For immediate release
March 19, 2004
Opera based on Alistair MacLeod’s Island
previews at
Banff Centre
The printed word will be transformed into opera this Sunday at
The Banff Centre when composer Christopher Donison presents the opening scenes
of Island, a work he is writing and composing
during a music residency at the Centre. Island is based upon a short
story by Canadian writer Alistair MacLeod, who will do a reading from the story
as part of Sunday’s event. This will be MacLeod’s first opportunity to hear
Donison’s work on Island.
The presentation will also include an aria from Eyes on the Mountain,
Donison’s 2001 opera based upon stories by B.C. writer Jack Hodgins, and a
reading by Hodgins. Donison will conduct a full orchestra comprised of resident
Centre musicians and visiting artists, and singers from Edmonton, Calgary, and
Victoria. Douglas Gibson, president of McClelland & Stewart will act as master
of ceremonies.
Donison began work on Island in September at The Banff Centre. The opera
was commissioned by the Kingston Symphony and will premiere in Kingston in 2006.
The Sunday, March 21 presentation takes place at 4:30 p.m. in the Rolston
Recital Hall at The Banff Centre. Admission is free.
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Biography: Christopher Donison
Christopher Donison is a Canadian composer, conductor, pianist, lecturer, and
inventor. He served as Music Director of the Shaw Festival for ten years
(1988-1998) and has conducted over 1,000 performances, composed choral, chamber,
and orchestral works, and written more than a dozen scores for plays. His
concert works include Symphony Erotica, 7 Encounters for Soprano and Flute,
the award winning Symphonic Choral Prophecy, Theme and Conversations
for Orchestra, and The Little Match Girl for Orchestra, Narrator, and
Dancer, choreographed adapted and narrated by Veronica Tennant, two string
quartets, The Rashomon Quartet, and The Seagull Quartet for string
quartet and distant oboe, and Music-by-the-Sea, quintet for clarinet and
string quartet. He is also the inventor of the Donison-Steinbuhler Standard, a
smaller alternative piano keyboard.
Media Contact |
Debra Hornsby
Director of Communications, The Banff Centre
403.762.6333
|
The Banff Centre is an incubator for creativity that
inspires and empowers artists, the mountain community, and business and
community leaders from Alberta, Canada, and around the world. |
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