Wednesday, October 13, 2021 | 7:30PMOnline

Pacific Baroque Orchestra; Alexander Weimann, Music Director; Jonathon Adams, Baritone; Alan Corbishley, Stage Director

Pilgrimage to Bach is a concert of two solo Bach performances by EMV’s summer artist-in-residence, Jonathon Adams, a Two-Spirit, nêhiyaw michif (Cree-Métis) baritone and the Pacific Baroque Orchestra led from the organ and harpsichord by Alexander Weimann. BWV 82 “Ich habe genug” (It is enough) and BWV 56 – “Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen” (I will carry the burden) are particularly relevant to current times. The cantatas, which work as companion pieces, represent a solo journey, or transition, from this world to the next. In BWV 82, Alan Corbishley stages the cantata as a multimedia performance, heightening the tension between the self and the caged spirit within.

A co-production with Sound the Alarm: Music/Theatre (www.soundthealarm.ca)

This concert is generously supported by an anonymous donor and is presented with support from SoundON, Creative BC, and the Province of British Columbia.

Programme

J.S. Bach

Cantata BWV 82
“Ich habe genug”

Cantata BWV 56
“Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen”

Texts & Translations

To view/download texts & translations for this concert, click here.

Programme Notes

For many Indigenous people, including myself, there exists a complex relationship to Christianity. Although there is a clear and well documented pattern of indoctrination and cultural genocide against Indigenous communities by the church over many centuries, many Indigenous people remain practicing Christians or retain some nostalgia for Christian symbols and aspects of ritual. On the other hand, many in our communities have preserved or returned to the older, traditional spiritual practices of Turtle Island [North America]. Understandably, there exists a tension there. Although raised Lutheran, I am not Christian. I have begun the decolonizing work to separate my Western European musical practice from my deeply rooted spiritual identities – but I cannot fully unknow the deep impact Christian music, ritual and texts have had on me. In this way I function as an artistic medium at the intersection of historical performance and contemporary Indigenous discourse.

When I sing the sacred music of Bach, I am aware that I am occupying an historically white, Christian, heteronormative space as a queer, two-spirit, Cree-Metis singer. This form of take-over or occupation, the interruption of a lineage, is an interesting form of resistance and resurgence for me. By lending my Indigenous gaze and my critical lens to the performance of this music, I exhume and challenge histories of genocide, white supremacy, queer-phobia within this repertoire while finding ways to celebrate its beauty.

– Jonathon Adams, Baritone

Through Canada’s current awakening to its destructive and oppressive past, with colonial infrastructures and toxic power structures, this artistic program aims to challenge historically white, Christian, heteronormative narratives as they relate to personal and cultural identity. Baritone Jonathon Adams has stated above that this concert is intended to be a “takeover” of colonial and Christian baroque music. As a gay man myself, I, too, struggle with the complex relationship that Christianity and its social ideology has forced onto LGBTQ2S communities and the pressure to “other” ourselves into conformity. It is this damaging lifelong gaslighting that generates a deep struggle in healthy identity. Through this programme, we are ‘sounding the alarm’ on mental health and the need to reclaim healthy identities from within contained and limiting ideologies.

As a musical symbol for Christian and colonial infrastructures, we have chosen two of Bach’s most glorious sacred cantatas to theatrically explore. The first is his famous BWV 82 “Ich habe genug” (It is enough). This 25-minute monodrama for baritone is dramatically centred around the spirit’s yearning to escape the physical self through death. “Ah! if only the Lord would free me from my body’s enslavement; Ah! If indeed my liberation were soon, With joy I would say to you, O World, It is enough.”

Our live, multi-media approach explores this idea of physical being, layered against a digital realization of the internal self and its multitudes. Due to toxic internal narratives, added to our oppressive societal ‘scripts’, this tension of being, often amounts to an array of mental health issues and an inevitable yearning for release. In this presentation, we don’t aim to speak directly to a literal death, but rather the process of emancipation from a fragmented identity, into a healthier alignment of self.

