one who experiences blending of the senses), MacArthur has created a reactive software which, explains Gervais, will allow the audience to see “a translation of the sound/visual schematic happening in (MacArthur’s) brain.”
On the musical side, a trio of Manitoban composers are featured – Karen Sunabacka, Andrew Balfour, Jocelyn Morlock – in addition to writing by a pair of Canadians, Carmen Braden and Ian Cusson, plus writing of Ernest Bloch. The latter two composers played by special guest artist, rising star Métis-Canadian cellist David Liam Roberts.
“I’ve never been part of a concert quite like this before, especially with Taylor MacArthur’s addition” says Roberts, who is looking forward to collaborating with a choir of Polycoro’s calibre.
Conducted by John Wiens, top-notch singing is a hallmark of the ensemble – sure to present this program of “iconic” composers in Polycoro’s usual committed, exacting standard.
“They’re just so important as composers,” says Wiens. “Every single one of them has done something in the Canadian landscape that we can’t really imagine the landscape without them there now.”
Experience RE:VISIONS at the Winnipeg Art Gallery at 7:30 pm Saturday, November 12.
Visit: www.polycoro.ca for tickets and more details.
Listen to the full conversation with Gervais, Wiens and Roberts below!