2022

Orchestra (2 (picc.)/2.2.2./4.2.2.1/2 perc/ hp/ strings)

Duration: 3’

Commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Gustavo Gimeno, Music Director to celebrate the orchestra's 100th season.

Premiered 12-15 October 2022 at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, ON.

As I was composing this work, NASA released the first images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The first JWST deep field photograph, captured over 12.5 hours of exposure time, covers an area of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length. Within this sliver of sky, thousands of galaxies are visible. While the JWST images are stunning upon first viewing, I find them astounding as I try (and fail) to comprehend the scale of what is pictured – for example, the Cosmic Cliffs of the Carina Nebula, which are seven light-years tall, or light of galaxies 13 billion years away. In addition to marking the 100th season of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, this work marks the release of the first JWST images. For me, these photographs disrupt from the day-to-day and imbue a sense of wonder that I may take in structures that exist on such a vast and unknowable scale. - CV

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Excerpt from review on barczablog:

“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Volpini’s Celebration Prelude, getting its world premiere tonight. It certainly did what was asked of it in beginning a very edgy program. I felt there’s more material there, that Volpini had not exhausted the ideas presented, suggesting (for me) points of light in the sky. We came to the conclusion, abruptly seeming to be high as if on a ledge: but wait we were finished…! I had this wonderful sense of vertigo, and that there was more to come. Volpini was playing with us.”