DEAD Serious Feb. 29 in Vancouver......at a Crematorium

Looking for something decidedly un-romantic to do this Valentine's Day? If you're in Vancouver next Friday Friday, February 29th and want to go to an event that's anything but moribund, you might want to check out DEAD Serious at the Vancouver Crematorium, presented by soprano Heather Pawsey and pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa:

Emotional weight and societal strictures make death a fertile field for art, the medium that allows us to speak the unspeakable. A kind of "anti-Valentine", DEAD Serious tackles this most profound, yet taboo, subject – our own mortality – through a musical (and literal) procession: from fear and fascination, to acceptance and peace, with stops at murder, black humour, sex, and survivors along the way. Acclaimed musicians Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa (piano) and Heather Pawsey (soprano) dig into mirthful and macabre music in an array of works by Canadian and international composers (Leila Lustig, David McIntyre, Jeffrey Ryan, Rodney Sharman, Gabriel Fauré, John Harbison and Francis Poulenc, among others) – plus world premieres by Canadian composers Chris Sivak and Robert Ursan – in this funereal, yet funny, foray. A performance space installation by noted artist S.D. Holman will extend meditations on mortality with photo-based artwork and an interactive altar to which audience members are invited to add their own mementos of their dead.

DEAD Serious is presented as part of the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad as well as the Canadian Music Centre's New Music in New Places program. The concert will begin at the Vancouver Crematorium, move through Mountain View Cemetery, and finish at the Hamilton -Harron Funeral Home. Admission is free, although you'll need to reserve tickets in advance (604-325-7441), since most funeral facilities already tend to be crowded venues....

(Image Credit: Ascension by S.D. Holman)

Update: DEAD Serious, originally scheduled for February 15, has now been rescheduled for February 29th at the same venue. All tickets for the 15th will automatically be transferred to the list for the 29th.

EVEolution with Heather Pawsey and Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa

An upcoming program by soprano Heather Pawsey and pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa is definitely something to check out for those of you able to travel to Wells, British Columbia (just east of Quesnel). Here's the full press release:

Very first woman, and mother of us all,
Temptress of Adam? Cause of the Fall?
Eternally blessed, eternally cursed,
Curious at best – defiant at worst.

Cast of Characters:

God Adam
Eve The Serpent
Lilith All of us

Plot:

You think you know.

The garden, the tree, the apple, the Fall .... and we’ve been searching
for Eden ever since. Mad Eve, bad Eve, blame it all on sad Eve – but
what if there’s another story?

Soprano Heather Pawsey and pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa strip away
millennia of misogyny and misunderstanding to look at Eve through a
multi-prismed and oftentimes humorous lens in a penetrating musical
exploration of this most mysterious - and fascinating - woman, and the
story that began it all. From French composer Gabriel Fauré’s lush
Romanticism to American Jake Heggie’s jazzy, syncopated rhythms,
through Canadian chris wind’s evocative soundscape and Vancouver
Symphony Orchestra Composer-in-Residence Jeffrey Ryan’s evocative
imagery, to noted B.C. composer Leslie Uyeda’s visceral and compelling
new song cycle The First Woman (with poetry by Lorna Crozier),
EVEolution ..... Another Look at Eden exposes a multiplicity of Eves,
compelling us to ask: who, really, is she? Symbol? Saint? Or Slut?

EVEolution ..... Another Look at Eden runs July 20-22 at 8:00 p.m.
(2:00 p.m. Sunday matineé), at the Sunset Theatre – British Columbia’s
most recently restored heritage, professional theatre – in Wells (1
hour west of Quesnel on Highway 26) in the heart of the Cariboo gold
fields. Tickets are $12.00 for adults / $10.00 children and seniors,
and are available at the door (cash only) or in advance from the Wells
Hotel, Wells Visitor Centre and the Bear’s Paw Cafe.

Vancouver-based soprano Heather Pawsey, First Prize winner of the
Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition, has sung opera, oratorio,
chamber, symphonic and contemporary music across North America, Europe,
Russia, Singapore and Australia. Vancouver-based pianist Rachel Kiyo
Iwaasa holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of British
Columbia, and is particularly noted for her interpretations of
contemporary repertoire. Lighting is by Jessie Richardson Theatre
Award-winning designer Gerald King. The historic Sunset Theatre was
built in 1934 by Anderson/Stromberg in the gold rush town of Wells,
B.C. Completely renovated and restored by owners Karen and Dave
Jeffery, it offers a full program of professional theatre, live music
and films.

EVEolution .... Another Look at Eden runs July 20-22 at 8:00 p.m. (2:00
p.m. Sunday matineé) at the historic Sunset Theatre in Wells, B.C. (1
hour west of Quesnel on Highway 26). Tickets: $12..00 (adults) /
$10.00 (children and seniors), available at the door, the Wells Hotel,
Wells Visitor Centre and the Bear’s Paw Cafe.