BY ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
When Vivek Shraya was growing up, she often turned to the female pop stars of the early ’90s for guidance and inspiration. Artists like Tori Amos and Salt-N-Pepa helped young Shraya navigate and embrace her queerness, her ethnicity, and most of all, her bubbling creativity. Like so many kids of the era who didn’t quite feel like they fit into the world around them, Shraya found acceptance and joy in the empowered and often vulnerable voices coming from her radio.
Those early lessons in pop bravado paid off, leading Shraya towards a rich and varied career as a renowned author, musician, educator, visual artist, and Canadian trans icon. In 2020, she appeared in her first one-person play (which later turned into a book and subsequent web series), the autobiographical and cheekily titled How to Fail as a Popstar. But despite not quite reaching Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter status in terms of fandom, pop music remains one of Shraya’s great loves.
Working with orchestral arrangements is perhaps a bit outside her wheelhouse, but as her resume proves, Shraya is always up for a challenge. She was more than game when the Calgary Philharmonic’s then-Artistic Operations Manager Jason Stasiuk reached out to her with an invitation to collaborate on a show for the Phil’s current season.
Stasiuk dreamed up the idea of bringing Shraya and the Philharmonic together after hearing her 2017 album, the Polaris Prize-nominated Part-Time Woman, recorded with the Queer Songbook Orchestra, a 14-piece chamber pop ensemble that has also supported artists like Orville Peck and Jeremy Dutcher. If a small orchestra could bring simultaneous heft and tenderness to the album’s gentle songs of self-realization, Shraya was certainly curious about what a larger orchestra like the Calgary Phil would add to her compositions almost a full ten years after she’d written them.
“It will be a very different beast with Calgary Phil,” Shraya says. “It’s definitely a bigger scale than anything I’ve ever played with. But the idea is to revisit this album as a central component of the show.”
Even though Shraya considers herself a forward-thinking artist and doesn’t spend much time looking in the rearview mirror, focusing on the songs from Part-Time Woman made sense on multiple levels. First, as an orchestral-based album, there is plenty of content and existing arrangements that can easily be translated to the Philharmonic. Beyond that, the album was Shraya’s first release after formally transitioning nearly a decade ago, capturing one of the most significant periods of her life. The new show gives her a chance to reflect on that time while also honouring it with even more spectacular instrumentation.
“I feel really grateful for the opportunity to revisit this material in a grander way,” Shraya says. “Especially in this particular cultural climate where trans people are facing heightened scrutiny and discrimination all around the world.”
She invited La-Nai Gabriel, who also worked on the original Part-Time Woman recording, to arrange the pieces for the Orchestra. Shraya is also working closely with other female artistic forces within the Calgary Philharmonic artistic team, including Andrea Davison, Director, Artistic + Education, and Resident Conductor Juliane Gallant, who will lead the orchestra, to make the show much more than a mere live performance of Part-Time Woman. Audiences can expect to hear other material from Shraya’s vast catalogue, including songs from her brand-new album New Models, which was just released this past October.
To add some razzle-dazzle, Shraya will also incorporate some feel-good cover songs and, as a nod to fans of her literary output, will work in some readings and spoken-word pieces to be incorporated into the show in interesting and thought-provoking ways. While the result is very much a reflection of Shraya as a complete artist and a multi-faceted individual, she’s also leaning into the spirit of collaboration and how others can add to the overall work.
“Throughout my artistic discipline, collaboration has been key,” she says. “I really don’t believe in the solo genius. I think that’s a very white and male perspective. Making the best work involves as many people and as many collaborators and artists as possible.”
Beyond that, this show is a homecoming of sorts for Shraya. The artist now lives full-time in Toronto, but she grew up in Edmonton and spent six years in Calgary as an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Calgary, saying she continues to have “a deep connection” to the city. It’s with that spirit that Shraya promises to make the performance a celebratory affair, complete with laughter and an elaborate costume. While there is certainly plenty she’d like to say as a trans artist living in a challenging political time, for this program she’s choosing to let the songs speak for themselves, allowing the audience to absorb the music and bask in the glow of the performances.
“At the end of the day I want to create something that’s entertaining and uplifting and joyful and surprising.” Shraya says. “There are so many ways people can be affected and inspired. Hopefully that will be conveyed through little nuggets and moments here and there, as opposed to a central theme.”
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