Easily Schafer’s most ambitious work, Apocalypsis ranks in size and scale to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand, Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder or Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise. Initially imagined as a way to create a grassroots community of performers and offer an alternative to classical music’s dogma of highly trained musicians, Apocalypsis blends professional and amateur talents in its cast of 1,000 choir singers, musicians, conductors, actors, and dancers. Luminato Festival’s production featured solo performances from internationally renowned artists including multidisciplinary artist Nina Arsenault, Tony Award-winner Brent Carver, dancer Denise Fujiwara, Polaris Prize-winner Tanya Tagaq, rising New Zealand opera star Kawiti Waetford, and the voice of performance artist Laurie Anderson. David Fallis conducted an orchestra of more than 850 musicians and choirs from across the province.

Media heralded the production as one of the major highlights of 2015, the Globe and Mail stating “it was a high-profile, big-time gamble. The gamble paid off.” The National Post called the production, “a work of cultural heroism” and Whole Note commented, following a dress rehearsal, “The music came to its close. The brilliant conductor David Fallis lowered his hands. A silent hush fell over everyone. Just for a moment. It was as if we all had to take a collective in-and-out breath to honour what had just transpired.”

R. Murray Schafer is a composer, educator, environmentalist, scholar and visual artist. Born in Sarnia, ON in 1933, and raised in Toronto, he lives in a farmhouse near Peterborough. As the “father of acoustic ecology”, Schafer addresses the damaging effects of technological sounds on people. His most important publication is The Tuning of the World (1977) where he summarized his soundscape research, philosophies and theories. Schafer’s oeuvre surpasses 150 compositions from opera to chamber music, choral works to symphonies. He has received 10 honorary doctorates and has won many prestigious awards, including several Junos, the first Glenn Gould Award, the Molson Award, Walter Carsen Prize, Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts and the Koizumi Prize from Japan. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the highest individual honour in the nation.