Strings Attached Orchestra is proud to champion the work of Canadian composers, especially emerging voices at the beginning of their careers. In recent seasons, we have performed works by Canadian composers alongside the great masterworks of the orchestral canon, and we look forward to continuing this commitment in the seasons to come.
Below you’ll find programme notes and live performance recordings from our concerts.
Kyrie — Katharine Petkovski (b. 1997)
Katharine Petkovski is a Toronto-based Canadian composer known for her emotive, minimalist approach and innovative cross-disciplinary collaborations. Named by CBC as one of “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30,” her work spans film, choral, and chamber music, and has been performed by ensembles including the Vancouver Chamber Choir, musica intima, and the National Youth Choir of Canada. Her scores have appeared at TIFF, the Ottawa International Animation Festival, and the Vancouver International Film Festival, and her music has been featured commercially for Team Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games.
One of the key liturgical prayers in the Mass of the Catholic Church, the Kyrie is a simple request for mercy. Written in Latin, it is used across a number of traditions including the Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, and Roman Catholic churches. Dating back to 4th century Jerusalem and pagan antiquity, the word Kyrie derives from the Greek word for Lord — perhaps the most elemental prayer in the world.
The intent of this work is to transport the listener to a state of meditative reflection. The listener may choose to fixate on the contrapuntalism, the call-and-response nature of the voices as reimagined in the strings, or the final few bars of quiet solemnity — but it is ultimately an experience open to the listener’s interpretation. (Programme note by the composer)
Wild Canadian Goose Chase — Clovis Pinsonnault
Clovis Pinsonnault is a Canadian composer whose work balances wit and musical craft in equal measure.
As an undergraduate student at Western University, Pinsonnault had the perennially Canadian experience of encountering gaggles of wild geese and their rather un-Canadian behaviours: cheeky, aggressive, and ever hungry, these birds take no prisoners when defending their young and their territory — or wherever they have decided is their territory.
The piece imagines a search for the legendary docile Canadian goose — an impossible task by most accounts, or as one might say, a wild goose chase. The music vacillates between silly and serious, playful and foreboding, with some musical hide-and-seek and excitement for every instrument. (Programme note by Jonathan Wong)
From Darkness into Light on Hanukkah — Itamar Danziger
Itamar Danziger is a composer based in Kitchener, Ontario, whose music draws on classical, folk, klezmer, and Ladino traditions. Growing up in a musical family in Toronto, he began playing clarinet at age 7, and was inspired to compose in earnest by composer and family friend Srul Irving Glick. His compositions have been performed publicly across Canada, the USA, Europe, and Israel.
Danziger’s music includes influences ranging from classical to klezmer and folk traditions — all of which are on full display in this unique composition. Danziger weaves together Hanukkah tunes, some more easily identifiable than others, in a constantly evolving tapestry that builds to an eminently danceable finish.
From Darkness into Light on Hanukkah is dedicated to and originally written for the Beaverton Community Band in Oregon. SAO is honoured to be joined by the composer in-person as we present the public premiere of the string orchestra arrangement of this work.
Strings Attached Orchestra 