Gala de la Terre Supports Three Environmental Organizations
The 2024 Gala de la Terre was a huge success! The third edition of this major event took place at Montréal’s Maison symphonique on June 12. In addition to putting on a critically acclaimed performance, the Orchestre de l’Agora was able to raise an impressive $120,000 for three environmental organizations. The beneficiaries are the Group for Research and Education on Marine Mammals (GREMM), WWF-Canada and the Sierra Club Canada Foundation.
The Gala de la Terre program included Le cœur des bélugas, a composition of poems by Claudie Bertounesque recited by Innu poet Natasha Kanapé Fontaine. The evening also featured Innu soprano Elisabeth St-Gelais in Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder as well as more than one hundred musicians performing an An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss.
Introducing the evening, conductor Nicholas Ellis established a number of links between the work of Claudie Bertounesque and Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony. Both evoke nature in all its facets. Moved by their outing on GREMM’s research boat in 2023 and the proximity they enjoyed with whales, they wanted to invite the public to the shores of the St. Lawrence. Claudie Bertounesque’s beluga-inspired work succeeded in integrating this species’ sound repertoire and the St. Lawrence acoustic universe, drawing us closer to the environment and fauna of our mighty river.
La Presse journalist Adèle Décary-Chen (article in French) describes the conductor’s performance as follows: “From the very first notes of An Alpine Symphony, the conductor’s gestures are high and pronounced. His heels lift off the ground as if he is getting ready to take to the sky. Even from behind, his body is steeped in expressiveness.” In Le Devoir, journalist Christophe Russ (in French) comes across as having been dazzled: “On the narrative level, everything was really designed in a flurry, but with an efficiency that would literally send chills down your spine.”
The Gala will have a positive impact on each of the three environmental organizations it supports. WWF-Canada works to “lconserve species at risk, protect threatened habitats, and address climate change.” For over 50 years, the organization has relied on scientific analyses and Indigenous knowledge to guide its work while seeking long-term solutions for human-nature harmony. Sierra Club Canada is an environmental organization whose mission is to be “the voice of the Earth.” It strives to protect and preserve the environment. Founded in 1985, GREMM is a Tadoussac-based organization dedicated to conducting scientific research on the whales of the St. Lawrence and promoting marine conservation. It notably studies belugas through the St. Lawrence Beluga Project, a multidisciplinary research program that aims to learn more about these white whales. Raised funds will go toward this research project with an aim to better understanding and better protecting this species. Members of GREMM’s team came to the event and maintained a booth alongside other organizations.
From the St. Lawrence Estuary to Montréal, I tell myself that the environments in which GREMM and the Orchestre de l’Agora operate are very different. While chatting with Nicholas Ellis and Claudie Bertounesque that evening, they both mentioned that they were impressed by their stay in Tadoussac. The presence of majestic whales and other marine fauna is enough to put all the negative news about the environment into perspective. Giants still swim in our oceans, which are just as fascinating as ever.
For me, because I don’t work in music, it was the first time I had the opportunity to see an orchestra in action. There was something really moving about this show: all these humans in creative cohesion, not to mention the crowded room of attentive spectators. It gives us new faith in humanity…
and shows how art and science go hand in hand!
Andréanne Forest
Andréanne Forest is the editor-in-chief of Whales Online since may 2022. After studying in environment and biology, she turned to science communication with the goal of making science both accessible and fun. Andréanne wishes to highlight the process of acquiring knowledge while transmitting the desire to learn.
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