I have long admired the ability of art to evoke dialogue and understanding about society’s most important issues. Kimiko’s Pearl is certainly an example of how a powerful story, music, and dance can be woven together beautifully to help us reflect on the past and envision a better future. I am proud that The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation has helped to support this production and the talented artists who have brought this remarkable, multi-generational story to life.
The Hon. Hilary M. Weston, CM, CVO, OOnt Honorary Patron Kimiko’s Pearl
Welcome to the World Premiere of Kimiko’s Pearl!
Kimiko’s Pearl is a deeply personal story inspired by our family history over four generations. From Kagoshima, Japan, to Toronto, the narrative spans over a century and continues to resonate today.
As we envisioned this ballet, the image of a pearl emerged. We see the pearl, formed through protective layers in response to an injury, as a powerful metaphor for the resilience of our ancestors who triumphed over adversity and for the journey of intergenerational healing.
Reflecting on the past three years of creative development, we are incredibly grateful to our brilliant creative team for their dedication, passion, and willingness to push boundaries in bringing this important Canadian story to life.
We extend our gratitude to our extraordinary supporters of Bravo Niagara! who have believed in and championed Kimiko’s Pearl. Their generosity has made our dream a reality.
This story draws inspiration not only from our own family history but also from the lives of other families who experienced the Japanese Canadian internment during WWII. We express our heartfelt thanks to the Ayukawa family, Mori family, and the Japanese Canadian community. This would not have been possible without their support.
Kimiko’s Pearl is dedicated to the memory of our parents and grandparents, Robert and Ricki Mori. Through this production, we hope to honour all Japanese Canadians who overcame injustices and contributed to building a better Canada. Their strength and perseverance continue to inspire us.
Christine Mori & Alexis Spieldenner
Co-Founders, Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts Co-Creators and Producers, Kimiko’s Pearl
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Bravo Niagara! acknowledges that the land on which we gather is the traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples, many of whom continue to live and work here today. This territory is covered by the Upper Canada Treaties and is within the land protected by the Dish with One Spoon Wampum agreement. Today this gathering place is home to many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Peoples. We express our gratitude for their continued stewardship of this land.
Kimiko’s Pearl
Welcome to the world premiere of Kimiko’s Pearl ! Since my early days at the PAC meeting community arts representatives, I was always impressed with the ambition of this story, knowing that it would be an important national work and one that we needed to support. I’m thrilled that it’s developed the way it has and honoured that we are a commissioning partner in its premiere.
I extend my deepest gratitude to the creative minds behind this production: Christine Mori, Alexis Spieldenner, Howard Reich, Kevin Lau, Yosuke Mino, and the talented dancers, musicians, and visual artists. Together, they have crafted a masterpiece that honours history while illuminating the human experience.
As we witness the premiere of Kimiko’s Pearl, let us come together to celebrate the strength of the human spirit and the transformative power of art.
Enjoy the show!
Colleen A. Smith CEO, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre
Kimiko’s Pearl
JUNE
22-23, 2024
Mary Ito, host
Opening remarks by His Excellency Ambassador Yamanouchi, Embassy of Japan in Canada (June 22)
Opening taiko performance by Nagata Shachu
Act I: Struggle for Survival Intermission
Act II: Struggle for Identity
MEYER SOUND LABORATORIES
Bravo Niagara! has been working with Berkeley, California-based international professional audio / acoustics manufacturer Meyer Sound Laboratories for the past seven years to elevate the sonic experiences at their events.
Meyer Sound manufactures systems for the likes of Ed Sheeran, Michael Bublé, Metallica, Cirque du Soleil, Disney, Broadway productions, West End productions and hundreds of concert halls and performing arts venues around the world.
For the Premiere of Kimiko’s Pearl, Bravo Niagara! and Meyer Sound wanted to elevate the ballet experience to another level. Meyer Sound and GerrAudio designed and installed a completely bespoke immersive audio system utilising Spacemap GO technology to envelop the audience in Kevin Lau’s original score and Aaron Tsang’s creative sound design.
The sound will surround you and sonic elements will move throughout the performance. Enjoy.
October 6, 1992
Father’s Trunk
In New Denver made by father’s hand built of wood cut from his chosen land, marked with registration numbers, assigned by (elected) parliamentary members, this wooden trunk scarred with travel hides tales too painful to unravel.
What is the key that unlocks this political Pandora’s box?
Fly open wide the sepulchre and vent out the stifling air. Make void our fears and gushing tears and speak words pleasant to our ears. Unleash the voices, let it be heard and listen for the promised word.
Compensation and apology came easing the hurts and feeling of shame. Now Father we can touch, we can feel and gently reveal our wounds to heal.
Father’s spirit was freed on the date of September 22, 1988.
By Hiroko Ayukawa Kaita
This trunk built by Shizuo Ayukawa in the New Denver Internment Camp is on display in Algoma Lobby courtesy of the Canadian War Museum.
AYUKAWA FAMILY TRUNK, CWM 20170022-001
PHOTO CREDIT: CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM
Kimiko’s Pearl
JUNE 22-23, 2024
Partridge Hall, FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
Commissioned and produced by Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts
Presented by the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre
CREATIVE TEAM
Co-Creators and Producers: Christine Mori and Alexis Spieldenner
Writer: Howard Reich
Composer: Kevin Lau
Choreographer: Yosuke Mino
Sound Designer and Recording Engineer: Aaron Tsang
Costume Designer: Shannon Lovelace
Lighting Designer: Kevin Lamotte
Video and Projection Designer: Christine Mori and Fourgrounds Media Inc.
DANCERS
Kimiko
Shizuo Ayukawa / Masked Figure
Natsue Ayukawa / Masked Figure
RCMP / Mr. Levitt / Masked Figure
Ryuko Ayukawa (Ricki Mori) / Masked Figure
Robert (Tsugio) Mori / Masked Figure Ellen
MUSICIANS
Conrad Chow, violin
Rachel Mercer, cello
Ron Korb, Japanese and Western flutes
Mariko Anraku, harp (album)
Robi Botos, jazz interlude
PRODUCTION
Stage Manager: M Fera
Production Associate: Céline Peterson
Audio / Video Associate: Christopher Wiens
Youth Liaison: Alice Burke
Graphic Design: Nicole Krawchuk, Form & Affect
Program Design: Nicole Krawchuk
Kyra Soo
Yue Shi
Chenxin Liu
Liam Caines
Rachel Gibbs
Liam Saito
Yayoi Ban
VISUAL ARTISTS
Norman Takeuchi, C.M.
