An upcoming concert as part of the Winnipeg New Music Festival is going to pretty cool – literally and figuratively.
Glacial Time will be performed on the Assiniboine River at The Forks Friday evening by Norwegian instrumentalist Terje Isungset, in an amphitheatre – and using instruments – made entirely out of ice.
Daniel Raiskin, music director of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, told 680 CJOB that the sold-out event will be a ‘once in a lifetime experience’.
“It’s a very special event, because the sounds created outside are very different from the ones you’re accustomed to listening to in a closed environment like a concert hall,” he said.
“That’s married to completely different acoustical properties of ice and reflection of sound from the ice or muted by snow. There’s wind and all of the kinds of natural sounds that surround us.”
Isungset, along with a vocalist and a group of percussionists, will be performing on specially-made ice instruments, including an “iceophone”, a wind instrument similar to a trumpet or horn.
Percussion instruments made of ice will also be part of the show, with different sized instruments creating different pitches.
“It looks cool, it’s going to be very cold, and it’s going to be literally cool,” said Raiskin.
“It’s going to involve a bunch of people who are crazy enough to go out in sub-zero temperatures to listen to music played on instruments carved from ice on the frozen water of the Assiniboine.”
The weather forecast for Friday looks to be in the -24C range.
Although the special New Music Festival performance is sold out, Isungset will also be performing at a free event at the Forks on Saturday.
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