Hélène Grimaud & Yannick Nézet-Séguin & Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Symphonic personalities

Program

Barbara Assiginaak

Eko-Bmijwang (As long in time as the river flows)
Ravel

Piano Concerto in G Major
Florence Price

Symphony No. 1

Media

Conductor

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Masterful piano playing and poetic intensity come together to create the ultimate emotional experience in Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major. Performed by internationally renowned pianist Hélène Grimaud and conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, this piece by the legendary French composer is transcendent.

Dive into a dreamy orchestral memoire with Anishinaabekwe composer Barbara Assiginaak’s piece Eko-Bmijwang – As Long in Time as the River Flows. Floating on calm waters illuminated by Nokomis, Grandmother Moon, the audience takes a journey down the river to where the current changes course. Florence Price’s Symphony No. 1 blends genres, showcasing African American spirituals, hymns and dances, while working within the mold of the classical symphony.

Works

Barbara Assiginaak

1966 –

Eko-Bmijwang (As long in time as the river flows)

Premiered in Joliette on August 8, 2021, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Born on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron, half of whose population is indigenous, Barbara Assiginaak developed a passion for music at an early age. At the time, she was already fascinated by the pipigwan, the traditional flute of the Odawa First Nation. Her musical education has taken her to the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, the prestigious Centre Acanthes training academy for young composers in France and the University of Toronto. Her teachers have included Dr. Samuel Dolin, Helmut Lachenmann and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

She has been active internationally since 1995. Among other accomplishments, she was composer-in-residence at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2000. An educator and committed environmentalist, she has played an active role in Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Barbara Assiginaak often draws inspiration from traditional Native American music as well as from nature—from its rhythms and soundscapes of murmuring water, wind and birdsong.

“I imagined this short work as a journey through a dream-memory experience of time, beginning with a canoe entering the calm waters in the midst of thick fog just under the light of Nokomis (Grandmother Moon). Soon, with the coming dawn, the mists rise and the waters dance under the light of Giizis (Grandfather Sun) and enliven those many creatures that dwell within and around. As the waters of this great river change their flow, their speed and sometimes the direction of their current, the traveller is reminded that all humans—the last to arrive after all other beings—are not there to dominate and control the spirit and life of nibi (water).” – Barbara Assiginaak

Ravel

1875 – 1937

Piano Concerto in G Major

Florence Price

1887 – 1953

Symphony No. 1

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