Lillian Yano Blakey
Emma Nishimura
Adam Markovic
Miya Turnbull, mask-maker
WARDROBE AND PROPS
Costume Coordinator: Kevin Maguire
Cutters/Sewers: Amanda Isaak, Hilary Klassen, Kevin Maguire, Rosaria Curatolo
Tailors: Robert Laflamme, Claire Sparling
Props: Mark Andres, Christine Mori, Nancy Widdicombe
IMMERSIVE AUDIO
Jerry Placken, Director Strategic Relations & Corporate Innovation, Meyer Sound Laboratories, Inc.
Josh Fehrmann, Senior Technical Support Specialist, Meyer Sound Laboratories, Inc. / Main PA & Immersive Audio Systems Design & Programming
Ian Robertson, Senior Design & Support Specialist, GerrAudio Distribution, Inc. / Main PA & Immersive Audio Systems Design & Calibration
Community Members: Emi Hiruta-Dickson, Hana Hiruta-Dickson, Kaori Hiruta, Christy Kondo, Molly Muir, JoAnne Wang
Ayukawa Family: Granddaughters and Great-granddaughters of Shizuo and Natsue Ayukawa – Emma Ayukawa, Patti Ayukawa, Wendy Kimura, Nicole Shizuko Krawchuk, Pamela Montagne, Rose Nishiyama
“Kimiko’s Pearl”
Story by Howard Reich
Inspired by the family history of Bravo Niagara!’s founders Christine Mori and Alexis Spieldenner, and by the stories of other families who experienced the Japanese Canadian internment
Ayukawa family, British Columbia, ca. 1940
From Left to Right: Sumiko, Noboru, Shizuo, Kaoru, Hiroko, Natsue, Shizuko, Ryuko
ACT I — STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
SCENE 1 — INTRODUCTION (KAGOSHIMA, JAPAN)
At age 17, Shizuo Ayukawa decides to leave his native Kagoshima, Japan, to build a more hopeful future in faraway lands.
Before leaving home, Shizuo resolves to record his adventures in a diary:
Tomorrow, I’m on board a ship at Yokohama harbour to sail to Vancouver. My childhood friend Hitoshi wrote me that there are plenty of opportunities in Canada, if you work hard. I’m going to make a fortune and return to my homeland Kagoshima as a hero.
– 6th year of Taisho (1917)
Shizuo soon will learn that for Japanese, Canada will be a hostile place.
SCENE 2 — ORIGINS (TORONTO/KAGOSHIMA/MISSION, BRITISH COLUMBIA)
More than a century later, Kimiko — a 15-year-old girl living in Toronto — wanders into the basement of her family’s home. Bored but curious, she roots through a pile of discarded items and discovers a battered old trunk with letters and numbers hand-painted on its side: “S. Ayukawa #13657.”
Intrigued, Kimiko opens the trunk and discovers several mysterious items: an old photo album, a silk wedding kimono, tattered newspaper clippings, a vintage radio, a diary, a tiny box, and a handwritten poem titled “Father’s Trunk.”
Two lines capture Kimiko’s imagination:
This wooden trunk scarred with travel Hides tales too painful to unravel.
What tales? What pain? What travel?
To find out, Kimiko opens the diary — and the story of her ancestors comes to life before her eyes. She witnesses a tale no one ever told her: of her forebears’ harrowing journey from Japan to Canada, and of suffering and transcendence that span generations.
Kimiko sees Shizuo confronting loneliness by seeking out a “picture bride” from Japan. He returns there to meet Natsue Tobo, the two celebrating a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony in Kagoshima on Feb. 29, 1928.
The couple endure rough seas on their journey to Canada. They save their pennies, and after six years they buy a nine-acre stretch of farmland in aptly named Mission, B.C. — for they are on a mission to start a new life. They toil sunup to sundown plowing hard, dry dirt, and grow strawberries using techniques handed down through the ages in Japan. They have seven children. Like other Issei – or first-generation Japanese Canadians – they are overcoming enormous hurdles to succeed.
But as World War II engulfs the globe, Shizuo and Natsue sense danger approaching: From March through August 1941, all Japanese Canadians over 16 years old — including Shizuo and Natsue — must register with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Kimiko can feel her great-grandparents’ fears. She pulls from the trunk the vintage radio, turns it on and hears terrifying news: Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor, and Canada has declared war on Japan. Japanese Canadians are now deemed enemies in their adopted homeland.
SCENE 3 — SEPARATION (MISSION, B.C.)
Kimiko learns from the diary that in February 1942, the Canadian government decrees that all male “enemy aliens” ages 18 to 45 will be forcibly removed from a 100-mile “protected area” on the West Coast.
In June 1942, the Ayukawas and their children — including eldest daughter Ryuko — are forced out of their treasured home in Mission, B.C. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer tears Shizuo away from the family. Shizuo is ordered to Angler POW Camp, where Japanese Canadian men were sent for protesting the separation of families.
As she pores over the diary, Kimiko sees her family’s tragedy unfolding before her. Natsue has 24 hours to pack items in the single suitcase allowed during forced removal. Ryuko brings to Natsue the precious kimono Natsue wore at her wedding, which Natsue lovingly places in the suitcase.
The RCMP orders Natsue and the children to Hastings Park in Vancouver, where they and others are shown their new, temporary home: the Livestock Building. Natsue and Ryuko shudder to think animals were cleared out of stalls to make room for the new “enemy aliens.”
Kimiko learns from the diary that in September 1942 — after three months of this degradation — the Ayukawa family is ordered to move to an internment camp in New Denver, B.C. There, the family must subsist in canvas tents while flimsy shacks are being built for the interned Japanese Canadians.
Life grinds on.
SCENE 5 — A TERRIFYING CHOICE (NEW DENVER/TASHME INTERNMENT CAMP, B.C.)
In an emotional high point, Shizuo returns to his family’s new “home” and is reunited with his wife and children. The moment is joyous and redemptive, but it is fleeting. The drudgery of life in internment and the fear of the unknown resume.
Yet in the spirit of the Japanese saying shikata ga nai (it cannot be helped), the Ayukawas try to make the best of the situation.
Nearly three agonizing years will elapse in New Denver.
