Human Shadow Etched in Stone

On August 6, 2020, The Polygon Gallery and Little Chamber Music presented Human Shadow Etched In Stone to mark the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. The performance, with 42 distanced and masked string players, began at 8:15am with an audience of 2: Hiroshima survivor Sachi Komura Rummel and her husband Charles. Excerpts from this one-time performance are available to watch online.

Learn more about Human Shadow Etched in Stone on the Polygon Podcast

Krzysztof Penderecki: Threnody For The Victims Of Hiroshima (1960)
Born on November 23, 1933, in Debica, Poland, Krzysztof Penderecki received violin and piano lessons as a child and studied art and literary history and philosophy at the local university while also attending the Kraków Conservatory. In 1959, three of his compositions, each submitted under pseudonyms, won first prizes in a competition sponsored by the Polish Composer’s Union. One of the best known, most listened to, and most popular composers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Penderecki underwent a marked evolution in compositional style. After achieving fame with such astringent, often anguished, scores as his Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1960) and Passion According to St. Luke (1965), both of which stretched traditional harmonic language and orchestral techniques, beginning in the mid-1970s, Penderecki followed a personal imperative in moving toward more conventional tonal music. He was also known for his film scores for Polish films, and for his music that was adapted for the soundtracks of films such as The Exorcist (1973), The Shining (1980), and Wild at Heart (1990).

Rita Ueda: Let Us Not Be The Reason Someone Out There Is Praying For Peace (2020)
Rita Ueda is a composer, sound designer, and music teacher in Vancouver, Canada. Her recent works include “Forty Years Of Snowfall Will Not Heal An Ancient Forest” for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Escape from the Evil Alien Surfblasters for 8 hand piano ensemble, and Still Shaking from the Latte, a piano solo for Misuzu Kitazumi-Burns, a member of the LA Piano Unit. Rita was born in Hakodate, Japan, to a family of musicians, poets, dancers and engineers. She moved to Vancouver, Canada with her family in 1971. Rita studied composition and sound design at Simon Fraser University and the California Institute of the Arts. Her teachers include Rudolf Komoros, Rodney Sharman, Wadada Leo Smith, Morton Subotnick and Stephen L. Mosko.

Jordan Nobles: Black Rain (2020)
JUNO award-winning composer Jordan Nobles is known for creating music filled with an “unearthly beauty” (Mondomagazine) that makes listeners want to “close (their) eyes and transcend into a cloud of music” (Discorder Magazine). Jordan has won numerous awards for his work including a JUNO Award for ‘Classical Composition of the Year’, a Western Canadian Music Award, the International Composition Competition of the Unbound Flute Festival (Brisbane, Australia July 2016); the Sacra/Profana (San Diego 2013) , Vancouver Bach Choir (Vancouver 2008), and Polyphonos (Seattle 2011) International Composition Competitions. He placed 2nd in the International Soli fan tutti Kompositionswettbewerbs in Darmstadt, Germany and was a finalist in the C4 Choir Composition Competition in New York., as well as has been chosen to be performed in Wrocław, Poland at the International Society for Contemporary Music’s 2014 World Music Days.

Conductor
Janna Sailor

Violin I
Donovan Seidle (Concertmaster) / Andrea Siradze (Assistant Concertmaster) / Alana Lopez / Laura Chenail Houh / Brooklyn Wood (Kessler Academy) / Jiten Beairsto / Cam Wilson / Llowyn Ball / Calvin Dyck / Alicia Venables

Violin II
Rebecca Whitling (Principal) / Ellen Farrugia / Tina Park / Rebecca Ruthven / Jeremy Ferland / Parmela Attariwala / Christine Lin / Jessica Tovey (Kessler Academy) / Marc Destrubé / Molly MacKinnon

Viola
Tawnya Popoff (Principal) / Emilie Grimes / Isabelle Roland / Caroline Olsen (Kessler Academy) / Peter Ing / Sarah Kwok / Newsha Khalaj / Steven Lin

Cello
Min Jee Yoon (Principal) / Janet Steinberg / Shin Jung Nam / Peggy Lee / Isidora Nojkovic (Kessler Academy) / Rebecca Wenham / Alison Patterson / Alex Kramer

Double Bass
Meaghan Williams (Principal) / Mark Beaty (Orchestra Contractor / www.bringthemusic.ca) / Michael Vaughn / Laurence Mollerup / Christine Yang (Kessler Academy) / Leanna Wong

For Little Chamber Music
Mark Haney, Managing Artistic Director

For The Polygon Gallery
Krista Constantineau / Jessica Walker / Justin Ramsey / Nomi Stricker / Paul Kuranko / Reid Shier

For Opus 59 Films
Producer / Director – John Bolton
Co-Producer – Milena Salazar
Director Of Photography – Vince Arvidson, CSC
Editor – Mike Southworth
Recording & Mixing Engineer – Will Howie
Camera Operators – James Gill / Milena Salazar / Vince Arvidson
Camera Assistant – Thomas Yardley
Gaffer / Key Grip – Christopher Johnson
Electrics / Grips – Mike Hjorth / Terrance Azzuolo
Location Sound – Mairi Turner

Production Sponsors
Candela Collective
Collide Entertainment
Gearforce
RAW Camera
William F. White

Special Thanks
Dakota Poncilius / Derek Carson / Devon Cooke / Grant Rowledge / Ida Nilsen / Kim C. Roberts / Martin Hendriks / Paul Engstrom / Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa / Sachi Komua Rummel / Senaqwila Wyss

We gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance of
The BC Arts Council & The Province of BC
The Canada Council For The Arts
The Hamber Foundation