Sonic Boom Festival Comes to Vancouver in March

Vancouver Pro Musica will present a special hybrid Sonic Boom Festival of exciting new works by BC's finest composers, performed by some of BC's finest musicians from March 11 - 13, 2022, both in person and online. This years' festival is powerful, innovative, and expansive with over 34 composers premiering their works.

"Our long-running Sonic Boom Festival offers audiences a sampling of the newest creative ideas in contemporary classical music now being explored by our diverse and ever-creative composer community in BC", stated Glenn Sutherland, Vancouver Pro Musica President. "As well, it showcases the artistry and professionalism of our talented local performers as they bring these new works to life."

The festival begins Friday, March 11th at 7:30pm in Pyatt Hall at the VSO School of Music with a variety of works for mixed ensembles. The concert features a new dense harmonic work by guitarist-composer Chris Albanese Tracings. Other works included are Athena Loredo The Far Ends, John L. Baker, Pentahexaflexagon: Five Academic Inventions, Katherine Bonness, Night-shining clouds, Britney Dawn Do, Blurry, Jeffrey Ryan, Suture, Antony Knight, Lune, qui là-haut s'embrume, Francis Sadleir, Patches, Edward Top, Confluence, and Goushi Yonekura, Stardust.

The festival continues Saturday, March 12th at Pyatt Hall at 7:30pm with seven premieres, including a unique composition by Ramsey Sadaka, Saying Nothing. Inspired by the writings of the great Chinese poet, Li Qingzhao (1084-ca. 1155), it was written for the konghou, a traditional Chinese harp. Nathania Ko, one of the few performers of this instrument in Canada, will provide a rate opportunity to hear the unique colours of this instrument. The other works include Kara Gibbs, That was the Year, Dubravko Pajalic, Serenade for Wind Quartet, Jack Campbell, 4x4, Matthew-John Knights, Shadow Figures, Mariah Mennie, Patchwork, Glenn Sutherland, Caribou Crossing, and Isaac Zee, In the Cave of Crystals.

There are two concerts on Sunday, March 13th at the Orpheum Annex - a 2pm matinee and an 8pm evening performance. The 2pm matinee features French Horn artist Valerie Whitney performing 5 pieces with works by young talents. Henry From, an award-winning 17-year-old composer, violinist, and pianist, has composed Improvisation, by creating a sense of spontaneity with metrical and rhythmic shifts. Another young talent is 14-year-old Judah Williams whose work Fragments for solo horn in F is a series of musical episodes based on various themes. The work experiments with the vast range and extensive textures that can be achieved on the French horn. Also included are Kehao Cai's Marching in the City Center at Night where he uses augmentation, inversion and retrograde to create variety, Craig Day's Eagle and Réjean Marois, Prelude & Dances both works for solo horn. The full program also has mixed ensembles which include new works by Adam Junk, Toccata, Ben Ledochowski, The Land of Broken Pots, Mark Marinic, Aurea, and Wylie Ferguson, Danger of the Fortunate Seven.

The 8pm concert is another rich assortment of new pieces. The evening concert is rounded out with a mixture of premiere works that include Diane Berry, Where We Meet, San Meadahl, Ethereal Fluidity, Leslie Opatril, Greenslide in Spring, Albin Rickman, Swedish Rondo, Nadia Schibli, Dance of Disoriented Figures Burning in a Box, Michael Trew, Recalling the Night and rd wraggett's Vicissitudes for Flute and Classical Guitar. Featured is the composition, Missing You, Rodney Sharman. This piece was written for the talented duo of flutist Mark McGregor and guitarist Adrian Verdejo, who are dedicated interpreters of his work. At the duo's request he wrote the piece informed by the work of composer Jo Kondo, with whom Rodney studied Japanese music at the University of Victoria.

Sonic Boom Festival 2022 continues to adapt in the age of COVID. This year one can access to all concerts digitally, and also with the welcome return to live performances, hearing these new works live on stage. The festival is following its mission to nurture this art form and provide a vehicle for talented composers to present premieres of new work. This year is no exception.

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