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Voices of Canada

Usher Hall Show Dates: 20 Aug 2026-20 Aug 2026

Rediscover Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, alongside new vocal works paying tribute to Canada’s Indigenous peoples and work by Gabriela Ortiz.

In the second concert of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (OSM), Rafael Payare invites audiences to a conversation across time with a powerful programme of music culminating in Richard Strauss’s sumptuous tone poem Ein Heldenleben. With a stirring battle episode, ardent love music and playful quotations from the composer’s earlier works, it is a musical self-portrait both mischievous and deeply moving that takes full advantage of the possibilities of a large orchestra.

This monumental staple of the late Romantic period is paired with carefully selected contemporary pieces. Indigenous Canadian sopranos Emma Pennell and Elisabeth St-Gelais join the orchestra for two powerful new vocal works confronting history, memory and the lived experience of Indigenous communities in Canada today.

Alongside these, Gabriela Ortiz’s cello concerto Dzonot summons an evocation of the subterranean rivers, caves and stunning wildlife of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. Ortiz, also featured in the LA Phil’s programme, described it as a ‘form of protest’ responding to our neglect of these valuable ecosystems. It was written for cello soloist Alisa Weilerstein, who plays with ‘directness and insight… technical prowess and depth of feeling’ (The Guardian).

Together, they encourage audiences to approach Strauss anew, inviting questions on voice, identity, and our relationship to the natural world.

Supported by Léan Scully Endowed Fund with additional support from The Québec Government Office in London

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Performances