Marina Thibeault

A digital production presented by the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts

Read about the virtual experience here

Named Radio-Canada‘s Classical Revelation for 2016-2017, violist and UBC School of Music professor Marina Thibeault’s “plangent tone and expressive phrasing” (The Strad) foreground a great richness in her playing that is on display across genres. Her 2020 JUNO Award-nominated album ELLES honours groundbreaking women and non-binary composers from Clara Schumann to the present day, and for this performance Thibeault presents a wide-ranging program of works for solo viola by Ana Sokolović, Dorothy Chang, and Melody McKiver.

Montrealer Ana Sokolović’s music communicates on a level “more profound and intangible than simply crafting using the composer’s toolkit of melody, harmony, and rhythm” (Musicworks). Thibeault performs three movements from Sokolovic’s Cinque Danze, inspired by Balkan rhythms, modes, and atmospheres, as well as her free, melismatic Prelude for Solo Viola.

The Seattle Times has called Vancouver-based, American-born composer Dorothy Chang’s works “evocative and kaleidoscopic.” Her Streams challenges the listener’s imagination as it investigates subjective ideas of place, time, and memory.

The program also features two genre-defying works from Anishinaabe composer Melody McKiver. Originally released on their bracing 2017 debut EP “Reckoning”, McKiver’s Ningodwaasi and Niizh integrate electronics with Western classical music, taking Thibeault’s viola to intensely expressive new places.

Thibeault is a passionate advocate for human rights and has used her music to reach out to at-risk women and raise awareness for organizations that support marginalized communities.

"With finesse and delicacy, this impressive collaboration between young performers weaves colours, highlights contrasts, and deepens our appreciation of these oft-forgotten composers."

Journal de Montreal

Filmed at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in February 2021. Run time 50 min.

PROGRAM

Prélude for solo viola from Prélude et toccate (2006)
Ana Sokolović

Selections from Cinque Danze (viola premiere)
Ana Sokolović

Ningodwaasi
Melody McKiver, arr. François Vallières

Niizh
Melody McKiver, arr. François Vallières

Streams (2005)
Dorothy Chang