Academy Showcase 1 – June 6, 2027

Composer Bios & Notes on the Music

Craig Day – The Crossing

The Crossing explores the idea of a group of travellers moving through lands with different cultures and musical styles. You will hear influences from Arabic and Chinese traditional music, and ideas from my own musical palette.

Craig Day is a composer and trumpet player residing in Vancouver, BC. He is grateful to have had his work presented by some of BC’s most talented individuals and ensembles. This is Craig’s first work for the Orchid Ensemble.

Taraneh Forouzan – Variations on a Persian Folk Theme

Variations on a Persian Folk Theme employs a reversed theme and variation form, beginning at the furthest point from the theme and gradually unfolding toward the original, well-known melody from Iran.

Taraneh Forouzan (b. 1996) is an Iranian composer with a bachelor’s degree in music from BIHE. Her work explores the intersection of Persian music and Western contemporary techniques. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in the UK. In addition to concert music, she is interested in interdisciplinary collaboration across theatre, film and dance.

Snow Diao – The Shell

The Shell reflects my personal journey of growth over the past years. As an immigrant who moved from Beijing to Vancouver at the age of 13, I faced numerous challenges – language barriers, a new environment, and cultural
adjustments – that deeply impacted my personality and mental state. In response, I built a “shell,” a comfort zone that sheltered me but also kept me isolated.

In recent years, transformative experiences have reshaped my life. I encountered new people and formed friendships that offered me love, support, and understanding. These connections began to melt my protective shell, creating cracks and openings through which I could glimpse the outside world. This piece narrates that process of self-revelation. It portrays the friends and influences that acted as “outside forces,” gently breaking through the ice of isolation. At first, I remained cautious, feeling lonely within my shell yet sensing the warmth beyond it. Gradually, the pull of these forces grew stronger, until I finally chose to step out and embrace a world beyond my comfort zone.

The music captures this journey— from isolation and hesitancy to discovery and connection. Erhu represents the character of myself, guzheng as the outside force (new people and new experiences), and percussion as both the foundation support inside the shell — my family and lifelong friends, as well as the one who makes big cracks on the shell.

Snow Diao is a Chinese-Canadian composer based in Burnaby, pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Composition and a minor in Music Technology at UBC. Her interdisciplinary practice blends sound and visual art through graphic scores, multimedia installations, and immersive performances. With a background in piano and visual storytelling, she creates experiences integrating live electronics, interactive visuals, movement, and space.

Under mentor Rita Ueda, Snow’s chamber orchestra piece Transformation, featuring amplified water and dry ice, premiered at the Annex Theatre in June 2024. She worked with the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra’s wind quintet in the summer of 2023, combining traditional Chinese instruments with Western instruments. During Banff Centre’s Jazz and Sonic Arts residency in August 2024, she developed an interactive, real-time graphic score performed by live improvisers. Her teachers include Keith Hamel, Jennifer Butler, Dorothy Chang, and Robert Pritchard. Snow received scholarships from the BC Arts Council and Banff Centre in 2024/25.

John MacLachlan – Solar Flare

The concept of a “solar flare” formed the basis for this piece. Solar flares are electromagnetic bursts on the sun. In 1859, a large solar flare called the Carrington Event caused a variety of bizarre effects: the auroras were visible near the equator, and telegraphs sparked or, in at least one case, kept working without external power. A variety of techniques in this piece try to evoke a solar flare. The opening depicts the surface of the sun before a flare. Gradually, the piece builds out from the opening pitch, C, entering a mode that is transposed and varied throughout the piece. The 16th-note descending theme, with a semitone and an augmented third, depicts electromagnetic radiation coming off of the sun. When this theme returns, descending chromatically, it evokes the aurora borealis, seen in tropical areas during the 1859 solar flare. Finally, the glockenspiel line near the end represents telegraphs malfunctioning. At the end of this piece, as the glockenspiel restates the telegraph theme, the A-flat in the mode resolves to an A-natural, forming a pentatonic scale.

John MacLachlan has been studying composition for over three years with Edward Top at the Vancouver Academy of Music. His style involves non-triadic harmonies, layered rhythms, and adventurous instrumentation. Recently, John’s music has been performed by the Vancouver Academy of Music New Music Ensemble and as part of the Sonic Boom Festival of New Composition. In 2023, John won the Intermediate category of the Vancouver Academy of Music Young Composers’ Competition, and his orchestral work was performed at Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre. In addition to composing, John plays musical instruments and participates in Scouts. Since 2018, John has been honing his abilities on the trumpet, cello, and piano, with numerous performances, including solo and orchestral. As a recipient of a National Gold Medal from the Royal Conservatory of Music for trumpet performance, John played at Mazzoleni Hall in Toronto. A Venturer Scout and Colony Scouter with Scouts Canada, John helps to organize activities and camps for dozens of youth. John looks forward to continuing his musical pursuits at the University of British Columbia over the coming years.

