Little Chamber Music honours Canada's veterans in Remembered Aloud, November 11

At Mountain View Cemetery, musica intima and the Vancouver Bach Choir join forces with local brass players to perform a Phrase of Remembrance

Remembered Aloud takes place at Mountain View Cemetery. Photo by Wayne Worden

 
 
 

Little Chamber Music presents Remembered Aloud at Mountain View Cemetery in the Horne 2 Field of Honour on November 11 at 10:50 am

 

MOUNTAIN VIEW CEMETERY, which opened in 1886 in Vancouver, is the final resting place of more than 12,000 Canadian veterans.

Little Chamber Music is honouring those individuals this Remembrance Day with its annual event Remembered Aloud. On the morning of November 11, performers will gather in the cemetery’s Horne 2 Field of Honour (located northwest of East 33rd Avenue and Fraser Street) for a program of music and silent meditation.

Beginning at 10:50 am, vocal ensemble musica intima will perform a new arrangement of Russell Wallace’s “Forgotten Warriors” in light of Indigenous Veterans Day on November 8. Following the song at 11 am, a bell will toll 11 times, culminating in two minutes of silence.

“Forgotten Warriors”, which was originally created for Loretta Todd’s 1997 National Film Board documentary Forgotten Warriors, chronicles the sacrifice of Indigenous veterans during the Second World War—though they willingly fought for Canada’s freedom, they were denied that same right. Many returned home to land seizures, revoked status under the Indian Act, and unequal benefits compared to non-Indigenous veterans.

After the moment of silence, singers from musica intima and the Vancouver Bach Choir will be joined by 11 local brass musicians in performing a simple Phrase of Remembrance together. The performers will then gradually disperse throughout the Field of Honour, reading hundreds of names from individual grave markers aloud and playing or singing the Phrase of Remembrance again for each of those veterans as they leave the area.

Led by artistic director Molly MacKinnon, Little Chamber Music is a nonprofit society that presents music with a particular focus on community. In 2015, former artistic director Mark Haney became Mountain View Cemetery’s first composer in residence, which led to more than 25 free concerts at the cemetery in the five years that followed.

Little Chamber Music has been hosting Remembrance Day events since 2013.  

 
 
 

 
 
 

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