Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra

Last updated
Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra (PEISO)
Orchestra
PEI Symphony Orchestra logo.png
Founded1967
Location Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Music directorMark Shapiro
Website www.peisymphony.com

The Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra (PEISO) is a community orchestra based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Founded in 1967, the orchestra consists of professional, amateur, and student musicians, and is led by conductor Mark Shapiro, who became music director in 2013. [1] The PEISO's annual concert season consists of four programs, which are performed either at the Confederation Centre of the Arts or at Zion Presbyterian Church in Charlottetown. [2]

Contents

History

In 1967, a group of musicians and PEI community members entered into discussions that would result in the formation of the PEI Symphony Orchestra. These included professors Thomas Hahn and Hubert Tersteeg - both members of the newly inaugurated UPEI music department - and music teacher Cornelius "Con" Zaat. [3]

Among the many guest soloists who have performed with the PEISO are Canadian classical musicians Martin Beaver, Measha Brueggergosman, Denise Djokic, Marc Djokic, Janina Fialkowska, Rivka Golani, Anton Kuerti, Suzie LeBlanc, Wendy Nielsen, Shauna Rolston, and Jasper Wood. Featured popular music artists have included musicians such as John Allan Cameron, Lennie Gallant, John McDermott, Nancy White, Richard Wood, and groups such as Barachois, The Barra MacNeils, Jive Kings, Paper Lions, and Vishtèn. [4] Many local musicians have also been featured as soloists, including the young winners of the annual Suzanne Brenton Memorial Award, which is administered by the PEI Kiwanis Music Festival Association. [5]

As part of its ongoing commitment to the performance of Canadian music, the PEISO has commissioned many works by Canadian composers, including several by Jim O'Leary, a PEI composer originally from Newfoundland. The first of these was O'Leary's Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, which was commissioned with the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts, and premiered on October 23, 2005 with trombonist Dale Sorensen. [6] On April 5, 2009, the PEISO performed O'Leary's Three Studies for orchestra. [7] Two years later the PEISO commissioned F. Jane Naylor to compose a new work for a program featuring music by women composers; her Two Connections for orchestra was premiered on October 16, 2011. [8] [9] That same year the PEISO named Jim O'Leary composer-in-residence, which resulted in the creation of three new works: Softly at Night the Stars are Shining for soprano and orchestra (premiered on April 3, 2011 with soprano Helen Pridmore); [10] Sixty Three for orchestra (premiered on April 15, 2012); [11] and Choose Other Routes for jazz trumpet soloist and orchestra (premiered on April 14, 2013 with trumpeter Paul Tynan). [12]

During his tenure, O'Leary initiated a Call for Scores competition aimed at PEI composers, which resulted in the premiere performance of Richard Covey's Arise for orchestra on February 10, 2013. [13] [14] In 2014 the PEISO held another composition competition, administered with the financial support of the PEI 2014 Fund, a program implemented by both the PEI provincial and Canadian federal governments to celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of the 1864 Charlottetown Conference. Composers across the country were invited to submit orchestral works on a Canadian theme, and the two winning works, Garrett Krause's Where Pines and Maples Grow, and Alice Ping Yee Ho's Ocean Child, were premiered on November 23, 2014. [15] Also in 2014, with support from the PEI Council of the Arts, the PEISO commissioned Richard Covey and PEI fiddler Roy Johnstone to collaborate on a symphonic poem celebrating the natural beauty and cultural diversity of Prince Edward Island. Titled in homage to the local Mi'kmaq First Nations people and their word for their island, Abegweit: Symphony for an Island received its premiere on February 1, 2015. [16] For the 2017 celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Richard Covey and fellow Atlantic Canadian composers Leo Marchildon, Kevin Morse, and Andrew Staniland were commissioned to contribute scores for a collaborative work, Cantata for Canada 150, for which each composer set poetry written by four young PEI students chosen through a province-wide poetry contest. Created with partial funding from the Canadian federal government, the new work was premiered on November 19, 2017. [17] [18] Also on this program was a performance of Canadian composer Kati Agoc's A Hero’s Welcome: Sesquie for Canada’s 150th, which was co-commissioned through a partnership with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's Canada Mosaic program, a Canada 150 signature project funded by the Government of Canada. [19] [20]

In 2016, the PEISO received the Charlottetown Arts and Culture Artistic Excellence Award. [21]

Music directors

In years without a music director, conducting duties were performed by guest conductors and/or music director candidates. [4] Guest conductors have included Howard Cable, Brian Jackson, Scott MacMillan, and Dinuk Wijeratne.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tan Dun</span> Chinese-American composer and conductor (born 1957)

Tan Dun is a Chinese-born American composer and conductor. A leading figure of contemporary classical music, he draws from a variety of Western and Chinese influences, a dichotomy which has shaped much of his life and music. Having collaborated with leading orchestras around the world, Tan is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Grawemeyer Award for his opera Marco Polo (1996) and both an Academy Award and Grammy Award for his film score in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). His oeuvre as a whole includes operas, orchestral, vocal, chamber, solo and film scores, as well as genres that Tan terms "organic music" and "music ritual."

Steven Isserlis is a British cellist. He has led a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, author and broadcaster. Acclaimed for his profound musicianship, he is also noted for his diverse repertoire, command of phrasing, and distinctive sound which is deployed with his use of gut strings.

The Charlottetown Festival is a seasonal Canadian musical theatre festival which runs from late May to mid-October every year since 1965.

Prince Edward Island is a province of Canada consisting of the island of the same name, and several much smaller islands. Prince Edward Island is one of the three Maritime Provinces and is the smallest province in both land area and population.

