Soundstreams Announces Program For WITH YOU AND WITHOUT YOU Featuring Danika Lorèn

Lawrence Cherney, Founding Artistic Director of Soundstreams has announced the program for with you and without you, an original, theatrical concert starring soprano Danika Lorèn and an impressive instrumental ensemble, guest curated by Brad Cherwin, winner of the 2024/25 Soundstreams New Voices Curator Mentorship Program.

All songs are inherently derived from the love song. This is the foundation of a thrilling one-night-only program from Soundstreams, featuring a singer and a virtuoso instrumental ensemble conducted by Gregory Oh. A tour-de-force for the singer - Danika Lorèn - it takes full advantage of their extraordinary vocal range, as well as their mastery of influences from other genres including pop, and even bluegrass.

This concert journeys through powerful juxtapositions: purely instrumental pieces by Oliver Knussen and Matthew Ricketts; works for voice and ensemble by Tansy Davies and Shawn Jaeger; selections from "Tell Everyone" for piano and soprano by Lorèn; and the intimacy of the love song in a captivating work by Ana Sokolović. These seemingly opposing concepts are the musical personification of two lovers, challenging audience perceptions of contemporary repertoire by featuring works that are deeply romantic and powerfully expressive. A study of rich Romantic-era consonance combined with striking contemporary dissonance, the concert features new or rarely performed pieces: a world premiere for solo piano from Ricketts, inspired by Fanny Mendelssohn's "Song Without Words"; the North American premiere of Davies' "The rule is love"; and the Canadian premiere of Jaeger's "Letters Made with Gold."

Says guest curator Brad Cherwin: "Presence and absence - everything exists somewhere between those two poles. In this collection of pieces, extreme contrasts (the vocal versus the instrumental, modernism versus vernacular music, the group versus the individual) are used to explore this idea from a number of perspectives. If these ideas sound a bit too high-minded, and perhaps they are, the concert is also simply a fantastic opportunity to hear truly thrilling, powerful, and virtuosic music - certainly some of the best of the last 50 years - performed by some of Canada's best. Our soloist, Danika Lorèn, will be absolutely electric."

Adds Lawrence Cherney: "Compelling thematic programming has been a Soundstreams trademark from our beginning in 1982. Our New Voices Curator Mentorship Program is now in its sixth season, and Brad's curation is a shining example of the program at its best: a universal theme that showcases composers both familiar and unfamiliar in a context that adds value and new meaning to each through exhilarating contrasts of period, genre and instrumentation."

with you and without you features Danika Lorèn (soprano) and an instrumental ensemble under Gregory Oh (conductor): Tristan Durie (flute), Colin Maier (cor anglais), Anthony Thompson (clarinet), Brad Cherwin (bass clarinet/clarinet), Iris Krizmanic (horn), Lenny Ranallo (mandolin/banjo), Erika Raum (violin), Hezekiah Leung (viola), David Hetherington (cello), Joseph Philips (double bass), Kevin Ahfat (piano), and Aiyun Huang (percussion).

with you and without you takes place on one night only: Saturday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.

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