Bourgie Hall presents

Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM) – Facing the Music

Poetry is at the heart of this concert in which Joséphine Bacon will take part. Her words will be brought to life by the voice of Inuk soprano Deantha Edmunds, while a work by Simon Bertrand, composed on poems by Paul Auster, will invite us to face the music of the soul.

Artists
Lorraine Vaillancourt, conductor

Pianist and conductor Lorraine Vaillancourt is the founder and artistic director of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), ensemble-in-residence at the Université de Montréal’s Faculty of Music, where Lorraine Vaillancourt is a full professor. She has been teaching at the institution since 1971, and leading its contemporary music workshop since 1974. As director of the NEM, Lorraine Vaillancourt has premiered many works in concerts across Canada and on international tours. She regularly serves as guest conductor of numerous ensembles and orchestras worldwide. In Canada, she has conducted the Montréal Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Québec and Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal. Abroad, she has led the Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain (Lyon), Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Sillages (Brest), Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Orchestre de Cannes, Orchestre national de la RAI (Turin), and the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), among others. Her discography, with NEM and other ensembles, comprises more than 30 recordings.

Deantha Edmunds, soprano

Deantha Edmunds is Canada’s first Inuk classical singer. She is a multi-nominated and award-winning performer, and is much in demand as a singer, actor, and collaborator in both Indigenous and non-Indigenous projects. She is also a member of the Canadian Opera Company’s Circle of Artists.

Edmunds released her first original solo album Connections, recorded with the Atlantic String Quartet, on June 21st , 2022. On that National Indigenous Peoples Day, she shared some of her new music at the International Inuit Studies Conference at the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq, home of the world’s largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art.

Her two previous albums were nominated for the East Coast Music Award ‘Indigenous Artist of the Year:’ in 2020 for her solo EP My Beautiful Home, and in 2016 for the album Pillorikput Inuit: Inuktitut Arias for All Seasons.

2019 performances included the world premieres of Indigenous operas Shanawdithit with Tapestry Opera/Opera on the Avalon, and the Cree and Sámi double-bill Two Odysseys: Pimootewin and Gállábártnit with Soundstreams/Signal Theatre/Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš. Deantha was one of the recipients of the Dora Award for outstanding Ensemble Work in Two Odysseys.

Joséphine Bacon, reciter
Rudy Barichello, reciter

Program
Valentin SILVESTROV String Quartet No. 1 (1974) – excerpt
Simon BERTRAND Facing the Music (world premiere), based on poems by Paul AUSTER
Tim BRADY Uiesh (2019), based on poems in Innu-aimun by Joséphine BACON

Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at 7:30pm
To purchase your tickets visit: www.mbam.qc.ca/en/bourgie-hall/