The Ayukawas are uprooted again, this time to Tashme Internment Camp, B.C. Kimiko finds a photograph of her grandmother Ryuko holding her new baby brother amid hundreds of shacks. In the midst of this distress – and as a gesture of hope in the face of despair – Natsue, Shizuo and the children join the community in performing a traditional, joyous Bon Odori dance honouring their ancestors.
In March 1945, the RCMP posts a “Notice of Dispersal” demanding that all Japanese Canadians 16 and older declare whether they will “repatriate” to Japan or “re-establish themselves East of the Rockies” as “best evidence of their intentions to cooperate” with the government. Repatriation means permanently renouncing Canadian citizenship.
Shizuo and Natsue ponder whether de facto deportation to Japan might be the lesser of two great evils. They come to the painful conclusion that they must leave Canada. Shizuo paints the family name and registration number on the trunk, which he hopes will survive the long journey back to Japan.
But Ryuko, the eldest daughter, insists that the family stay in Canada, as is their moral right.
Though her parents have decided the family should go to Japan, Ryuko grabs the suitcase and dashes away; Shizuo and Natsue rush after her.
Kimiko leaves the stage reading the diary, anxious to learn what future awaits.
INTERMISSION
SCENE 6 — AFTER INTERNMENT: A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (TORONTO)
Eager to learn what happened to her family, Kimiko looks in the trunk again and pulls out a photo album. It traces the story of the next generations via precious family images.
Kimiko sees that Ryuko — like some other Nisei (second generation) — has persuaded the Ayukawas to stay in Canada. Ryuko eventually changes her name to Ricki and heads to the dynamic city of Toronto.
But racism flourishes: Most landlords will not rent apartments to Japanese Canadians, and most employers will not hire them.
The year is 1951, and a photograph shows Ricki working happily as a secretary. Meanwhile, 25-year-old Robert (Tsugio) Mori toils in a sewing factory. His family, too, had suffered during internment, Mori having been sent away to work for pennies in a road camp. They work hard to rebuild all that has been lost.
While awaiting the streetcar after work one day, Ricki meets Robert, who missed his trolley. From this day forward, Robert waits for the same streetcar every day, so he can ride with Ricki. She calls it “a streetcar named desire” as their romance blossoms.
Mr. Levitt, a Jewish man, defies the nearly universal prejudice against Japanese Canadians by doing everything he can to help the young couple start their own manufacturing business. This generous act reflects a timeless Jewish tenet: tikkun olam, the obligation to “repair the world.”
Ricki and Robert marry on March 7, 1954. They are no longer prisoners in Canada.
SCENE 7 — TRANSFORMATIONS (TORONTO)
Ricki and Robert’s only child, 20-year-old Ellen, revels in the heady freedom of being young in the city. But like her ancestors, she struggles for acceptance in a predominantly white society. By donning a mask, she seeks to blend into her surroundings.
Ellen expresses both her youthful joy and her struggles with identity via dance. She’s surrounded by other masked figures, suggesting the anonymity of Ellen’s young life and the ambiguity of her place in the world.
Ellen’s brief marriage to a white man is emblematic of many Sansei (third generation) marrying “out.” To her great joy, Ellen has a daughter, Kimiko.
Kimiko now knows her family’s story.
SCENE 8 — EPILOGUE: COMMUNING WITH THE ANCESTORS (TORONTO)
Kimiko, who now realizes that she is a Yonsei (fourth generation), digs deeper into the trunk and finds a precious document: a printed copy of the Canadian government’s Redress Agreement of September 1988 to Shizuo and Natsue Ayukawa and the 22,000 others who were interned.
Then Kimiko pulls from the trunk the handwritten poem she’d found at the start of the story.
Ellen and Kimiko now dance a duet, signifying that they’ve arrived at a place of peace, after their family’s many generations of pain.
Kimiko discovers a beautiful red kimono in the trunk. As Kimiko beholds the kimono, we see Ellen lovingly and ceremoniously gift it to her daughter. A procession of ancestors flows onto the stage.
Finally, the ghostly ancestor Natsue takes out from the trunk the little box Kimiko had spotted when she first stumbled upon the trunk. Natsue hands the box to Shizuo, and from there it travels to the ghosts of Ricki and to Robert, and then to Ellen, who gently hands it to Kimiko.
Kimiko opens the box and beholds a large, gleaming pearl on a ring. She holds it up to the light to read the worn inscription on the inside: “Feb. 29, 1928” (Shizuo and Natsue’s wedding date).
Kimiko slowly slips the ring onto her finger, keeping her hand lifted and marveling at how the pearl reflects light, colour and, therefore, hope.
To Kimiko, the pearl embodies the story she has just learned. And just as a pearl originates as a mere bead inside an oyster to become a lustrous gem, Kimiko herself has transformed from a girl who knew nothing of her past to a keeper of her family’s treasured story.
Kimiko holds the pearl up to the heavens.
Kimiko’s pearl represents the new person she has become.
Ryuko Ayukawa holding brother Toru | Tashme Internment Camp, British Columbia, ca. 1945
Ryuko Ayukawa (1929-2010) was thirteen years old when she was forced from her childhood home on Cherry Street in Mission, British Columbia. As the eldest of eight Ayukawa children, she took on many of the family responsibilities. Her teenage years were marked by the internment period from 1942 to 1949, as her family was uprooted from Mission, B.C. to the animal stalls of Hastings Park, then to New Denver Internment Camp, B.C., Tashme Internment Camp, B.C., and to Winnipeg postwar.
Ricki Mori (Ryuko Ayukawa) at the original Loblaw office | Toronto, 1953
After the internment, Japanese Canadians were forced to choose between deportation to Japan or resettlement “east of the Rockies.” Ryuko (Ricki) chose to start a new life in Toronto. Despite many businesses refusing to hire Japanese Canadians, she was proud to find employment in the original Loblaw office. The experience she gained there played an instrumental role in her success as a young entrepreneur. Soon after, she met and married Robert (Tsugio) Mori, and together they built their own business, Mori Safety Products Ltd.
Japanese Canadian History
People of Japanese heritage have a long history in Canada. During the late 19th century and into the 20th century, many people came from Japan to work in industries such as fishing, mining, logging, and farming. Japanese communities existed in various places on the west coast of British Columbia and on Vancouver Island, with the largest community centred around Vancouver’s Powell Street on the east side of the city.
