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.
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.
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!
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 SteinDduk guk and Maeve
“The 2009 Native opera Giiwedin. Written in the Anishinaabemowin, French, and English languages by Spy Dénommé-Welch (Algonquin) and Catherine Magowan, Native music sensibilities were applied to both voice and stringed instruments.”
“Giiwedin (The North Wind), blends Baroque and traditional Indigenous music and aesthetics. It was written and cocomposed by librettist Spy DénomméWelch, an Aboriginal education consultant at Laurier, and Catherine Magowan. Written in Anishnaabemowin, French and English, and set in Northeastern Ontario, Giiwedin tells the story of NoodinKwe, a 150yearold Aboriginal woman, and her struggle to protect her ancestral land.
“‘This production offers a unique opportunity to our students to engage with First Nations history and culture, most of them for the very first time,’ said Professor Kimberly Barber, administrative coordinator of Opera at Laurier. ‘It also allows us to tell an important and mostly untold story about first contact and its impacts and implications in a way that is both accessible and theatrically intense, while allowing students to collaborate with the Aboriginal community.'”
“Marion’s season so far has included … the lead role of Noodin-Kwe in the world premiere run of Giiwedin, a first Nations opera by Spy Dénommé-Welch and Catherine Magowan.”
