{"id":48745,"date":"2017-10-30T20:08:41","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T00:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=48745"},"modified":"2019-05-22T15:27:06","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T19:27:06","slug":"feature-the-toronto-symphony-orchestra-brings-remembrance-day-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/10\/30\/feature-the-toronto-symphony-orchestra-brings-remembrance-day-home\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE | The Toronto Symphony Orchestra Brings Remembrance Day Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_48753\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48753\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-48753 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Measha-Brueggergosman-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"654\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Measha-Brueggergosman-2.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Measha-Brueggergosman-2-300x192.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Measha-Brueggergosman-2-768x491.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-48753\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">To commemorate Remembrance Day, the TSO mount Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation, a groundbreaking work by Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan and Suzanne Steele, Canada\u2019s war poet in Afghanistan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-48746 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/TSO-logo-sponsored.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"100\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">T<\/span>his year, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO) has programmed two performances of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tso.ca\/concert\/afghanistan-requiem-generation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation<\/em><\/a> to coincide with Remembrance Day, which will push audiences out of their comfort zones to scenes from the Afghan battlefield.<\/p>\n<p>The axis of the concerts is the namesake requiem, a setting of author Suzanne Steele\u2019s poetry and music by composer Jeffrey Ryan. The collection of wartime vignettes initially premiered in Calgary in 2012, and this year the piece makes its way to Toronto. If past performances are any indication, audiences will laugh and they will cry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think art is about compassion and empathy,\u201d Steele reflects. \u201cI think you know you\u2019ve hit the mark when you\u2019ve got people crying in the audience, but there are also people laughing\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vId1m4KFzSQ?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Against the backdrop of their <a href=\"http:\/\/canadamosaic.tso.ca\/concerts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Canada Mosaic<\/a>\u00a0concerts, the TSO has assembled a squad of seasoned musicians for November 9 and 11 to bring four frontline war personnel to life. Colin Ainsworth (tenor) and Brett Polegato (baritone) will play two soldiers: one apparently unaffected and the other stricken with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Measha Brueggergosman (soprano) will juggle a number of roles, including that of a medic tasked with making life and death decisions on behalf of her patients. Allyson McHardy (mezzo-soprano) will portray a mother and a lover.<\/p>\n<p>Sharing the Roy Thomson Hall stage are the Toronto Children\u2019s Chorus and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, reinforced by the forces of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Under the baton of Tania Miller, TSO concertmaster Jonathan Crow and members of the Canadian Armed Forces will interpret several other moving works with a wartime theme, from Vaughan Williams to Canadian composers Julien Bilodeau (November 9) and Jordan Pal (November 11), interspersed with readings of war-themed poems.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cI think art is about compassion and empathy.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Steele herself holds a music degree in vocal performance from the University of British Columbia and cites the German Requiem by Brahms and Faur\u00e9\u2019s <em>Requiem<\/em> as profound influences on her art. As a poet, Steele puts great thought into word choice, and the word \u201crequiem\u201d encompasses her devout Catholic and musical identities.<\/p>\n<p>When Steele and Ryan sat down to discuss their partnership, it became apparent that music would become a natural fit for the text. The collaborators bounced ideas off each other as to how one medium would influence the other, and inspiration quickly gave way to intention. &#8220;Suzanne&#8217;s words do not pull any punches but are also beautifully singable and settable,&#8221; Ryan commented. It didn&#8217;t take long before Ryan was hearing the music in his head.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_48763\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48763\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-48763 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Steele-and-Ryan.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"643\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Steele-and-Ryan.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Steele-and-Ryan-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Steele-and-Ryan-768x482.