Love Letters to Alberta: Voices Shaped by Home

By Maia Ellis

Music begins in a place. Sometimes it starts in the quiet of a river valley, the shimmer of sunlight on ice, or the restless energy of a city at night. Love Letters to Alberta invites audiences to hear the many places where inspiration lives, through the voices of seven composers who have all called Alberta home. Their music reflects not one landscape or story, but the communities and creative lives that shaped them. 

Zosha Di Castri started her journey as a composer through the ESO’s Young Composer’s Project where she was mentored by Allan Gilliland. Her piece Pentimento is an introspective take inspired by perpetual cycles, particularly the unrelenting circularity of violence. She layers musical ideas like brushstrokes, allowing earlier thoughts to remain visible beneath what comes later. Snare drums, clarinet duos and pizzicato bass create textures that feel both structured and fluid, inviting the listener to reflect on what returns, what changes, and what might be possible if we could consciously choose another path. 

JUNO-Award winner Allan Gordon Bell, who currently serves as the Professor of Music at the University of Calgary, drew inspiration for his piece The Sundogs Reel from the sparkling, almost magical sunlight that refracts through winter ice crystals. His piece dances and spins, alternating between frenetic motion, and glistening stillness. Bell’s work reflects the quiet thrill of noticing something extraordinary in an otherwise ordinary moment. 

Edmonton native Joel Toews wrote his piece Sleeping Giant as part of his Wild Spaces series, which is inspired by Canadian parks and dedicated to the ongoing sustainability of Canadian ecosystems—with 15% of all rental and royalty fees donated to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS). This powerful piece evokes awe on a grand scale, bringing to life the shape and majesty of the Sleeping Giant peninsula in Ontario. Through expansive harmonies and sweeping melodies, Toews reflects both the grandeur of nature as well as the human impulse to connect with something larger than ourselves.  

This concert will also feature the world premiere of Cree composer Cris Derksen’s Amiskkwacîwâskahikan, a piece commissioned by the ESO’s principal cellist, Rafael Hoekman. Growing up in Old Strathcona, Derksen often found herself in the river valley, where she loved watching the families of beavers. When she learned that Edmonton’s name referred to the beavers in the area, it seemed fitting to write this duet about the river valley and the beavers themselves.  

Edmonton-born composer Vivian Fung brings playful and quirky chaos into the mix with her piece Earworms. This feisty and whimsical work provides a commentary on the world we live in today, musically depicting the barrage of media, music, and daily stimuli that surround us.  

Order of Canada recipient and Edmonton-based composer John Estacio’s Moontides is a sweeping and cinematic work inspired by the ebb and flow of lunar tides. Over the course of five sections, Estacio transforms natural forces into sound, using a repeated pattern of tension, release, and dramatic surges to mimic the tides themselves.  

Finally, our most recent Young Composer Project winner, Annika Schoenhardt’s For the Star Chasers was written for those who yearn for something greater or more perfect than themselves and this world. The main theme of this piece highlights the fallacy of striving for perfectionism and how with hope, there is beauty and serenity in all things, even if imperfection is inevitable. The music rises, falls, and returns in cascading sequences, ultimately leaving the listener with a sense of triumph tempered by gentle imperfection—a reflection of the human spirit itself. 

By featuring the music of living Alberta composers, this concert is part of how the ESO continues to engage with its community and its time. Love Letters to Alberta brings together voices shaped by this province, offering a reminder that orchestral music remains relevant when it reflects the world we live in now.