Eimear MacCarrick – Solstice Sun

Solstice Sun is a piece inspired by the journey from Spring Equinox to Summer Solstice. It starts with a glimmer of light and gradually becomes brighter until the sun reaches its highest point in the sky and starts to go the other direction, getting softer again and continuing the cycle. The piece is also inspired by the instruments themselves, especially the Zheng and its tuning. The more upbeat sections borrow from modern traditional Irish music. 

Eimear MacCarrick is an Irish-Canadian composer. She began her musical journey with piano lessons at the age of 8. In 2014, Eimear received a diploma in piano from the Victorian College of Music & Drama. In 2018, shortly after moving to Vancouver, Eimear began composing for film and television. In 2024, she started dipping her toes in the world of concert music, starting with VICO’s Sounds Global Workshop, where she composed a piece for wind quintet. Since then she’s been working on music for solo harp and string orchestra. Eimear’s music draws inspiration from her background in classical piano and Irish traditional music.

Niel Golden – Conversations

Conversations is a new composition which is a rework of the second movement of a larger concerto, Sambhasana written for and performed by the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra. The Orchid Ensemble asked if I could create something new for their ensemble. With the guidance of Lan and Jonathan, I was able to compose this piece that features Erhu, Zheng and Darbuka. It has a middle eastern feel and rhythm and as one of the original VICO performers commented “it’s like a dance”. I think that the use of Chinese instruments helps to create a unique feeling and mood. I hope that you enjoy it.

Niel Golden is a talented percussionist specializing in the Indian hand drums known as tabla. He is a founding member of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra and has been part of the orchestra for more than twenty years. As a composer, he has created and recorded many works for small ensembles and has also written three large works for the VICO. His latest large composition, The Joy of Spring, which featured Tabla, Persian, Chinese and Western instrumentation, was premiered with the VICO
in May of 2024.

As a performer, Niel has played and recorded with Jazz, Blues, Folk and World music artists as well as choirs and orchestras. He is presently part of a world/folk trio THREE RIVERS in Victoria with fellow VICO members Douglas Hensley and Mark Ferris.

Parmela Attariwala – To Begin Again

To begin again is inspired by the myth of Meng Po 孟婆.  Sometimes referred to as Granny Meng, Old Lady Meng or the Goddess of Oblivion, Meng Po ensures that the souls of those who have passed from the realm of the living (or from hell) do not remember their past life (lives) when they are ready to be reincarnated. Meng greets souls on the Bridge of Oblivion (Naihe bridge), where she serves them a soup that clears the memory of the person they have been, so that they can be (re)incarnated into a new life unburdened by their past life. 

Retuning the zheng partway through the piece serves as a metaphor for the transition. Just enough notes are changed that the character evoked by the pentatonic scale is completely different between the old life and the new. But some notes remain unchanged.

Parmela Attariwala, born and raised on Treaty 7 territory, has been mesmerized by sound for as long as she can remember—whether the sound of resined horsehair drawn across a gut-wound strings, or of wind moving through water, air and trees. She pursued this passion through degrees in violin performance and ethnomusicology, and a professional career infused with performing, teaching, creating, writing about and advocating for music. Parmela has released three critically-acclaimed Attar Project albums that combine Western violin with South Asian rhythm and form. 

Since moving to Vancouver in 2019, Parmela has continued to make music that pushes the boundaries of tradition. Her current projects include creating music for opera, film, dance and art installations. She also lectures at Capilano University, and in 2021, co-founded the online improvisation network, Understory. https://parmela.com https://understorysound.ca

Academy Showcase 2 – June 7, 2025

Composer Bios & Notes on the Music

Constellate – Daniel Musashi

This piece began with the simple act of looking up (at the starry sky after sunset at English Bay). No matter where we live or what histories we carry, the stars continue shining above us: unreachable, yet shared. The title, Constellate, comes from the Latin “con” (together) and “stellatus” (starry or adorned with stars). It means to come together in a pattern, to be arranged like stars, a rare word that felt both celestial and communal. Constellate aims to capture an experience we all share sometimes, that sense of humility when considering the vastness of space when we tilt our heads back and feel, however briefly, part of something quite immense.

99 Strings – Parsa Noroozian

In Persian, there’s a saying: “to hit the last string” — a moment when something breaks, or breaks free. That feeling sits at the heart of this piece.

