Esprit Orchestra presents Tour de Force

Program:
Thomas Adès: Overture to The Tempest (2004)
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: ax* (2024)
Christopher Goddard: new work** (2025)
Ben Nobuto: Serenity 2.0 (2021)
Gabriella Smith: Tumblebird Contrails*** (2014)

* North American premiere
** World premiere, commissioned by Esprit Orchestra
*** Canadian premiere
 
Paired with the exuberance of Chris Goddard’s specially commissioned tour de force aimed at “showcasing the fearless ethos of Esprit”, Adès's powerful overture for his opera The Tempest heralds in our Edge of Your Seat International Festival. Gabriella Smith’s piece evokes her experience of ravens rolling, swooping, diving, soaring, in an inspired, imagined ecstasy of the sound of wind, surf, sand and sea under never-ending streaks of jet trails across the sky. The transfixing aspects of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s piece are intensity and urgency (loud orbits of sound) alternating with calmness and stillness (coloured, ethereal textures). Back by popular demand is Ben Nobuto’s Serenity 2.0 for string quartet and electronics - a guided meditation continually derailed. Bookending our festival with another Nobuto work, this delightful piece hints at what is in store when we perform his Hallelujah Sim., a large-scale, exceptionally humorous take on the Hallelujah Chorus, structured like a game, for which we are joined in April by a choir of 72 singers plus electronics.