Friday, March 15th at 7:30PM
240 Roncesvalles Avenue (Roncesvalles United Church)
PWYC - Tickets at the door
A short talkback with the librettist and composer and informal reception will follow
Please join us for a staged reading/concert of Act 1 of a new choral musical based on The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen followed by a short reception. Tickets are PWYC and available at the door. All proceeds will go directly to the performers.
Libretto by Kathleen Mills
Music and arrangements by Joanna Mills
Musical Direction by William Shookhoff
In the distant past, a hobgoblin creates a mirror which distorts beauty and good into ugliness and evil. The mirror shatters into millions of pieces and spreads all over the world, affecting humanity for eons to come. Centuries later, young Kai gets a shard of the demon glass in his eye and his heart, causing him to turn away from his best friend Gerda, and to follow the evil Snow Queen to her northern domain. Gerda sets out to find her friend, and is helped (and hindered) along the way by a series of interesting characters until she eventually finds Kai, rescues him from the Snow Queen’s palace, heals his frozen heart, and brings him home to their overjoyed families.
A musical adaptation of the original story by Hans Christian Andersen, our vision for The Snow Queen is a suite of songs that will capture the story's magic and adventure in a way that will be engaging to both children and adults, while providing a rich choral and instrumental experience. We believe the style of this musical to be unique, in that the lyrics and book are firmly seated in the musical theatre style, but the vocal arrangements and accompanying orchestrations are heavily influenced by the operatic and choral traditions. The work explores themes of community, friendship, hope, and youth/female empowerment, and their importance in counteracting loneliness, depression, hopelessness, and hate in the world, in an accessible way. The Snow Queen is composed, arranged, and scored for SATB (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) chorus, soloists, and a small chamber ensemble consisting of piano, violin, cello, flute, and auxiliary percussion