Kaija Saariaho – Notes on Light

Turning Point Ensemble is pleased to honour the originality and poetry of the music of Kaija Saariaho with a concert that will present a focused and moving portrait of music of her past twenty years. Kaija Saariaho, who passed away at the age of 70 in June 2023 said, “The task of today’s artist is to nurture with spiritually rich art. To provide new spiritual dimensions. To express with greater richness, which does not always mean more complexity but with greater delicacy.” To quote her obituary written by Keith Potter in The Guardian, “Her focus dwelt on the conjuring of shimmering, slowly evolving sound worlds whose translucent and dreamy tendencies are frequently likened to visual images: light on water, the night sky, whether starry or black, and the colour spectrum itself.”

The concert will include Notes on Light, featuring solo cellist Isidora Nojkovic and an ensemble of 19 musicians, and several more intimate vocal works sung by Robyn Driedger-Klassen with small ensembles.