Unsettled Scores at Celebration of Nations!

By Unsettled Scores / On / In Blog post, Chamber, Music, News, Opera

In association with the Celebration of Nations, and FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, we will be presenting an evening of music on September 7 at 7:30PM!

Tickets are only $20 ($5 for high school students) and are available here.

Additionally, we will be providing a limited number of FREE tickets to Indigenous community organizations and centres. If you are interested, please email unsettledscorescelebration[at]gmail.com

RADAR is a new work for oboe, bassoon, horn, bass trombone, guitar and timpani that explores the conceptual idea of a palindrome, and the notion of being targeted while invisible. This piece is a musical response to the violence experienced by Indigenous people, particularly Indigenous women, Two-Spirit, and Trans-identified persons.

Contraries: a chamber requiem tells the story of a little boy and his quest to relearn his gifts. After escaping the grip of a tyrannical schoolmaster, he embarks on a journey to fulfill his heroic destiny and transform into a sacred being.

Chi Miigwetch to the Brock University Social Justice Research Institute Seed Grant program for research support, the Faculty of Education Discretionary Strategic Initiatives Fund, the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts, and the Music and Dramatic Arts Departments.

Spy recipient of New Frontiers in Research Fund from SSHRC

By Unsettled Scores / On / In Blog post, News

Unsettled Scores Artistic Director Dr. Spy Dénommé-Welch has been announced as a recipient of the New Frontiers in Research Fund for his project “Sonic Coordinates: Decolonizing through land-based music composition!”  This award was created to generate opportunities for early career researchers to conduct high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research, and build strength and leadership in interdisciplinary and transformative research.

More information about Dr. Spy’s research project, “Sonic Coordinates: Decolonizing through land-based music composition,” can be found on the Brock University website.

Congratulations Spy!!

Canoe at Weesageechak Begins to Dance 31

By Unsettled Scores / On / In Music, News, Opera, Theatre

We are excited to be part of this year’s Weesageechak Begins to Dance 31! We will be presenting an excerpt of our new full-length opera, Canoe, at the festival’s Opera Night on November 17 at Aki Studio. We are grateful to Native Earth Performing Arts for supporting the development of this work through their Mskomini Giizis Artist Residency this past summer.

Canoe is a tale of transformation that revolves around the lives of eccentric sisters, Constance and Gladys, and the flood that consumes their world. Blending Indigenous oral tradition with neo-baroque and jazz/blues motifs, Canoe is a unique operatic performance.

This presentation will feature Nicole Joy-Fraser, Conlin Delbaere-Sawchuk , Cecilia Lee on piano, and will be dramaturged by Moynan King.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/toronto/article/Native-Earth-Announces-The-Line-up-Of-WEESAGEECHAK-BEGINS-TO-DANCE-20181025

Week two (Mskomini Giizis Residency)

By Unsettled Scores / On / In Blog post, Comedy, Music, Opera

Directors and design team discuss ideas

As we moved into week two of our Mskomini Giizis Residency with Native Earth Performing Arts we were very excited to begin working with our director, Moynan King, and our designers Jay Havens (sets), Samay Arcentales Cajas (projections) and Kinoo Arcentales (costumes), as well as our stage manager, Heather Kilner!

As a team we’re having a great time teasing out the dramatic and comedic elements of this opera, as well as envisioning how it could be presented in a full production. We are thankful for everyone’s contributions as they fearlessly explore the work and experiment with us.

Singers Joanna Burt, Conlin Delbaere-Sawchuk and Alejandra Nuñez work on blocking

Week three will start to incorporate the instruments, as well as the design elements which, until now, have been in the planning and conceptualizing stages! 

One week down (Mskomini Giizis Residency)

By Unsettled Scores / On / In Blog post, Comedy, Music, Opera, Theatre

We have just finished our first week of the Mskomini Giizis Residency at Native Earth Performing Arts, and are so thankful to be able to work with such amazing musicians (and dogs)! Next week we will start working with director Moynan King, as well as our design team and stage manager on integrating the non-musical aspects of this opera.

Joanna Burt, Alejandra Nuñez, Nicole Joy-Fraser, Conlin Delbaere-Sawchuk, Benjamin Stein
Dduk guk and Maeve

Native Earth to Present 30th Annual WEESAGEECHAK BEGINS TO DANCE

By unsettledscores / On / In Music, News

Broadway World, article by BWW News Desk:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/toronto/article/Native-Earth-to-Present-30th-Annual-WEESAGEECHAK-BEGINS-TO-DANCE-20171019

“Rounding out the first week, multi-disciplinary artists and Dora-nominated Spy Dénommé-Welch (Algonquin) and Catherine Magowan of An Indie(n) Rights Reserve return with HATE MAIL and Irreconcilable Trolls, a piece that explores people who hide behind fake usernames, spoofed emails and anonymous comment boards which is presented as a sonata with contrabassoon and piano.”