New Music Festival. VSO plays John Luther Adams: Become Ocean

Tickets

Cost: $28.00
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"[Become Ocean]...may be the loveliest apocalypse in musical history" -The New Yorker

In a program that draws inspiration from the environment and natural sounds, zoomusicologist Emily Doolittle’s Reedbird – a direct transcription of the fast, bubbly song of the bobolink, slowed and expanded so that human listeners can appreciate its complexity and tonal richness – sees its world première. Jan Sandström’s Ocean Child follows, “a tribute to life, to curiosity and childishness” and “the eternal force of creativity” composed after watching his young daughter play in the ocean for the first time. In the second half, the orchestra takes on John Luther Adams’ Grammy and Pulitzer-prize winning Become Ocean; a piece like nothing else you’ve ever heard, Become Ocean is made up not of melody, harmony, nor even rhythm, but of waves of immense, roiling energy that envelop the orchestra and audience alike in its colossal, unrelenting soundscape. Adams, as always focussing our attention while not forcing any conclusions, had this to say: “Life on this earth first emerged from the sea. And as the polar ice melts and sea level rises, we humans find ourselves facing the prospect that once again we may quite literally become ocean.”

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL is a celebration of new creations, and leading edge works for a modern symphony orchestra. The 6th Annual New Music Festival, the first under the baton of Maestro Otto Tausk, features a new commission for VSO Principal Percussion Vern Griffiths written by Canadian composer Nicole Lizée, a world première commission by Canadian composer Emily Doolittle, the Vancouver premières of Become Ocean by John Luther Adams and Ocean Child by Jan Sandström.

This evening:
Otto Tausk, conductor

Repertoire
Emily Doolittle: (World Première Commission)

Jan Sandström: Ocean Child

John Luther Adams: Become Ocean
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