On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in the United States. The United States declared war on Japan, and Canada followed suit. In Canada, concerns were raised that the Japanese Canadian population living near the coast would spy on or sabotage Canadian military and security measures for the Japanese. However, experts in the military and the RCMP did not believe that Japanese Canadians posed any threat to safety or security. Despite this, the Canadian government responded to the public’s racism, and ordered all “persons of Japanese racial origin” to be removed from the “restricted zone” within 100 miles of the west coast of British Columbia.
Almost 22,000 people were affected by this order. Most of them were Canadian citizens, and more than half of them were born in Canada. Most of the Japanese nationals had been living in Canada for over twenty-five years. Men, women, and children were forced to leave their homes, many with only two days’ notice or less to prepare. With severe restrictions on luggage, they left behind not only significant assets such as homes, cars, and boats, but also treasured heirlooms and many other precious possessions. These were later sold by the government without the owners’ consent.
The largest number of Japanese Canadians were sent to hastily built camps in the BC interior, where they lived in tiny, crowded shacks with no insulation. This is often
called the internment. Men aged 18-45 were forced to leave their families to work in road camps, or, if they protested this, were sent to prisoner of war camps. Some families, in order to stay together, went to sugar beet farms on the prairies, where they worked very long hours and lived in poor conditions for almost no pay, or went to other provinces.
In 1945, Japan surrendered, and the Second World War ended. But even though no one could argue they were still a security threat, Japanese Canadians were still not allowed to return to the coast. Instead, they were told to either move east of the Rocky Mountains (outside of BC) to show cooperation for the government’s policy of forced dispersal for Japanese Canadians, or go to Japan. Around 4,000 people went to Japan, over half of them for the first time. The others still had to find a way to start their lives over again for the second time since 1942. It wasn’t until 1949 that Japanese Canadians were finally allowed to return to the coast, and given the same rights as other Canadian citizens, such as the right to vote.
In the 1980s, people in the Japanese Canadian community started to organize and lobby the government to apologize for their actions against Japanese Canadians from 1942-1949. This movement is known as the fight for redress. On September 22, 1988, the Government of Canada signed an agreement with the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC). The government formally acknowledged their unjust treatment of the Japanese Canadian community in the 1940s, and as compensation, awarded $21,000 to every surviving Japanese Canadian who had been affected by the unjust policies of forced dispersal and dispossession, as well as a $12 million community fund to the NAJC. This money funded many initiatives, including the building of cultural centres and seniors’ homes, as well as supporting arts and culture projects across Canada.
Credit: Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre
Shizuo and Natsue Ayukawa, ca. 1920s
KIMIKO’S PEARL IS COMMISSIONED AND PRODUCED BY BRAVO NIAGARA! FESTIVAL OF THE ARTS.
KIMIKO’S PEARL
Supporters
BRAVO NIAGARA! GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE GENEROSITY OF THE FOLLOWING SUPPORTERS:
LEAD SUPPORTERS
COMMISSIONING PARTNER AND PRESENTER
Nancy Lockhart and The Murray Frum Foundation
MAJOR SUPPORTERS
Alex Appel in Honour of Carol Appel
The Hawley Family, in Memory of Liz Hawley
LEAD COMMISSIONING PATRONS
Carol and David Appel
CREATION PARTNER
The Frank H. Hori Charitable Foundation
SOUND TECHNOLOGY PARTNER
SUPPORTERS
Christine Ellen Mori, Co-Creator and Producer
Christine Mori is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Bravo Niagara!. A native of Toronto, she began her early musical education at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Mozarteum, Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood before attending The Juilliard School. After graduating from Juilliard, Christine spent thirty years as the principal pianist for the Florida Orchestra, performing with renowned artists such as Isaac Stern, Henry Mancini, Victor Borge, Joseph Silverstein, and Bobby McFerrin. In 2014, she returned to Canada from the U.S. and co-founded Bravo Niagara! with her daughter, Alexis Spieldenner. Together, they are committed to presenting today’s leading artists from Canada and around the world and to producing transformative new works. Creating Kimiko’s Pearl has been one of Christine’s most rewarding projects, as it has deeply connected her with her Japanese Canadian roots.
Alexis Kimiko Spieldenner, Co-Creator and Producer
Alexis Spieldenner is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Bravo Niagara!. A fourthgeneration Japanese Canadian, she is the recipient of Ontario’s 2016 Lincoln M. Alexander Award, presented by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, for her leadership in eliminating racial discrimination and promoting positive social change. Alexis is a Fellow of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management in Washington, D.C. (2022-2024). She currently serves on the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre Board of Directors and Ontario Creates’ Music Industry Advisory Committee. Alexis holds a bachelor’s degree in International Comparative Studies from Duke University, where she graduated with high distinction. Her undergraduate honours thesis “Voices of Four Generations: A Story of the Japanese Canadian Community from Issei to Yonsei” inspired the story of Kimiko’s Pearl.
Howard Reich, Writer
Howard Reich is the Emmy-winning writer-producer of three documentary films and the author of six books, including “Prisoner of Her Past: A Son’s Memoir” and “The Art of Inventing Hope: Intimate Conversations with Elie Wiesel.” Howard served on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Music four times, including the first time a jazz composition won, Wynton Marsalis’ “Blood on the Fields” (1997). Howard holds two honorary doctorate degrees and covered the arts for the Chicago Tribune from 1978 to 2021. His Tribune series “Mac’s Journey” is the basis of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s new opera, “Before It All Goes Dark,” a Holocaust story that Music of Remembrance recently premiered in Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago. As the son of two Holocaust survivors, Howard finds profound parallels between his own family’s story and the Ayukawas’ experiences before, during and after Japanese Canadian internment.
Kevin Lau, Composer
One of Canada’s most versatile and sought-after composers, Kevin Lau has been commissioned by some of Canada’s most prominent artists and ensembles. His work has been performed internationally in the USA, Denmark, France, Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. A prolific composer of orchestral, chamber, ballet, opera, and film music, he served as Affiliate Composer of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 2012 – 2015; to date, he has produced seven works for the TSO. Shortly after, he was commissioned to write two ballets with choreographer Guillaume Côté: a full-length ballet (Le Petit Prince) for the National Ballet of Canada and a half-hour ballet (Dark Angels) for the National Arts Centre Orchestra. His music is represented on many commercial recordings, including two JUNO Award winning albums. Kevin’s creative output, often inspired by the fantastical and the surreal, is unified by the search for deep connections amidst surface diversity—connections that serve as a metaphor for the reconciliation of seemingly fundamental differences.
