GS2: Resonant Landscapes

This concert brings together six works that explore colour, texture, and the imaginative possibilities of wind quintet and percussion, spanning seven decades of chamber music innovation.

The program opens with David Carovillano’s Secrets (2023), a concert work for wind quintet built on a dynamic, rhythm-driven dialogue among the five instruments. Andy Akiho’s Stop Speaking (2011) follows, pairing solo snare drum with digital playback in a virtuosic, boundary-pushing exploration of percussion and electronics. Michael Matthews’ El viento helado (“The Frozen Wind,” 2007/08) closes the first half with an atmospheric wind quintet that moves between lyricism and stark contrast, evoking the chill and vastness of its title.

After intermission, the program turns to two twentieth-century touchstones and a brand-new work. György Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (1953) — drawn from his Musica ricercata for piano — offers concise, sharply characterized movements full of wit and rhythmic vitality. Jacob Druckman’s Reflections on the Nature of Water (1986) for solo marimba follows, an evocative exploration of the instrument’s resonance and color inspired by water in its many states. The concert concludes with the world premiere of a newly commissioned work (2026) by Winnipeg composer David R. Scott, written for wind quintet and marimba, bringing the ensembles of the evening’s first and second halves together for the first time.

From Carovillano’s rhythmic energy to Ligeti’s miniature character pieces, from Akiho’s electronic textures to Druckman’s marimba soundscapes, Resonant Landscapes traces a wide arc of contemporary and modern chamber music — culminating in a premiere that unites the program’s instrumental worlds into something entirely new.