OSM Concert in Santa Monica, California

Seven OSM musicians in concert

at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California

under the direction of Kent Nagano

The Orchestre symphonique de Montrˆ©al is pleased to announce that the seven musicians in the Orchestra who took part in the tour to Nunavik in September 2008 will be presenting a new concert under the direction of Kent Nagano on Saturday, May 16. Marianne Dugal (violin), Jacques Lavallˆ©e (percussions), Brian Robinson (basse), Mathieu Harel (bassoon), Alain Desgagnˆ© (clarinet), James Box (trombone) and Paul Merkelo (trumpet) will be playing at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, California, in the company of throat singers Taqralik Partridge and Evie Mark. The Broad Stage, an intimate venue for 500 spectators inaugurated in 2005, is a one-of-a-kind setting for concerts, visual-art exhibits, dance recitals, stage works, chamber-music performances and poetry readings. The chairman of the board is Dustin Hoffman, a graduate of Santa Monica College.

The ensemble will revisit Stravinsky’Äôs The Soldier’Äôs Tale. The text, presented this time in English, will be narrated by James Cromwell, who has latterly been seen in the films W (playing George Bush, Sr.) and The Queen (in the role of Prince Philip). The Devil will be played by Hattie Winston and the Soldier by Jordan Belfi. Directing duties have been assigned to William Friedkin, director of the movies The Exorcist, Cruising, Deal of the Century and To Live and Die in L.A., among others, and winner of an Oscar in 1971 for The French Connection. Alexina Louie’Äôs Take the Dog Sled, a work commissioned for the musicians’Äô Far North tour, will also be performed. That piece, inspired by Inuit culture, is scored for seven musicians and two throat singers, Evie Mark and Taqralik Partridge. The program will be completed by the Bach Chaconne (performed by violinist Marianne Dugal) and Stockhausen’Äôs In Freundschaft (for solo bassoon, performed by Mathieu Harel).

The Orchestre symphonique de Montrˆ©al is presented by Hydro-Quˆ©bec