Yosuke Mino, Choreographer
Yosuke Mino started ballet at AK Ballet Studio in Kanazawa, Japan. He joined the Boston Ballet after spending one year as an apprentice with Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet (RWB). Yosuke rejoined RWB a year later and danced there until retirement in 2022. Yosuke has choreographed pieces for Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Q Dance, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School as well as for Varna International Ballet Competition in Bulgaria, International Solo Tanz Theatre Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, and Ishikawa Ongakudo in Kanazawa, Japan. As a dancer, Yosuke’s repertoire includes Mercutio in Rudi van Dantzig’s Romeo and Juliet, Papageno in Mark Godden’s Magic Flute, Tin Man in Septime Webre’s Wizard of Oz, William Forsythe’s The Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, and Itzik Galili’s Hikarizatto. He premiered the roles of Peter in Peter Pan, Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge - The Ballet by Jorden Morris, Charlie in Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation by Mark Godden, In Tandem by Peter Quantz, and White Rabbit in Shawn Hounsell’s Wonderland.
Aaron Tsang, Sound Designer and Recording Engineer
Aaron Tsang is a Canadian composer and producer who has provided original music, sound design and post-production audio to over a hundred titles and releases across videogames, commercials, television shows, and films. He was the composer for the orchestral score to “Shuyan Saga”, a video game starring Kristin Kreuk (Smallville) released on Steam, Playstation and mobile platforms. As a mixing and mastering engineer, his work for Christos Hatzis’ and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s “Going Home Star – Truth and Reconciliation” in 2017 won the Juno award for “Classical Album of the Year”. Aaron also lectured at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music (2011-2023).
Shannon Lovelace, Costume Designer
Winnipeg visual artist and costume designer Shannon Lovelace received her training at the University of Manitoba and Concordia University, graduating in 1980 with a Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts. Since returning to Winnipeg in 1981 Shannon has exhibited her paintings extensively in North America and abroad. Shannon has worked in the film industry as sketch artist, illustrator and costumer.In 1993 she began her association with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, working as milliner, decorator, dyer and designer. Designs include Butterfly, The Sleeping Beauty, Moulin Rouge- The Ballet, Memphis Ballet’s The Sleeping Beauty, RWB’s Fast Forward, pieces for Anchorage Classical Ballet Academy, designs for Koba family entertainment group and Bravo Niagara!’s Kimiko’s Pearl.
Kevin Lamotte, Lighting Designer
Kevin has created lighting designs for theatre, dance, opera and music companies across Canada and internationally for more than 30 years. Recent productions include La Traviata (Opéra de Montréal) Mahabharata (BarbicanLondon, UK) Clue (Manitoba Theatre Centre), The Secret Garden, The House That Will Not Stand, Blithe Spirit, Playboy of the Western World, The Clearing, Gem of the Ocean, Everybody, Desire Under the Elms, White Christmas, Brigadoon (Shaw Festival) A Christmas Carol (Theatre Calgary), Fidelio (Pacific Opera Victoria). He has won several awards for outstanding lighting design including the Pauline McGibbon Award (Ontario) and the Dora Mavor Moore Award (Toronto). Kevin is the Director of Lighting Design at the Shaw Festival and a member of the Associated Designers of Canada -IATSE Local 659.
Kyra Soo, Kimiko
Kyra started dancing at 3 years old, and began pre- professional training at 13 at the Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver BC. Her professional career started in 2021 as an apprentice with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and she has been a member of the corps de ballet since 2022. She has had the pleasure of dancing various roles in many productions with the RWB, most notably the Sugarplum Fairy in “The Nutcracker’’ and the title role in “Snow White” by French choreographer Anjelin Prejlocaj. Kyra is honoured to dance the role of Kimiko and to be a part of the story being shared.
Yue Shi, Shizuo Ayukawa / Masked Figure
Principal Dancer with the Boston Ballet, Yue Shi began his ballet training at China’s Liaoning Ballet School. After competing at the U.S.A. International Ballet Competition in 2014, Shi was invited to join Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School Aspirant Program. He joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as an apprentice in 2015 and was promoted to principal dancer in 2021. Shi has won several awards, including gold medals at the Shanghai International Ballet Competition senior group (2018), Beijing International Ballet and Choreography Competition senior group (2017), Varna International Ballet Competition junior group (2014), and Seoul International Ballet Dance Competition Junior group (2013).
Chenxin Liu,
Natsue Ayukawa / Masked Figure
Second Soloist with Boston Ballet, Chenxin Liu trained at the Beijing Dance Academy before joining Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet School’s Aspirant Program. She joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet as an Apprentice in 2012 and was promoted to principal dancer in 2021. Her repertoire includes George Balanchine’s Serenade and Allegro Brillante, Val Caniparoli’s A Cinderella Story, William Forsythe’s Vertiginous Thrill of Exactitude, Mark Godden’s Dracula and Miroirs, Greg Horsman’s La Bayadère, James Kudelka’s Vespers and The Four Seasons, Jorden Morris’ Peter Pan, Marius Petipa’s The Sleeping Beauty, and more.
Liam Caines, RCMP / Mr. Levitt / Masked Figure
Liam danced with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet for 16 years, having risen to the rank of Second Soloist. Known for his powerful and charismatic presence on stage, some of his repertoire highlights includes Drosselmeier in Nutcracker, Lead Man in James Kudelka’s The Four Seasons, Captain Hook in Jorden Morris’s Peter Pan, Clergyman in Mark Godden’s Going Home Star: Truth and Reconciliation, Lion in Septime Weber’s The Wizard of Oz, and Dr. Van Helsing in Mark Godden’s Dracula. Liam has performed throughout Canada and the United States, as well as Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Israel, China, and Japan.
Rachel was born in Japan and moved to Canada with her family in 2009. A dancer from before she could walk, Rachel enrolled at Goh Ballet shortly after arriving in Vancouver at the age of 10. After graduation she danced with Royal Winnipeg Ballet for a number of years. Currently Rachel is with Coastal City Ballet in Vancouver. Recent highlights include dancing the role of Nikiya in Lá Bayadere and Sleeping Beauty’s Lilac Fairy. Rachel is so thrilled to be included in the wonderful cast of Kimiko’s Pearl... it is an important work of memory and resilience.
