New concert series on campus begins this month
This month sees the launch of the Desautels Concert Series, six concerts showcasing a wide range of music and featuring faculty and guests of the Desautels Faculty of Music, performed on the Fort Garry campus in the stunning acoustics of the Desautels Concert Hall. “What better way to celebrate the wide-ranging musical talents of our faculty than by presenting them in our very own concert hall? I am thrilled to welcome members of the University community and the wider public to this new series of concerts,” says Stephen Runge, dean of the Desautels Faculty of Music. “Now that the hall is fast becoming one of the most important cultural venues in Winnipeg, it only made sense that the faculty should be presenting its own series of concerts.”
Designed by Winnipeg’s Cibinel Architecture and Toronto’s Teeple Architects, the Desautels Concert Hall was opened in September 2024. Acclaimed for its extraordinary acoustics, the hall seats just over 400 people. Flexible configurations allow the hall to host a wide variety of events, from chamber music and solo concerts, to dance and theatre productions. A pit below the stage allows for an orchestra of up to 48 musicians to perform in operatic and musical theatre productions.
Held on Sundays throughout the academic year, the Desautels Concert Series is designed to showcase the increasingly wide range of music taught, created, and performed in the Faculty of Music. The series launches on Sunday, September 28 at 2:00pm with “Stumble On,” a modern re-imagining of Schubert’s iconic song cycle “Winterreise,” set to poetry by Wilhelm Müller. Baritone Mel Braun and pianist Laura Loewen will be joined by award-winning poet Hannah Green and rock band VVonder in a presentation where contemporary understandings of isolation, loss, obsession, and addiction shed today’s light on the plight of Müller’s homeless 19th century wanderer.
The series continues with a performance by a combo of Jazz faculty on October 19, Anishinaabe violist and composer Melody McKiver launches their new album on January 4, Jacquie Dawson conducts the Winnipeg Chamber Winds Collective on January 18, Dean Emeritus Edmund Dawe returns for a recital of piano masterworks on February 8, and the series comes to a celebratory conclusion on March 29 as Richard Gillis and Andrew Balfour direct the Winnipeg Baroque Brass Choir.
Full details are available here, and tickets are available for single concerts or in subscription packages of three or six concerts.
- Sunday, September 28, 2:00pm, Desautels Concert Hall: The Desautels Concert Series presents “Stumble On,” with baritone Mel Braun, pianist Laura Loewen, poet Hannah Green, and VVonder