December 2022 Update

This fall was the first since the start of the pandemic to see musical activities back in full vigour, and I have the enormous opportunity to work with the University of Toronto Wind Symphony this year. In our first concert of the year in October, we presented the North American premiere of Maltesia Suite by Jose Ignacio Blesa-Lull. That piece came to me courtesy of the And We Were Heard project, and as part of the deal we also had the privilege of creating a reference recording of the piece. The concert, titled “Globetrotter”, also featured Seatbelts Fastened! by Jan van der Roost, Machu Picchu by Satoshi Yagisawa, and Guy Woolfenden’s fantastic Illyrian Dances.

Our most recent concert featured 2022 Winds Concerto Competition winner Samuel Chen, performing William Bolcom’s Concert Suite for Alto Saxophone and Band, as well as James Barnes’ Symphonic Overture and one of my all-time favourite works, Danceries by Kenneth Hesketh. Watch the video of the Barnes below:

Meanwhile, the Rouge River Winds’ first concert of the year was a repurposed version of the one we had been preparing for April 2020, before things shut down. Works carried over from the postponed program, like City Trees by Michael Markowski and Of Sailors and Whales by W. Francis McBeth, were joined by new works such as Wilderness by Cait Nishimura and Wolf Song by Bob Baker and Robert Buckley. Our upcoming concert features some original works for wind band, including Stella by Jonathan Dagenais, as well as some seasonal favourites.