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SARAH SEELEY TIMES & TRANSCRIPT
Composer Howard Shore has an impressive resume.
The Toronto native is a three-time Oscar winner.He 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.
He has also won four Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.He is one of the creators of Saturday Night Live, and has written several concertos for piano and cello.
His latest composition,“Sea to Sea”, is a work commissioned for young New Brunswick musicians in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday.
Shore, now living in New York, said he accepts commissions when the subject matter piques his interest. When he received an e-mail from Ken MacLeod, the CEO of the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra, he was intrigued.
“I was immediately interested in working on a piece for Canada, my home,”he said in a phone interview.
MacLeod said the orchestra was looking for a renowned Canadian composer to do the song for them and Shore was their consensus pick. One of MacLeod’s friends put him in touch with the composer.
“We literally spent three weeks composing an e-mail message to Howard Shore,”MacLeod laughs.“We wanted to put our best foot forward to make a compelling case.”
Several weeks later, MacLeod was in Montreal when his cell phone rang. It was Shore agreeing to accept the commission.
“We all did a happy dance on that day when he said he would take the project on,”MacLeod said.
Shore wrote the musical arrangement for the composition while his wife, Elizabeth Cotnoir, wrote the lyrics. He called the piece a “birthday present” for his home country.
“It’s a love letter from Elizabeth and myself to Canada,”he says
While he composed the song, he was reminded of some of his best experiences in Canada,he said,including summer camping trips to Ontario’s Algonquin Park with his family.
Although Cotnoir is from New York, her family tree has roots in Quebec and the couple has travelled to the province several times to visit her ancestral home.
Fredericton-born soprano Measha Brueggergosman is the soloist for the premiere performance in Moncton on Sunday. Shore said he was already familiar with her work when composing the piece.
“I wrote very specifically for her voice,” he said.
Joining the NBYO and Brueggergosman are the 100-voice Jeune Chanteurs d’Acadie and the Harmony District Choirs, under the direction of Monette Gould.
The 10-minute song is in three parts and will be sung in both English and French.
Although Shore hasn’t been able to come to Canada to watch the NBYO rehearse, the orchestra sends him recordings of their rehearsals and he gives them feedback.
“It’s a wonderfully talented group of young musicians,”he said.
Avery Kennedy,a 16-year-old flute player with the orchestra, said she was ecstatic when she found out her group was going to be performing an original Howard Shore piece.
“I love the soundtrack for Lord of the Rings,” she said.”That’s where I heard about him.”
Kennedy said she has never played a piece commissioned specifically for her orchestra before.
“It’s crazy to think that I’m going to be the first person to play my part.”
After the Moncton debut, the NBYO will perform the song at the Kings-brae International Residence for the Arts in St. Andrews on Monday.
From there, they will travel to Ottawa to perform July 7 at the National Arts Centre. They will take the stage at the Maison Symphonique in Montreal on July 9.
Brueggergosman and the choir will join the orchestra for all four performances.
