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Oliver Schroer is Consort’s Special Guest TORONTO, March 22, 2006 — Fiddler/composer Oliver Schroer joins Artistic Director David Fallis and The Toronto Consort for The Road to Santiago, a modern musical journey along an ancient path, at 8:00 pm on April 28 and 29, 2006. In one of the most unique pairings of the concert season, Schroer performs his haunting compositions on electric violin, while Consort members call on their voices and ancient instruments to perform travel music that dates back as far as the 13th century. Audiences can join the musical pilgrimage by purchasing tickets through the Box Office at (416) 966-1759. For more information, visit www.torontoconsort.org. In medieval times, pilgrims enlivened their travel along the camino route with songs and dances ranging from spiritual chants to jaunty marches. The Consort recreates some of that evocative music performed on lute and ud, hurdy-gurdy and pipe, voice and drum. Oliver Schroer adds a 21st-century twist with his own camino-inspired compositions performed on electric violin. Schroer walked the 1000 km camino route himself in 2004, with his violin and recording equipment on his back. Over the two months of his journey, Schroer stopped in 25 magnificent Romaneque churches to play his fiddle. He recorded these impromptu concerts, with all their ambient sounds including church bells, chanting, footsteps, children’s voices, and bird songs. The result is his brand new, critically acclaimed CD Camino. “My violin sang, and I forgot the crippling pain in my feet. The music still sings on these recordings”, says Schroer of the experience. Pilgrimages are as old as mankind. The mystical nature of a pilgrimage holds an eternal, mythic appeal in the human imagination. For more than a thousand years, people have been making pilgrimages to the shrine at Santiago de Compostela, Spain, for a number of different reasons: some were motivated by sincere piety, because they were soul-searching or doing penance, while others saw the pilgrimage as a way to travel the world, or even escape the authorities. In the opening lines of The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer famously recommended pilgrimages as an antidote to spring fever. Whatever the reason, the famous Santiago camino continues to attract thousands of pilgrims each year. Everyone from renowned medieval personages like Dante and St. Francis of Assisi, to modern day celebrities including Shirley MacLaine and Jenna Bush have walked the road to Santiago. Vancouver-based Oliver Schroer is a unique fiddler/composer who lives at the edge of cutting-edge new acoustic music. His playing is heard on over 100 albums of new traditional, acoustic and popular music, with artists and bands including American songwriting legend Jimmy Webb, Loreena McKennitt, James Kellaghan and Sylvia Tyson, Spirit of the West and Great Big Sea. Schroer has composed over 1,000 pieces, and has recorded 8 CDs of his own works. Most recently, his playing is heard on the soundtracks of Angels in America and Lemony Snickett: A Series of Unfortunate Events. Medieval music on the concert program includes many selections from the Toronto Consort’s celebrated recording, The Way of the Pilgrim: cantigas from 13th-century Spain, songs from the original Carmina Burana manuscript, and music from the Libre Vermell, a genuine collection of pilgrim music from the 14th century. Listing information: Media Contact:
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The Toronto Consort
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