The Prince George Symphony Orchestra during its Discovery Concert performance earlier in the season

By Tommy Osborne

National Red Dress Day

PGSO dedicates season’s final performance to victims of Highway of Tears

May 3, 2024 | 4:13 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The Prince George Symphony Orchestra’s (PGSO) final performance of the 2023-34 season is coming up on May 5, which is also National Red Dress Day. To honour the day and everything it represents, the PGSO is dedicating its performance to the victims of the Highway of Tears.

“For the Prince George Symphony to step up and to partner with the Red Dress Society to put this performance on and honor (the day), it’s great because I’ve always said our community is not geographically where you live, it’s a feeling of belonging. And the more that we have our community participate and stepping up, the more the community feels like they belong. It’s wonderful,” said Prince George Red Dress Society President Tammy Meise.

The PGSO’s program reflects the importance of National Red Dress Day, as PGSO Music Director Michael Hall explained the pieces chosen represent not just the sorrow felt from the tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), but also optimism that we can make the situation better together. The program begins with a piece titled “My name is Amanda Todd” by Canadian composer Janice Morlock, the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto no.2 in c minor, and Faure’s Requiem.

“It makes you think about other young people, other young, performers, in this world who have a real hopeful future. So I think the whole thing sort of ties in as far as this idea of youth and of hopefulness,” Hall said.

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Regarding the Amanda Todd piece specifically, Hall explained this highlights another aspect of the tragedy of losing women, as it hopes to reflect the dangers of social media and the serious threat it can pose.

“The music expresses, in some way the sorrow, of course, that everyone feels about the situation. Also, very ingeniously by the composer, there’s a moment where there’s all sorts of different parts happening, almost like a cacophony, and it represents how in social media when something kind of gets written and people take it and run with it, and then it just becomes a bunch of noise. And that’s also what’s reflected in the piece,” Hall said.

Meise is happy to see the PGSO dedicate its final performance to Red Dress Day, as she believes that events like this help raise awareness and create conversation around the topic, which in turn can lead to education.

“We get an opportunity to have these conversations with children and it’s astonishing how many children really don’t know about the red dress and what it’s about. And I really think that the more that we educate our up and coming leaders and have that knowledge, they have that opportunity to make a different decision,” she said.

The PGSO’s performance will be on Sunday, May 5 at Vanier Hall, with performances at both 2:00 and 4:00 p.m.

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by Tommy Osborne

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PGSO dedicates season’s final performance to victims of Highway of Tears

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