World Premiere: The Red Violin Film With Live Orchestra Concert
18th May 2016
The Red Violin, starring Don McKellar, Samuel Jackson, Greta Scacchi and Jason Flemyng, chronicles the travels of a 17th-century violin and the musicians who are inspired by it through five countries over the course of four centuries. The violin, described in the film as "the single most perfect acoustic machine," becomes a coveted treasure by all who touch its strings. The original French version of the film was released on September 10, 1998 at the Toronto International Film Festival and has since been released in English, Italian, German and Mandarin. In addition to receiving an Oscar, The Red Violin also received eight Genie Awards, nine Jutra Awards and a Golden Reel Award for Sound Editing.
Director François Girard, also known for Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) and Silk (2007), was nominated for the Golden Globe for a Best Foreign Language Film for The Red Violin. In addition to directing and writing for film, Girard regularly directs works for opera and theatre including the Metropolitan Opera’s 2013 production of Parsifal, and Cirque du Soleil’s 2011 stage production Zarkana. Reflecting on Girard’s direction of The Red Violin, critic Roger Ebert raved how "the film [was] heedlessly ambitious. In a time of timid projects and easy formulas, The Red Violin [had] the kind of sweep and vision that we identify with elegant features from decades ago, . . . spinning stories and tones out of the central thread."
Composer John Corigliano continues to add to one of the richest, most unusual, and most widely celebrated bodies of work any composer has created over the last forty years. Corigliano’s scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, the Grawemeyer Award, five Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and have been performed and recorded by many of the most prominent orchestras, soloists, and chamber musicians in the world. Corigliano’s music is performed widely on North American and international stages, including those in Europe, Caracas, Melbourne, Shanghai, Beijing and Krakow.
Canadian violinist Lara St. John will be playing the solo in The Red Violin. St. John founded her own label Ancalagon in 1999, which she currently manages, and has toured the world playing in and beyond the concert halls of Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Berlin, Prague, Toronto. Alicia Svigals, the world’s foremost living klezmer violinist exclaimed: "No other classical player can play with this kind of real gypsy style, and while gypsy players’ technique can dazzle, St. John’s virtuosity is on a whole other planet entirely. It’s as if she has managed what both Classical and Gypsy fiddlers aspire to but can never totally achieve in their reach to the other side."
Dina Gilbert has been the Assistant Conductor to the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since the Spring of 2013, aiding Music Director Kent Nagano in touring, rehearsing, and recording with the symphony. Gilbert, a spirited and multifaceted musician, was born in Beauce, Québec and received a doctorate from the Université de Montréal. She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the chamber orchestra Ensemble Arkea.
Tickets and more information on Le Festival de Lanaudière’s screening of The Red Violin are available here.
Following the premiere, The Red Violin Film with Live Orchestra Concert will be available for booking through the Music Sales Group. For more information please contact Alyssa.Foster@musicsales.com.