The final performance of the Vancouver Island Symphony’s 2021-22 season will introduce the first of three planned commissioned pieces for the orchestra.
Pierre Simard, who appears for the final time as the artistic director and conductor, said the June 24 performance of Electrifying Eroica at the Port Theatre in Nanaimo will premiere a piece by Vancouver composer Katerina Gimon called Playing into Silence.
“We were going to play that piece two years ago when suddenly everything shut down,” he said. “We were just three weeks before playing it when everything stopped. And so this was the occasion to bring it back.”
Gimon’s work is the first commissioned piece for the orchestra planned for the next three years, which includes the combination of voice, string orchestra and words by the Nanaimo poet laureate. At the start of the commission, the poet laureate was Tina Biello.
Also appearing as a guest artist will be Vancouver soprano soloist Dory Hayley who sings Biello’s poems in a three-movement piece.
The performance will be Hayley’s first feature with the Vancouver Island Symphony.
Electrifying Eroica is Simard’s favourite Beethoven symphony, and a “great way to go” as a final performance.
“It’s a pleasure to play – the musicians love it. It’s a brilliant, fun, open, joyful symphony. It’s not a dark horse or anything. It bears its title quite well – it’s a heroic symphony and comes out of COVID. It’s sort of something of a tribute to the resilience that we all have to go though and to just keep going.”
Electrifying Eroica will have four movements by Ludwig van Beethoven, and is heralded as one of his most celebrated works. It is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, the timpani and a string section.
The concert will have two performances on June 24, at 5 p.m. and at 7:30 p.m., with a half hour break in between for a change of audience.
Although the 2021-22 season marks the 14th with Simard at the helm, he said he hopes it won’t be his last appearance with the symphony.
As for a finale, Simard said he has nothing special planned for the show.
“As a musician, as a conductor, music always comes first. And so my role remains, until the last minute, I have to place the focus on the music itself,” he said. “I’m both excited and sad for this performance. It’s going to be really emotional. But I’m more excited than sad because I’m quite optimistic for the future of the orchestra. It’s a transition, and I think they’re in good hands.”
READ MORE: Vancouver Island Symphony conductor stepping down
mandy.moraes@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter