On August 6, The Polygon Gallery and Little Chamber Music present Human Shadow Etched in Stone, a commemorative concert observing 75 years since the disastrous atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The program features a rare performance of Polish composer Krysztof Penderecki’s Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, alongside new commissions by Juno Award-winner Jordan Nobles, 2014 Penderecki Prize recipient Rita Ueda, and emerging composer Robyn Jacob that reflect on this world-changing event. The concert will be performed by 42 string players, and conducted by Janna Sailor, Founder/Artistic Director of the Allegra Chamber Orchestra, Canada’s only all-female professional orchestra.

Learn more about the performance on The Polygon Podcast

Human Shadow Etched in Stone will be filmed for a single digital streaming event in collaboration with Opus 59 Films, with acclaimed filmmaker John Bolton directing videography. The digital stream will take place on August 6 at 7pm and can be watched on The Polygon’s website or on YouTube or Facebook at:

youtube.com/c/LittleChamberMusic
facebook.com/littlechambermusic

Visitors are also welcome to listen to the performance from outside The Polygon when it is played live on August 6 at 8:15am, to mark the time that the atomic bomb detonated over Hiroshima. The concert will run for approximately 45 minutes.

Human Shadow Etched In Stone is part of The Polygon’s ongoing series of music concerts featuring works by established and emerging contemporary composers.

Image: Shomei Tomatsu, A Wristwatch Dug Up Approximately 0.7km from the Epicentre of the Explosion, Nagasaki, 1961 (detail), 1961, gelatin silver print, from the 2019 exhibition a Handful of Dust at The Polygon Gallery. © Shomei Tomatsu – INTERFACE