'An element of hope': Concert series raises awareness for mental health
The Mysterious Barricades concert series now spans more than a dozen cities across Canada, and culminates in a daylong stream of concerts.
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Some of Saskatoon’s top musical talent is slated to perform in a Sept. 5 concert that will become part of an all-day, continuously-running, cross-Canada show to raise awareness for mental health.
“There probably isn’t a person alive who doesn’t know someone — or of someone — that has died by suicide or suffers from mental illness,” Saskatoon concert organizer Garry Gable said. “So the effort is to bring awareness to the cause.”
The Mysterious Barricades concert series was started by Elizabeth Turnbull, an opera singer and instructor at the University of Alberta, after her husband committed suicide in September 2015. The concert series organized by Turnbull in her husband’s memory now spans more than a dozen cities across Canada, where shows will be performed live between Sept. 5 and Sept. 14.
On Sept. 14, the live concerts will appear online back-to-back in a 17-hour video stream to continue the conversation about mental health and celebrate Turnbull’s husband’s love of music. The name of the Mysterious Barricades concert series comes from the 18th century piece Les Barricades Mystérieuses by Francois Couperin — a favourite of Turnbull’s husband.
Gable, an accomplished opera singer and professor at the University of Saskatchewan, said struggles with mental health are something unfortunately well-known in the artistic world, and he’s witnessed it multiple times as a teacher.
“What we know as musicians, at least, is that artists in general are often very close to this affliction on a personal level,” he said.
The Saskatoon concert is set to take place at Quance Theatre at the University of Saskatchewan on Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m., and will be chock full of university professors and instructors as well as students and other local musicians. According to the Mysterious Barricades website, the concert will be streamed at 3:30 p.m. CST on Sept. 14, more than 10 hours into the 17-hour stream.
Gable said he spoke to all of the performers in the Saskatoon concert and was shocked to find nearly all of them had a personal experience with someone in their life struggling with mental health. As the program for the concert came together, a sort of unofficial theme popped up, he said.
“There’s an element of hope in our program. There are options. People have more options than just the final option.”
Gable is among a long list of faculty from the University of Saskatchewan Department of Music who will be involved in the concert. The group includes renowned pianists Bonnie Nicholson and Kathleen Lorenz Gable, saxophonist Glen Gillis, trumpet player Dean McNeill, and double bass player Richard Carnegie, among many more. The concert will also feature recordings by the U of S Wind Orchestra and the Greystone Singers choir.
As Gable put it, the concert is not about showcasing musicians: it’s about getting people talking — and listening — when it comes to mental health across the country.
“It’s not about ‘Look at how well I can perform.’ It’s ‘This is something that I can give to my community, to my society’ as a way by which to help create the dialogue after the fact,” he said.
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