Baritone Joshua Hopkins spearheaded the creation of a song cycle, co-commissioned by the NAC and Houston Grand Opera, with music composed by Jake Heggie and lyrics by Margaret Atwood, called Songs for Murdered Sisters, which helped him deal with losing his sister to gender-based violence.
Hopkins pays tribute to sister killed in 2015 triple murder in Renfrew County
A new piece that baritone Joshua Hopkins envisioned as a tribute to his sister, Nathalie Warmerdam, one of the victims in the 2015 triple murder in Renfrew County, will finally have its in-person world premiere in Ottawa this week.
Songs for Murdered Sisters is a song cycle composed by Jake Heggie, with text by Margaret Atwood, that features Hopkins performing with the NAC Orchestra, under the direction of Alexander Shelley.
Scheduled to be performed in 2020, the orchestral debut of the piece was first postponed because of the pandemic, then last year's trucker protest forced another year-long delay in bringing it to the stage of the National ArtsCentre, but also provided time for the orchestra to make a mini-tour out of it, with concerts in Toronto on Saturday and Kingston on Feb.14.
While a beautifully shot film of the stripped-down chamber version (piano and voice) was created during the pandemic, Hopkins has been looking forward to working with the full orchestra for a long while.
"I'm filled with anticipation about all of it," Hopkins said in a recent interview.
"It's this incredibly deep journey through loss and grief, with this reckoning and enlightenment at the end. I think all of the new colours that the different instruments will bring to the texture of the piece are going to make it such a deeper experience than one can hear on the piano."
It's sure to be an emotional journey for Hopkins, the Pembroke-born, Houston-based singer, in part because he's returning to the same venue where he heard the news of Warmerdam's death.
In 2015, he was working at the NAC -playing Figaro in an Opera Lyra production of The Barber of Seville -when his sister lost her life, one of the three women killed by the same man in Renfrew County.
"There are so many emotions that I can only imagine that are going to come up, just by setting foot in that hall," Hopkins said. "To be working on this particular piece in the hall I was working in when my sister was murdered is going to bring up a lot. It's going to be a
challenging week."
Hopkins made it through the 2015 run by immersing himself in the music, despite feeling helpless and numb.
"I couldn't comprehend this tragic act that had taken place," he said. "It was completely devastating."
During that tumultuous time, Hopkins and his wife, Zoe Tarshis, had the idea to commission a piece of music to pay tribute to Warmerdam. NAC brass was immediately supportive, as was his home company, the Houston Grand Opera. The two institutions co-commissioned Heggie, the renowned writers. contemporary opera composer, to write the music. Lyrics were another matter.
Hopkins knew they wanted a female Canadian voice in the project and was considering singer-song-writers. But when Tarshis spotted Margaret Atwood in the audience when Hopkins was performing, they decided to approach the literary legend.
She asked a few questions, Hopkins recalls, and they didn't hear from her for a month or so until an email arrived.
The words were written, and they were perfect.
"When I first read the songs, I was blown away," Hopkins said. "I was weeping at my laptop. I just really felt like she had reached inside of me and had broken through this thick crust of numbness that I was feeling for so many years after Nathalie's murder.
"And when Jake set her words to music later, it really provided this portal for me to step through to process my grief and also bring a deeper meaning to that grief."
Hopkins said he was about four years old when his mother, Dale Tapp, married Frank Hopkins, who was Warmerdam's father.
Nathalie was 12 years older and excited to have a little brother, and Josh felt the same about a big sister in their blended family.
They grew up in a rural subdivision in Petawawa.
"I remember we got along so well," Hopkins said.
"I felt I was gaining an older sister. I looked up to her and respected her, and loved her so much."
Hopkins said he never realized the extent of gender-based violence until Warmerdam, Anastasia Kuzyk and Carol Culleton were killed, and has vowed to do his part; to increase awareness of the issue.
"I had absolutely no clue before my sister's murder that it's such a rampant problem around the world," Hopkins said, noting that he followed the coroner's inquest closely and supports the 86 recommendations that came out of it.
"One of the (recommendations) that really stands out to me in terms of things that should be initiated now is calling femicide an epidemic. It should be officially declared."
For more on the issue, a free, pre-concert discussion will take place on opening night Thursday at 7 p.m., with gender-based violence expert JoAnne Brooks and women's rights advocate Julie Lalonde.
lsaxberg@postmedia.com
SONGS FOR MURDERED SISTERS
NAC Orchestra with Joshua
Hopkins
• 8 p.m. Feb. 9-10, Southam Hall, National Arts Centre Tickets: ticketmaster.ca
