The Artists
Judith Yan
Sanjana Brijlall
Monique Martin
Sonia Reid
Sofia Mycyk
This concert includes
Violin 1
Drusilla Waltz, acting concertmaster
Lillian Jen-Payzant
Simon Fanner
Samara Caldwell
Katia Pletneva
Violin 2
Oxana Ossiptchouk
Karen Bindle
Kevin MacMillan
Wagner Barbosa
Viola
Jim Legge
Jeremy Janzen
Sarah ter Velde
Cello
Joel MacDonald
John Payzant
Scott McKnight
Bass
Troy Morris
Flute
Allison Miller
Oboe
Erin Brophey
Clarinet
Gilles Turcotte
Bassoon
Stephanie Unverricht
Horn
Carol-Marie Cottin
Keyboard
Sofia Mycyk
Metamorphosis
Judith Yan, conductor
Monique Martin, artist
Sofia Mycyk, piano
Sanjana Brijlall, vocalist
Sonia Reid, spoken word and vocalist
Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra
PART I – EARTH
On the Nature of Daylight
Max Richter
Sinfonia for String Orchestra from String Quartet No. 8, Op. 110
III. Allegretto
Dmitri Shostakovich
Arr. Lucas Drew
Der Bote – 1996 (“The Messenger”)
Valentin Silvestrov
PART II – CREATURES
Holberg Suite, Op. 40
III. Gavotte
Edvard Grieg
Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major, Op. 102
II. Andante
Dmitri Shostakovich
A T9 Date from “Sisyphus and the Search for Home”
Yash Kathrotia
PART III – US
A Family of One from “Sisyphus and the Search for Home”
Yash Kathrotia
Sankrant from “Sisyphus and the Search for Home”
Yash Kathrotia
A Farm Amidst Rajkot from “Sisyphus and the Search for Home”
Yash Kathrotia
Soay from “The Lost Songs of St. Kilda”
Traditional
Arr. Rebecca Dale
POSTLUDE
This Bitter Earth
Max Richter
Breathturn – Artist Statement
Floorcloth – Ink on Canvas – 35 x 37’, 120 sq meters – Silkscreened, hand-drawn positives – 2024
Butterflies – Silkscreen – Ink on paper – 25 x 35 colours per side, hand-drawn positives – Lifesize – 20 different species
An installation of approximately 25,000 silkscreened paper butterflies on a 130 square metre floor cloth depicting a prairie meadow created using silkscreen techniques.
Transformation is part of deep time, when life hangs like a question mark, fragile and always changing. Sometimes a single moment, a single breath, in a single day can determine a life but it can also take years and decades to form a life. The process of transformation allows us to live in the continuous present as we know we will not be the same person tomorrow that we were today. In the symphony of breath, confidence takes center stage, each inhalation a declaration of self-assurance, and each exhalation a release of doubt. The arithmetic of life can be looked at as continuous subtraction or as continuous transformation. In the cadence of each breath, there is an unwavering pulse that harmonizes with the ever-shifting melody of life. When parts of our life run thin like the transparent chrysalis of a butterfly there is room for transformation, change, growth, movement – a breathturn.
Sisyphus and the Search for Home
After cheating death and committing other mischievous acts, Sisyphus was condemned with the task of pushing a boulder up a mountain for eternity, to see it roll down as it neared the top. Albert Camus, a hoity-toity French philosopher, writes in his book The Myth of Sisyphus “The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.” (What a downer my guy…)
Sisyphus and the Search for Home is a collection of pieces about people and/or places I once thought could be my forever home. This open-ended series deals with the overused and clichéd, yet necessary, subject matter of belongingness. And the fact that I have a handful of pieces in this series already should give you an idea of what a philosophical and physical nomadic life I have had. I often think of adding pieces to this series when I become conscious of the boulder I am pushing up the mountain. As Albert suggests, to answer the absurd by revolting against death and living out life, I revolt against the complex depths of nihilism with simplicity, accessibility, the beautifully mundane, and the impossible task of making my parents proud.
“The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” – My friend Albie.
Text From Sisyphus and the Search for Home
Text by Sarah Ens & Sheri Benning
Follow each sharp line’s slant
to scraps of colour flying,
flung free from bandaged hands.
Slice the sky open wide,
spill spectacle, shout the world
awake and starry-eyed.
Can you see me?
Believing in this flight
Watch how I’m reaching
My silhouette against the sky
And at night from the roof,
welcome sunset’s slow, soft wane,
dusk spooling gold and blue.
Fill sky with lantern light,
illuminate each high hope,
and dream in soaring kites.