A musical performance to lighten the load

A University of Saskatchewan (USask) professor hopes a newly released musical project will “make the world a little bit easier for those who live in it.”

In June, USask School for the Arts professor Dean McNeill joined a group of local musicians onstage at Convocation Hall to perform the world premiere of several classical chamber music works as part of the Strata Festival of New Music.

With funding from USask’s Office of the Vice-President Research, McNeill commissioned five composers he admires—David Braid, Allan Gilliland, Fred Stride, Tom Davoren, Paul Suchan (BEd’07, BMus[MusEd]’07) and Jeff Presslaff—to write new works for the festival. His only instruction was that the music “might help the listener regulate their nervous system.”

McNeill has now released a free recording of the concert in hopes that it will ease the minds of listeners—and particularly USask students—coping with global uncertainty, midterm exams and the stresses of everyday life.

“I hold a firm conviction in the transformative potential of both the creation and reception of music,” said McNeill. “In the context of the current challenges facing our USask students—and indeed, society at large—this conviction has taken on renewed significance. As Picasso once famously remarked, art has the capacity to ‘wash the dust of daily life off our souls.’ These are, undoubtedly, dusty times. It is our collective hope—shared by all the musicians involved in this project—that this music may help to regulate the listener’s heightened nervous system and, in doing so, support their ability to navigate the day with greater clarity, balance, and well-being.”

Watch the performance in the video below.

Related Articles