Thursday, July 25, 2013

Requiem for a Glacier: Music installation for Jumbo Glacier, BC



The diversity of opposition to the Jumbo Glacier Resort has gotten a little more broad and a lot more melodic. Requiem for a Glacier is an oratorio in four parts by Paul Walde that presents the history of the glacier, the advent of electricity, climate change and the BC government’s announcement of a year round recreational development and resort community in the Jumbo Glacier area. More than 70 musicians will be involved in the performance: a 40-person choir and a 30-person orchestra.
Thursday, July 25, at Nelson's United Church, at 6:30pm and 8:30pm is your only chance to see this impressive show before it goes out to the glacier.
Later this month, 70 professional and amateur musicians will play a command performance before an audience of one — a Glacier.
"Requiem for a Glacier" is a four-movement oratorio composed by Victoria-based artist Paul Walde, whose work explores the interconnectedness between landscape, identity and technology.
To compound matters a $450M resort proposal has recently been given final provincial governmental approval. As Professor David Schindler of the University of Alberta warns, “ski lifts and skier traffic on the surface of Jumbo Glacier will hasten its melting, and compromise one of the important headwater sources of the Columbia River system”.
Area residents have been vocal in their opposition to the proposed development of a year-round resort at Jumbo Glacier. The local Ktunaxa First Nation have declared themselves “expressly opposed” to the development, as have many environmental groups.
“I strongly believe that the arts are one of the most powerful tools available to us to respond to issues of concern to our society”, says Lynch. “Our hope is that the ambitious and spectacular nature of this performance will serve to broadcast the message outside this region: Jumbo is too precious to lose to development. Of course the umbrella issue is climate change and the unprecedented rate at which these 10,000 year old glaciers are melting.”

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