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Heroes Reimagined

Honouring the women who dream, create
and bring the score to life!

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2027

PRE-CONCERT TALK: 6:30 PM | CONCERT 7:30 PM

 

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What to wear? Be comfortable. Dress in a way that works for you. If you feel like dressing up, do it and you won’t be the only one, we promise. If you prefer to be more casual you will fit right in as well.

Beverages served prior to concert and during intermission. You can pre-order your beverage before the concert.


Mobile phones are allowed to be on but must be set to silent.


We welcome you to clap when you like what you hear.

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VIS Orchestra

Three different centuries, three different visions of heroism.

The evening opens by reimagining what courage means in our own time, then turns inward to explore a more intimate, expressive kind of bravery at the piano — a heroism shaped by reflection, vulnerability, and self‑revelation. The journey culminates in a sweeping, revolutionary blaze that transformed our understanding of the heroic ideal, leaving us with a portrait of heroism that is modern, personal, and ultimately triumphant.

GUEST CONDUCTOR: Nadège Foofat
GUEST ARTIST: Marika Bournaki Piano

PROGRAMME

Kelly-Marie MURPHY: On Rethinking Heroisim in the 21st Century

Robert SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN: Symphony no. 3 (Eroica )

Heroes Reimagined

Honouring the women who dream,
create and bring the score to life!

SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 2027

PRE-CONCERT TALK: 6:30 PM | CONCERT 7:30 PM

Three different centuries, three different visions of heroism.

The evening opens by reimagining what courage means in our own time, then turns inward to explore a more intimate, expressive kind of bravery at the piano — a heroism shaped by reflection, vulnerability, and self‑revelation. The journey culminates in a sweeping, revolutionary blaze that transformed our understanding of the heroic ideal, leaving us with a portrait of heroism that is modern, personal, and ultimately triumphant.

GUEST CONDUCTOR: Nadège Foofat
GUEST ARTIST: Marika Bournaki Piano

PROGRAMME

Kelly-Marie MURPHY: On Rethinking Heroisim in the 21st Century

Robert SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN: Symphony no. 3 (Eroica )

What to wear? Be comfortable. Dress in a way that works for you. If you feel like dressing up, do it and you won’t be the only one, we promise. If you prefer to be more casual you will fit right in as well.

Beverages served prior to concert and during intermission. You can pre-order your beverage before the concert.

We welcome you to clap when you like what you hear.

Mobile phones are allowed to be on but must be set to silent.

PERFORMANCE SPONSORS

VIS Orchestra

Send Every Grade 4 Student to a VIS Concert
Help transform young lives through the power of music

Your donation can be the catalyst for transforming lives through the power of music.
Help us send every Grade 4 student to a VIS concert designed specifically for them.
The VIS Music Education program builds music appreciation and participation in
over 2,500 nine and  ten year old children each year.
Let’s welcome the symphony audiences of the future together!

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Nadège Foofat
Conductor

Nadège Foofat is a Canadian-born conductor whose career spans North America and Europe. A citizen of Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, she brings an international perspective and wide stylistic range to the podium. In 2025, she received a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album as conductor of Bespoke Songs on the Sono Luminus label, recognition of both her versatility and artistic depth.

She served as Assistant Conductor to Kent Nagano at the Hamburg State Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra, working at the heart of one of Europe’s leading musical institutions. From 2009 to 2014, she founded and directed the Esopus Chamber Orchestra in New York’s Hudson Valley, shaping its artistic identity and building its organizational foundation.

Praised for clarity of gesture and interpretive focus, Foofat moves fluidly between symphonic, operatic, and contemporary repertoire.

She holds a Doctor of Music in Orchestral Conducting from the Université de Montréal and an Artist Diploma in Contemporary Orchestral Conducting from the Conservatorio della Svizzera italiana. She completed viola performance degrees at the Yale School of Music and The Juilliard School.

An avid marathon runner, she is currently pursuing the Abbott World Marathon Majors Six Star distinction.

Marika Bournaki
Piano

Named “the Celine Dion of classical” by The Huffington Post, Grammy-nominated world-class Canadian pianist Marika Bournaki is known for the combination of her effervescent youth and innovative approach to her art. Her evolution into an esteemed performer was documented by Bobbi Jo Hart, from the age of 12 to 20, for the multi award-winning feature-length documentary “I Am Not A Rock Star”. She appears frequently as a soloist, as a duo with cellist Julian Schwarz, and is a founding member of the Mile-End Piano Trio. Ms. Bournaki is Assistant Professor of Piano Pedagogy and Performance at Shenandoah Conservatory at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA, faculty at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, NC, artist in residence at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Nova Scotia, Canada, and a frequent guest artist at Bargemusic (NY) where she recently presented a complete cycle of the 32 Beethoven Sonatas. She is a member of Piano Six’s New Generation, a touring ensemble that brings classical musical to remote and underserved Canadian communities, as well as the pianist for the mixed ensemble nonet “Frisson”. Marika holds both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, where her principal teachers were Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio.

