The New Brunswick Arts Board is an arm’s length arts funding agency with a legislated mandate to facilitate and promote the creation of art as well as administering funding programs for professional artists in the province.
Justine Koroscil – Director of administration
On Thursday November 27th, I attended the first Youth Advisory Committee meeting at the Fredericton Playhouse. Read all about the new Youth Advisory Committee here with Grid City Magazine’s covering of our first meeting.
I knew it was going to be an exciting night. The Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir presented “The Galileo Project: Music of the Spheres”. Conceived, scripted, and programmed by Alison MacKay, The Galileo Project is a special concert exploring science and culture in the 17th and 18th centuries by celebrating Galileo’s first public demonstration of the telescope. The concert featured poetic narration, choreography and music.
Before the concert began there was an artist talk by Alison MacKay. People were then invited to go outside at the steps of the Playhouse and explore the sky through telescope lenses. The Playhouse was buzzing with excitement from every corner! It was an enriching experience for audience members to explore the work that would be performed through the artist talk followed by exploring the universe themselves through a telescope outside the playhouse. During the performance I was able to relate some of the points I learned from Alison MacKay’s talk to what I was hearing in the music, and I was also able to draw on my experiences of looking through the telescope before the concert while watching the screen projections. I had already been informed about what I was going to see and hear, and that allowed me to enjoy the concert in various ways. I enjoyed the concert from every angle possible. On stage there were projections of stars and planets on a round screen that looked like a telescope lens. Oh and did I mention, the orchestra memorized all of the music they performed? They walked, stepped, and danced throughout the concert around a circular pattern on the floor of the stage, no sheet music required. I had never seen something quite like it before!
It isn’t every day that we get to experience Baroque Orchestra performances as audience members in Atlantic Canada. I left the Playhouse that evening grateful for the experience I had. It was evident to me the work that the whole staff from the Playhouse did in order to ensure audience members had an enriching experience. Thank you!
If you click on this youtube link it will bring you to one of Tafelmusik’s performance from the Galileo Project.
The Galileo Project is a Co-production with The Banff Centre.
