One of the fringe benefits of my work is that when ensembles program my music, I get excuses to visit places I’ve never been before. Thanks to the Okanagan Symphony including The Linearity of Light on its grand finale concert of its ’14/15 season, I recently had the opportunity to spend a few days in Kelowna, in “The Interior” of British Columbia. I’ve been living in BC for almost 13 years now, and I had still never made it to The Interior. Perhaps this is an outcome of not owning a car. Or the fact that I write classical music for a living, which takes a lot of time so I don’t get vacations. But I see now why Kelowna is such a popular destination.
I love wandering around new places (i.e. places that are new to me, because Kelowna’s a frontier town that’s been around for a while). I especially love looking at the architecture. In Kelowna, there are a lot of heritage homes from the early 20th century, many of them various manifestations of the Arts & Crafts style, and many of them were on my walking route from the hotel to the concert hall. In Vancouver, well, there are simply not a lot of fine old houses like this left, at least not in my neighbourhood.
One of the things I noticed was The Big Sky. It took a while to dawn on me that part of why it seemed so big was that I could actually see it—in every direction. Why? There are no high-rises! It wasn’t just that Kelowna is flat, it’s that it’s low. In Vancouver, if I want to see the sky, I have to crane my neck and look overhead. Here, the sky was all around me. What a great feeling!
The Okanagan Valley is “wine country”. So much excellent wine is produced here, and there are many wineries. The OSO’s music director Rosemary Thomson took a couple of hours out of her busy schedule to take me on a mini winery tour to Quails’ Gate and Mission Hill.
Looking across the vineyard down the hill overlooking Lake Okanagan (home to Ogopogo), it was a breathtaking view. In Vancouver, I live very close to English Bay, and every time I walk by there, I think how lucky I am to live there. I commented to Rosemary that she must think the same thing every time she sees this view. The world is full of beautiful landscapes, and what a wonderful thing it is to love where one lives! We’ll drink to that!
But of course, there were the concerts! I’ve visited several regional orchestras this season, and they all do a wonderful job connecting with their audiences and communities (indeed, they must!). And the Okanagan Symphony doesn’t just perform in Kelowna—it also serves nearby Vernon and Penticton. Like many music directors, Rosemary Thomson speaks about each work from the stage, and I found strikingly palpable the rapport she has with the audiences in each of these communities and the trust that they give her. And that trust means that the audience will go with her when she presents new and unfamiliar work like The Linearity of Light. I was touched by how many audience members spoke with me at intermission and after the performance, to tell me how they responded to it, how it made them feel, what it made them imagine. (Note to readers: composers love to hear what you think, so don’t be shy!)
One of the advantages of playing three concerts in a row is that the performances get better and better each time. The orchestra played beautifully throughout, soloist Jonathan Chan was amazing (on both piano AND violin, what a keener), and after three hearings of the Symphonic Metamorphosis on Themes of Carl Maria von Weber, I am even slightly more favourably disposed towards Hindemith. (Everything sounds better live.)
When writing any new piece, a composer never knows whether that piece will “have legs” and go places. The Linearity of Light is a meaningful piece for me—it’s the first piece I wrote for the Vancouver Symphony, and it’s inspired by my (then-)new home. So I’m thrilled that it “has legs”. It took me to the other side of the world with the VSO, it took me to Germany with the Brandenburg Symphony, and now it’s taken me to the Okanagan. Big thanks to Rosemary Thomson and everyone at the Okanagan Symphony!
Your evocative descriptions make me want to vault over the Cascades and to this city (and environs) which, alas, I do not know at all well. It sounds like an experience-rich, warmly human and musically rewarding trip!
Thanks, Glenn! It’s a perq of being a composer to get to travel like this. The OSO players gave me a very warm welcome and three great performances. And the Okanagan Valley is a place I definitely want to visit again.