Confluence Concerts will present Dichterliebe: Whose Love?, a concert that expands on Schumann’s romantic message with a gender-expansive lens. The January 12 and 13 performances feature Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野, voice and David Eliakis, piano.
The two artists previously collaborated on Kasahara’s acclaimed The Queen In Me, which recently toured internationally.
The Artists
Toronto-based Nikkei Canadian settler Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 is a queer and trans non-binary opera singer. They are also co-founder of Amplified Opera, and the 2022 recipient of the Joseph S. Stauffer Prize in Music from the Canada Council for the Arts. Kasahara is a Confluence Artistic Associate.
David Eliakis is on the Faculty of The Glenn Gould School of Music at the RCM, and is a voice coach, host, and lecturer as well as pianist. Along with solo projects and performances, he’s collaborated with some of Canada’s best known vocalists, and is the recipient of the Ontario Arts Council Chalmers Award.
Schumann’s Dichterliebe
Schumann’s Dichterliebe (1840) is among is best loved song cycles. It consists of 16 songs, with text taken from the Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine. Heine wrote the texts in 1822–23, and they were originally published as part of Heine’s Das Buch der Lieder. The English title is A Poet’s love.
German poet, writer and literary critic Christian Johann Heinrich Heine left a controversial legacy, and seemed to anger as many people as he charmed. Heine was probably best known for his in-your-face satiric style, and some of his more radical expressions gave rise to accusations of being unpatriotic and subversive.
Das Buch der Lieder comes from poems collected from his younger years, before he attended university. It was a devastating time for Heinrich, infatuated by his cousins who were indifferent to the young poet.
Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo tells a story that opens in a prologue where a poet/knight is rudely taken from dreamy illusions about life to the attic of a solitary poet. It establishes a sense of irony even as it conveys the conventional Romanticism of the era.
Schumann adapted the poems to his music. Interestingly, the work is often performed by male vocalists, but it was dedicated to German soprano Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient.
Dichterliebe: Whose Love?
Confluence Concerts takes Schumann’s work and creates a gender-expansive re-telling of the song cycle. The performance includes settings by Schumann’s contemporaries, as Co-curated by Confluence Artistic Associate Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野 and pianist David Eliakis.
Dichterliebe: Whose Love? asks whose love is considered important, and celebrated in our world?
Co-curators and performers Teiya Kasahara and David Eliakis dive into their own backgrounds in Western classical music education, and question the traditions that lock in sex and gender norms in both music and society around us, including performance practices.
Love with a gender-expansive lens is the focal point for interpretations of the work of Schumann and his contemporaries in varied settings.
- Tickets and more information for the January 12 & 13 Toronto concerts [HERE].
Other Confluence News… An Opportunity For Younger Artists
Up to 12 performers between the ages of 18 and 28 can apply for the opportunity to participate in the 2024 Side-by-Side series of workshops and concerts. The goal of the series is to deconstruct barriers between musicians and musical genres — creating a true creative confluence.
Artistic Associates for the program are: Larry Beckwith, Suba Sankaran, Teiya Kasahara 笠原 貞野, Andrew Downing, Patrica O’Callaghan, and the KöNG Duo (Bevis Ng and Hoi Tong Keung)
- Musicians of all genres can apply;
- The Artistic Associates will lead sessions in music arranging, networking, programming, collaboration, research, grant writing and other relevant topics;
- They’ll also work with the participants to create and present two concerts at Heliconian Hall.
The deadline to apply has been extended to Friday, December 29, 2023 at 5:00 pm.
- More information on how to apply [HERE].
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