– Alan Corbishley: Stage Director and Co-Producer, www.alancorbishley.com www.soundthealarm.ca

Pacific Baroque Orchestra

The ‘house band’ of Early Music Vancouver, The Pacific Baroque Orchestra (PBO) is recognized as one of Canada’s most exciting and innovative ensembles performing “early music for modern ears.” Formed in 1990, the orchestra quickly established itself as a force in Vancouver’s burgeoning music scene with the ongoing support of Early Music Vancouver. In 2009, PBO welcomed Alexander Weimann as Director. His imaginative programming, creativity and engaging musicianship have carved out a unique and vital place in the cultural landscape of Vancouver.

PBO regularly joins forces with internationally-celebrated Canadian guest artists, providing performance opportunities for Canadian musicians while exposing West Coast audiences to a spectacular variety of talent. The Orchestra has also toured throughout BC, the northern United States, and across Canada. Their 2019 East Coast Canadian tour with Canadian soprano Karina Gauvin culminated in a critically acclaimed album, Nuit Blanches, released by Atma Classique.

Alexander Weimann, Music Director

The internationally renowned keyboard artist Alexander Weimann has spent his life enveloped by the therapeutic power and beauty of making music. Alex grew up in Munich. At age three he became fascinated by the intense magic of the church organ. He started piano at six, formal organ lessons at 12 and harpsichord at university (along with theatre theory, medieval Latin and jazz piano.) He is in huge demand as a director, soloist and chamber player, traveling the world with leading North American and European ensembles. He is Artistic Director of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in Vancouver and teaches at the University of British Columbia where he directs the Baroque Orchestra Mentorship Programme.

Alex has appeared on more than 100 recordings, including the Juno-award-winning album “Prima Donna” with Karina Gauvin and Arion Baroque orchestra. His latest album series “The Art of Improvisation” (Volume 1: A Prayer for Peace; Volume 2: Ad libitum; and Volume 3: Caravan Variations, released on Redshift, 2024) unites his passions for both baroque music and improvisation on organ, harpsichord, and piano.

Jonathon Adams, Baritone

Jonathon Adams is a Cree-Métis two-spirit baritone from amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, AB). They have appeared as a soloist under Masaaki Suzuki, Philippe Herreweghe, Laurence Equilbey, and Alexander Weimann, among others, with the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, the Washington Bach Consort, Tafelmusik, Ricercar Consort, B’Rock, Vox Luminis, the Netherlands Bach Society, and il Gardellino. In 2021 they were named the first artist-in-residence at Early Music Vancouver. They have lectured and led workshops at the Universities of Toronto, Manitoba, British Columbia, Alberta (Augustana), Bard College, Festival Montréal Baroque, and the Juilliard School.

Jonathon was featured in Against the Grain Theatre’s 2020 film MESSIAH/COMPLEX, in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s MEA CULPA with Ballet Vlaanderen, and on Jessica McMann’s most recent album ‘Prairie Dusk’. They attended the Victoria Conservatory of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, studying with Nancy Argenta, Emma Kirkby and Rosemary Joshua.

Alan Corbishley, Stage Director

Alan is known as a baritone having sung throughout North America and Europe and is now more focused on producing and stage direction. As a producer, Alan is the founding Artistic Director of Sound the Alarm: Music/Theatre and is also the current Director of Concerts with City Opera Vancouver. As a stage director, his productions have been called “Poetry on Stage”, and have been named in Vancouver’s Annual Best Music Events by vanclassicalmusic.com, including “Best Opera Production in 2017” for Handel’s Acis & Galatea through Sound the Alarm, and “Vancouver’s Best Experiment of 2018” for City Opera Vancouver’s production of Nigredo Hotel in 2018. He has found a home with City Opera Vancouver having also directed their production of The Lost Operas of Mozart, and more recently, co-created and directed their production Berlin: The Last Cabaret, presented at the 2020 PuSh Festival to sold-out crowds. In 2016, his original cinematic concert Dragging Piaf was featured at Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival to rave reviews and in 2014, Alan wrote and directed his “silent play”, based on the life of Charlie Chaplin entitled Silent Chap, for Western Canada Theatre’s mainstage season. Upcoming, he is the Creative Director for Moonwake: Theatre for the Ears!, a series of audio-dramas for Sound the Alarm, as well as a co-director and co-producer for the Canadian opera premiere of Angel’s Bone. For more information, please visit www.alancorbishley.com

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBSwpSr94so