Wednesday is World Water Day (March 22, 2023) and that’s a good reason to let you know about some new Canadian music that’s all about water.
‘WATER: an environmental oratorio’ imagines two different worlds. In a fantastical world, Water is personified, surrounded by singing spirits. In the everyday world, played out in a fictional Northern Ontario town, a beleaguered Mayor must decide whether to support a developer’s factory, or protect the purest water on the planet.
Soloists Katy Clark, Marion Newman, Jean-Philippe Lazure, and Phillip Addis bring these roles to life on May 28, 2023, at 3pm with the Grand Philharmonic Choir, youth choir and children’s choir, and KW Symphony at the Centre in the Square, Kitchener, Ontario.
Water is everywhere, around us and in us, yet we rarely stop to consider how much we rely on this essential element. We assume it will always be available when we need it, but it is a fragile and threatened resource. It’s helpful to disrupt our stagnant modes of thinking and consider this Anishinaabe teaching: it is our sacred duty to protect Water. Our existence depends on it.
Can a piece of music enact social change? Probably not. But it can bring us together to engage in conversation, challenge us to think and feel in new directions, and open our ears to other ways of knowing. The music that brings this story to life may surprise you, since it finds expression through many different styles: opera, folk, jazz, classic choral and orchestral music, with sounds that intend to embrace all listeners.
My deep thanks go out to the devoted team that built this piece over the past three years – Deb and Dan, Mark Vuorinen, Paul Ciufo, the Grand Philharmonic singers and staff, and to Vicki whose courage as a water protector and teacher of the Ojibway language has given us inspiration beyond our imagining.
Take some time on Wednesday to give thanks for water : )
