Just ahead of her 80th birthday in November, the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra is celebrating the music of Joni Mitchell with special guest singer, Sarah Slean.
This isn’t the first time for orchestral performances of Mitchell’s works by the SSO. Slean says she sang with the orchestra five years ago in celebration of Joni Mitchell’s 75th anniversary. It was the first time the orchestrations had been heard live in Canada.

This performance explores the music from the albums Both Sides Now and Travelogue.  Slean puts Joni Mitchell in the same category as Stravinsky, turning musical tradition on its head, blurring the lines between pop songs and high art, and she says, hearing those songs with an orchestra is powerful. She says, “It’s beautiful. It’s nostalgic but it’s also those songs you know and love, but on some kind of deeper level.”  Saturday’s performance is at TCU Place at 7:30.