Episode 21: Shelter

Welcome to PRESS PLAY, our recurring web series featuring exclusive performances of extraordinary solos and duos recorded in high quality at the Canadian Music Centre in Toronto. Each jam-packed episode includes intimate and informative conversation on the how and why behind the music with the artists themselves.

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Episode 21: Shelter

Feb 10, 7pm

Shelter (2021)

Dorothy Chang (CA), composer

Sanya Eng, harp

Programme Notes:

Shelter was commissioned in 2020 by the Turning Point Ensemble for harpist Janelle Nadeau for a project inviting composers and performers to collaboratively reflect on their pandemic experiences. In an initial conversation with Janelle, she brought up the silver linings of the previous pandemic year: specifically, the slowed pace of life and the strengthened bonds of parents with their children through the additional time spent together at home. I asked Janelle if there were any songs that she sang to her children, and one that she mentioned was Eva Cassidy’s cover of “Songbird”. Shelter references this song, featuring small bursts of activity that slow to stillness. In these moments of pause, fragments of the melody of “Songbird” are quoted, which in turn set off subsequent flurries of movement. The contrast between agitation and calm mirrors the emotional turbulence of the past year juxtaposed with the tranquil, protective spaces created to shelter loved ones both young and old. – Dorothy Chang