To enrich lives through the shared experience of extraordinary music.
This is the Victoria Symphony’s promise to our audience, musicians, donors, sponsors, and to the broader arts loving community as well. It is at the core of what we value as an organization. Despite the current constraints, we are passionately committed to finding new and exciting ways to deliver on this inspiring mission and to keep us all connected in the process.
Our 2020/21 Virtual Season has been designed to reflect the vibrancy, diversity, and creativity of our beloved musicians, our Music Director Christian Kluxen, and our Principal Pops Conductor Sean O’Loughlin. Our plan is to share several virtual concerts over the coming weeks and months: some larger-scale concerts featuring the whole symphony, socially distanced on stage, and some featuring quartets and quintets playing live together from local venues that you know and love.
This is a unique opportunity for you to enjoy the Victoria Symphony on your own terms. You and others all over the world will be able to enjoy these events for free in HD from your living rooms, on the bus, or anywhere else as long as you have an internet connection and a device. Even though most people agree that the live concert experience will never be replaced by virtual concerts, digital technology has become incredibly flexible. By providing you with intimate interviews, backstage access, enhanced program notes, and other innovative online tools, we are confident you will see things from a new and different perspective that may ironically bring you closer to the orchestra!
Thanks to the support of our donors and government partners, our virtual season will be available for free. Increasing people’s accessibility to extraordinary music is one of the key benefits of online offerings and we wanted to make it clear to our entire community how grateful we are for your 80 years of ongoing support. This said, with the longer-term health of the organization in mind, I ask you to consider, if possible, making a tax-deductible donation at each of these virtual concerts in lieu of purchasing tickets. It will go a long way to help us keep the music playing.
***MAKE SURE YOU ARE RECEIVING OUR E-NOTES TO STAY CONNECTED!**
Coming up Next…
Angela Hewitt Plays Bach
Thursday, November 12 @ 7:30 pm
Grieg – Holberg Suite
J.S. Bach – Keyboard Concerto in D minor (BWV 1052)
J.S. Bach – Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring (Chorale from Cantata 147) (arr. Hess)
Leader & soloist: Angela Hewitt / Leader: Terence Tam
*This program will be available until December 11, 2020
Canadian piano superstar Angela Hewitt returns to Victoria to perform Bach’s bold and dynamic Keyboard Concerto in D minor along with the ever-popular Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring. Grieg’s playful and meditative Holberg Suite rounds off this delightful program.
Magnificent Brass
Thursday, November 26 @ 7:30 pm
Copland – Fanfare for the Common Man
Gabrieli – Canzon duodecimi toni (arr. King)
Bruckner – Etüde für das tiefe Blech (arr. Crespo)
Husa – Divertimento for Brass and Percussion
J.S. Bach – Ich ruf zu Dir, Herr Jesu Christ (arr. Crespo)
Pachelbel – Magnificat (arr. Frackenpohl)
Gabrieli – Canzona per sonare No. 2 (arr. King)
Conductor: Giuseppe Pietraroia
*This program will be available until December 25, 2020
For the first time in the 2020/21 virtual season, the Victoria Symphony brass players take to the stage to perform a collection of brass favourites including Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, Pachelbel’s Magnificat as well as works from Bach, Bruckner, Gabrieli and Husa.
Appalachian Spring
Thursday, December 10 @ 7:30 pm
Ives – The Unanswered Question
Barber – Adagio for Strings
Copland – Appalachian Spring
Conductor: Tania Miller
*This program will be available until January 8, 2021
Maestra Tania Miller returns to conduct the Victoria Symphony in Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Often described as ‘music of and for the American people’, the popular piece reflects the vitality and richness of the pioneering tradition. The Unanswered Question by Ives and Barber’s elegiac Adagio for Strings complete the program.
Christmas Pops
Tuesday, December 22 @ 7:30 pm
Conductor: Giuseppe Pietraroia
*This program will be available until January 20, 2021
Celebrate the holiday season with your favourite MC Sean O’Loughlin as he decks the halls with all things Brass. Join conductor Giuseppe Pietraroia and Victoria Symphony brass and percussion musicians for a brassy Christmas including holiday favourites like O Holy Night and music from the Nutcracker as well as Frosty the Snowman, A Charlie Brown Christmas and more. As a special holiday gift, the concert will include the world-premiere of Sean O’Loughlin’s musical setting for “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus.”
Previous Concerts…
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons
Thursday, October 1 @ 7:30 pm
Vivaldi – Four Seasons
Leader & Soloist: Terence Tam
*This program is available until October 30, 2020.
(Click on the photo to access the concert video).
Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
Thursday, October 15 @ 7:30 pm
Pärt – Fratres
Tobin Stokes – Bits of Beauty
Tchaikovsky – Serenade for Strings in C major
Conductor: Maestro Giuseppe Pietraroia
*This program will be available until November 13, 2020
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings is the feature piece of the Victoria Symphony’s second virtual season concert. The dramatic, rich and elegant piece is preceded by Pärt’s Fratres and Victoria’s own Tobin Stokes’ Bits of Beauty.
(Click on the photo to access the concert video).
Autumn Reflections – Schubert Symphony No. 5
Thursday, October 29 @ 7:30 pm
Jordan Nobles – Suite from Surface Tension
Schubert – Symphony No. 5 in B flat major
Conductor: Giuseppe Pietraroia
*This program will be available until November 27, 2020
The virtual season continues with Autumn Reflections – Schubert’s Symphony No. 5. Schubert’s fabulously graceful and melodic Symphony is paired with Juno award winning Canadian composer Jordan Nobles’ Suite from Surface Tension, a work inspired by the fluid dynamics of water.
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