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Sounds and Colours

Bourgie Hall and The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts are pleased to invite you to take part in an all-new series involving unique sensory experiences, where music inhabits the Museum space to create a new perspective on the artworks in the MMFA's collection. Or rather, is it these works that make us experience the music differently?

Vitraux Tiffany de la salle Bourgie et harpe | Bourgie Hall's Tiffany Stained-Glass Windows and Harp
For our first offering: a dialogue between Valérie Milot's harpt and the light streaming through Bourgie Hall's Tiffany stained-glass windows.

The music of Carlos Salzedo, one of the most important harpists of the 20th century, resonates with the stained-glass windows of Louis Comfort Tiffany that adorn Bourgie Hall.

For our second offering: seventeenth-century works from the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace to the sounds of Mélisande McNabney's virginal and Sylvain Bergeron's lute.

What did the instruments depicted in works by Emanuel de Witte and Gerrit van Honthorst sound like? Music brings to life the scenes portrayed in the paintings of these 17-century Dutch artists and the works comprising the MMFA's Cabinet of Curiosities.

Virginal et luth | Virginal and Lute
Le Quatuor Bozzini et Riopelle | Quatuor Bozzini and Riopelle
For our third offering: the works of Riopelle to the sounds of Quatuor Bozzini in the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art.

If an artwork were transformed into music, what would be its melody? Montreal composer Alissa Cheung created "du nord," inspired by Jean Paul Riopelle’s "Matinée au cap Tourmente (Les faisans dans la volière) (recto) / L'oie hélico (verso)."

For our fourth offering: the Japanese collection in the Stephan Crétier and Stéphany Maillery Wing for the Arts of One World to the sounds of Yuki Isami's shinobue flute.

Flutist Yuki Isami draws inspiration from the Japanese artworks and objects surrounding her to create music that evokes peace and serenity.

Flûte shinobue et collection d’œuvres japonaises
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