Remarks by
The Honourable Anita Neville, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
WINNIPEG PHILHARMONIC CHOIR 100th ANNIVERSARY RECEPTION
Government House
Tuesday, May 16, 2023, 5:30 p.m.
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Fellow Manitobans, welcome to Government House and this celebration of a memorable milestone season of music.
It is my privilege to acknowledge that we are meeting in the heart of Treaty One land, in the capital of a province that is the ancestral and present-day home of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Red River Metis, Dakota, Dene and Inuit peoples.
We acknowledge northern Manitoba includes lands that were, and are, the ancestral lands of the Inuit.
In this beautiful and diverse province, we are striving to advance understanding, healing and reconciliation and work as partners for a better future.
For one hundred years, the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir has brought beauty to this city and province and nurtured the talents of generations of Manitobans.
I feel fortunate to have witnessed this centennial season recently during your April Gala. Now that you’ve caught your breath after the challenge of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers on Sunday, I hope you have the energy to celebrate a wonderful season and century.
There’s a magic in the way a choir can become something so much more than the sum of its individual voices.
I think of the talent and training of each choir member and the discipline each singer has put into learning and rehearsing a part, and then I think of how they all work together in service of something more beautiful than any one series of notes.
If there’s a better metaphor for a healthy and vibrant society, I haven’t heard it.
Creating a great city or province — a place of caring and beauty, a place of creativity and energy – requires countless individuals to play their part. The focus may be on the sopranos at one moment, or the tenors at another, but all voices are required to make a great piece of music come to life.
Founding and sustaining an arts organization, like performing in a choir, requires a similar coming together of talents and discipline.
To all who bring the music of the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir to life, congratulations on a century of beauty. Thank you for enhancing this province and this city that we love.
Merci… Meegwich.