Liam Saito, Robert (Tsugio) Mori / Masked Figure
DC-born, Massachusetts-raised, Liam Saito trained at the Massachusetts Academy of Ballet, and is a graduate of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School Professional Division as well as the Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program. He joined Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company in 2017 and was promoted to the rank of Second Soloist in 2023. Notable performances include the title role in Peter Pan, Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet and The Jester in Swan Lake. In his free time Liam enjoys camping, fishing, hiking and enjoying Japanese food. Liam is excited to be a part of telling the important story of Kimiko’s Pearl.
Yayoi Ban, Ellen
Born in Chiba, Japan, Yayoi began her training at the age of nine at Rei Classical Ballet Institute, under Reiko Togashi, and Momoko Tani Ballet before joining the RWB School Professional Division in 2001. After graduating from the School’s Ballet Academic Program, Ms. Ban spent two years in the Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program before joining the Company as an Apprentice. During her training, she was the recipient of the Arnold Spohr Scholarship. Yayoi Ban (née Ezawa) has been a Soloist in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet Company since 2014, after joining the Company as an Apprentice in 2005, and moving into the Corps de Ballet in 2006.
Conrad Chow, Violin
Canadian violinist Conrad Chow has forged a multifaceted career across two decades, distinctive in the Arts industry as both a leading educator and compelling performer. He currently teaches on the faculty of the Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists, at The Royal Conservatory of Music, Canada, and is also Adjunct Professor of Violin and String Pedagogy at the University of Toronto. His debut CD, PREMIERES, was released in 2012 on the Cambria/Naxos label and reached the #1 spot on Nielsen Soundscan’s Classical Album Charts. “Chow shows off a nice balance between technique and musicality in a program that alternates between fireworks and sweet expressiveness.” – The Toronto Star Dr. Chow earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Indiana University, studying with Miriam Fried; his DMA is from SUNY, Stony Brook, where he studied under Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian, and Philip Setzer. He later pursued post-doctoral work with Eduard Schmieder in Philadelphia.
Rachel Mercer, Cello
Described as a “pure chamber musician” (Globe and Mail) creating “moments of pure magic” (Toronto Star), Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer is Principal Cellist of the NAC Orchestra in Ottawa and Co-Artistic Director of the “5 at the First” Chamber Music Series. She plays with the Ironwood Quartet, Mercer-Park Duo and St. John-Mercer-Park Trio, and was the cellist of JUNO award-winning piano quartet Ensemble Made In Canada, the AYR Trio, and the Aviv String Quartet. An advocate for new Canadian music, Rachel has commissioned and premiered over 30 works including cello concerti by Stewart Goodyear and Kevin Lau.
Ron Korb, Japanese and Western Flutes
Japanese-Canadian flutist Ron Korb has 5 Grammy certificates with 2 earned in 2023 for work on Masa Takumi’s Grammy winning album for Best Global Music Album and Stewart Copeland (The Police) & Ricky Kej’s Divine Tides. Ron represented Canada at 2005 Japan Expo and the Shanghai International Arts Festival where he won the audience choice award. For the opening of the Prince Takamado Gallery at the ROM, with Her Imperial Highness in attendance, he was commissioned to compose a musical tribute. Ron played on The Terror, set in the internment camps starring George Takei and also appeared in Stolen Memories, a documentary about his aunt Kay and his mother Mariko Ennyu Korb during the evacuation.
Mariko Anraku, Harp (Album)
As soloist, chamber, orchestral and recording artist, Mariko has enchanted audiences with her virtuosity and “manifestation of grace and elegance” (Jerusalem Post). Since her debut with the Toronto Symphony led by Sir Andrew Davis, she has been guest soloist with numerous orchestras and given recitals at major concert halls around the world. Since 1995, she has held the position of Associate Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. She has recorded exclusively for EMI Classics, including 3 solo recordings and a CD with eminent flutist Emmanuel Pahud. Mariko is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music and the Bard College Conservatory of Music. She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School and an Artist’s Diploma from The Glenn Gould School in Toronto. She also studied Oriental Art History at Sophia University in Tokyo and enjoys playing community service concerts at hospitals, drug rehabilitation centers, prisons, etc. Mariko was born in Japan and moved to Canada at a young age. She is very grateful to be a part of “Kimiko’s Pearl”, a very meaningful project.
Norman Takeuchi, C.M., Artist
Born in Vancouver, some of his earliest memories are of the interior of BC where his parents were forced to relocate during World War II. Ultimately graduating from the Vancouver School of Art in 1962, he went to London, England, to concentrate on painting, and again in 1967 with a Canada Council grant. In 1996, he left a design career to focus on art. He has since participated in many solo and group exhibitions. His work is represented in permanent collections of the Royal Ontario Museum, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa Art Gallery, TD Bank, Canada Council Art Bank, City of Ottawa, Carleton University Art Gallery, and in private collections in Canada and abroad. In 2023, he received the Order of Canada and the Ambassador’s Award from the Ambassador of Japan, Kanji Yamanouchi.
Lillian Yano Blakey, Artist
Third-generation Japanese Canadian Lillian Yano Blakey was an educator for Equity in the Curriculum and Antiracist Education in the most marginalized schools in North York. Through the depth of her own family’s trauma of WWII racism, she enabled diverse students to navigate their own difficulties. The only Asian President of the Ontario Society of Artists, (est. 1872), she has exhibited her art at the Royal Ontario Museum (2019), the Canadian Museum of History (2022), and the Canadian War Museum (2024). She co-published with Jeff Chiba Stearns, graphic novel On Being Yukiko (2020), about her family’s forced relocation in WWII. Currently her art projections support the ballet Kimiko’s Pearl (2024). Her art is in the Government of Ontario Art Collection and the Nikkei National Museum & Culture Centre.
Emma Nishimura, Artist
Based in Toronto, Emma Nishimura works with a range of media, including printmaking, photography, sculpture and installation. Her work addresses ideas of memory and loss that are rooted within family stories and inherited narratives. Emma has exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work is in a number of public and private collections, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Japanese Canadian National Museum and the Library of Congress. She is the recipient of the Queen Sonja Print Award 2018. Emma holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Emma is an Assistant Professor and the Chair of Photography, Printmaking and Publications at OCAD University.
