the adventure Symphonic Harmonium – Stories Without Words will continue with a woman at its head: conductor Dina Gilbert will be at the pulpit and will lead the hundred or so musicians and singers who will be at the concert presented from May 24 to June 4 in Trois-Rivières. Luce Dufault and Kim Richardson, who put their voices on the disc released a little over two years ago, will also be on stage.
Posted at 3:39 p.m.
Nicolas Lemieux, producer and artistic director of the project, assures that he was “spoiled for choice” when it came time to choose the person who would bring to life on stage the music of Harmonium as reinvented by the arrangements of Simon Leclerc. He opted for a woman “who brought a breath of fresh air” and “something dynamic” to the project.
Dina Gilbert, originally from Beauce, is musical director of the Orchester symphonique de l’Estuaire and the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra. The conductor has conducted many orchestras here (including the Orchester symphonique de Montréal and the Orchester Métropolitain) and elsewhere in the world. She was Kent Nagano’s assistant conductor from 2013 to 2016.
“Receiving such a call is a privilege,” she said during a press conference live from the Cogeco Amphitheater. We pinch ourselves several times. Diving into the world of Harmonium, whose music she praises and their rewriting by Simon Leclerc, is also to dive back into her years of study. She said that she transplanted Dixieon the clarinet, when she was in CEGEP.
Dina Gilbert said she was delighted to collaborate with the Orchester symphonique de Trois-Rivières, with which she has already worked and which she considers very versatile. “They have a lot of drive to do more pop gigs, she says. I know that these musicians have an appetite, a curiosity for this kind of project. »
The conductor is embarking on this project, even if she is going through a difficult period on a personal level. She revealed on Facebook that she has cancer that will force her to slow down to receive necessary treatments. “I will maintain certain commitments while reducing my schedule in order to focus on the essentials and thus ensure a rapid remission, she wrote. Know that I am optimistic for the future. »
In addition to the orchestra, she will conduct a choir and two singers: Luce Dufault and Kim Richardson, who we have already heard on Symphonic Harmonium – Stories Without Words. The voice of the first figure on the piece Stories without wordsthat of the second on exile.
More than 100 musicians and performers will be on stage during the concert presented in the spring in Trois-Rivières, the staging of which has been entrusted to Marcella Grimaux. Nicolas Lemieux specified that the show would be divided into two acts. In act 1, we are in the city, in act 2, in the imaginary world of Harmonium”, he said, without giving more details.
Symphonic Harmonium – Stories Without Words, will be presented ten times from May 24 to June 4 at the Cogeco Amphitheater. Tickets are already on sale.