PRISMA Festival transports audiences around the globe in Ice, Silk and Turkish Delight
The fest’s grand-opening concert on June 20 features stunning visual projections of land and sea
PRISMA Festival.
PRISMA Festival presents Ice, Silk and Turkish Delight on June 20 at 7:30 pm at Evergreen Centre in Powell River
PRISMA FESTIVAL’S grand-opening concert for its 2024 year is more than a musical ride. Called Ice, Silk and Turkish Delight, it comes with visual projections designed to heighten the experience of a melodic journey that travels the globe.
Speaking with Stir via Zoom from the Netherlands, where he lives part-time, PRISMA Festival’s artistic director and conductor Arthur Arnold explains that it’s all about immersing audiences in the beauty of nature.
On the program is “Antarctica: Life Emerging”, a breathtaking 2021 film made by PRISMA guest artist, composer Marcus Goddard, in collaboration with SeaLegacy and world-renowned wildlife photographer Paul Nicklen. Set to the music of Goddard, played live by a chamber music ensemble, the 13-minute film transports viewers to the namesake remote continent, where king penguins, humpback whales, and spotted seals frolic amid icebergs and melting glaciers. The piece was originally co-commissioned by the Aventa Ensemble, with assistance from the BC Arts Council, and by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
PRISMA Festival’s artistic director and conductor Arthur Arnold.
Next up is The Silk Road, composed by Gisle Kverndokk. The 2017 suite in 10 movements is inspired by music that might have been encountered along the trade route between Venice and China. Also on the bill is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, known as the Turkish Concerto.
“It's going to be very attractive,” Arnold says of the concert. “Marcus Goddard’s piece is very beautiful, then we’ll travel the Silk Road where we’ll project drone footage from 10 different countries. Then we turn to Turkey; Mozart used that flavour in his work. What I like about this is the way it flows.”
Adding to the appeal of the grand-opening concert, Arnold says, is that it gives audiences a taste of everything PRISMA does, with students performing alongside accomplished guest artists. That kind of exposure for emerging artists is invaluable, he says.
“You don’t just play your own notes; you are listening to the musicians around you and you will feel and hear their breathing and their gestures,” Arnold says. “You can give space to the music and let it breathe. To be in that realm of these experienced musicians—it teaches so much without any words.
“For myself as a conductor, the art of music is how we get from one note to the other; it’s not the note itself. It’s how much space is in there. That’s something that is really hard to explain, but it’s so important. You want to give space to music and not be a metronome where there’s no soul to it. And that’s what our students are going to learn.” 
Related Articles
