8:00PM Concert
FREE RECEPTION FOLLOWING THE PERFORMANCE

How do you suppose American composer Gabriella Smith comes up with such inventive titles for her works? Tonight, we’ll present the third of her cleverly titled pieces this season. On this evening’s program, Esprit also revisists Claude Vivier’s crowd favourite Pulau Dewata for chamber orchestra and contrasts a solo work for piano with larger works by the same composer (Gabriella Smith) performed earlier in the season. A reprise of Chris Paul Harman’s Partita provides listeners the chance to hear Mark Fewer perform this immensely virtuosic piece in the fine acoustic environment of Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre, and Ryan Scott will be sure to amaze with an electrifying performance of Keiko Abe’s Michi. After the concert, stick around to mingle with the artists and enjoy a free refreshment! Can you imagine what an Imaginary Pancake sounds like?

featuring

Alex Pauk Conductor
Wesley Shen Piano
Mark Fewer Violin
Ryan Scott Marimba

PROGRAMME

Claude Vivier (CAN)
Pulau Dewata (1977)
Arranged by John Rea

Keiko Abe (JPN)
Michi (1979)
for solo marimba

Ben Nobuto (GBR)
Serenity 2.0* (2021)
for string quartet, percussion & electronics

Gabriella Smith (USA)
Imaginary Pancake (2020)
for solo piano

Chris Paul Harman (CAN)
Partita #2 for Solo Violin (2019)

*Canadian Premiere

8:00PM Concert
7:15PM Musical Insights with Alexina Louie & Guests

Along with World Premieres of two chamber orchestra works (Mermelstein & Tse), this program reprises a work with Brazilian inflections that Esprit previously commissioned from our percussionist Mark Duggan. Percussion has a strong presence on this concert with Ryan Scott performing Abe’s Michi, a marimba solo in contrast to the composer’s The Wave performed earlier in the season. A spectacular percussion duo by Trevino heightens the concert’s percussive element. Two superb string quartets, radically different from one another, highlight the styles of Smith and Rea. Gabriella Smith has a unique sensibility when it comes to naming her pieces. Experience a Carrot Revolution.

featuring

Alex Pauk Conductor
Ryan Scott Percussion
Michael Murphy Percussion
Aline Morales Vocalist 
Thalea String Quartet

PROGRAMME

Gabriella Smith (USA)
Carrot Revolution (2015)
for string quartet

Mark Duggan (CAN)
Maracatu Imaginário (2017)
for vocalist & ensemble

Julia Mermelstein (CAN)
Floral Reef * (2024)

Quinn Jacobs  (CAN)
New Work * (2025)

Roydon Tse (CAN)
Stepwise * (2023)

Ivan Trevino (MEX)
Wildlings (2014)
for two percussionists

John Rea (CAN)
Objets perçus (2023)
for string quartet

*World Premiere & Esprit Orchestra Commission

8:00PM Concert
7:15PM Musical Insights with Alexina Louie & Guests

In Streich’s ISHJÄRTA distinctive chordal characteristics emerge in a soundspace of contrasting layers—mists, shimmering veils, a capped, shielded world. This is a piece about heart and intensifying expression.

Eötvös’ DoReMi Concerto reconfigures the notes of various well-known nursery rhymes and childhood songs to create tensions and conflicts as in real life. Dramatic situations can evolve—and in this work they do!

A question for audiences of 2118 about how notions of time, space, sound and history have shaped their world guided Norman in writing Sustain as a continuous spiral contemplating the rise and fall of species, the movement of tectonic plates, the birth and death of stars and the question of how the Earth will fare over long periods into the future.

featuring

Alex Pauk Conductor
Akiko Suwanai (JPN) Violin
Lisa Streich (SWE) Guest Composer
Andrew Norman (USA) Guest Composer

PROGRAMME

Lisa Streich (SWE)
ISHJÄRTA * (2022-23)

Peter Eötvös (HUN)
Violin Concerto #2 "DoReMi" ** (2011-12)

Andrew Norman (USA)
Sustain (2018)

* North American Premiere
** Canadian Premiere

8:00PM Concert
7:15PM Musical Insights with Alexina Louie & Guests

From the blast of percussive exuberance in Abe’s The Wave to the immense force of windpower summoned up in Žuraj’s Anemoi, audiences will be on the edge of their seats as the reverberations from these pieces wash over them. While The Wave features percussion only, a large battery of percussive forces forms part of a gigantic orchestra conveying the powers of Žuraj’s winds of antiquity.

Prepare to be swept away. In keeping with the meaning of its title, Shaw’s Entr’acte, for strings alone, is a refreshing diversion between these pieces as it riffs on classical form and ”takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolour transition.”

featuring

Alex Pauk Conductor
Ryan Scott (CAN) Marimba
Vito Žuraj (SVN) Guest Composer

PROGRAMME

Keiko Abe (JPN)
The Wave (2000)
for marimba & 4 percussionists

Caroline Shaw (USA)
Entr'acte (2011)
for string orchestra

Vito Žuraj (SVN)
Anemoi * (2024)

* North American Premiere, commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker & Esprit Orchestra

8:00PM Concert
7:15PM Musical Insights with Alexina Louie & Guests

Soloist friends of Esprit and outstanding soloists drawn from within Esprit are spotlighted in this program performing three exceptional concertos from different cultures. Reich’s minimalist, energized and infectious Runner sets the pace for this concert and leads to the contrasting, intense and distilled poetic moments of Abrahamsen’s Double Concerto with individual soloists relating to each other separately then alternatively playing in unison. Full attention will be on Erica Goodman in her performance of Music Director Pauk’s Harp Concerto, a work of virtuosity bringing the wide-ranging musical experiences of the composer’s background into play in a kind of musical self-portrait.

Gorecki’s concerto won’t let you go. From the work’s first flurry of notes the piece takes you on an electrifying wild ride. Breathtaking!

featuring

Alex Pauk Conductor
Mark Fewer Violin
Kevin Ahfat Piano
Erica Goodman Harp
Wesley Shen Harpsichord

PROGRAMME

Steve Reich (USA)
Runner * (2016)

Hans Abrahamsen (DNK)
Double Concerto (2011)

Alex Pauk (CAN)
Harp Concerto (2005)

Henryk Gorecki (POL)
Harpsichord Concerto (1980)

* Canadian Premiere

8:00PM Concert
7:15PM Musical Insights with Alexina Louie & Guests

Sound forms of immense power or poetic, delicate beauty are the musical essences for experiencing this concert. Flowing, pulsing, riveting energies arise in time-transcendent creations. f(x)=sin2x-1/x is a mathematical formula conveying the shape of Smith’s “in the groove” piece which moves with exhilarating rhythmic drive to end with a cascade of brass flourishes serving as our season’s opening fanfare. Sørensen’s intimate, captivating work, in slow motion, creates an intoxicating sensual atmosphere. Ishii’s massive sound-space continuum is imbued with surprise and its East/West cross-cultural fabric provides it with tremendous imaginative power. Such illusive descriptions of varied inspirations only begin to hint at the varied richness and grand scope of the three amazing works on this concert.

featuring

Alex Pauk Conductor
Michael Bridge Accordion

Programme

Gabriella Smith (USA)
f(x)=sin²x-1/x * (2019)

Bent Sørensen (DNK)
It is pain flowing down slowly on a white wall ** (2010)
for accordion & string orchestra

Maki Ishii (JPN)
Fu-Shi ("Shape of the Wind") (1989)

* Canadian Premiere
** North American Premiere