The Happenstancers Perform BABES IN TOYLAND Next Month

The Happenstancers have announced BABES IN TOYLAND, featuring electrifying works by Unsuk Chin, Anna Clyne, W.A. Mozart, and the world premiere of new music for voice and ensemble by Canadian Matthew Ricketts.

Featuring soprano Reilly Nelson, conductor Simon Rivard, and a roster of Canada's boldest artistic personalities, The Happenstancers present their latest programme, BABES IN TOYLAND, in Toronto on September 12th at 7:30 pm, at the 918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media and Education (918 Bathurst Street).

Join The Happenstancers as they step into the Other-World, a heady realm of perfumed air where fantastical sounds and theatrical gestures drift into the listener's ears. BABES IN TOYLAND features a psychedelic array of boldly-coloured works — many of which have never been heard in Canada — including the Canadian premiere of Ryan Chase's absurdist Carroll Madrigals which augments the traditional ensemble of voice, strings, and winds with harmonicas, steel pan, and theatrical percussion for soloist Reilly Nelson. Other Canadian premieres include Anna Clyne's Just As They Are, for ensemble and tape; and Phyllis Chen's Chimers, which reimagines the magical bells of W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte as a deconstructed toy piano and set of tuning forks — enigmatic objects to be manipulated by 5 exploratory performers.

Canadian Matthew Rickett's Two Songs, commissioned by The Happenstancers for this performance, sets texts by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Atypically, Ricketts scores each song for a different grouping of instruments — one song high, flighty, and sparkling, the other distantly subterranean.

Says Ricketts, “These two Edna St. Vincent Millay songs follow a longer Millay setting for baritone and piano (Songs for Judith, 2023) which I had quite recently finished when Brad Cherwin approached me to write some new music for The Happenstancers. Having spent time at Edna's former home at Steepletop—now an artist residency outside of Austerlitz, NY—in Fall 2022, I was already deeply connected with the poet and poetry alike, and was thus very happy to return to her familiar words once again for these new songs. 

Based on the unusual instrumentation of Brad's suggestion, the two songs represent a pointed contrast between high and low: the treble-heavy world of piccolo, oboe, celesta and harp for Song of the Prophet-Liar and the bass-heavy world of cor anglais, bass clarinet, cello, low percussion and harp for Song of the Sleep-Thief. These instrumentations respond to the overall qualia of the respective poems: mercurial, quirky and mischievous for The Prophet-Liar and dark, tolling and toiling for The Sleep-Thief. I am grateful for Brad's encouragement to explore these provocative and evocative scorings — something that truly stoked my imagination in seeking an appropriate musical mise-en-scène to house Edna's magical text.”

Artists and personnel for BABES IN TOYLAND include — Reilly Nelson, soprano; Simon Rivard, conductor; Sienna Cho, violin; Hee-Soo Yoon, violin and viola;  Peter Eom, cello; Travis Harrison, bass; Lenny Ranallo, mandolin; Zane Mallett, harp; Kevin Ahfat, keyboards; Tristan Durie, flutes; Aleh Remezau, oboes; Brad Cherwin, clarinets; Louis Pino, percussion;  Billy Wong, lighting design; Fish Yu, sound and electronics; and Hoi Tong Keung, production manager.

Repertoire to include:

Harrison Birtwistle - Some Petals From My Twickenham Herbarium (1969)

Unsuk Chin - Akrostichon-Wortspiel (1991/1993)

W.A. Mozart - Adagio and Allegro, k617 (1791)

Phyllis Chen - Chimers (2011)

John Cage - Imaginary Landscape no. 5 (1952)

Anna Clyne - Just As They Are (2015)

Ryan Chase - Carroll Madrigals (2013)

Matthew Ricketts - Two Songs (2024, WORLD PREMIERE)

Song of the Prophet-Liar

Song of the Sleep-Thief

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