(Photo credit: Curtis Perry)

Baritone Joshua Hopkins and Yannick Nézet-Séguin give the U.S. orchestral premiere of Jake Heggie and Margaret Atwood’s “Songs for Murdered Sisters.”

Hopkins’ sister, Nathalie Warmerdam, was one of the victims in one of Canada’s worst cases of domestic violence. Since Warmerdam’s murder in 2015, Hopkins has since set out on a journey to use his voice to wake people up to the global epidemic of gender-based violence – and their part in it. Jake Heggie and Margaret Atwood answered his call.

Atwood who wrote the text for “Songs for Murdered Sisters” shared in a press release, “I have known two women who were murdered, both by jealous former romantic partners, so the killing of Joshua’s sister resonated with me. I made the ‘sisters’ plural because they are indeed – unhappily – very plural. Sisters, daughters, mothers. So many.”

Hopkins says, “Margaret’s haunting words and Jake’s extraordinary music helped me face this loss head-on and process it emotionally through my art.” Through this work he aims to motivate 10,000 men to take the White Ribbon Pledge, promising “never to commit, condone, or remain silent about all forms of gender-based violence.” Hopkins also shared his powerful testimony with a governmental inquest in Canada, convened to recommend policy changes to better protect survivors of intimate partner violence in rural communities. Since then, nearly 100 municipalities in Ontario have declared intimate partner violence to be an epidemic.

The work was originally released during the pandemic as a film and a Juno-nominated album. “Songs for Murdered Sisters” was also the centerpiece of an emotional tour across Ontario with Hopkins and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in 2023.

Nézet-Séguin will lead The Philadelphia Orchestra and Hopkins in performances of the U.S. orchestral premiere at Philadelphia’s Marian Anderson Hall on Jan. 9 and 11, and at Carnegie Hall on Jan, 15.