INNERchamber Concerts will present a concert titled Reverence — the fifth event of their season 16 — featuring guest artist Dayna Manning. The singer-songwriter will contribute to a mixed program of songs that celebrate the change of seasons.
The theme of the program is the coming of spring, and its promise of renewed vitality and new life, with a reverence for our planet.
Along with Manning, Laura Chambers, flute, Andrew Chung, violin and viola, Ben Bolt-Martin, cello, and Graham Hargrove, percussion will perform.
“This program is about using this change of seasons to breathe a little, reflect a little, to come together
and share music from a wide range of sources. There is a lot of meditative and thoughtful music as part
of Reverence, and with this ensemble and guest artist Dayna Manning, we will explore songs and pieces written about the natural environment and human interaction as a part of it,” says Andrew Chung, INNERchamber Artistic Director, in a statement.
That program includes a varied mix of music:
- Timothy Corlis: Silent Dawn
- John Cage: In A Landscape
- Antonio Vivaldi: Largo from Piccolo Concerto in C Major, RV 443
- Max Richter: On The Nature of Daylight
- Gavin Bradley: Deep Freeze
- Dayna Manning: Springtime
- Bill Withers: Lovely Day
- Edvard Grieg: Morning from Peer Gynt, Op. 23
- Dayna Manning: The Jack Pine
- Jenni Brandon: from The Sequoia Trio
- Jimmie David and Charles Mitchell: You Are My Sunshine
- Kacey Musgraves: Oh What a World
- Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher: Rainbow Connection
- Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel
- Joni Mitchell: Both Sides, Now
Dayna Manning, singer/songwriter
JUNO Award–nominated, award-winning Canadian folk artist Dayna Manning has been a working musician for more than 25 years. Dayna earned a Master’s in Community Music from Wilfrid Laurier University. Based in Stratford, Ontario, she’s a storyteller at heart, and her songs weave local history, people, and the landscape into her music.
She’s released four solo albums, along with three releases as part of the folk trio Trent Severn. She contributed to the Lilith Fair soundtrack, and The Best of Lilith Fair album.
Her latest album, Field Notes, was recently released.
LV talked to Andrew Chung, INNERchamber Artistic Director about the program.
Andrew Chung: The Interview
“We’re in our 16th season now. We do a whole lot of chamber music,” Chung says of INNERchamber and its mandate.
The organization is built around a core of local classical musicians in Stratford, Ontario. Stratford, with its rich performing arts scene, offers various opportunities to go beyond music alone.
“Being in Stratford, we end up doing a lot of cross genre work,” he says. “When it comes to singer songwriters, Dayna Manning is our favourite.”
He mentions that some of INNERchamber’s performers have contributed to her recordings.
“When we were brainstorming for this concert, we thought it would be really special to have a singer-songwriter presence as a part of the flow of this particular concert,” he says.
The Program
While the program offers a broad mix of music, there is method behind it.
“We’ve broken it up into parts,” Andrew explains.
The first portion deals with dormancy, revolving around the idea of a world that is sleeping, and coming out of its winter state. It’s followed by wakening — love songs for a living planet. The closing portion of the program offers lullabyes for a sleeping planet.
“That’s how we’ve loosely structured this concert.” The mix includes art songs along with popular music. “I think maybe one of the leading concepts of the concert is that less is more. There’s minimalist music in that opening.”
Cellist Ben Bolt Martin arranged John Cage’s In A Landscape, a work originally written for solo instrument, for the INNERchamber trio.
“Max Richter’s On The Nature of Daylight is a very reflective minimalist piece. He seems to achieve this luminous feel using very dark material, with very simple parts.” As he points out, the entire program uses a series of small parts to create a larger meaning.
While avoiding the composer’s iconic The Four Seasons, the program includes the Largo from Vivaldi’s Piccolo Concerto, a work with a lighthearted mood that also evokes the spring.
Dayna Manning wrote Springtime, from one of her earlier releases, and Jack Pine, which comes from her new album Field Notes. “Dayna, in her imagination, she’s imagining Tom Thomson painting those Jack Pines,” Chung says. “It’s a beautiful song.”
While not dealing with spring or the Earth per se, some pieces on the program simply emphasize an uplifting mood.
“Some of these pieces — the Bill Withers, Lovely Day — it’s about the awakening, finding joy, overcoming the struggle,” he says. In Grieg’s Morning from Peer Gynt, the title character has been abandoned in a tropical locale. “With Grieg, you can just imagine the sun. He was imagining the Moroccan desert,” he adds.
American composer Jenni Brandon’s The Sequoia Trio is a musical depiction of the giant sequoia trees in Yosemite Park. Each movement describes a different part of their 2,000 year life cycle.
Jimmie David and Charles Mitchell’s classic You Are My Sunshine was a natural addition to the mix. “We all know this tune. We know it without the break up material. It’s beautiful, charming — so simple,” he says.
“Kacey Musgraves’ Oh What a World, it’s acknowledging the beautiful, the magical things in life that surround us,” Chung says. “We’re overloaded now — we need to pare back and appreciate the simplicity.”
Manning sings Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher’s iconic Rainbow Connection. “She does a lovely version of this song.” Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel brings the program back to contemporary minimalism. “Again, so simple. The melody is slowly changing triads,” Andrew says.
“We’re going to end with Joni Mitchell. It’s such an incredible song.” Manning will sing her hit Both Sides, Now. “It’s a gorgeous song.”
Final Thoughts
“We endure a pretty rough winter here, and it’s hard to compare with what happens in the spring,” Chung notes. Ontario has certainly seen its share of wintry weather this year, including recently. Spring, as he notes, brings an explosion of colour and life.
“It’s kind of awesome,” he says. “We’re using that as a springboard.”
He’s hoping the music will leave the audience with the sense of being taken out of the chaos of the world. “For just an hour and a half on that Sunday.”
The Event
The concert takes place at Factory163 in Stratford.
“We’ve been at Factory 163 for a large part of our existence,” Chung says. “It’s a great creative space.”
The April 12 concert includes a light dinner served from 5:45 p.m. (provided tickets are purchased by 5 p.m. on April 10). The catering partner for this concert is Boutique Catering. Tickets purchased after the April 10 cut-off time may be available at the same price but will not include dinner.
The music begins at 7 p.m.
- Find other details and tickets [HERE].
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