Turning Point Ensemble to Launch 10th Season with MUSIC OF A THOUSAND AUTUMNS, 10/7-8

Turning Point Ensemble kicks off its 10th Anniversary season with Music of a Thousand Autumns performed on Oct. 7 & 8th at the Annex Theatre, 823 Seymour Street at 8pm celebrating works by prominent Canadian composers Dorothy Chang, Anthony Tan, Linda Catlin Smith and Alexina Louie. Ticket prices are $37 Adults, $34 Seniors, & $12 Students available at www.turningpointsensemble.ca.

"Turning Point Ensemble is an all-star band of Vancouver musicians that I am honoured to be a part of," stated Owen Underhill, Artistic Director. "In celebrating the 10th Anniversary this first concert of the season showcases some of Canada's most accomplished composers with three premieres of new works by Anthony Tan, Linda Catlin Smith and Alexina Louie."

The concert opens with Music for a Thousand Autumns by Alexina Louie; composed in 1983. Consisting of three movements, it represents three time periods in the composer's life -- her present, past, and future. The piece was written with the death of composer Claude Vivier in mind, which made her think about the contribution of the artist to the world, and what exists after the artist dies.

The premiere of On the Sensations of Tone #1 by Anthony Tan follows. The title of this work references Hermann Helmoltz's classical acoustics text: On the Sensations of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music (1863). This piece combines physics, physiology and psychological aspects of listening in order to explain the origins of musical notions of harmony and dissonance. The next premiere that follows is Gold Leaf by Linda Catlin Smith. Exploring a variety of sound colours one finds in the rich combination of instruments of the chamber orchestra, the work is like a painting of harmonic colour -- adding in pitches to harmonies and changing the lightness or darkness of the harmonic palette. The percussion adds a shimmer here and there, like applying a bit of gold leaf to the surface.

Three Windows by Dorothy Chang is inspired by the coast of BC, where an open stretch of sky meets the vast ocean waters, and the coastline is defined by groups of towering pines and firs that are steadily giving way to massive high rise construction. Looking out toward the Pacific, one's eye might catch in a single glance the striking juxtaposition of nature, man and machine. Each of this work's three movements isolates a specific element of this multi-dimensional panorama.

The evening concludes the premiere of Alexina Louie's new work, A Curious Passerby At Fu's Funeral. This new multi-movement work for large ensemble is a dramatic composition that inhabits a highly charged emotional landscape. Commissioned by Owen Underhill and The Turning Point Ensemble, it explores extreme ranges of heightened activity. Where one movement surges forward with virtuosic exchanges between the piano and the percussion, another movement begins with solo utterances in the oboe, which serves as the introduction to a series of haunting sho-like chord clusters.

Come and experience an exciting evening of new work -- another musical adventure provided Turning Point Ensemble. For further information visit: www.turningpointsensemble.ca.

Photo: Alexina Louie

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