Kent Nagano
©Photo: Felix Broede

Kent Nagano and the OSM tour to Nunavik and Northern Quebec

7/9/2018

Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal return to the arctic region of Nunavik in Northern Quebec – homeland of the Inuit. Ten years after the orchestra’s first visit to the region for concerts of the new commission ​‘Take the Dog Sled’ for two throat singers and orchestra by Alexina Louie, the musicians of the OSM and their music director will trace a path from the arctic down through Quebec’s interior toward the Côte-Nord.

Beginning with performances in the Inuit villages of Kuujjuaq, Salluit and Kuujjuarapik, they will then travel southward for concerts in the Cree community of Oujé-Bougoumou and the Innu communities of Mashteuiatsh and Uashat mak Mani-Utenam.

Commissions created especially for the upcoming tour include; Chaakapesh: The Trickster’s Quest, a new chamber opera by author Tomson Highway and composer Matthew Ricketts, which will be performed in five languages (Cree, Inuktitut, Innu, French and English) and feature collaborations with local artists in each community the orchestra visits. 

The work received its world premiere in Montreal at the opening concerts of the OSM’s 85th season on 6th and 8th September 2018.

“This creation, touring and cultural exchange project constitutes a daring re-imagining of our practices as a modern orchestra. By reaching north, we are pushing the physical and artistic boundaries of our practice in order to share, exchange and create exceptional works reflecting the diversity of our country, as well as our current reality of living on shared and sometimes disputed territory. By engaging with diverse traditions, we are transforming the expectations that attend to symphony orchestras in the 21st century, while doing our best to address an urgent need for projects of mediation and reconciliation between indigenous and non- indigenous populations.”

Kent Nagano