Contributing music to the world

DANIEL MATÉ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

Mention It's a Wonderful Life to most people, and you'll probably get the response, "Oh yeah, that Christmas TV movie." It's certainly not thought of as a film that touches Jewish heartstrings. So, it may come as a surprise to some people that the woman in charge of the music for Carousel Theatre's current production of the musical adaptation of Wonderful Life is none other than "our" own Wendy Stuart.

Stuart has become a fixture in both the Vancouver Jewish and musical communities. Here for some 30 years, she is widely renowned for her diverse talents and interests. Asked about the possible contradiction between being Jewish and doing a Christmas show, Stuart laughs.

"The only thing 'Christmas' about it is that it takes place on Christmas Eve," she said.

As in the Frank Capra film, the musical focuses on George Bailey, a man driven to the brink of suicide by despair. Convinced that his life is meaningless and without value, he is about to throw himself off a snowy bridge when the story begins. Intervening on his behalf is Clarence, who is George's "guardian angel." Clarence gives George a profound and terrifying gift: the chance to see what the world would be like if there had never been a George Bailey.

Therein lies the key to what has Stuart see this "feel-good but interesting" story as one worth telling to all people, not just those whose traditions include celebrating Christmas Eve.

"We all create a world around us," she said. "We rarely appreciate the impact we actually have on that world, and doing so can give us another reason to value our lives."

Stuart's own life has already taken many "wonderful" turns of its own, and she has certainly created her own world of work, in composing, arranging, directing, scoring and ethnomusicology.

Growing up just north of Manhattan in Yonkers, New York, Stuart was exposed to the magic of musical theatre at an early age.

"You can't grow up in that part of the world and not be involved with it in some way or another," she said.

Her first directing gig came at age 13, a Jewish day camp version of South Pacific. Already, her skills at piano, key transposition and arranging music were showing up as real assets.

Her interest in the world's folk music styles grew out of her time in Jewish youth groups. She learned Israeli dancing as a teenager while on a Histadrut program in Israel. Upon her return to New York, she began to explore other forms of folk-dancing, attending weekly sessions at Columbia University. She was fascinated by the complex meters and unfamiliar musical modes of, among other traditions, the "Gypsy" music of the Balkans.

After completing her undergraduate studies in music and French at McGill University in Montreal – where she met and married her current husband of 35 years, Ron Stuart – she moved to Vancouver and completed a master's of music in the relatively new field of ethnomusicology, or musical anthropology. Her first published work in the field concerned a subject most people had never heard of: the gambling music of the Northern Coast Salish First Nations.

Since then, Stuart's musical world has expanded even further. She has studied Japanese traditional music extensively, having lived in Japan with her husband, Ron, for several years. She even plays two classical Japanese instruments, koto and shamisen. She has also performed music from Africa, most notably in the 2001 Chutzpah! Festival's sold-out show Shongololo. And, of course, good old, down-home Yiddish music has found a stable place in her repertoire.

What is most striking about Stuart's career is the way she has continually brought these seemingly disparate cultures under one artistic umbrella. Her arrangements, for instance, have combined Japanese, Native Canadian and Jewish music, and placed them all within the unlikely context of the choir.

Stuart also is the artistic director of the Sacred Music Festival, an acclaimed annual three-day multicultural celebration, featuring performers from many f the world's spiritual traditions.

It's a Wonderful Life runs until Jan. 5 at the Waterfront Theatre on Granville Island. For tickets and information, call the Carousel box office at 604-685-6217 or TicketMaster at 604-280-4444.

Daniel Maté is a freelance writer and performer living in Vancouver.

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