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Esprit Orchestra is looking ahead to a busy second half of their 40th anniversary season. First up is the return of their New Wave Festival. Established in 2002, the festival aims to feature works by celebrated, international composers of new and experimental music alongside pieces by young emerging composers, both from Canada and abroad.
This year, concerts will take place in the new TD Music Hall, an intimate performance venue nestled within the walls of Toronto’s Massey Hall. With its in-hall bar, state-of-the-art technical capabilities, and a more relaxed atmosphere than the traditional concert hall, this space is well suited for the occasion.
Supporting and encouraging the voices of emerging composers is a cornerstone of much of Esprit’s work, and the New Wave Festival is no exception—in fact, at its inception, this was its aim. The orchestra runs what it calls its Three Year Creative Strategy, through which it commissions works by a cohort of young composers over the course of a three-year period, and subsequently features these works on the New Wave Festival program. This provides young composers with the opportunity to write for an elite-level ensemble that specializes in new music, as well as giving them a platform on which their works are showcased in tandem with pieces by some of new music’s most widely recognized—and influential—figures.
Among the composers currently taking part in the Three Year Creative Strategy, and premièring works at this year’s festival are Stephanie Orlando, Julia Mermelstein, Sophie Dupuis, and Roydon Tse.
Stephanie Orlando’s current works take a musical approach to exploring approaches to and elements of mental-health treatment. Her piece, 4-7-8, written for chamber orchestra, counts 30 cycles of those numbers, which make up a pace breathing pattern—a form of controlled breathing. She explores this pattern as both a form and a mindfulness concept, in a slow, grounded way, recalling the sounds of inhalation, of stillness, and of release. The piece “builds,” she says, “to an apex, and then comes back down,” while maintaining an air of gentleness.
Julia Mermelstein, like Orlando, is in her second year of the Creative Strategy program, and will be premièring her second commission for Esprit, Between Walls. Initially prompted by an Alan Watts lecture on the web of life, Mermelstein takes inspiration from “the complexity of woven fabrics” as she depicts “the subtlety of texture, from a single thread (to a) more macro form.” She invites listeners to experience the “in-between of sounds, as they evolve, and make up a bigger picture.” As is the case with a great deal of her work, the piece makes use of acoustic instruments as they interplay with electronics. This is Mermelstein’s first work for chamber ensemble and electronics. Both Orlando and Mermelstein’s works will première at New Wave 2, on April 16.
Sophie Dupuis, meanwhile, is looking ahead to April 12, when her first commission for Esprit will première. L’histoire que les vagues racontent, for 14 musicians and live electronics, was inspired by time spent near the sea, and presents a reflection on “all of the memories it holds.” The New Brunswick native describes this work as “taking a bit of a risk,” as it weaves together “waves of melodies.” Tying these melodies together are the live electronics, performed by Dupuis herself; this has presented an opportunity to “expand her live processing skills and try new things.”
Roydon Tse’s Mobilize will also be featured on the April 12 program. Originally commissioned in 2020, the piece was intended for the New Wave Festival of the following year, but was cancelled due to the pandemic. “I wanted to say something personal,” says Tse, whose piece is a meditation on protests in Hong Kong, where he was born. He describes it as a “reflection on the trauma done unto the city,” with a sense of “hope and unity in the face of oppression”—not violence—as the central theme. “Mobilize is about coming together, good or bad.”
It’s evident that there is a sense of community among these young composers, as they all express excitement at the prospect of hearing each other’s works. “I really enjoy all of their music,” says Mermelstein. “I’m excited,” adds Dupuis, “to hear what they’ve come up with.” Throughout the program, young participating composers get the chance to “get to know each other’s work,” says Orlando, and really “become familiar with it.”
“It’s a melting pot,” notes Tse, as he reflects on the ways in which the festival brings together “international and intergenerational perspectives on new music.” For Orlando, this was made manifest all too clearly, as festival attendees will experience the première of her piece on the same program as one of her mentors’ works: Orion Constellation Theory, by Andrew Staniland.
With their mission to champion new music, Esprit is something of a rarity—and to “have the kind of support” as an emerging artist, says Mermelstein, “is a big deal.” The importance of this work will ring clearly through TD Music Hall in two not-to-be-missed evenings of new music.
Playlist
Esprit Orchestra presents the New Wave Festival 2023 at the TD Music Hall in Toronto :
NEW WAVE 1
Wednesday, April 12, 2023
7 p.m.NEW WAVE 2
Sunday, April 16, 2023
7 p.m.
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
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