Singer Judi Richards helped produce Harmonium’s second album in 1975 and will have the chance to “come full circle” on Thursday evening by performing these classics during the Harmonium Symphonique concert at the Sainte-Anne-de Sanctuary. -Bowsprit.
When she was at Studio Tempo in Montreal in 1975 to record promotional content, Judi Richards had no idea that she would be lending her voice to a cult album from our province. Imagine if we had also told her that she would be performing it 48 years later accompanied by the Quebec Symphony Orchestra.
“I was young and didn’t know when the Harmonium sound engineer approached me if I wanted to lend my vocals to the band’s album,” recalls Ms. Richards, who was recording commercials at the nearby Harmonium studios, when he made the suggestion have been done. “I wasn’t sure what was expected of me, but I did it and Serge [Fiori] I refined it with myself and voilà; “I engraved my voice on this record forever,” says the performer, who still has a little difficulty believing it.
On Thursday evening at the Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré shrine, Judi Richards will reconnect with the songs that led her to discover her love of Quebec music.
“As you get older, it feels like certain things come back, so you can come full circle,” notes the 74-year-old from Toronto. “It’s stressful to perform these songs almost 50 years later, but I just listen to the songs and it takes me straight to 1975 in the studio,” she explains feverishly.
His biggest fan will be there
Legendary Quebec comedian and husband of Judi Richards, Yvon Deschamps, will be an attentive spectator of the premiere of the Harmonium Symphonique concert.
“I’m not going to pressure him to see all three performances,” Ms. Richards says with her infectious laugh. “It’s a long journey and it’s a lot that he’s here on the first evening,” says the happy woman, who has been married to the monologue since 1971.
Without going into details, Mr. Deschamps’ wife claims that he is also in a phase of “closure” and that there are currently “several projects” on the table inspired by his career.
“We’re wondering how and in what order we’re going to present it all,” Ms. Richards says, adding that there are currently two productions on stage and one on screen in the works. “But I don’t want to talk about it too much,” she adds.
Despite the ambitious launches her husband is taking part in, Judi Richards isn’t worried that he’ll run out of steam.
“He is more present at the beginning of projects; He gives his opinion and approves the plans that are proposed to him, but he doesn’t have to sit down and actually work,” she explains. “At last he works without working; It’s a great retirement.”
- The High Mass of the show Story without words, presented by Harmonium Symphonique, will perform at the Sanctuary of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré from October 12th to 14th. The exhibition will then be shown at the Saint-Jean-Baptiste church in Montreal from November 16th to 18th.
- High Mass is the first chapter in a trilogy of shows paying tribute to the group Harmonium, which will be performed across the province until the end of the year.