About

WHO ARE WE? We are a group of young artists who want to promote classical music that celebrates the work of women and non-binary composers and poets. Sappho: Tell Everyone composed by Danika Lorèn is our inaugural event. This website presentation of Tell Everyone is offered so that audience members who are homebound or not located physically near the concert space can also enjoy hearing new works and stories. To learn more about the individuals involved in the creation of this project, visit the Project Team tab. The Acknowledgements tab details the organizations and individuals who supported the project.

WHO IS SAPPHO, AND WHY ARE HER POEMS IN FRAGMENTS? Sappho was an archaic Greek poet from the Isle of Lesbos who was known to be one of the greatest poets of her time. Very little is known about her, other than that she was born in Lesbos to an aristocratic family. It is thought that Sappho composed about 10,000 lines of poetry in her life. A great deal of her poetry has been lost, and the pieces that survive exist only in fragments.

WHAT IS SAPPHO: TELL EVERYONE? In the fall of 2021, artistic director Nicole Ross was reading a lot of Sappho and would often pair fragments together imagining that they would create a scene. She enjoyed changing up the order of the fragments to explore the many stories that could arise even by changing the placement of a few words. Later that year, Nicole consulted Grace Skehan, and the two of them finalized a list of fragments made into scenes that explore themes of love, loss, shame, revenge and celebration. With the help of a Canada Council for the Arts grant, we were able to commission Danika Lorèn to set these to music. A note from composer Danika Lorèn: Sappho’s texts are so moving without music, and the potent simplicity of her words is what I focused on in my musical interpretation. This is most clearly evoked in the vulnerable intensity of many a cappella vocal lines and improvisatory moments, the sparse, single-hand piano texture that is also meant to represent a lyre, and the way voices intermingle in a largely treble sound world. In these songs I hope to create a place for the queer feminine to live and be celebrated in/through classical music; for it to be truly seen for all of its intensity, its sincerity and its sweetness. The Explore Project tab of the website allows you to experience the composition in many different ways. The piece has 11 movements, which you can find on tiles of the vase in the order of the Greek Alphabet. You can also "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" of the piece by selecting movements in any order you like. The unconventional presentation of this piece evokes the inherently fragmented and ambiguous nature of Sappho's work and supports a multiplicity of interpretations, allowing viewers to foster their own ongoing interpretation and re-interpretation with each viewing.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND US? You can find us on Instagram at @sappho.project to keep up with any updates about this project. Our contact form found under the Contact tab can also be used to reach out with any general inquiries or feedback regarding the project.