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-48763\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Composer Jeffrey Ryan \/ Poet Suzanne Steele<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a particularly visceral scene from the \u201cDies Irae,\u201d text and music deliver the searing moment when a Canadian soldier stepped on an improvised bomb, followed by the S.O.S. call sent out in Morse code. Later in the &#8220;Libera Me&#8221; section, an overwhelmed medic is depicted in the triage ward while the orchestra simultaneously plays and counts out loud. As the music peters out, the voices continue to track the rising victim count. \u201cJeff did a tremendous job filling in the music,\u201d Steele emphasizes. \u201cIt\u2019s a true collaboration; it\u2019s a 50\/50.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In spite of the sombre context, this performance will be a happy reunion for composer and orchestra: Ryan was the TSO\u2019s Affiliate Composer from 2000 to 2002. Fifteen years on, the composer is grateful for the orchestra\u2019s continued backing of his music: \u201cIt means a lot to me that the TSO [\u2026] has pulled out all the stops to bring [Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation] to Roy Thomson Hall.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost of us experience war from a distance, through the news,\u201d Ryan adds. \u201cThis piece brings an unflinching immediacy to that experience, which I think gives the piece real emotional impact.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cEverything in the requiem I\u2019ve either seen or been told about first-hand. None of it is imagined.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Suzanne Steele made military history when she became the Canadian Forces\u2019 inaugural \u201cwar poet\u201d through their Artists Program. For 18 months beginning in 2009, Steele was embedded with soldiers in Afghanistan. There, she was privy to their raw confessions of the impact the conflict had on their emotional health, and she captured their stories in an anthology of poems spanning the road to Afghanistan and back to Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Steele stresses that her Afghan deployment was about more than documenting the negativity of warfare, its physical and emotional impacts, and the effects of post-traumatic stress. Steele\u2019s poetry captures scenes of peace as well as well as vignettes from Afghan culture: parents of Canadian soldiers are portrayed, as are children of the local Afghan people. Passages alternate between four languages: French and English to represent Canada and NATO\u2019s official languages, Latin as per the conventional requiem structure, and Pashtun for the Afghan people. \u201cEverything in the requiem I\u2019ve either seen or been told about first-hand,\u201d Steele affirms. \u201cNone of it is imagined. Not a single bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Soprano soloist Measha Brueggergosman, normally effervescent, put special thought to her words during our phone call. Though the soprano\u2019s career was formed in classical music, she spoke to the relevance of <em>Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation<\/em> for today\u2019s audiences. \u201cSometimes we can be a little bit distant as classical musicians because we tend to perform music by people who are long since gone. But classical music encompasses so much subject matter; it just speaks to the versatility of classical music.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation<\/em> is a solemn piece, and the mood colours her speech. \u201cIt\u2019s important that we get together to discuss these issues,\u201d Brueggergosman remarks. \u201cPart of remaining faithful and humble in your work comes down to acknowledging how blessed you are to have been born where you were born.\u201d She is happy to lend her voice to those affected by the conflict, and is hopeful that reconciliation is on the horizon. \u201cJust as much as we can sometimes contribute to the problem, that also gives us an opportunity to be the peacemakers that I know we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the same imperative for social good that the TSO shares. As one of the foremost arts institutions in the country, concerts such as <em>Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation<\/em> combine a global prerogative with the organization\u2019s musical expertise. With initiatives such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2017\/04\/12\/the-scoop-tso-musician-donates-trumpet-to-syrian-refuge-in-need\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">donating an instrument to a Syrian refugee<\/a>, the TSO seeks to engage the community well beyond the concert hall.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation<\/em><\/strong> will take place in Toronto at Roy Thomson Hall on November 9 and 11 at 8 p.m. For tickets see: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tso.ca\/concert\/afghanistan-requiem-generation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.tso.ca<\/a> or call 416-598-3375.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To commemorate Remembrance Day, the TSO mount Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation, an emotionally powerful work by Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan and Suzanne Steele, Canada\u2019s war poet in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":48753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6439,76,19,4967,13024,63],"tags":[246,558,832,13027,2175,5520,3342,3349,3360],"yst_prominent_words":[13019,12106,12105,12103,6715,13020,13029,13025,13028,6616,13018,13017,10213,12104,6843,6674,12112,12108,6683,6825],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2017\/10\/Measha-Brueggergosman-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-cGd","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48745"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60616,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48745\/revisions\/60616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48745"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}