New Worlds

Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra explores the nature of migration with two works written in the New World by Old World composers. Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 “From the New World,” written during the composer’s three-year stay in New York, and thrillingly played here, echoes both his Slavonic heritage and the spirituals of his temporary home. Dvorak’s masterpiece sits alongside Golden slumbers kiss your eyes…, a 2015 cantata for countertenor, choir, and orchestra by the Serbian-born Ana Sokolović, who left war-torn Yugoslavia for Montreal. Her entrancing, fascinating work incorporates Italian, French, German, and Ladino folk songs brought by immigrants to Canada.