About Dreaming in North America / Rêver en Amérique du Nord
Dreaming in North America is part of The Two Faces of the Dream, a national concert series presented by Harmonaire Musique across Canada throughout 2026. The project explores the relationship between classical music and the inner psychological world of composers, inviting audiences to experience music not as distant historical art, but as deeply human expressions shaped by memory, imagination, movement, and emotional life.
This Vancouver program brings together works spanning more than three centuries, from Johann Sebastian Bach to contemporary North American voices such as Jessie Montgomery and Vivian Fung. Though separated by time, geography, and musical language, these composers share a common thread: the transformation of inner experience into sound.
At the center of the project lies the imaginative world of Robert Schumann, whose artistic identity was famously divided between the fictional figures Florestan and Eusebius. These imagined alter egos represented two opposing yet inseparable forces within the composer’s mind — passion and reflection, impulse and introspection, turbulence and lyricism. Schumann’s “two faces” serve as a symbolic framework for this series, reflecting the emotional dualities that continue to shape artistic expression across generations.
Each concert in the series combines live performance with spoken interaction before and during the performance. Through storytelling, commentary, and introduction, audiences are invited into the emotional, psychological, and physical worlds behind the music and its creators. By breaking down traditional barriers between performers and listeners, The Two Faces of the Dream seeks to make classical music more accessible, personal, and connected to contemporary life.