Yariv Aloni

MUSIC DIRECTOR

MUSIC DIRECTOR

2011-2012

Twenty-sixth Season

A Season of Symphonies

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Tours

Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Season: The GVYO's Silver Celebration Season concluded with a tour of Vancouver Island in April 2010. The orchestra performed community benefit concerts and education concerts in Bamfield, Port Alberni, Comox, and Qualicum Beach.

Twentieth Anniversary Season: In May 2006 the orchestra travelled to the Yukon Territory. The orchestra performed community and school concerts, and also hosted workshops for school students, in Whitehorse, Dawson City, and Haines Junction. In each community the orchestra was joined by local student musicians to perform Triple Expansion, music commissioned from Victoria composer Christopher Butterfield. Flying home from the north, the GVYO performed its final tour concert at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vanocuver, collaborating with Vancouver Youth Symphony members to perform our 20^th Anniversary commissioned music.

Fifteenth Anniversary Season: In May 2001 the GVYO travelled to Haida Gwaii. On this tour, the GVYO gave community and school concerts in Nanaimo, Port Hardy, Prince Rupert, Masset, Queen Charlotte City, and were featured guests on the inaugural voyage of the newly restored ferry Queen of the North, where small ensembles of GVYO members performed throughout the voyage.

In addition to the anniversary year tours, the orchestra has performed many community and school concerts around Greater Victoria, up-island, in the Lower Mainland, the Okanagan, and the Northern Mainland.

Commissions

 • Christopher Butterfield: Triple Expansion (2006)
To commemorate the GVYO's Twentieth Anniversary Season in the form of a musical legacy, the orchestra commissioned a work by internationally acclaimed Victoria-based composer Christopher Butterfield. This work was premiered on April 22, 2006 at the University of Victoria Farquar Auditiorium, and was then taken on tour by the orchestra, and performed in Whitehorse, Dawson City, Haines Junction and West Vancouver.

 • John Oliver: Millennial Moments (1996)
The GVYO commissioned a work by Canadian Composer John Oliver as a part of its Tenth Anniversary Celebrations. The GVYO workshopped this music with the composer at the Royal British Columbia Museum, and then took the work on tour, performing Millennial Moments in Vernon, Summerland, and Victoria in May 1996.

 • Matthew Larkin: At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners (1993)
The GVYO commissioned its first composition from Victoria-based composer Matthew Larkin in honour of the XV Commonwealth Games. At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners, for orchestra and chorus was premiered by the GVYO with the Pearson College International Choir in November 1993. The concert was a sold-out success, and was televised on CBC.

Collaborations

The GVYO has collaborated frequently with the Victoria Symphony to perfrom music including:

• Strauss: Eine Alpen Sinfonie (2009)
• Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (2006)
• Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique (1998)
• Elgar: Enigma Variations (1997)
• Holst: The Planets (1996)

Mahler for the Millennium: the GVYO marked the Year 2000 by producing two performances of Mahler's Eighth Symphony (Symphony of a Thousand) in collaboration with 8 nationally acclaimed soloists, the UVIC Orchestra and Chorus, and specially prepared children's chorus all under the direction of János Sándor.

Collaborations with Choirs include:

• Victoria Children's Choir - Barakatt: Unicef Anthem; selections from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and works by Johann Strauss, Jr. (2009)
• CapriCCio Vocal Ensemble - Bernstein: Chichester Psalms (1995)
• Pearson College - Larkin: From Round the Earth's Imagined Corners (1993) (GVYO Commission)
• The University of Victoria Chamber Choir, Prima Youth Choir, The Boys of Viva Choirs - Orff: Carmina Burana (1999)
• Choiristers of Saint John the Divine - Handel: Dixit Dominus HWV 232, Bach: Magnificat in D BWV 243 (1993)

Distinguished Guest Artists

During the GVYO's Twenty Fifth Anniversary Season, six distinguished guest artists were featured with the the orchestra, all of whom are alumni of the GVYO:

• Jonathon Crow, violin - Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto (November 2010)
• Sarah MacDonald, organ - Poulenc: Organ Concerto (December 2010)
• Adam Weinmann, Oboe; Rebecca Hissen, Clarinet; Alana Roney, Horn; Olivia Martin, Bassoon - Mozart: Wind Sinfonia Concertante (February 2011)

Command Performances

The GVYO has had the honour of performing for Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, Lieutenants-Governor David Lam, Iona Campagnolo, and Steven L. Point.

GVYO on YouTube

Several videos of Maestro János Sándor conducting the GVYO in a performance in October 2006 are available to watch on YouTube. (These videos will be displayed in separate windows; the GVYO site will remain accessible)

Brahms: Hungarian Dance No.5
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No.6
Rákóczi Induló

A short film excerpt showing János conducting his last rehearsal with the GVYO in April 2010 can be seen here: Janos in rehearsal. This excerpt was taken from footage of Asterisk Productions' documentary film "A Work In Progress", commissioned by the GVYO for the 25th Anniversary Season.