Well, today is recovery day from an intensely gratifying presentation of our Jump for Joy program – the feedback from our audiences (in total over 500!) from our performances at the Langley Community Music School and SFU Woodward’s Fei and Milton Wong Theatre was quite overwhelming.

I guess what also really hit me was the emotional response from the ensemble members, and our featured composer/creators Dave Douglas, Brad Turner, and Fred Stride. I remember a professor at university telling me that if I really wanted to know how my friends were feeling, I should hear their music – especially their compositions.

Dave’s Sand Hill, Brad’s Seven Scenes from A Childhood, and Fred’s arrangements of Duke Ellington’s works were all so personal – really embracing a musical intimacy that released very deep feelings by both creator and performer – and it seems we did well relaying those feelings to our incredibly welcoming audiences. That doesn’t always happen with new music – I’m quite proud and grateful for the openness of our players and our audience. Thank you! 

One aspect of music-making we did explore that was relatively new to many of us was group improvisation. The relationship of individual and group is obviously much greater than a musical one – and in a funny moment at a tense point of one rehearsal one player turned to me and said “democracy isn’t great either!”. Some members of our musical community revel in that interesting tension – and if you’re interested in that I’d highly recommend an upcoming concert on April 13th by Orkestra Futura – Music: Invisible Art – at the Roundhouse – exploring the space between the first human instrument (voice) and most recent (electronics) -building on a history of developing a personal and group improvisitory vocabulary.

I’m hoping Turning Point Ensemble also performs more music that asks us to improvise – and we’ll see. Next season’s plans are firming up – as per usual the scale of our presentations will be largely a result of our ability to fund the extraordinary costs involved.

We are incredibly grateful to the individuals who supported us as patrons and volunteers, and to the government and corporate agencies that provided the core and often also special funding for our efforts in 2011/12 – a season marked by highly acclaimed programs, large scale commissions, and our ensemble’s residencies at Langley Community Music School, Seycove Secondary School in North Vancouver, and the University of British Columbia.

If you’re interested in helping us realize next season’s vision – now’s a great time to offer support.  Click on the blue donate button to find out how you can become a member of the Turning Point family of supporters or email karen@turningpointensemble.ca and we will get back to you right away.  Thank you!

- Jeremy