I am currently in Toronto – feeling very giddy and under slept from all the time-zone travel – getting ready for the premiere of my latest work The Three Woes for three trumpets and string orchestra commissioned by Soundstreams for their Top Brass concert happening on October 3. The work will be performed by three world-renowned trumpet soloists, Ingrid Jensen, Jens Lindemann and Ole Edvard Antonsen, and a string orchestra conducted by Joaquin Valdepeñas. I am, understandably, quite elated.
The work is quite unusual for me in terms of subject matter. I tend to write things that are intensely personal, fussing endlessly tiny details performed by small ensembles, but for this piece I turned to the end of the world prophesy from the Book of Revelations. Since I wasn’t raised Christian (or with any religion at all), this prophesy, with all its highly imaginative horrors, initially read as delightful mythology to me. Flying locusts with lion heads and scorpion tails! Blood soaked oceans! Armies of 200 million led by rogue angels! It all seemed kind of cute and sensationalist in its extravagance, that is until I started noticing the eery parallels between the catastrophes the prophesy promised and the current and predicted effects of climate change. With its creative metaphors, the prophesy is actually describing what is happening to us. The piece became rather unsettling once this thought invaded my brain…
The concert also features premieres from Heather Schmidt and Brian Current. Heather will be playing in her own double concerto, and Brian is responding to R. Murray Schafer’s Trumpet Aubade (also on the program). I am honoured to be in their company and to be working with such incredible players.
You can read more about this piece and the concert as a whole in one of these delightful articles:
The Whole Note: https://www.thewholenote.com/index.php/newsroom/feature-stories/29527-soundstreams-and-the-trumpets-of-october
Ludwig Van Toronto: https://www.ludwig-van.com/toronto/2019/09/30/interview-fresh-views-anna-pidgorna-heather-schmidt-ingrid-jensen-soundstreams-top-brass/