Esprit Orchestra presents CHASING VITO

Tuesday, March 4th / 2025 | Koerner Hall
8:00PM Concert | 7:15PM Musical Insights with Alexina Louie & guests
Alex Pauk, Music Director & conductor
Ryan Scott (Canada), marimba
Guest composer: Vito Žuraj (Slovenia)

Festival #1:   CHASING VITO 

From the blast of percussive virtuosity in Abe’s The Wave to the immense force of wind power summoned up in Žuraj’s Anemoi, audiences will be on the edge of their seats as these reverberations wash over them. While The Wave features percussion only, a large battery of percussive forces forms part of a gigantic orchestra conveying the mythic powers of Žuraj’s winds of antiquity as they sweep into our life experience today.
 
In keeping with the meaning of its title, Shaw’s Entr’acte, for strings alone, is a refreshing diversion between these pieces as it riffs on classical form and “takes you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass in a kind of absurd, subtle, technicolour transition.”
 
Keiko Abe (JP): The Wave (2000)
Caroline Shaw (US): Entr’acte (2011)
Vito Žuraj (SI): Anemoi* (2024)
*North American premiere, commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic & Esprit Orchestra