The Gryphon Trio reunites with Norway’s extraordinary vocal sextet, Nordic Voices, for an evening shaped by friendship, collaboration, and the power of newly created music. The program brings together four major works we have commissioned in recent years: Omaa Biindig by Cree composer Andrew Balfour, Dal by Polish composer Norbert Palej, Scar Tissue by Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan, and Will Sing Life Again by Ukrainian composer Bohdana Frolyak.
Andrew Balfour’s Omaa Biindig, setting texts in Ojibway and Norwegian, unfolds as a ritual journey through the directions—North, South, East, and West—along with Water and Earth, before turning toward the direction we too often neglect: inward, toward the self.
Bohdana Frolyak’s Will Sing Life Again, is a setting of Poem about a Crow by Ukrainian writer and war journalist Viktoria Amelina, who was killed in 2023 while documenting the war in Ukraine. Premiered last summer in Norway, the work unfolds with quiet intensity, giving musical voice to Amelina’s spare and haunting text—a poem shaped by witness, vulnerability, and the fragile persistence of life amid devastation.
The world premiere of Norbert Palej’s DAL draws on poetry by Tadeusz Miciński, Juliusz Słowacki, and Stanisław Wyspiański, weaving voices from Poland’s literary past into a folk-inflected contemporary musical landscape.
The evening concludes with Jeffrey Ryan’s Scar Tissue, which sets commissioned poetry by Giller Prize–winning author and poet Michael Redhill—a powerful reflection on memory, fracture, and the marks history leaves upon us.
Single tickets: $60 - $65
Arts Workers: $20 – please purchase at the door or call the TOLive box office at 416-366-7723 and select options 1-1 to speak with a box office specialist.
Students and minors: Free with request
Adults (up to 2) accompanying minors (free): Half price
To request student tickets or for more information, please email tickets@music-toronto.com.
Please note, these concerts may not be suitable for children under 7.
Program
Andrew Balfour - Omaa Biindig / Her Inne (Here, Inside) (2025-26)
Commissioned by Music Toronto with support from Chamber Factory
Bohdana Frolyak - …Знов Співатимуть Життя… (…Will Sing Life Again…) (2025)
Commissioned by the Nordic Voices with support from Arts Council Norway
Norbert Palej - DAL (The Distance) for 6 voices and piano trio* (2025)
Commissioned by the Gryphon Trio
Intermission
Jeffrey Ryan - Scar Tissue (with texts by Michael Redhill) (2018)
Commissioned by the Gryphon Trio in collaboration with the Sounds of Science Commissioning Club, with additional support from Joyce Miller and the Canada Council for the Arts.
* World Premiere
This performance is part of a Gryphon Trio and Nordic Voices Ontario tour that is funded in part by the Shevchenko Foundation Boris Horodynsky Music Fund.