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Fredericton-born soprano Measha Brueggergosman says one of her favourite things about her career is that she gets to premiere new songs written by composers that will be enjoyed for years to come.
This summer, as part of Canada’s 150th anniversary celebration, Brueggergosman will perform an original song written by three-time Oscar-winner Howard Shore and his wife lyricist Elizabeth Cotnoir, in collaboration with the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra. The piece will debut on July 2 in Moncton.
The collaboration was unveiled on Saturday night during a gala performance of the NBYO at the Moncton Wesleyan Celebration Centre.
“All of the major events in history have included some kind of musical commission,” Brueggergosman said in a phone interview from her hotel room in Australia. “I think that the NBYO is keeping with that tradition of wanting to mark, in a very significant way, the fact that we are entering into [a] year when we should be celebrating ourselves.”
Brueggergosman has performed around the world with some of the most famed orchestras and composers. And she is no stranger to big audiences. In 2010, 3.2 billion people tuned in to hear her sing the Olympic Hymn during the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Still, Brueggergosman said, performing a piece written by Shore will be an “absolute highlight.”
“We started discussing doing something for Canada 150 in the spring,” Brueggergosman said of conversations with Ken MacLeod, president and CEO of NBYO.“I knew that we were looking for an outstanding and internationally acclaimed composer.
“I knew Howard had written pieces for other colleagues of mine, of course in addition to his film scoring and general awesomeness.”
Shore is a native of Toronto who has won Academy Awards for Best Original Score for Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and a Best Original Song Oscar for “Into the West”, the end-credit song from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which was co-written and sung by Annie Lennox.
He has also won four Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
“[Shore] is someone who provides music to pictures, but I also know firsthand that directors are inspired by what he composes,” Brueggergosman said. “You have to be a very evocative composer to have that collaboration go both ways.”
While she is excited to work on a Shore original, Brueggergosman said she is even more excited for the NBYO musicians, who have the most to gain from the collaboration.
“I think it is a very important project for the young classical musicians to know that they are not only performing the music of dead composers, but that a world exists in which you can work with a living composer,” she said.
“I always joke that I have real questions for Beethoven and the way he wrote for the voice. If we meet in Glory, I’ll have questions for him, but I don’t have to wait until Glory to be a part of a compositional process.
“It is important to learn at a young age so you will seek out this sort of relationship later.”
Lyrics to Shore’s original piece will be in both English and French, Mac-Leod said.
Looking toward the Canada 150 celebrations that will occur across the country, Brueggergosman said it’s important to remember that a celebration is a form of remembrance.
“You want to represent history accurately and you want to acknowledge the mistakes we have made along the way,” she said.
She said she is thrilled about the NBYO collaboration because it allows her to participate in an act of reflection and offers a platform to encourage Canadians to listen to each other.
“We see what has happened south of our border,”she said, referencing racial divisions in the United States and the controversy surrounding the election of President-Elect Donald Trump.“No one wants to be ignored.
“Canada is a round table, it’s not a table with a head.”
-- With files from Alan Cochrane
