The Musaic Vocal Ensemble’s spring performance will open with the titular The Time Has Come, featuring a selection of excerpts from Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech set to music written by Erik Esenvalds.
“When I began to program the music for this spring’s Musaic Vocal Ensemble concerts, I was feeling overwhelmed by what I was hearing on the daily news — hunger, injustice, political chaos, factions at war, and on and on,” said music director Frances Chiasson. “I was feeling a sense of helplessness. The music that started to speak to me was music that gave me a sense of hope or a sense of direction.”
Esenvalds, a Latvian composer, wrote the music specifically to go along with the words of Mandela. He highlights the calls for peace and healing in Mandela’s speech, and set his music to elevate them. Esenvalds’ piece is only the first of the performance.
“[The Time Has Come] is the starting point for the program, but then it goes on to look for other ways that we might find solace or inspiration,” said Chaisson. “Looking for spiritual answers, connecting with each other, hearing each other, looking forward, and of course, loving each other.”
Additional pieces during the performance include a jazz rhythm section featuring a trio of local artists: pianist Dennis Nordlund, bass player Stefan Bienz and drummer Mike Treadway. There will then be additional choral pieces, including a number by Canadian composers. The performance will end with the piece Hymn of Freedom, by the Canadian composer Oscar Peterson.
The Time Has Come opens its first show in Oliver, tonight April 20 at 7:30 p.m. Its second show will be on April 21, in St. Saviour’s Anglican Church in Penticton, at 7:30 p.m. That will be followed by an April 27 show in Kelowna and then at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Summerland at 2:30 p.m. on April 28.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for students.
