It might be the Christmas season but conductor Ray Baril believes it’’s more fun for himself and his musicians at New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia (NEWS) to host a concert of non-holiday music.
To that end Sea Songs promises to create a unique ebb and flow of rhythms from water’s many moods at the Myer Horowitz Theatre this Thursday.
“We need to develop a standard repertoire and there’s a lot of music out there about the sea, water or canals,” says Baril who has a special affinity to water and moors his sailboat Sun Dancer at Pigeon Lake.
Baril has also invited Allene Hackleman, principal horn player with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) and Edmonton thespian Ken Agrell-Smith as special guests.
St. Albert musicians include Darwin Krips (euphonium), Crystal Krips (flute/piccolo) and David Otto (tuba) with Sturgeon Country residents Wesley Brenneis on string bass and Remi Noel playing trombone.
One of the leading works is Ralph Vaughn Williams’ 20th century British piece Sea Songs, with navy and folk water tunes. The Irish folk song Lagan Love>, named after the River Lagan that runs through Belfast, is a more poignant piece that remembers lost loves.
NEWS also sails across the pond with American composer Anthony Iannaccone’s two-movement work Sea Drift, a piece that borrows poetry from Walt Whitman classics. “It reflects the surge and pull of the seas.”
In Francis McBeth’s epic Sailors and Whales, the composer has borrowed five scenes from Moby Dick that the narrator — in this case Agrell-Smith — will pull together. “Each movement contrasts in musical style.”
One of the definitive highlights promises to be Edmonton composer Alan Gilliland’s Loch Na Beiste, originally commissioned by the ESO. Gilliland recently reset this composition of the Loch Ness monster for wind ensemble.
“It’s a wonderful depiction of the Loch Ness monster in the water and of people who think they see the beast. It’s like a music dance where it ramps up into a wild frenzy and drops to a forlorn melody. It’s cool.”
The one deviation from sea and water songs will be Hackleman’s interpretation of Mozart’s Concerto for Horn in E-Flat. “She is an amazing horn player. She’s been the principal horn player at ESO for five or six years and she’s undoubtedly Edmonton’s finest horn player. She brings her experience to the ensemble and it’s important for our development to play with someone at the top of their game.”
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets at the door are $20 for adults and $15 for students/seniors.
Preview
Sea Songs<br />New Edmonton Wind Sinfonia<br />Thursday, Dec. 9 at 7:30 p.m.<br />Myer Horowitz Theatre<br />University of Alberta Student Union Building<br />Tickets: $20/adults; $15/students, seniors; available at the door.
