Joshua Hopkins is set to tour Margaret Atwood and Jake Heggie’s “Songs for Murdered Sisters.”

The set of eight songs was created in response to one of the worst cases of domestic violence in Canadian history. On the morning of Sept. 22, 2015, in Renfrew County, Ontario, one man went on a killing spree, brutally murdering three ex-partners in their separate homes. One of these women was Nathalie Warmerdam, the sister of Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins.

In his grief, Hopkins resolved to use his voice to wake people up to the global epidemic of gender-based violence and their part in it. Hopkins will take the song cycle through Ontario and will be joined by Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, which co-commissioned the work with Houston Grand Opera.

Under the baton of Alexander Shelley, performances will take place at Southam Hall in Ottawa on Feb. 9 and 10, 2023; at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on Feb. 11, 2023; and at the Isabel Bader Centre in Kingston on Feb. 14, 2023.

The Kingston performance will be live-streamed for free internationally via the Isabel Digital Concert Hall. The performance will then be available to watch through Feb. 21, 2023.