The Journey (Pimooteewin)
In co-operation with the Elmer Iseler Singers
WORLD PREMIERE OF THE FIRST CREE OPERA
Libretto by Tomson Highway & Music by Melissa Hui
February 15 & 16 2008 @ 8 pm
Jane Mallett Theatre, 27 Front Street East
Elmer Iseler Singers
Lydia Adams, conductor
Xin Wang, soprano
Bud Roach, tenor (Member of EIS)
Cara Gee, narrator
Michael Greyeyes, choreography & direction
Chamber Orchestra
Jillian Niedoba, SarahThorpe and Ryan Symington, Kuroko
Weesageechak (the Trickster) and Misigoo (The Eagle) journey far from the land of the living to cross the river to the magic island where the Spirits of the Dead dance every night by the light of the moon. Weesageechak captures them in a basket and sets out to return to the land of the living. But the Spirits of the Dead are restless, and on the long journey back, one by one they escape from the basket. This is myth that illuminates much that is universal about the human condition.
**Pre-concert chat with Melissa Hui and Michael Greyeyes on February 15 @ 7pm, Jane Mallett Theatre
**Young Artist Overture on February 16 @ 7pm, Jane Mallett Theatre
Buy tickets:
$37 adult/ $29 senior and artsworkers/ $10 student
Through the St. Lawrence Centre Box Office or at the door. CALL 416-366-7723 or online at www.stlc.com. The Seven Last Words
A SOUNDSTREAMS WORLD PREMIERE
COMPOSED BY PAUL FREHNER
Plus Bach's motet Jesu meine Freude and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Seven Words Sunday, March 16, 2008 @ 3pm
St. Anne’s Anglican Church, 270 Gladstone Ave. Ivars Taurins, conductor
Tafelmusik Chamber Choir
virtuoso String Orchestra
David Hetherington, cello
Joseph Petric, bayan (accordion) The Seven Last Words that Christ spoke before his death have been the inspiration for much great art. Paul Frehner’s contemporary setting for soloists, chamber choir and strings is paired with works on the same theme. Buy tickets:
$30 adult/$22 senior and arts workers/ $10 student
Through the St. Lawrence Centre Box Office or at the door. CALL 416-366-7723 or online at www.stlc.com. | | Soundstreams FREE Community Events | | | 
Melissa Hui | 
Micael Greyeyes | | | Composer’s Forum
Tuesday, February 5, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
Edward Johnson Building, U of T, 80 Queen's Park
Composer Melissa Hui discusses the process of composing The Journey (Pimooteewin). Tenor Bud Roach and soprano Xin Wang perform excerpts. Discovering the first Cree opera
February 8, 2008 @ 11 am
Centre for Indigenous Theatre
325 King Street West, Suite 205
World renowned dancer and actor Michael Greyeyes, who is the choreographer & stage director of The Journey (Pimooteewin) is joined by tenor Bud Roach and soprano Xin Wang to discuss the cultural significance of the first ever Cree opera. Singers will perform excerpts.
Discovering the first Cree opera
February 11, 2008 @ 3 pm
Dodem Kanonhsa
55 St. Clair Avenue East, 6th Floor
Michael Greyeyes, choreographer & stage director; Cara Gee, narrator (as above)
Creating the First Cree Opera
February 15, 2008 @ 11am
Edward Johnson Building, U of T, 80 Queen's Park
Presented with the Institute for Canadian Music
Meilissa Hui, composer & Michael Greyeyes, choreographer & stage director talk about the creation process of The Journey (Pimooteewin).
Made possible with the generous support of:
 Other events around town:
Special Offer from the Toronto Symphony Orchestra!