Adam Markovic, Artist
Adam Markovic, born in Chicago, Illinois, is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. He is a multidisciplinary visual artist, working in painting, ceramics and wood. He has been represented by galleries in Italy, Belgium and Canada. Adam began his career in NYC in the 90’s researching and producing traditional Fine Art materials. This endeavour led him to Florence, Italy where he began his studies of classical painting techniques. It was there that he met his partner, Canadian Artist, Sharon Okun. Together they returned to Canada where they currently live and work, in the Niagara region of Ontario.
Miya Turnbull, Mask-Maker
Miya Kimiye Turnbull (Sansei/Yonsei) is a multi-disciplinary visual artist based in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, NS). She grew up in Alberta on a farm near Edmonton and graduated with a BFA from the University of Lethbridge. She is primarily a mask-maker and focuses on Self-Portraits as a way to explore her identity, and has exhibited her masks, photos, and video in galleries internationally and across Canada. Miya is extremely proud to be a part of the Kimiko’s Pearl Team as this story parallels her family’s experience, even down to the name of her beloved grandmother which was also Kimiko.
Fourgrounds Media Inc., Video and Projection Designer
Fourgrounds is an award-winning, boutique, film and video production house in Niagara, Ontario. Their work ranges from feature, short and documentary film production, video art, projection and public art installation, 2D animation and commercial video production.
M Fera, Stage Manager
M Fera (she/her) is a Toronto-based stage manager and Co-Artistic Director of A.C.T. Productions. M has been stage-managing productions in Ontario for over 10 years. Some of the companies she has worked with include: Canadian Opera Company, TIFF, The Second City, Opera Atelier and The Harbourfront Center. M is very excited to be a part of the world premiere of Kimiko’s Pearl!
Alice Burke, Youth Liaison
In the Arts Community for over 40 years, with her warm personality and enthusiasm, Alice Burke is a sought after youth mentor. Titles include: Dance Animator for FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre; senior faculty member of many professional dance schools and colleges; professional choreographer and adjudicator; advisor in dance programming and career guidance for college, university and high school students. Most recently, she was awarded the St.Catharines Arts in Education Award 2024. Alice is thrilled and privileged to be part of Kimiko’s Pearl!
Mary Ito, Host and
Media Advisor
Mary Ito is a Canadian broadcast journalist who’s worked in radio and television at CFTO, Global, TVOntario, CBC, and CFRB Radio. She’s currently the host of The CRAM Podcast which highlights the innovative work of Canadian researchers. Mary is the former host of the CBC weekend morning show Fresh Air and is still a familiar voice on CBC Radio. She also volunteers as a board member for the international charity Roots of Empathy which operates in eight countries including Canada. Mary is grateful to be involved with Kimiko’s Pearl as Media Advisor. The story resonates with her own family history as her grandfather, father and uncles were interned during WWII.
Nicole Shizuko Krawchuk, Graphic Artist
Nicole Krawchuk, a Toronto native, is a versatile designer specializing in branding, packaging, editorial, and illustration. Her journey into graphic design began amidst her lifelong passion for the creative arts. Graduating from Humber College’s graphic design program in 2022, Nicole embarked on her professional career as a graphic designer at Silk & Snow, a rapidly growing Toronto-based company. Her portfolio boasts collaborations with renowned brands such as Sleep Country Canada, Indigo, Fable Home, and EQ3. Beyond her design expertise, Nicole carries a profound connection to her heritage as a fourth-generation Japanese Canadian as well as the great granddaughter of Shizuo and Natsue Ayukawa. Her involvement in this production resonates deeply with her interest in both her family’s history and the broader narrative of Japanese Canadians.
Céline Peterson, Production Associate and Social Media
Céline Peterson is an accomplished Producer and Artist Representative, leaning into her love of music and desire to create more opportunities for performing artists. Through her company, Céline Peterson Productions, she has worked with the likes of Caity Gyorgy, Robi Botos, Travis Knights, Jackie Richardson, and Dave Young. She spent seven years at the Kensington Market Jazz Festival and since 2017 has worked with Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts in music curation and production assistance. Céline is on the Board of Directors at BuckingJam Palace (Calgary) and is a proud Ambassador for The Coalition for Music Education.
Katie Saunoris, Publicist
Katie Saunoris, founder of KSPR, is an Ontario-based publicist and communication strategist with over 15 years of experience in arts and culture public relations. She has worked for major Canadian institutions including the Stratford Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Soulpepper Theatre Company, Luminato Festival, and the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Central clients of KSPR include the Indigenous Voices Awards, The Festival of Literary Diversity, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, and the Capitol Theatre Port Hope, as well as many notable independent theatre and music organisations across Toronto.
Norman Takeuchi
Floating World
2016, Acrylic on canvas
Lillian Yano Blakey
Certain events can have a major impact that will last a lifetime. The forced removal of the Japanese Canadians - my family was among them - from the west coast into the B.C. interior in 1942 is one of those events. My troubled feelings regarding that traumatic time have remained unfaded along with my ambivalent attitude towards being Canadian of Japanese origin.
Some years ago, as a way of coming to terms with my ethnicity, I began integrating into my predominantly abstract paintings fragments from traditional Japanese woodblock prints combined with iconic Canadian images to illustrate the concept of duality - of being Japanese and Canadian. This became, and continues to be, the focus of my work. I still make references to the internment camps because it is never far from my mind - a period that has shaped who I am - but my work now also pays tribute to the strength and determination of the Japanese Canadians who have been able to rebuild their lives and once again become productive members of Canadian society.
The paintings represent an uneasy search for harmony and balance between the two worlds but ultimately they are a celebration of my Japanese heritage. I have learned to embrace the two cultures.
Doko ni ikimasuka? Where are we going?
2022, Ink drawing
As the 22,000 Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed by their own Government from everything they knew, they stepped into the unknown, fearful of what would happen to them. They asked themselves silently, “Doko ni ikimasuka? Where are we going?” And yet, they persevered.
The Ayukawa family were relocated an unimaginable number of times – Hastings Park animal barn, New Denver Internment Camp, and Tashme Internment Camp. Each time, they were subjected to horrific living conditions. And each time, they embraced their predicament to give their children the best lives possible. They finally found a home in Toronto, Ontario - east of the Rockies - the only choice they had to remain in Canada. Each time, they asked silently, “ Doko ni ikimasuka? ” Each time, they faced their fears and persevered. Gaman. They rose above the ashes of the past to begin a new life… each time.
