It’s been 14 years since Ottawa-born, Brooklyn-based musician Peter Kiesewalter and his Grammy-nominated group, East Village Opera Company, last performed his music in his hometown at Centrepointe Theatre. He’s played in Ottawa a few times since then—with Jane Siberry at the Ottawa Jazz Festival and as conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in an evening featuring Lynn Miles—though it has still been a while. On December 3, he’ll be back to share The Moth Project with his hometown.
A scene from “Immolation,” a song from The Moth Project show. Photo: Marvin Zana.
Peter Kiesewalter studied clarinet and saxophone performance at the University of Ottawa. In 1997, he moved to New York City and has been juggling his occupations as a touring/recording musician, composer, arranger, music director, and producer since then, mostly with his East Village Opera Company project, which got a Grammy nomination for their modernist take on classic opera repertoire.
Whitney La Grange is from McAllen, Texas. She has a Bachelor of Music from The Julliard School, attended Yale University on full scholarship in the Artists Diploma Program, and a Master of Music from the University of Illinois. In NYC, she has enjoyed the variety that comes from playing in orchestras, on Broadway, in chamber music and in rock/pop gigs. She also performed upstate in the past few years, where she and Peter (her partner of seven years) have a farmhouse with the “micro-orchestra” LuxRd.
“I had three kids I wanted to take part in raising and needed to get off the road,” Kiesewalter says.
The Moth Project. Photo: Marvin Zana.
In March 2020, New York City became ground zero for the COVID-19 pandemic. For Kiesewalter and La Grange, all work was cancelled. The former applied for and received a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to create a multimedia piece based on moths. Why these insects in particular? Because “they’re nocturnal, highly adaptive, and drawn to the flame—all things I can relate to as a freelance musician.”
“Thank God for the Canada Council,” says Kiesewalter. The idea for the show slowly but surely developed throughout many late-night conversations with his younger brother Tobi, an Ontario Parks interpretive naturalist. The plan was to get people to pay attention to the Earth’s message that climate scientists are trying so hard to express. “In that regard, this show feels relevant and personal to me… something I can show my three children with pride.”
Photo: Jim des Rivières.
The show explores themes of migration, transformation, life, and death through the inspiration of moths, stunning visuals, macro photography, and diverse music, as well as mythological tales about these nocturnal non-butterflies and interpersonal stories about Kiesewalter’s family’s journey from post-war Germany to Canada.
The Moth Project will begin touring in 2023, though it has already caught some eyes in the naturalist/interpretation world. It shows lives at the intersection of art and science: a place interpreters everywhere look at to enable a broader love and appreciation for biodiversity and the natural world.
The Moth Project plays the Great Canadian Theatre Company (1233 Wellington St. W) on Saturday, Dec. 3 at 8pm (doors open at 7pm). Tickets are $32.50 for General Admission.
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