Jukka-Pekka Saraste Conducts Mahler Symphony
Featuring a new work by Magnus Lindberg
Thursday February 7 & Saturday February 9 at 8pm
$30 balcony & $55 main floor seats (Regular $67 & $102)
Visit www.tso.ca/weboffers and enter in the code ‘SARASTE’
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The Journey: Working with Long-Time Soundstreams Collaborators
Tomson Highway, Melissa Hui, Michael Greyeyes, Teresa Przybylski & The Elmer Iseler Singers
We’ve had brilliant creative collaborators at Soundstreams – take Tomson Highway – one of the most fertile literary imaginations in the world. Some years ago Tomson had written a poignant children’s story called Caribou Song that Sandra Laronde and Red Sky Performance had decided to stage. Soundstreams offered Red Sky the opportunity to give the premiere as part of our 2003 Northern Voices Festival, which was devoted to the theme of Music Theatre & Opera for Young Audiences. Northern Voices 2003 had an adjunct Conference intended to explore burning issues in the field of youth opera. The subject of one of the panels was cross-cultural collaborations – Tomson was on the panel – what a character, just bursting with energy and ideas. You couldn’t stop him from talking, but you didn’t want to! I was amazed to find out that he was trained in classical music and is an excellent pianist. It turned out that he had always wanted to write a Cree oratorio, yes, an oratorio in the Cree language! The Cree language is malleable and flexible, ideally suited for setting to music as far as Tomson was concerned. We had invited Melissa Hui to be on the same cross-cultural collaborations panel as Tomson, though they had never met. By 2003, Melissa had written a work for me for English horn and choir, and I had recorded another for oboe d’amore and choir. Knowing Melissa’s eclectic interests, it had occurred to me that they would work well together on a panel. Little did I know that my instinct was dead right. It was obvious during the panel that the creative sparks were really flying between them. I had already asked Tomson if he would adapt an aboriginal myth that could be set to music, and on the spot Tomson, Melissa and I decided to collaborate to create and produce what would eventually become The Journey. It’s fascinating to think that chemistry between them never lost its creative pulse. Music history is littered with tortured relationships between librettists and composers, but not in this case. Michael Greyeyes, too, has a long history with Soundstreams. In the 90’s for a project called Buffalo Jump, we paired Michael with Louis Applebaum, a giant of the musical community. Lou was already in his 70’s when they met - Michael in his mid-20’s – but what chemistry! Lou had a flair for writing music for the theatre, and Michael was a rising young star as an actor, director and choreographer. The Buffalo Jump, based on another Cree myth, toured successfully for several years in Ontario. In 1999, it was chosen to represent Canada at in international children’s festival in Tromso, Norway. In the meantime, Michael had returned to Toronto from the U.SA. to accept a position in the Theatre Department at York University, so it was natural to ask him to direct and choreograph our upcoming production of The Journey. The Journey brings another old friend, designer Teresa Przybylski, back into the Soundstreams family. We worked closely with Teresa in the late 1980’s when she did stunning designs for a number of productions in Soundstreams’ Musical Mondays series, presented in co-operation with Lorraine Kimsa Young People’s Theatre. One of her most memorable and imaginative designs was the one with Theatre Smith Gilmour for our 1988 production of Alice in Wonderland with original music by Harry Freedman. So it’s really a pleasure to work again in The Journey with such a gifted designer. And then there’s The Elmer Iseler Singers. Our cherished association goes all the way back to 1981. The Elmer Iseler Singers were the mainstay of a summer festival I created called Music at Sharon that thrived for 14 seasons, 1981-1994. Soundstreams began working with the Elmer Iseler Singers in the mid-1990’s, and have remained in close association ever since. Together we have premiered many works - often the EIS is paired in our series with their international choral counterparts from around the globe. The Journey is one of our most unusual collaborations. The choir steps beyond its normal role to become part of the magical staging of this groundbreaking work. 
- DVD. Opera by Kaija Saariaho, L’Amour de loin, Peter Sellars, Director
DG: B0004721-09
This is a haunting and beautifully colored score by one of the major figures of the 21st century. The visuals are simply stunning. This is a mystical tale based on the actual history of a 12th century prince and troubadour. It features soprano Dawn Upshaw at the top of her form.
- Concerts: Dates: February 7 & February 9 - Magnus Lindberg, Finnish Composer Extraordinaire
Speaking of Finns, the other great Finnish 21st century figure is Magnus Lindberg. There are two upcoming concerts to choose from: Toronto Symphony at Roy Thomson Hall under former music director Jukka-Pekka Saraste February 7 & 9; and New Music Concerts at the Music Gallery February 8. Lindberg has an extraordinary big forms and instrumental colours.
- Play. Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, by Tomson Highway, Fifth House.
Tomson Highway is one of the most brilliant playwrights in Canada. If you haven’t read his work before, it’s a great introduction to how he treats The Journey, a Cree opera being premiered in mid-February at St. Lawrence Centre in the Soundstreams annual series.
- Book. Music in China by Frederick Lau (with CD), Oxford University Press.
I’ve just come back from China where I heard Frederick Lau speak about Chinese music. This recently published book is a marvelous introduction to Chinese music, musicians and instruments. Fascinating and lucid.
