Against the Grain Theatre has released details on a new commission for baritone Elliot Madore and writer and poet Shauntay Grant, and composer Dinuk Wijeratne.
Identity: a Song Cycle will present Madore’s personal story set to new and original Canadian poetry by Grant and a score by Wijeratne.
The genesis for the project started back in June 2020, when Madore made a personal social post on Instagram about his struggles with expressing his identity as a biracial person. When asked about his background, he explained people often seem surprised to hear he’s black, making him want to avoid the conversation altogether.
“Through my personal story and my strife with identity, I’ve come to realize that this is a common theme throughout society that hasn’t been fully explored: our collective and individual struggle with who we are, our identity,” said Madore.
“I believe that, under the surface, more people than we think struggle with the notion of a ‘conflicted’ identity,” Wijeratne explains. “For instance, on any given day I never feel fully eastern or fully western. I feel blessed that I am able to use my music to reconcile multiple identities in a way that often eludes me in daily life. I hope that, in some small way, we can inspire the listener to dig deeper into what the word ‘identity’ means to them.”
The music will be inspired by a fusion of genres from eastern and western music with piano, bass and percussion.
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