The pipers will pipe, the drummers will drum, the musicians will float. Yes, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra will be floating on a huge barge on the Assiniboine River at The Forks in Winnipeg’s third annual Barge Festival beginning Aug. 31.
“It’s very unique,” conductor Alexander Mickelthwate says. “It reminds you of the Baroque time and Handel’s Water Music, when they played the whole piece on a ship.”
Mickelthwate will actually arrive on a York boat, a traditional boat with sails. “It will definitely be my most elaborate entrance to date.”
Mickelthwate remembers the WSO's barge performance three years ago, saying he wasn’t seasick afterwards but did feel the motion of the waves late into the night.
“The precaution is that we have to watch that the wind doesn’t blow away the music into the water,” he says. He's also making a mental note to not bring his best baton in case he drops it in the drink.
This year the festival is helping to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Selkirk settlers from Scotland. Nearly 28,000 Manitobans claim to be descendants of the original settlers, who arrived near The Forks in 1812.
In honour of the anniversary, the WSO’s special guest will be singer John McDermott, who will offer some of the most endearing Scottish favourites, including “Skye Boat Song.”
The rest of the program is well chosen for the barge event and includes two movements from Sid Robinovitch’s Red River Suite, commissioned especially for the anniversary, Beethoven’s summery Symphony No. 7, and a nod back to the 2012 London Olympics with John Williams's Olympic Fanfare and Theme.
The Forks, in the heart of Winnipeg, is at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. It’s always been considered a traditional meeting place.
“Everyone came through here,” says Paul Jordan, chief operating officer of The Forks. “French, Aboriginal, Métis, Scottish – anybody who was travelling across the country before the railways came through The Forks.”
Today, The Forks is once again a bustling meeting place with farmer’s market, restaurants and outdoor concert venues.
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