Christopher Chapman Rouse III was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.

Sarah Frances Beamish is a British composer and violist. Her works include chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music. She has also worked in the field of music, theatre, film and television, as well as composing for children and for her local community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Pike</span> Musical artist

Jennifer Elizabeth Pike is a British violinist.

Mark Simpson is a British composer and clarinettist from Liverpool. In 2006, he became notable for winning both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year, making him the first and, to date, only person to win both competitions.

Brian Elias is a British composer.

Michael Charles Colgrass was an American-born Canada-based musician, composer, and educator.

Zara Nelsova was a prominent cellist.

Alexander Prior is a British composer and conductor who studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He is currently the conductor for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Earl (composer)</span> South African composer and pianist

David Earl is a South African composer and pianist. He was educated at Rondebosch Boys' High School. He made his professional debut at the age of sixteen when he broadcast Bach, Chopin and Chabrier on the SABC. In 1968, he performed Felix Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No 1 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. In 1971, he moved to London where he studied at Trinity College of Music. He studied under Jacob Kaletsky and Richard Arnell. After a live début broadcast recital on BBC Radio 3 in 1974, his first recital at Wigmore Hall was reported as "stylish and powerful" by The Times. In 1975, he was selected as one of the Young Musicians of the Year by the Greater London Arts Association. He also won first prize in the 1976 SABC Piano Competition. He was described by The Daily Telegraph as having "remarkable gifts of style, technical mastery and artistry". He made his début as a composer in the 1977 when he premiered his own Piano Suite No 1 Mosaics at Wigmore Hall. His concerto repertoire includes the Viennese classics, many from the nineteenth century, and amongst those from the 20th, the piano concertos of Arthur Bliss and John Joubert, both of which he studied with the composers. Conductors he has appeared with include Hugo Rignold, Maurice Handford, Piero Gamba and Christian Badea.

Leo Marchildon is a Canadian organist, music director, film/theatre music composer and producer based in Prince Edward Island.

Denise Djokic is a cellist from Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Strad magazine has called her instantly recognizable for her "arrestingly beautiful tone colour".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Windsor Symphony Orchestra</span> Canadian orchestra

The Windsor Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian orchestra located in Windsor, Ontario. The orchestra performs in South Western Ontario, playing both classical and popular music.

Joseph Phibbs is an English composer of orchestral, choral and chamber music. He has also composed for theatre, both in the UK and Japan. Since 1998 he has written regularly to commissions for Festivals, for private sponsors, and for the BBC, which has broadcast premieres of his orchestral and chamber works from the Proms and elsewhere. His works have been given premieres in Europe, the United States and the Far East, and he has received prestigious awards, including most recently a British Composer Award, and a Library of Congress Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Award. Many of his works have been premiered by leading international musicians, including Dame Evelyn Glennie, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, and the Belcea Quartet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Covey (composer)</span> Canadian composer

Richard Covey is a Canadian composer who is currently a Sessional Instructor in the Department of Music at the University of Prince Edward Island.

eklektikos is a classical chamber music ensemble specializing in the performance of music by contemporary Canadian composers. Based in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, its core members include Dale Sorensen, Morgan Saulnier (flute), Karem Simon (clarinet), and Richard Covey (piano).

Daniel Fardon is a British composer of contemporary classical music.

References

  1. ↑ PEISO. "New Music Director". www.buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  2. ↑ "P.E.I. Symphony concert". CBC.ca.
  3. ↑ Reesor, Alan (October 2017). "PEI Symphony, then and now". The BUZZ. Retrieved 2022-09-26.
  4. 1 2 Nimmo, Jim, ed. (2008). The Prince Edward Island Symphony at 40. PEISO.
  5. ↑ "PEI Symphony Orchestra – Education". peisymphony.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  6. ↑ Bergstrom, Anne (October 2005). "PEI Symphony Concert". buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  7. ↑ Wigmore, Ivy (May 2009). "V is for victory". The BUZZ.
  8. ↑ Wigmore, Ivy (November 2011). "A Rare Treat". buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  9. ↑ Cole, Sally (October 14, 2011). "Women in music". The Guardian.
  10. ↑ Doran, Heather (April 2011). "Composer-in-Residence". buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  11. ↑ Cole, Sally (April 5, 2012). "Ready to take the ride". The Guardian.
  12. ↑ Wigmore, Ivy (May 2013). "Mozart and More". buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  13. ↑ Wigmore, Ivy (March 2013). "Let Us Celebrate". buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  14. ↑ Cole, Sally (February 8, 2013). "Making its debut". The Guardian.
  15. ↑ Wigmore, Ivy. "All Canada, All the Time". www.buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  16. ↑ Wigmore, Ivy (March 2015). "Symphonic Poems". buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  17. ↑ Ollerhead, Michelle. "PEI Symphony—50th season". www.buzzon.com. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  18. ↑ "PEI Symphony Orchestra – Poetry Contest Winners Announced!". peisymphony.com. Archived from the original on 2017-07-24. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
  19. ↑ Orchestra, Toronto Symphony (2016-08-09). "PEI Symphony Orchestra". TSO Canada Mosaic. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  20. ↑ Communications, Government of Canada; Canadian Heritage. "Orchestrating the Toronto Symphony Orchestra CANADA MOSAIC". canada.pch.gc.ca. Retrieved 2017-10-23.
  21. ↑ "Leaders in the Arts and Culture Sector Recognized at Awards Ceremony". City of Charlottetown. Retrieved 2017-10-24.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.