Dinuk Wijeratne Makes His ESO Debut

By D. T. Baker

If you’re an ESO patron and you recall the name Dinuk Wijeratne, it’s likely because you were there, in April of 2019, when the orchestra presented a work by him for the first time ever – an absolutely fascinating cross-cultural concerto for tabla and orchestra. Since then, the Sri Lankan-born, Canadian-based composer, pianist, and conductor has seen his career reach new heights, making his return to the Winspear Centre stage all the more exciting.

Leading – and curating – a performance in the ESO’s New Music series, Wijeratne has crafted a program of his own works, along with several others that also bridge continents and musical traditions. “I do a lot of programs as a conductor-composer where I present my own pieces, and it’s always a sort of east-meets-west cultures kind of thing, which is something that very much motivates me and my art-making,” he says. “My favourite programs are quite ecelectic, so I’m hoping there is some kind of variety through unity.”

His enthusiasm for the program is infectious, and three of his most recent works will be featured. With a gift for understatement, Wijeratne posits that his Gajaga Vannama – a single-movement concerto for piano and strings – is “one of the very very few” Sri Lankan-inspired works for western classical musicians.

“It’s based on a folksong which is very familiar to Sri Lankan people,” he says. “It is connected to dance, which is a passion of mine – folklore of course, religious ceremony, and it’s all about the majestic elephant, and how the elephant is the sacred animal of these religious ceremonies. The dance form kind of captures the rhythm of the elephant.”

Wijeratne’s Two Pops Songs on Antique Poems started life as a string quartet, but in 2015, he expanded the work for string orchestra. “We just had the U.S. premiere in Boston recently,” explains Wijeratne. “I just love strings, so it’s nice to hear the string quartet in a more lush version. And of course there’s the east-west link, but at the same time, because of the melodies of the pop songs, there’s a link to the sort of folkloric simplicity.”

For The Spirit and the Dust, Dinuk Wijeratne will join (almost) everyone else in the Winspear Centre, and be an interested spectator. In four brief movements, the work is for a single marimba, and was written for percussionist Beverly Johnston in 2016. Of his work, Johnston herself wrote, “Each of the four miniatures breathtakingly explores the never-ending mysteries of mortality, and take as their inspiration lines from poems and texts across cultures. This truly is a marimba masterpiece.” ESO percussionist Jacob Kryger will present the work.

The works not written by Dinuk Wijeratne for the concert (which takes place January 31), are ones which all play very much to the strengths of the respective composers. The “oldest” work on this new music program still dates from the 21st century. Chris Brubeck, jazz trombonist and son of the great Dave Brubeck, wrote his Concerto for Bass Trombone in 2000. “My goal was to write a challenging work that would keep all sections of the orchestra on their toes,” Brubeck wrote in his program note, “expose them to odd time signatures, polytonality, and above all, remind them that music was supposed to be joyous, energetic, beautiful, adventurous, powerful, and even humorous!”

“There are huge jazz elements in my concerto, from a completely different kind of cultural standpoint,” Wijeratne adds. “But I hope that will connect beautifully to Chris’ piece, and I’m really looking forward to working with Tyler Cairns from the ESO. And it’s a wonderfully colouristic piece.”

The concert opens with a six-minute string work by Kareem Roustom, an emerging composer Wijeratne refers to as a “dear colleague.” Describing the work Dabke, by the Syrian-American Roustom, Wijeratne adds, “he is a spectacular talent, and I just love this piece. The dance element – I mean, I grew up in the middle east – and this has that whole middle eastern vibe to it, and so I think it connects beautifully to my music. It’s just this impeccably written six-minute string piece celebrating the concept of dance – from his culture.”

As for young Mexican-Canadian composer Luis Ramirez, Dinuk Wijeratne cannot help but smile. “And then, we have Chido,” he states. “I’ve mentored a lot of the young composers through academies where I teach, and I came across Luis and I’ve become a big fan of his work – he’s definitely one of your up and coming Canadian composers to watch. I came across this piece when I was on the jury for the SOCAN prize before the pandemic, and I just wanted to do this piece. It’s kind of this contemporary, Mexican West Side Story-ish burst of colour.”

Dinuk Wijeratne’s upcoming ESO performance, like other concerts in the ESO’s New Music series of recent seasons, is a program lasting a little over an hour, with no intermission. He likes the format, and also likes that, while thrilled that contemporary classical music is often a feature of concerts by orchestras such as the ESO, he gets the chance to shine a concert-long spotlight on the works of living composers – especially now that innovations in communication and connection have made the world a single village.

“In western art music, there is this fascinating polemic of tradition and innovation,” he feels. “I think we rest on the shoulders of great artists who go back hundreds of years, but at the same time, isn’t it exciting that we’ve got so many fresh voices that are creating music that reflects a very globalized world, a very multi-cultural world, a very technologically driven world? And so I think it’s a very exciting time for new music, particularly in this country where people seem to be very open to hearing unique stories, you know? But I think that this kind of mix of tradition and innovation is one of the great things that fuels our genre.”