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PREVIEW | Pianist Adam Sherkin Premieres Concert Paraphrases Of Julien Bilodeau’s La Reine-garçon

By Anya Wassenberg on January 14, 2025

L: Composer Julien Bilodeau (Photo: Julien Bilodeau, 12/26/2024/CC by SA 4.0); R: Pianist Adam Sherkin (Photo courtesy of the artist)
L: Composer Julien Bilodeau (Photo: Julien Bilodeau, 12/26/2024/CC by SA 4.0); R: Pianist Adam Sherkin (Photo courtesy of the artist)

Pianist Adam Sherkin offers a program of contemporary music that includes a unique preview of the Canadian Opera Company’s new production in a free lunchtime concert. It’s part of the COC’s Free Concert series, and takes place at the Richard Bradshaw amphitheatre on January 23.

La Reine-garçon is one of the most highly anticipated new productions at the Canadian Opera Company in recent years. It will be the first COC/Opéra de Montréal co-production, and gets its Toronto premiere later this month.

Adam Sherkin and his Piano Lunaire commissioned La Reine-garçon’s composer Julien Bilodeau to write six paraphrases for piano from the opera, which Sherkin will tour this winter.

“Through these three paraphrases, the listener will be transported on a condensed journey that recounts the highlights of the opera while being able to appreciate a mode of pianistic writing that is both virtuoso and poetic,” says Bilodeau in a statement.

Composer Julien Bilodeau

Julien Bilodeau first studied music at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal, followed by four years at the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (IRCAM) et au Centre de création musicale Iannis Xenakis (CCMIX) in Paris, and then further studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfort, Germany.

In 2006, he won the Canada Council for the Arts Robert Flemming prize for emerging composers. Julien’s earlier orchestral works were influenced by European music of the 19th and 20th centuries.

His works for orchestra have been performed by the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Orchestre métropolitain du Grand Montréal, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, among others. He’s written commissions for the OSM and l’Orchestre de la Francophonie, and his work has been performed by l’Ensemble Moderne and l’Orchestre des Amériques de New York, among others.

In 2017, he composed his first opera, Another Brick in the Wall: The Opera, adapting the music from the Pink Floyd album of the same name. Since Then, Bilodeau has devoted his practise to composing operas.

La Reine-garçon: Queen Christina of Sweden

Christina was Queen of Sweden from 1632 until 1654. But, before that, she was a child who was brought up as a boy by her father, Gustavus Adolphus , who died when she was only seven. She inherited the throne on his death, but wouldn’t rule in her own right until the age of 18.

Queen Christina is credited with establishing a university and promoting learning. She also became known for her outsized spending habits, occasional wearing of masculine attire, and her close relationship to the performing arts communities of her time.

In the end, she abdicated the throne because of her conversion to Cathlolicism, coupled with her refused to marry — the latter decision shaped no doubt in some way by her childhood. She settled in Rome, and became one of the few women buried in the Vatican Grottoes.

The opera’s story takes place in Uppsala Castle in 1649 as Queen Christina brings René Descartes to her kingdom to help her navigate the many forces that influence her. She’s caught up between a sense of duty to the throne, and its necessity of producing an heir, and her love for another woman, the clash of feminine and masculine values in her world, and faith vs knowledge.

The COC production stars sopranos Kirsten MacKinnon and Kirsten LeBlanc as the Swedish queen.

The original music was composed by Julien Bilodeau, with French libretto by Michel Marc Bouchard.

The Concert

The free concert takes place at noon at the Richard Bradshaw Amphitheatre on January 23.

The composer will also be present and a part of the presentation on January 23. The concert program also includes Bilodeau’s Four Spring études (revised 2024), two études by György Ligeti, and Thomas Adès’ Blanca Variations (2015), along with Sherkin’s own set of Variations on Punch’s Resolve( after Harrison Birtwistle’s “Punch & Judy”).

  • Find out more [HERE].

If you’re a member (or have a friend who can bring you as a guest), Sherkin will also perform the program on Feb 5 at the Toronto Arts & Letters Club.

Adam Sherkin will be recording The Six Paraphrases next summer, with a view to releasing them in late fall 2025.

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