The Bear and the Wild Rose

The Bear and the Wild Rose is a free, four-part online series exploring themes of Love, Home, Dreams + Magic, and Resilience. This collaboration between much-loved Canadian musician and humanitarian Tom Jackson and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra aims to uplift communities everywhere through music, storytelling, dance, and visual art. The series premieres four new works by Indigenous composers Cris Derksen, Jessica McMann, Sonny-Ray Day Rider, and J. Alex Young.

Tom Jackson is the artistic guide and storyteller for this series, and contributes eight original songs. A new episode will be released online every Sunday afternoon in February — each episode includes the orchestra performing a new work, stories and songs by Jackson, and artwork by Rita Wildschut. The first and last episodes also feature dancers choreographed by Alejandro Ronceria.

This episode focuses on the healing power of Love through all its ups and downs — from the pain of misunderstanding, to the comfort of a warm embrace.

Tom Jackson narrates the story and performs three original songs, with choreography by Alejandro Ronceria and artwork by Rita Wildschut. This episode also features the debut of a new work, Love is a Battlefield, written by composer Cris Derksen and performed by the Orchestra with Associate Conductor Karl Hirzer.

“Love is a Battlefield is a piece about the peaks and valleys of falling and staying in love. It’s about many firsts — the first spark, the first embrace, the first fight. The vulnerability of it all. Everything is on the table, everything is heightened, the stakes are high as both parties want to succeed. And the only winners are if they both win.” – Cris Derksen, Composer

This episode explores the meaning of home and the land — rolling foothills, vast plains, and the territory of the bear.

Tom Jackson tells the story and performs an original song, plus we hear the debut of composer Jessica McMann’s Muskwa’s Mountain Home, performed by the Orchestra with Associate Conductor Karl Hirzer.

“When I think of home, I think of the land. The rolling foothills, the vast plains, the coulees and valleys, the prairie grasses and berry bushes, the hot sun and the crackling cold of the winter. What is the home of the bear? How can I bring those chilly mountain winds, and crackling of twigs in the frosty fall, and the steady footsteps of a bear in the fall? I hope that this evocative piece will transport you to these places where the bear lives.” — Jessica McMann, Composer

This episode explores human emotions and their relationship with spirituality and the natural world. Tom Jackson tells the story and performs an original song, followed by the debut of a new work, The Blood Alchemist Wateraga: Matriakii of Magic, written by composer Sonny-Ray Day Rider and performed by the Orchestra with Associate Conductor Karl Hirzer.

“The Blood Alchemist Wateraga: Matriakii of Magic is a musical work where I explore the reification and source of magic, which I think encapsulates a whole range of human, natural, and supernatural phenomenon. It has become part of my current practice to carefully title my works with narratives that deify and anthropomorphize human emotions and relationship with spirituality and the natural world.

I used the word Blood in the title (and other works) to allude to my Blackfoot Indigenous background, as I am from the Kainai ‘Blood’ tribe, which is one of the four tribes that make up the Blackfoot confederacy. I also use the word Blood in the title to refer to a life force which connects us all.

Wateraga is the name of a magic spell from a video game series I grew up with and I use the Narrative connector Alchemist in the title to signify our complex bio-connection with water.

Matriakii is compound word derived from both the English word ‘matriarchy’ and the Blackfoot word ‘akii,’ which means woman.” — Sonny-Ray Day Rider, Composer

Tom Jackson narrates the story and performs three original songs, with choreography by Alejandro Ronceria and artwork by Rita Wildschut. This also features the debut of a new work, šâkohtâw (pronounced shâ-kôhê-tâ-hw), written by composer J. Alex Young and performed by the Orchestra with Associate Conductor Karl Hirzer.

“This piece is inspired by resilience. For me, resilience is tied to my Cree grandmother Georgina Nanê Wischee-Leblond and her stories. She was/is unanimously viewed as the strongest member of our family. My grandmother was a residential school survivor, and her resilience stories embody the Cree word šâkohtâw meaning strength, specifically personal, spiritual, and mental strength to overcome. Her stories taught me that resilience is facing adversary while remembering who you are and from where we come; through this, I learned that identity retention tempers our strengths to prepare mind and spirit for greater challenges.

“Before composing I reflected on my grandmother, her stories, her strength and her spirituality. From her memory emerged šâkohtâw and I feel her guidance and spirit within this piece; like her, it is delicate, ethereal and represents beauty and love to those of us who have been at any time forcefully resentful, lost or uncertain.” — J. Alex Young, Composer