To celebrate our 25th Anniversary Season, GVYO commissioned a work by GVYO alumnus Brandon Chow. We premiered his piece Tilikum in Victoria, May 1st 2016 and then took it on tour from the Fraser valley to the Kootenays. Brandon joined the GVYO as a percussionist at age 13. His compositions have won awards at the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival and the Langley Pulse Summer Music Festival. His music has been workshopped by the Victoria Symphony as part of vsNEW and performed at the University of Victoria. Brandon completed his degrees in music and science at the University of Victoria.
• Christopher Butterfield: Triple Expansion (2006) To commemorate the GVYO's 20th 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 Farquhar Auditorium, 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 10th 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.
