Eroica – The Laura Secord Sesquicentennial Concert

June 23, 2019 – 2 p.m.

Queenston Heights Bandshell
Lawn seating – bring your own folding chair or cushion
Admission FREE

October 1868 marked 150 years since the death of Laura Secord.

Orchestra Breva will honour her memory in a concert celebration highlighting her heroic acts and life’s journey. Her remarkable contributions to our country’s history will be illustrated through music, paying tribute to all war heroes. ‘EROICA’ will feature classical musicians, Indigenous artists, local historians, new works, and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

All who have served humanity through in times of war and peace, through acts of bravery and sacrifice, will be honoured. It will feature classical musicians, Indigenous artists, local historians, new compositions, and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

Orchestra Breva will tour the concert through present-day communities significant to Laura Ingersoll Secord’s life and deeds: Windsor, Tecumseh, Ingersoll, Brantford and on the Battlefield of Queenston Heights, Niagara-on-the-Lake.

This project will make a significant contribution to communities of Ontario and Canada. The concert will raise awareness of our regional and national history by highlighting the profiles of important historical figures such as Laura Secord, General Brock, Warrior Chief Tecumseh, and Chief Joseph Brant, and by honouring the veterans of battles that shaped our freedoms, thus emboldening citizens of today to act peacefully and live in harmony.

Partners include Friends of Laura Secord, Tecumseh Historical
Society, University of Windsor, Ingersoll Cheese Museum, Ste Anne’s Parish, and the Niagara Parks Commission.


EROICA

A Sesquicentennial Concert Celebration of
Laura Ingersoll Secord, Canadian War Hero

Programme

  1. Introduction
  2. Iphigénie en Aulide Overture – Gluck (1774)
    Re: King’s wartime sacrifice of his daughter for the sake of his nation.
    French origins of the opera, written around the time of Laura’s birth, are an acknowledgement of the Secord family’s French heritage
  3. American Revolutionary War anthem – Chester Billings (1778)
  4. Account of Laura’s youth, immigration, and marriage to Loyalist James Secord
  5. Burlington Baynew composition (2019)
  6. Description of significant events of the War of 1812 including General Brock’s death, Laura’s famous act of courage, the importance of Indigenous peoples during this conflict, and the unfulfilled promise of a United Native Confederation
  7. Indigenous Musical Performance on the theme of peace
  8. Laura’s later life and struggles as a veteran unrecognized for her heroic act
  9. My Grief is so Great – musical setting of Laura Secord’s letter of July 2, 1841 (2019)
  10. Warrior Chief Tecumseh speech
  11. Symphony No. 3 “Eroica”, Beethoven (1803)
    In honour of all war heroes

Friends of Laura Secord

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