Emma Nishimura
New Denver (Version 2)
2024, Digital collage created from archival pigment prints on gampi
Growing up I listened and learned of the complicated history my grandparents endured throughout their forced incarceration as Japanese Canadians in the Second World War and in the years after. I took in the stories and the images and as the years went by, I began to research and attempt to understand all that I could. The constructed landscapes that appear in the ballet explore the relationships and interactions between the sites where these stories occurred and the memories themselves. Moments are recreated, and a landscape is revisited; yet nothing is exactly as it was. The boundaries between truth and fiction have become too blurred. Instead, a cycle, a loop of memory work has been set in motion, in which the layers of meaning
and the alternate readings of events, can be seen in the fractured and obviously constructed elements of the works. Traces of memory can be found, links to forgotten places are established, while voids and absences investigate the fragments and silences of what has been left unsaid or forgotten. At times tenuous and in other moments concrete, a seemingly continuous horizon line runs throughout the work, laying the foundation for a landscape that has witnessed much, but changed very little. Offering a shifting sense of grounding, the line also separates and divides, highlighting the desire to locate memory, as well as the importance of letting it slip away. For at times the need to forget can be just as important as the need to remember.
KIMIKO’S PEARL
Art and Photo Credits
NORMAN TAKEUCHI,
C.M.
Hastings Park, Tashme, Angler (A Measured Act Series), 2006, Acrylic, conté crayon, oil pastel, photo transfer on shaped paper support Floating World, 2016, Acrylic on canvas
Onna Mask On Blue, Onna Mask On Green 1, Onna Mask Into Yellow No.2, Tenjin Mask Into Blue, Tenjin Mask Into Red, Tenjin Mask on Pink, 2011, Acrylic on paper mounted on masonite Kimiko’s Pearl - Epilogue, 2024, Acrylic on canvas
Kagoshima, 2024, Watercolour
Sunrise over the Rocky Mountains, 2024, Watercolour Mission, B.C. Untamed Land, 2024, Watercolour Mission, B.C. Strawberry Farm, 2024, Watercolour
Doko ni ikimasuka? Where are we going? (detail), 2022, Ink Drawing Toronto cityscape from Centre Island Series, 2024, Watercolour Toronto New Day, 2024, Watercolour Handwritten poem, 2024, Pen and ink on Shoji paper
EMMA NISHIMURA
Locating Memory V, VI, VII, 2012, Archival pigment print and photo-etching on gampi with thread
A Confl ated Terrain, 2014, Archival pigment print on gampi with thread
New Denver (Versions 1 and 2), 2024, Digital collage created from archival pigment prints on gampi
ADAM MARKOVIC
Dragonfl y, 2022, Oil on Panel
Photographs courtesy of Ayukawa family, Canadian War Museum, Moriyama Teshima Architects, Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, University of British Columbia Archives, Tom Arban, and Christine Mori.
Video of Ayukawa trunk (CWM 20170022-001) courtesy of the Canadian War Museum.
Shizuo’s Diary calligraphy by Graham Mayeda. Translation by Fumi Torigai.
PROGRAM PHOTO CREDITS
Front cover: Kyra Soo as Kimiko. Photo by Réjean Brandt. Calligraphy by Rie Takeda. Page 3: Photo by Bo Huang.
Page 11: Kyra Soo as Kimiko. Photo by Alex Heidbuechel. Sketch by Shannon Lovelace. Page 14: Yue Shi and Chenxin Liu as Shizuo and Natsue Ayukawa. Photo by Réjean Brandt. Pages 16-17: Photos by Alex Heidbuechel and Réjean Brandt.
LILLIAN YANO BLAKEY
“Board-formed” concrete pattern.
CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM
Photo courtesy of Moriyama Teshima Architects.
ADAM MARKOVIC
Dragonfl y, 2022, Oil on Panel
Acknowledgements
Yano
BRAVO NIAGARA! FOUNDERS
Christine Mori, Artistic Director Alexis Spieldenner, Executive Director
BRAVO CIRCLE MEMBERS
BRAVO NIAGARA! BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Stéphanie Filippi, Chair • Darren Bruce, Treasurer • Carol Appel • Rochelle Ivri • Nicolette Novak • Jerry Placken • Chris Robertson • Doug Widdicombe • Christine Mori, ex officio • Alexis Spieldenner, ex officio
Bravo Niagara! gratefully acknowledges the following supporters.
BRAVISSIMO Carol and David Appel • Nancy Lockhart and The Murray Frum Foundation • The Hawley Family, in memory of Liz Hawley BENEFACTOR Bruce Bailey, in honour of Carol and David Appel • Ellie Tesher and Vian Ewart IMPRESARIO Ron McLaughlin and Carol Hansell VIRTUOSO Virginia Atkin and Keith Ambachtsheer • Mary Jo Haddad and Jim Forster • Gary Torgis and Sandra Morris • JoAnne Wang and Richard Fournier • Anonymous gift PATRON Darren Bruce, CPA • Harry Core • Barry Cromarty • Diane and Rob Fahlman • In memory of Linda Keogh • Karen McGrath • Nicolette Novak • Nancy Riley and Blake Murray • Alistair and Chris Robertson • Bonnie Rose • Peter Simon • Victor and Anne Solomatenko • Doug and Nancy Widdicombe • Anonymous gifts (2)
BRAVO CIRCLE MEMBERSHIP AND OUTREACH TEAM
Teresa Lasiuk • Mike Carruthers • Karen McGrath
SPECIAL THANKS
Ayukawa Family • Ballet ETC • Ron Bremner • Canadian War Museum • Consulate-General of Japan in Toronto - Consul-General Matsunaga • Embassy of Japan in Canada - Ambassador Yamanouchi, First Secretary Akiko Yamasaki • Corwin Ferguson • FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre - Colleen Smith, Sara Palmieri, staff and volunteers • Jeff Herd • Tami Hirasawa • Mary Ito • Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre - Gary Kawaguchi, Chris Hope, James Heron • Bryce Kanbara • Jeanette Lee • Masaki Sushi • Graham Mayeda • Art Miki, CM, OM • Mission Community Archives • Monaghan’s Antiques • Mori Family • National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund - Sarah Conn, SGS, Chris Dearlove, and team • Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre • Nikkei Voice - Kelly Fleck • Oakville Ballet - Amanda Paterson • Royal Winnipeg Ballet • Brian Rudy • Jeff Chiba Stearns • Student volunteers Claire Breadner, Olivia Somerville • Tashme Museum • Fumi Torigai • Yellow Door Theatre Project - Andorlie Hillstrom
