One Life Beautiful
The school year got off to a fast start this year, as the Wind Ensemble’s first concert of the season was in early October, after only four weeks of rehearsal! All of the pieces on the program had a sense of something hidden under the surface, either literally or metaphorically. Gustav Holst’s Hammersmith casts the river Thames as a silent observer of the changing London cityscape, while Roshanne Etezady’s Anahita is inspired by a mural painting, now covered by a false ceiling, of the Persian goddess of the waters. The concert culminated with a transcription of the “Four Sea Interludes” from Benjamin Britten’s opera Peter Grimes, in which the sea is effectively an independent character, ominous and powerful. The musicians of the wind ensemble did an incredible job with this extremely challenging work, as you can hear below:
The Wind Ensemble concert was titled after its opener, Undercurrents, by Robert Buckley, which takes inspiration from the flocking behaviour found in many different species of animals. Buckley, who is a Canadian composer based in Vancouver, had planned a visit to the Toronto area to work with a number of local school and community bands. The Rouge River Winds, who have performed many of his works over the years, prepared his Tribute to Arthur Delamont as part of our recent concert, “One Life Beautiful”. The program also included Nancy Galbraith’s moto perpetuo Danza de los Duendes and David Maslanka’s moving Give Us This Day. The concert went very well, but unfortunately Bob was unable to fly to Toronto because of a medical emergency. (Update: he’s doing well now, and coming in the spring instead!)
Meanwhile, across town the following weekend, the Milton Philharmonic Orchestra opened their 12th season with an audience-forward concert called “Meet the Orchestra”. The program included music by Johan Halvorsen, Dag Wirén, and Johannes Brahms, plus a performance of Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf featuring local theatre icon Mary Pat McBride as the narrator. We also took time to answer questions from the audience about how the orchestra chooses and prepares music, decides how to set up the orchestra, and more!
Finally, more exciting news: earlier this semester I applied for advancement within the University of Toronto system, and I just received word yesterday that I have been advanced to the rank of Sessional Lecturer II, retroactive to September! This is my fourth year teaching at UofT and my first time teaching multiple courses, and I am grateful for the recognition of my service to the school.