NAC Orchestra to present works inspired by Alice Munro and Rita Joe

TORONTO – Works inspired by Nobel Prize-winning writer Alice Munro and Mi’kmaq poet Rita Joe are among those in the National Arts Centre Orchestra’s new season.

The first commission in the 2015-16 season, unveiled Tuesday in Ottawa, is “Dear Life,” based on Munro’s 2012 collection of short stories.

Canadian writer Merilyn Simonds is adapting it, alongside Donna Feore as producer and director and Canadian pianist Zosha Di Castri as composer.

The NAC says it will be “a multimedia immersive experience” sung by soprano Erin Wall.

Wall will also sing Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, which will be presented alongside “Dear Life” as the season opener on Sept. 16.

This is the orchestra’s first season under the leadership of music director designate Alexander Shelley.

He says he was moved by Munro’s “Dear Life,” the Ontario-raised author’s most personal collection of stories, when he was given it as a present upon assuming his new role at the NAC.

“When I read ‘Dear Life,’ it just felt like this very interesting interaction with her memories of youth,” Shelley, 35, said in a recent telephone interview from London.

Meanwhile, Joe’s poem “I Lost My Talk” has inspired a new piece composed by John Estacio, with Feore as producer and director.

The multi-disciplinary work was commissioned for the orchestra by the family of former prime minister Joe Clark to commemorate his 75th birthday.

It will be presented in a program that will also include Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony.

“Rita Joe’s poem hits you in the gut — in the context of residential schools, in the context of the commission at the moment looking into that, which I had been reading about anyway,” said Shelley.

Shelley said he’s not sure yet if the Joe-inspired piece will be sung.

The overall theme of the new season, “Classical Reincarnated,” is inspired in part by Canadian literature, art, film and history.

Other highlights include a performance by superstar pianist Lang Lang at the NAC gala.

British-born Shelley was announced as NAC Orchestra music designate in October 2013. He will succeed Pinchas Zukerman in September.

“I want to create programs that are inspiring and interesting for our audience, where the connections between music and history, music and philosophy, music and politics, music and ethics, music and humanity can be really felt and explored explicitly,” he said.