Kelly-Marie Murphy
Canadian Composer

Kelly-Marie Murphy (born September 4, 1964) is a Canadian composer of chamber music and orchestral music, and adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa. She was composer-in-residence with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (2007-8), and received the 2018 Azrieli Foundation Commission for Jewish Music and the 2020 Jules Léger Prize for New Chamber Music.

In 2025, Ottawa Chamberfest honoured her with a special celebration, ‘Kelly-Marie Murphy at 60.

Discover more on Wikipedia.org>>

Robert Schumann
German Composer

Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber groups, orchestra, choir and the opera. His works typify the spirit of the Romantic era in German music.

Schumann was born in Zwickau, Saxony, to an affluent middle-class family with no musical connections, and was initially unsure whether to pursue a career as a lawyer or to make a living as a pianist-composer. He studied law at the universities of Leipzig and Heidelberg but his main interests were music and Romantic literature. From 1829 he was a student of the piano teacher Friedrich Wieck, but his hopes for a career as a virtuoso pianist were frustrated by a worsening problem with his right hand, and he concentrated on composition. His early works were mainly piano pieces, including the large-scale Carnaval, Davidsbündlertänze (Dances of the League of David), Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces), Kreisleriana and Kinderszenen (Scenes from Childhood) (1834–1838). He was a co-founder of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Musical Journal) in 1834 and edited it for ten years. In his writing for the journal and in his music he distinguished between two contrasting aspects of his personality, dubbing these alter egos “Florestan” for his impetuous self and “Eusebius” for his gentle poetic side.

Discover more on Wikipedia.org>>

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 1770– 26 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the classical and romantic eras in classical music, he remains one of the most recognized and influential musicians of this period, and is considered to be one of the greatest composers of all time.

Beethoven was born in Bonn, the capital of the Electorate of Cologne, and part of the Holy Roman Empire. He displayed his musical talents at an early age and was vigorously taught by his father Johann van Beethoven, and was later taught by composer and conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe. At age 21, he moved to Vienna and studied composition with Joseph Haydn. Beethoven then gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist, and was soon courted by Prince Lichnowsky for compositions, which resulted in Opus 1 in 1795.

The piece was a great critical and commercial success, and was followed by Symphony No. 1 in 1800. This composition was distinguished for its frequent use of sforzandi, as well as sudden shifts in tonal centers that were uncommon for traditional symphonic form, and the prominent, more independent use of wind instruments. In 1801, he also gained notoriety for his six String Quartets and for the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. During this period, his hearing began to deteriorate, but he continued to conduct, premiering his third and fifth symphonies in 1804 and 1808, respectively. His condition worsened to almost complete deafness by 1811, and he then gave up performing and appearing in public.

During this period of self exile, Beethoven composed many of his most admired works; his seventh symphony premiered in 1813, with its second movement, Allegretto, achieving widespread critical acclaim. He composed the piece Missa Solemnis for a number of years until it premiered 1824, which preceded his ninth symphony, with the latter gaining fame for being among the first examples of a choral symphony. In 1826, his fourteenth String Quartet was noted for having seven linked movements played without a break, and is considered the final major piece performed before his death a year later.

 

Read more on Wikipedia.org…

Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"
composed by Ludwig van Beethoven

The Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 55, (also Italian Sinfonia Eroica, Heroic Symphony) is a symphony in four movements by Ludwig van Beethoven. One of the composer’s most celebrated works, the Eroica symphony is a large-scale composition that marked the beginning of Beethoven’s creative middle-period.

Composed mainly in 1803–1804, the work is grounded in the Classical symphonic tradition while also stretching boundaries of form, length, harmony, and perceived emotional and possibly cultural content. It has therefore widely been considered an important landmark in the transition between the Classical period and the Romantic era.

Symphony No. 3 is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in B-flat, 2 bassoons, 3 horns (the 1st in E-flat, C, and F; the 2nd in E-flat and C; and the 3rd in E-flat), 2 trumpets in E-flat and C, timpani in E-flat and B-flat (in the 1st, 3rd, and 4th movements) and in C and G (in the 2nd movement), and strings.

The work is in four movements:

  1. Allegro con brio (12–18 min.) (E-flat major)
  2. Marcia funebre: Adagio assai (14–18 min.) (C minor)
  3. Scherzo: Allegro vivace (5–6 min.) (E-flat major)
  4. Finale: Allegro molto (10–14 min.) (E-flat major)

Read more on Wikipedia.org…