NEWS reduces schedule

The New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia is heading into its 36th season with plans to ease up big time.

On Thursday, Nov. 17, the group launches the first of a three-concert season at the Myer Horowitz Theatre. For some groups this offering would be a full plate. For the medium size wind and reed ensemble it’s a slowdown.

Last year, under the musical direction of Ray Baril, they performed six concerts, toured southern France and Spain, and recorded an album.

“We went overboard last year and we can relax this year,” says Baril who is on sabbatical as MacEwan University’s head of the wind department.

He adds that three St. Albert stalwarts who made some significant contributions were Remi Noel and Darwin and Crystal Krips.

The opening concert, Made in Canada, is the official release of their newly pressed one-hour CD, O Music, which shares its title with the iconic Allan Gilliland composition of the same name.

The six Canadian tracks have never been previously recorded. In fact, when the Canadian Music Centre heard it, they offered to distribute it.

“This is adding to the canon of wind band literature. It’s gone way further than we could imagine,” Baril says.

Both the album and the concert salute Canadian music.

“We tend not to look in our back yard, but Canadian music is very eclectic. It ranges from the integration of the British and French military tradition of the early 1800s to the assimilation of folk music in the 1900s to the much more contemporary and individual style of composition found in newer schools of Canadian composers.”

One tune on the concert roster is the late Dr. Malcolm Forsyth’s 1978 composition Colour Wheel, a complex work of colours and rhythmic textures. Forsyth, one of NEWS’ original trombonists, was raised in South Africa before coming to Canada.

“It was important to put Malcolm’s piece on it because he spent most of his time here. Canada had opened its doors and it offered him a new direction in music.”

The ensemble also plays Howard Cable’s (Canada’s most famous band composer) Stratford Suite, an epic jewel that takes Shakespearean elements and sets them to music.

Perhaps one of the freshest, most imaginative works is Chaos to the Birth of a Dancing Star commissioned by Salisbury Composite High School.

Composer Allan Gilliland was invited to attend a one-week composer-in-residence workshop where students were encouraged to compose the motifs and melodies.

“After spending the week, he went away and wrote a seven-and-one-half minute piece that starts with chaotic disorganization. Musically it depicts the chaos of a new star and how its character changes and becomes more organized ending in a dance.”

In summing up the concert, Baril says, “It’s an important concert in that it shows the depth and breadth of Canadian musical diversity. There’s something for everyone. There are moments when you will feel challenged, but it’s most very comfortable.”