On Saturday, March 5 at 8:00 p.m., Soundstreams Canada presents one of the world’s finest vocal chamber groups, The Hilliard Ensemble, in concert with Canada’s acclaimed Tafelmusik Chamber Choir at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church (73 Simcoe Street). Entitled Sacred & Secular, the concert is conducted by Ivars Taurins and features the sublime Miserere by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt and the world premiere of The Passion of Lavinia Andronicus by Canada’s Omar Daniel with libretto by award-winning Toronto poet Anne Michaels. Special guest soprano Sarah Leonard (UK) joins The Hilliard Ensemble in Miserere, and sings the role of Lavinia in the new Daniel/Michaels work. A chamber orchestra featuring eleven of Toronto’s finest musicians will accompany the vocalists and choir.
When critics write about The Hilliard Ensemble descriptors like ‘astounding’, ‘flawless’, ‘other-worldly’ and ‘thrilling’ inevitably pour out. Founded in 1974, the group has built a formidable reputation in the fields of both old and new music. On average, the ensemble performs one hundred concerts a year for their substantial followers in Europe, Japan, the United States and Canada, and they have recorded extensively on EMI, Virgin and ECM labels. Great champions of Arvo Pärt’s music outside the Soviet bloc, they have premiered and recorded several of the composer’s vocal works including the Miserere.
Arvo Pärt (b. 1935) studied at the Tallinn Conservatory and began his career as a recording engineer with Estonian Radio, writing numerous film scores and music for the stage. As Pärt’s music began to be performed in the West and his frustration with Soviet regime increased, he decided to emigrate with his family in 1980. With the assistance of his publisher in the West, they settled in Vienna and relocated a year later to West Berlin, where he still resides. Since leaving Estonia, Pärt has concentrated on setting religious texts, which have proven popular with choirs and ensembles around the world. By the mid-1990s, his music started to enjoy massive popularity in the West and a variety of his compositions have been incorporated into television programs and film scores such as Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha (1994), and Wit (2001) directed by Mike Nichols. In 1996 Pärt was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Miserere (1989) is the third in Pärt’s series of liturgical works devoted to the Biblical Passion story.
Composer Omar Daniel’s works have been frequently performed throughout Canada, as well as in the United States, Brazil, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Poland, Ireland, and in his ancestral Estonia. He has composed extensively in solo, chamber and orchestral idioms and his composition awards include the 1997 Jules Léger Award for New Chamber Music for ‘Zwei Lieder nach Rilke” a work for soprano and large ensemble, the SOCAN National Competition for Young Composers, the CBC National Radio Competition for Young Composers, and the Toronto International Guitar Festival. Commissions include works for The Toronto Symphony, Vancouver New Music, The Gryphon Trio and The Winnipeg Symphony. Daniel is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and also works as a producer in the recording industry. He received his Doctor of Music degree in Composition from University of Toronto and currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Western Ontario. Daniel’s music has been recorded on EMI, Novadisc and Opening Day labels.
Soundstreams Canada, with the assistance of the Laidlaw Foundation and the Ontario Arts Council, commissioned Omar Daniel and Anne Michaels to write The Passion of Lavinia Andronicus, an oratorio for solo soprano, four solo male voices, chorus and ensemble. Based on Shakespeare’s early tragedy Titus Andronicus, Daniel’s oratorio takes place following the rape and mutilation of Titus’ daughter Lavinia. Alone in the woods, Lavinia dreams that her murdered husband Bassianus is still alive and that they live “happily ever after” and grow old together. Upon awakening, she realizes that she has imagined this happy ending and that she cannot change what has happened. Afterwards Lavinia “meets” a series of historical personalities – Joan of Arc, Anne Frank, John the Baptist – who comment on the meaning of suffering and sacrifice. Lavinia finally accepts her role with the understanding that it is her destiny to suffer and die. She proceeds to her spiritual resting place with comfort and resolution.
“The Daniel/Michaels commission begins and exciting new chapter for Soundstreams in its attempt to breathe new life into the old oratorio form,” said Artistic Director Lawrence Cherney.
Tickets for Sacred & Secular are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors, and $12.50 for students with valid I.D. and may be purchased in person at The St. Lawrence Centre Box Office (27 Front Street East) or by calling 416-366-7723, or on-line at www.stlc.com.
Soundstreams gratefully thanks the Estonian Arts Centre for their continued support in promoting Estonian culture in Canada.
World premiere of Omar Daniel's The Passion of Lavinia Andronicus
Archived Articles | 28 Jan 2005 | EL (Estonian Life)EWR
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