Our friends at Soundstreams Canada and War Child Canada have given us 2 pairs of tickets to giveaway to this Thursday's performance of Strange News and A Soldier's Tale - a 30 minute multi-media piece on the plight of child soldiers.
It looks like a pretty powerful event, and the composer will be in attendance.
Interested in going? Just be the first and second person to say so on the thread!
More details about the event below:
The culture of violence is not unique to "other places." What is the difference between a child soldier and an urban gang member? Both believe that it is cool to kill. - Rolf Wallin, composer, Strange News
Soundstreams presents the Canadian premiere of Strange News, a 30-minute multimedia work, which bears witness to the plight of child soldiers.
Composed by Norwegian Rolf Wallin - who will be in attendance - with text by Belgian actor/director/writer Josse de Pauw, the work is narrated by the young Ugandan actor Arthur Kisenyi. Strange News combines the spoken word with chamber orchestra and overhead projections to explore lives lived in cruelty and the possible future for these stolen, scarred children.
Soundstreams presents Strange News in support of and in partnership with War Child Canada, at 8.00pm with a pre-performance talk at 7:15pm.
This new work will be paired with Igor Stravinsky's masterpiece A Soldier's Tale, narrated by the legendary Martha Henry and directed by Peter Moss.
"Rolf Wallin is one of the greatest living composers," says Artistic Director of Soundstreams, an international centre for new directions in music. "We are proud to present his most recent and most moving work and honoured that, as compliment and context for Strange News, Martha Henry will narrate A Soldier's Tale directed by Peter Moss."
"Stravinsky's piece was written in 1918, just after ‘the war to end all wars'," comments director Peter Moss. "Now, almost a century later, war has not ended. In fact it is more vicious than ever. It is a negation of the very project of life.
"We hope that juxtaposing a masterpiece from the beginning of the last century, narrated by an internationally acclaimed actress with a challenging work from the beginning of this century, narrated by a young man will provide the audience with another perspective on war and violence."
Strange News has been presented in Oslo, Birmingham, Porto, Chicago, and Copenhagen always with Arthur Kisenyi, who is in his first year of university in Kampala, as the narrator. This marks his first professional engagement.
Tickets can also be purchased at the St. Lawrence Centre box office at 416-366-7723 or online at www.stlc.com