(June 2017) This summer I’ll be working on a 7-movement piece for mixed-voice choir and chamber orchestra commissioned by the First Unitarian Church of Victoria with support from the national bodies of the Canadian and American Unitarian-Universalist Churches. Vesperae pro Serveto (Vespers for Servetus) is a kind of secular Vespers; the poetry (in Latin) centres…
Why Boys Should Sing
This is an article I wrote in 2007 when I was training adolescent boys in the Viva Youth Choir (now Viva Youth Voices) in Victoria. It came up recently when I received a letter from someone who had read it online and let me know how inspiring it had been for her as a high…
Isbjørn! to be performed in Victoria March 8, 2017
As part of the Victoria Symphony Orchestra’s 2017 New Music Festival, Isbjørn! (2013) will be performed in a concert of works written especially for the large acoustic space of Christ Church Cathedral. This piece which I wrote after an artistic residency in Svalbard in the fall of 2012, along with choral music by Stephanie Martin,…
2016-2017 Season Highlights
I am pleased to be working again as Chorus Director with the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra. This December we will be performing Bach’s wonderful Magnificat with Parts 1 & 2 of the Christmas Oratorio, and in June 2017 there will be a full performance of my 2010 work Sea Cantata. This is my 12th season as Artistic…
Bach-on-the-Rock in April 2016
I am delighted to be working with Saltspring Island’s “Bach-on-the-Rock” chorus and orchestra to prepare and perform 2 concerts in April of 2016. The programme will include works by Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, Liszt and selections from my own “Sea Cantata.”
Via Choralis commission to be performed April 2016
For Via Choralis’ 2015-16 season the choir has commissioned a piece from me for the final concert of the year. Scored for SATB choir and chamber orchestra, the new work will be inspired by my Peruvian residency in the summer of 2015 at the Centro Selva near Pucallpa, Peru. Click here for more.
Sooke Philharmonic 2015-16
I am happy to have been signed on as the new Chorus Director for the Sooke Philharmonic Choir for the year 2015-2016. I look forward to the coming season: Handel, Mozart, …
“Concertino” read by the Victoria Symphony
Concertino for Organ and Orchestra was selected for the Victoria Symphony’s Hugh Davidson Composer Readings on April 30th, 2015. Sandra Fletcher played the organ part, and Giuseppe Petraroia conducted the orchestra.
Peru Residency blog – summer 2015
April 29. I am delighted to have been accepted to a residency this summer at the Centro Selva in the Amazonian tropical rain forest of eastern Peru. Will be brushing up on my Spanish for the next couple of months! June 27. Just under three weeks to go before my departure. I have one more…
Arctic Commission: ISBJØRN Performed in November 2013.
Thanks to a grant from the British Columbia Arts Council, the Via Choralis Performance Society commissioned Nicholas Fairbank to compose a major work for multiple choirs. Based on his experiences during an Arctic residency in Svalbard in the fall of 2012 (click here to read the blog), the performance involved the collaboration of five Victoria…