In Thursday’s (11/23) Regina Leader-Post (Canada), Ashley Martin previews “Forward Currents, Listen and Hear: Toward Prairie Reconciliation,” a new three-day festival in March 2018 in Regina, Canada that will “combine classical music with visual art, opera, dance and hip-hop, all with a theme of truth and reconciliation. A partnership between the Regina Symphony Orchestra and MacKenzie Art Gallery, Forward Currents will feature a variety of Indigenous artists, including [Saskatoon hip-hop artist Lindsay] Knight, Toronto musician Jeremy Dutcher and mezzo-soprano Marion Newman. Writer Drew Hayden Taylor will host. Gordon Gerrard, music director for the RSO, hopes to make this an annual festival, always with a socially relevant theme. Future ideas include mental health, new Canadians and LGBT issues. The inaugural festival continues the symphony’s ongoing work to broaden its reach in the community and remain relevant…. Truth and reconciliation is a relevant topic, [Gerrard] said…. ‘We’ve done some incredibly bad things to our First Nations people and we need to reconcile and understand that,’ said [Regina Mayor Michael] Fougere…. Gerrard agreed. Music is ‘a way to make people feel more at ease about their own perceptions,’ he said.”
Posted November 27, 2017
