In Saturday’s (2/27) Toronto Star (Canada), William Littler previews this week’s world premiere of Paul Frehner’s From the Vortex Perspective by Peter Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra “as part of the orchestra’s annual three-concert New Creations Festival [representing] yet another example of the kind of innovative programming symphony orchestras are undertaking these days to remain relevant.” From the Vortex will incorporate imagery by filmmaker Peter Mettler. “Another Canadian composer, Kevin Lau, will be represented in the festival by the premiere of ‘Winds of Change,’ which adds not only a string quartet to the orchestra (the Afiara), but turntables manipulated by DJ Skratch Bastid, who will also bring the festival to a close two Saturdays from now with the premiere of his specially commissioned Festival Remix.” Says Gary Kulesha, the TSO’s composer-adviser, “Audiences are interested in being stimulated…. We are in a meta-modern era…. We want to return the expressive powers of music using everything available to us…. Our audience has developed a trust in what we do and we try in the festival to expose them to the variety of today’s musical world. The year Peter Eötvös helped curate was not easy for the audience. But they came back the next year.”
Posted February 29, 2016
