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Nov. 4, 2011
Universal and diverse music
Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra celebrates 10 years.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Through hard work, dedication to quality and a focus on community building – not to mention a little luck – the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra is celebrating its 10th year. The main event to mark the milestone will be a concert on Nov. 12, featuring VICO with the Laudate Singers (some 50 musicians in total) performing a new arrangement of Elliot Weisgarber’s Yamato no Haru by Mark Armanini, Dreams of the Wanderer by Moshe Denburg and the world premières of pieces by Jin Zhang, Edward Henderson and Rita Ueda.
Denburg, who many in the Jewish community know best as being the founder of, and band leader and composer for, Tzimmes, is also the founder of VICO, of which he currently serves as co-artistic director.
Back in November 2000, the Sacred Music Festival, which no longer exists, included a piece for intercultural orchestra and choir, Rapprochements (Reconciliations), composed by Denburg.
“This was the culmination of a longstanding dream of mine,” Denburg told the Independent of that concert. “The orchestra at that event had no specific name, but, during the year that followed, in 2001, it was incorporated as the nonprofit organization that bears the name Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra, or VICO for short.”
He has been involved ever since.
“I have always been attracted by the endless possibilities inherent in an orchestra, which is unlimited in its musical and instrumental resources,” said Denburg about what has kept him interested in VICO for more than a decade. “It satisfies both a need to diversify artistically and to feel a sense of belonging to, and ownership of, the beauty emanating from all human cultures.
“The VICO is not primarily a social statement – though we certainly have roster members from diverse ethnicities involved – but an artistic and esthetic one. You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy or even play klezmer; likewise, with the enjoyment and playing of Chinese, or Indian, or Japanese, or Middle Eastern instruments. This is what has occurred worldwide over the past 25 years, and it is evident more and more – everyone has access to expert tuition in a great many musical traditions. That’s the universality of it – one must, of course, dedicate oneself to learning an instrument, one must respect the incredible sweat and tears expended in the development and maintenance of any tradition. But artists – even before Marshal McLuhan – have lived in a global village, and the sharing of culture has always been one of the most natural things they have done. There is tremendous beauty and nobility in this.”
For his part, Denburg has written a large number of works for a variety of instruments from non-Western cultures and his compositions have been performed, recorded and broadcast all over the world. He has traveled to and studied music in several places, including the United States, India, Japan and Israel. He brings this vast experience to VICO, which is the only professional orchestra in Canada devoted specifically to performing new intercultural music on a large scale.
As to why other such orchestras have not appeared on the cultural scene elsewhere in the country, Denburg, who is originally from Montreal, posited, “Though Canada is a multicultural society, the spirit of ‘inter’culturalism has been more expressed in Vancouver, partly because our population is made up of Pacific Rim cultures and, being close to Asia, we have a lot of Asian cultural resources to draw upon – especially China and India. But even more so, there is a sense that, being a younger city, we do not carry the ‘baggage’ of the more established cities of Canada. There is an easier spirit of intercultural cooperation here, as one is perhaps not as defined by one’s ethnicity as in other Canadian cities. It is hard to answer this question with precision, but the idea of an intercultural orchestra is one whose time has come, and I would not be surprised to see such orchestras established in many North American cities in the future.”
Nonetheless, VICO remains unique, having managed to survive even the most recent economic downturn.
“Well, to be very honest, we have been a bit lucky,” said Denburg about the orchestra’s longevity. “For the first few years, we had a home at the Sacred Music Festival, then, from around 2003, we began to be funded a bit more by several levels of government and foundations. But the greatest boon to our success has been that the entire concept has captured the imaginations of artists and audiences; without this interest – the paucity of donations notwithstanding – such a large-scale endeavor would quickly run out of gas.
“Going forward we have many challenges – raising funds is always a struggle, as any arts administrator can tell you, and raising ample funds for an orchestra of around 25 on stage, playing new works, is not a challenge for the faint-hearted.... But the activities which define us go far beyond the concert productions and involve education in the schools, mentoring of young musicians, presenting free lecture-demonstrations to the public, release of recordings, presenting the VICO in small ensemble configurations, and artistic development of the orchestra and its intercultural practices.
“I have always believed that the survival of a large-scale organization depends upon the extent to which the community in which it is situated sees it as its own. This is what we strive for and what we must do – develop a dedicated audience which reflects the diversity of our musical practice.”
That practice, Denburg explained of VICO’s vision and mandate, “is to encourage composers and musicians of all cultural stripes to write original music for intercultural orchestra. It is natural – and integral – for a composer to take as his/her point of departure the music of his ‘home’ culture. For me, it is Jewish, of course, but it needn’t end there, and the whole intercultural process is meant to expand the artistic palette of the composer, as well as his artistic vision.
“So, we are always on the lookout for composers who are interested in working in this way and who, in most cases, have already taken a step or two in this direction on their own. We are very fortunate to have had a tremendous interest in this work by composers of high stature. For example, Steven Chatman is preparing a work for the VICO with choir, which will have its world première at the Rothstein on March 31, 2012.”
Appropriately, one of Denburg’s works, Dreams of the Wanderer, will be featured at VICO’s 10th anniversary gala concert. While autobiographical to a degree, said Denburg, the composition encompasses different viewpoints on the issue of wandering, using poetry in Hebrew, Chinese, English and Farsi. The notes Denburg wrote for the program read, “The person of the wanderer reminds us of separation and disconnection, and is reflected in the lives of individuals, as well as in the historical experiences of entire peoples. These two aspects of wandering are actually inseparable, though the one refers more to personal feelings and the other relates to feelings shared by a collectivity. In this work, the wanderer is represented by the tenor soloist, though his dreams and his message are conveyed by the entire ensemble.
“The texts chosen for the work deal with different aspects, or views, of the wanderer’s experience. ‘Ahavat Hadasa’ (‘The Love of Hadasa’), speaks of the longing for a homeland, and was penned, in the 17th century, by the Jewish-Yemenite poet Shalem Shabazi....
“‘You Zi Yin’ (‘Song of the Wanderer’) by the eighth-century Chinese poet Meng Jiao, is a reflection on the melancholy beginning of the journey, the origins of the wandering. Here, the wanderer’s mother is stitching his coat, in preparation for his leaving, and her thoughts are the most tender imaginable as she tries to make the coat sturdy – for she knows not how long her son will stray....
“‘The Dying Hours,’ a poem written by the composer, reflects upon the utterly human longing to overcome isolation and disconnection in the sphere of love. Here, eros is far from stimulation alone – it is the wish to go beyond all the changing worlds, the constantly varied experiences and perceptions of reality, and to rest in a lasting embrace.
“Finally, in ‘Nasime Shiraaz’ (‘Breeze of Home’) by the great Persian 14th-century poet Hafez, we obtain a glimpse of the most inward homecoming – the mystic’s yearning to unite with the divine beloved. Hafez was a wanderer in his lifetime, away from his geographical home of Shiraz, but, more importantly, he felt the sadness of the human condition, in its separation from the source of being and love: the divine friend. Inasmuch as the divine resides within each heart, the beloved may be found anywhere and in anyone....”
Orchestral Evolution: Gala 10th Anniversary Concert, with special guests Laudate Singers, takes place on Saturday, Nov. 12, 8 p.m., at the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre. For tickets ($18/$28) and information, visit vi-co.org or call 778-881-5499; or visit the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver or call 604-257-5111.
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