On Saturday, Sept. 28 at 3 p.m., Island Chamber Winds (ICW) will be returning to Salt Spring for their second concert at All Saints by-the-Sea.
Their Autumn Colours – Octets of Yesterday and Today program includes a diverse array of old and new octets for an ensemble of two oboes, two clarinets, two French horns and two bassoons. The music they’ve chosen covers quite a bit of ground, with one piece over 200 years old and another written only two years ago. Running through it is a thread of balancing melancholy and joy, a dichotomy that feels seasonally appropriate for the fall.
One of the most special pieces on the program is Igor Bázlik’s Four Pieces for Wind Octet. Bázlik was a Slovak composer who died just last year, and it seems that this piece, though written in 1991, was likely never published. ICW was extremely fortunate to receive scans of the composer’s handwritten parts from an ensemble in Slovakia and is excited to present what is almost certainly the Canadian premiere of this work.
Tickets are $30 for adults and free for youth 18 and under. They are available to purchase in person at Mondo & Company, online at bit.ly/autumnoctets or at the door.
Island Chamber Winds is the brainchild of conductor Ben Litzcke, who lives on Pender Island and recently graduated from UVic with a Master of Music in Wind Conducting. ICW is more of a concept than an ensemble: in order to perform the widest possible variety of music, players of different instruments are hired for each concert series, which might feature any combination of eight or more winds and brass. The current ensemble includes musicians from Salt Spring, Pender, Ladysmith, Victoria and Vancouver.
The concert is generously sponsored by Wildwood Health & Performance and Long & McQuade Musical Instruments.