In this program, we’ll hear several works that invite us to consider the world around us, even during these challenging times. Jocelyn Morlock‘s Disquiet, inspired by Shostakovich, invokes a feeling of continuous nervous energy that lurks in the shadows, with bursts of intensity.
Emily LeBel‘s Murmur, conversely, calmly observes the sounds heard from within a big-city apartment. In Ashes to Light the Sky, Harry Stafylakis contemplates the ultimate political misuse of science, as he imagines trying to look up at the stars through the haze of nuclear ashfall.
Turning to a more optimistic tone, the second half of the program begins with Andrew Balfour‘s celebratory Kiwetin-acahkos: Fanfare for the Peoples of the North, composed for Canada’s 150th anniversary, followed by a short ode to tranquility by the great Georgian composer Giya Kancheli.
The festival closes with a composer who has left an indelible mark on WNMF and on all of contemporary art music, Philip Glass. Part of the third volume of his multi-year Concerto Project, his Concerto Grosso features three movements, each one written for a distinctive group of instruments, shifting the spotlight between players of the WSO.