Black Tie and Tails will be the attire (for the huskies, anyway!)
Texas Husky Rescue will be participating in this amazing tribute to the awesome wonder known as huskies at the https://roco.org/performances/roco-in-concert-feels-like-home/ opening weekend. Composer Heather Schmidt writes an uplifting tribute to real-life husky rescues in Husky Chronicles, premiering in partnership with local shelters and rescue organizations.
Program notes are detailed below, but here is the TXHR connection. We’ve been asked to provide photos of our dogs to be projected during the performances on Friday, September 26, 7:30 pm, at Miller Outdoor Theatre and Saturday, September 27, 5:00 pm, at The Church of St. John the Divine.
In addition, we are excited to announce we will also have a booth and husky guests at the Saturday performance. The schedule is as follows:
- 4:00 pm – greet arrivals and spread husky glitter
- 5:00 pm – performance starts
- 7:00 pm – performance ends; say goodbye to audience and spread more husky glitter!
Live streaming both nights is available, so if you can’t make it, you can still participate! This performance will also be livestreamed free at ROCO.org, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch.
PROGRAM NOTES
Huskies are an amazing and unique breed of dog. Many of them have the trademark stunning blue eyes, and with their wolf-like appearance and beauty, many people find them irresistible. They’re friendly, incredibly intelligent, and they have a lot of personality. They became even more popular after the wolves featured in Game of Thrones TV series and Twilight movies, much in the same way that everyone wanted a Dalmatian after the movie 101 Dalmatians came out. However, huskies are also a handful. Many people get them without doing research and they end up with a dog that’s more difficult to manage than they expected, which leads to a surplus of unwanted huskies abandoned in shelters and dumped in the streets. There is a huge crisis of huskies on death row in shelters in southern California, where I currently live. Huskies howl, they “talk,” they shed excessively, they love digging holes in yards, and they are masterful escape artists capable of undoing gate and door latches, jumping over fences, and digging out underneath. Many of them have an innate “call of the wild” and they can be hard to contain. They are highly energetic and extremely intelligent, and they can get destructive if they don’t get enough exercise, or if they don’t have enough mental stimulation.
Huskies are a big part of my life, and I was thrilled when Alecia Lawyer approached me about composing a piece inspired by huskies and husky rescue. For many years, I had a pack of five huskies and husky mixes. Currently, I have three dogs, including a husky named Rondo and a husky mix named Radar. In 2016, I founded a non-profit 501c3 dog rescue in Los Angeles called Hollywood Huskies, which has since rescued and adopted out over 1500 huskies. In 2018, I founded a second rescue, Halo Husky Haven, in my hometown of Calgary, Alberta in Canada. We have transported over 200 huskies from Los Angeles to be adopted through this sister rescue in Canada, where there are far fewer huskies in need and where the huskies can enjoy the snow and cold temperatures suited to their genetics and temperaments. The Canadian rescue also assists with local huskies in need.
Husky Chronicles depicts four different facets of husky life and rescue. The first movement captures the fast, playful, and energetic personality of huskies, and it is titled Capriccio , a musical form known for its fanciful nature, lively tempo, and brilliance. The second movement, Aurora Borealis musically illustrates the phenomenon of northern lights commonly found in the northern climate regions where huskies are known to originate from and thrive. With their thick fur and undercoat, huskies love the cold regions and are known to comfortably tolerate temperatures as cold as 60 degrees Fahrenheit! The third movement, Elegy, is a tribute to the memory of all the huskies loved and cherished by their humans. It also reflects the heartbreaking aspects of husky rescue. The final fourth movement, Odyssey, represents huskies’ endurance and their innate ability to travel for long distances. Huskies bred as working sled dogs can travel over 100 miles in a day! Odyssey also portrays the lengthy journey of each individual husky from their initial rescue through to finding their forever home,
You can buy tickets at https://roco.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/events/a0STS00000P2krZ2AR