There are exactly 99 strings in the ensemble — a mix of instruments whose sounds are stretched, scraped, plucked, and sometimes pushed past their limits. Each one might be holding tension, or letting go of it.

The title plays with both ideas: 99 strings as a landscape of emotion and resonance — and the last string as the one you hit when there’s nothing left to lose.

This is music on the edge — of control, of calm, of breaking open.

Parsa Noroozian is a composer, psychotherapist, art therapist, and painter based in Canada. Their creative work bridges music, visual art, and emotional experience, often focusing on themes of tension, transformation, and connection. Drawing from Persian cultural influences and contemporary experimental practices, Parsa’s compositions explore sound textures and the emotional landscapes beneath them.

Alongside composing, Parsa works in psychotherapy and art therapy, helping people engage with their inner worlds through creative expression. This background informs their artistic practice, fostering a dialogue between personal experience and artistic form. Their music often reflects this interplay, combining structure and spontaneity to evoke moments of vulnerability and resilience.

Parsa’s multidisciplinary approach embraces both artistic experimentation and human connection, aiming to create work that resonates on multiple levels — intellectually, emotionally, and sensorially.

So close… – Glenn Sutherland

The origin and destination of our lives, or so all wisdom teachings say, is love. Although always present, sometimes we seem to be endlessly searching for love, being overwhelmed by its many faces, or maybe not aware of its presence at all. This piece plumbs aspects of this experience – the vulnerability, warmth, terror, joy and sorrow of it. 

Musically, the central tetrachord of the Dastagāh-Shur (and friends) mode(s), especially revolving around the pitches D and E, is used here as a metaphor for the dynamics of human relationships. Snatches of conversations, whether occurring between intimate lovers, family members, close friends, teachers and students, or oneself with the Divine appear. Some exchanges are longer, many are shorter and more fragmented, and interruptions occur. Threaded throughout is the feeling of searching for ever more completion and depth in the ineffable and many-faceted experience of this human journey.

Glenn Sutherland (he/him), a Vancouver-based composer and ecologist, is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre (CMC), a member of the Canadian League of Composers, and is Past President of Vancouver Pro Musica. He was the CMC’s (Prairie Region) Emerging Composer competition winner in 2016. Glenn writes concert music for voice, solo instruments, small ensembles (western and intercultural), and orchestra. Commissions have come from Vancouver’s Erato Ensemble, Winnipeg’s award-winning choir Esprit Singers, and from individuals (e.g., Colin Macdonald, Heather Molloy, Rachel Iwaasa). He has studied composition with Michael Trew, Jocelyn Morlock and Rodney Sharman.  Not infrequently, imagery and metaphors from his other life in applied conservation ecology appear in his work.

Colour Study for VICO Tentet – Dubravko Pajalic

The “Colour Study” explores the coloristic interaction of the various instruments provided by the VICO tentet. Experimenting with different combinations of instruments as well as the relationships of sound masses (solo-tutti) and rhythmic structures, a kind of color catalog is created.

A specific feature of this piece is that the basic tempo is approximately 120 beats throughout the entire composition. Elements of the score are based on my previous works for the VICO Wind Quintet (self-borrowing).

Dubravko Pajalic graduated in musicology at Zagreb University, Croatia. Later he continued his studies information sciences in Vienna, Austria. He is a versatile musician who has studied flute, guitar, conducting and composition. He studied privately with Croatian composer S. Horvat, conducting with E. Cossetto and J. Washburn. He conducts community choirs and organizes chamber music concerts. His compositions are in the nutshell a “bricolage” – a creation of a work from a diverse range of things available (a current mood or a mind-set – or simply a subconscious reflex to melodic material).  He uses elements of rich Croatian folklore, uses the technique of self-borrowing and musical quotation, resulting in an amorphous style.

In layers of sound – Sobhan Haghar

Culture can never be forgotten, the place where we grow up and learn music or the art of life.

Accordingly, the piece I composed is based on Iranian music in the Homayoun Dastgah, and among all the instruments, the sound of Iranian culture is clearly visible, and in different parts an Iranian piece can be heard. The first part is the stability part, and the next part is Chaharmezrab part, and then the cadenza, which is one of the improvise of Iranian music, and finally, there is a return to the origin, which is the basis of all the events in this world.

The name of the piece is also based on the fact that among all these sounds, the sound of culture can be heard.

Sobhan Haghar, 27, a resident of Karaj, Iran, has been working with Farshid Samandari for 5 years as a composer and has a degree in music. He is a guitarist himself, and due to Iranian culture, most of his pieces are based on that. This is his third collaboration with the VICO. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of BIHE last year.