Gravelbourg & District Tribune

Gravelbourg council MIA

On August 8, 2025, Audrey Sproule of Paris, France, performed a world premier of a Nicole Lizee composition entitled Gravelbourg Études. It was an almost full house at Gaiety Theatre. Missing in action was the entire Gravelbourg town council. Let us look at the career of Nicole Lizee. Here is a rundown of some Lizee’s awards and accomplishments. Source Quatuor Bozzini

 

Called “a brilliant musical scientist” (CBC), “breathtakingly inventive” (Sydney Times Herald), and “utterly inspiring” (I Care If You Listen), award winning composer and filmmaker Nicole Lizée creates new music and video from an eclectic mix of influences including the earliest MTV videos, turntablism, glitch, rave culture, film theory, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Alexander McQueen, thrash metal, 1960s psychedelia and 1960s modernism. Nicole’s compositions range from works for orchestra and solo turntablist featuring turntable techniques fully notated and integrated into a concert music setting, to other unorthodox instrument combinations that include the Atari 2600 video game console, vintage board games, omnichords, stylophones, Simon™, Merlin™, Ouija boards, and karaoke tapes. In the broad scope of her evolving œuvre she explores such themes as malfunction, reviving the obsolete, and the harnessing of imperfection and glitch to create a new kind of precision and expression. Her commission list of over 60 works includes the Kronos Quartet, the BBC Proms, the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, Carnegie Hall, Bang On a Can, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, London Sinfonietta, Donaueschingen Festival, stargaze, the National Film Board, Australian Art Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, Sō Percussion, Eve Egoyan, Tapestry Opera, and the Banff Centre. Nicole’s works are regularly performed worldwide to international acclaim. She has received several awards including the Opus prize for Composer of the Year, the SOCAN Jan. V. Matejcek Award, the Canada Council for the Arts Jules Léger Prize for Chamber Music, an Images Festival Award, and the Canada Council Robert Fleming Prize for achievements in composition. She’s received two JUNO nominations for composition of the year (recently won a Juno). She is a Lucas Artists Fellow (California) and a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow (Italy). In 2016 she was selected by composer Howard Shore to be his protégée as part of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards.

 

Not your ordinary musician. She was one of the first to use visual images along with her musical brilliance. Audrey Sproule told the Tribune she was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to play a Nicole Lizee composition and to be able to perform the world premier in Saskatchewan. She travelled from Paris, France. The rest of her quartet members are located across Canada. Talk about a lack of respect shown those artists.

 

Being a councillor isn’t a particularly difficult thing to do in a small town. Occasionally you miss a meeting or two but that’s okay. But for the entire council (and administrative staff) to boycott a world premier composed by a renowned artist and former resident is nothing short of baffling. (CORRECTION NOTICE: One member of the staff did attend. My apologizes). It was a composition about Gravelbourg for Christ sakes. Would they all have attended the premiere if it had been performed in Ottawa? The least councillors can do is show us they are proud of their community and the accomplishments of former residents. Is that too much to ask? Aren’t they our biggest cheerleaders?

 

Is it really just about attending council meetings for a pay check? Was that the problem? No pay – no show?

 

Shameful, shameful, shameful, shameful, shameful, shameful and shameful — six councillors & mayor. No other community in Saskatchewan or Canada would ever have such an honor and privilege. I can assure you if Nicole Lizee had created that composition for the City of Montreal, or Paris, or any other place on this planet you can bet every politician plus many more dignitaries would be front and centre at the premier.

 

Too bad it was held in Gravelbourg.