- CD. Oceana by Osvaldo Golijev. DG B0009069-02
Golijev is famous for the ways in which he has woven together strands of world music from many heritages together with 21st century new music idioms. The results can sometimes be superficial, but when it works, it’s glorious! Such is the case with Oceana for vocals, guitar, harp percussion and bass solos, choir and orchestra. It’s worth listening to just to hear Luciana Souza, a Brazilian singer who is as clearly at home in the classics as she is in Bossa Nova.
Soundstreams takes The Journey to GTA Schools
Soundstreams Canada is thrilled to be offering an extensive education program in conjunction with The Journey. Workshops relating to The Journey will be brought to over 800 students in Toronto. These workshops will focus on storytelling, dance, movement, music and drama, facilitated by Michael Greyeyes, Melissa Hui, Cara Gee and other artists. Students will also be attending the student matinee performances of The Journey on February 11th.
Educator’s workshop with Michael Greyeyes
Monday, January 21st at Blessed John XXIII
4:00-5:30
75 Grenoble Drive (Don Mills and Eglinton) The workshop for teachers with Michael Greyeyes will incorporate movement
exercises into the composition projects. He will discuss narrating First Nation’s stories to
Canadian or international audiences. The workshops will explore how educators can provide
frameworks for their students to claim their own storytelling voice, using production
design, movement and acting. They will also discuss how time, schedules and budget
can determine how an idea makes its way to the stage. Space is limited – please contact Sam Joyce at samj@soundstreams.ca for registration. Special Thanks to The Ontario Arts Foundation's Arts Education Partnership Initiative program for making these workshops and matinees possible.
Save the Date for Soundstreams 25th Anniversary Fundraiser
It's time to make another mark in your brand new 2008 calendar! Don't miss the Soundstreams 25th Anniversary Fundraiser on May 4th, 2008 at Grano. There will be fabulous food, beautiful music and great company. Call the Soundstreams office at 416-504-1282 for more details. 
Artist George Littlechild
The stunning image of Weesageechak chosen for The Journey (Pimooteewin) was created by B.C. based Artist George Littlechild. George Littlechild is Plains Cree, born in Alberta. His extensive body of art is noted for its bold colours and playful images, belying the serious undertones of his work. His sweeping collages of mixed media offer us insight into the human spirit, the strong connection to our ancestors, the ways in which we view our world and how that view needs to change. He received a diploma in art and design from Red Deer College in 1984, and he obtained a B.F.A. from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax in 1988. His mixed-media paintings record his personal and family history as well as his reclamation and reconnection with his ancestral culture. Littlechild believes colours possess spiritual cleansing and purifying powers, and is known for his finesse as a colourist as well as his collaging of haunting vintage photographs. He was presented a scholarship from the Alberta Indian Arts and Crafts Society, and in 1996, was honoured with the British Columbia Cultural Services award. Most recently he won the Visual Arts Development Award (2003) the Aboriginal Role Models of Alberta Award (2006) and the Art Starts Award, Outstanding champion for the arts in British Columbia schools and communities (2006).
Weesageechak
One of the principle characters in The Journey (Pimooteewin) is Weesageechak, the quintessential Trickster along with his oft companion Misigoo (The Eagle). Here’s a note from internationally award winning writer Tomson Highway, who wrote both the Cree Libretto and the English narration for this exciting Soundstreams world premiere presentation:The Trickster is the figure who stands at the very heart and centre of Native North American mythology, of Native North America’s collective subconscious or dream world, if you will. Called Weesageechak in Cree, Nanabush in Ojibway, Iktomi in Sioux, Raven on the west coast, Glooscap on the east, Coyote on the plains (and other places), he goes by many names, many guises. What he is, above all else, however, is a clown, the world’s most hysterical, most ridiculous, given to the people by the Great Spirit, so to speak, to teach us the pivotal lesson that the reason for existence on the planet is not to suffer, not to wallow in guilt but to enjoy life, to take pleasure in the simple act of living. In a sense, he/she straddles the consciousness of Man and that of God, “translating,” so to speak, one energy from one to the other and back to the one. Eagle is another major figure in Native North American mythology, though not as pivotal as the Trickster. He is, however, more directly a messenger of God, relaying messages between “him/her” and “his/her” people, the fundamental difference between him and the Trickster being that he, the eagle, is uni-dimensionally animal – i.e. all nature – while the Trickster is more complex, in structure as in meaning, being as he/she is one third animal, one third man (or woman, as the case may be), and one third God, that is to say, he/she is one third divine, one third human, and one third nature, a kind of funky/mystical “holy trinity,” if you will.
| Lead Sponsors of The Journey (Pimooteewin):
 
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