Vancouver Island Symphony opens pearl anniversary season

Justo Valdés said she is already dreaming of what comes next for her and the symphony. Photo: Dirk Heydemann of HA Photography

The Vancouver Island Symphony is celebrating its 30th anniversary season by highlighting the history and future of the symphony.

The Vancouver Island Symphony (VIS) is one of only two professional Canadian orchestras on Vancouver Island. This fall, it is celebrating its 30th anniversary, also known as the pearl anniversary, after years of showing the magic of music across the island.

VIS has shared music across the island at Nanaimo’s Port Theatre, Courtenay’s Sid Williams Theatre and Campbell River’s Tidemark Theatre.

Cosette Justo Valdés is the artistic director of the VIS and the resident conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. She was born and raised in Havana, Cuba until she left to study music in Germany. In 2019 she came to Canada after becoming an assistant conductor for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. After three years in that role, she was promoted to resident conductor.

After that, she later applied to be the artistic director of the Vancouver Island Symphony, her current role. This is her second season with VIS.

She said the VIS is a regional orchestra that has core musicians who are from the area, but also musicians from abroad who come to Nanaimo to play. She said this makes for a fantastic space for experiencing the joy of music.

“And then when the orchestra meets, it feels like a festival orchestra–I call it only that, I think I'm the only one who does that–but I love to call them a festival orchestra because of the joy that the musicians feel when they meet each other,” Justo Valdés said. “They miss each other sometimes because some musicians don't play in all the concerts, so when they come back, they feel really, really happy.”

With this being a pearl anniversary, Justo Valdés said the pearl is also a representation of the orchestra.

“We are young for an orchestra–30 years, It's almost nothing,” she said. “We have a lot still to create, but in 30 years already, we have some history and, of course, a lot of experience. So it's this middle ground in which you feel young, but so mature to start telling the story of the orchestra.”

She said this anniversary is a celebration of the symphony that already has history but also the space to grow and look into the future.

Over the years, VIS has grown a large fan base who love to listen to music. Justo Valdés said they have many members who moved to Nanaimo from major cities with large symphonies, who want to continue listening to live orchestral music. 

“We have a fantastic audience that is very expressive, that tells you what they like, tells you what they don't like, tells you their expectations, what they want from you, which repertoire, pieces, particular things they really wish to hear. I have felt incredibly embraced by them,” Justo Valdés said.

To celebrate the symphony’s anniversary season, they are putting on a special concert launching into the season on Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 p.m. at the Port Theatre. The concert will feature a Dvořák Cello Concerto, featuring guest cellist and composer, Sointu Aalto, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6. As well the night will also feature a performance by Paige Pierce, the City of Nanaimo’s Youth Poet Laureate.

“I wanted to do Tchaikovsky, and they particularly wanted to do a symphony and dream of mine, of course, to do it here,” she said. “It is a piece that is full of passion, full of the story of emotions, basically. It's a journey of very intense, different, contrasting emotions”

Justo Valdés first met the guest 19-year-old cellist Sointu Aalto when Aalto won a spot in a summer program with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

“She won a competition with the youth orchestra in Edmonton. I was a jury in that competition, and I was in tears when I heard her play with the orchestra. So I invited her [to perform in Nanaimo]. It's going to be her first performance with a professional orchestra. So it's pretty big, because I consider that her career will be great, and we are the first ones to invite her to perform with the orchestra,” Justo Valdés said. “It's going to be a very intense performance of this masterpiece by a young player.”

As for what lies ahead for the symphony, Justo Valdés said they will continue to learn from their past seasons.

“So our first season, we had more newer music, this season, we're going with repertoire that is more core repertoire that will allow us to deepen our musical relationship in terms of different styles, different types of music that weed together the conductor with the orchestra, can really create their way, their own way of making this type of music,” she said.

She said she is already dreaming of what comes next for her and the symphony.

“So the main goal I have with this orchestra, of course, is to experience the maximum excellence that is humanly possible for us together, give it all,” she said. “Explore everything that is interesting and that we are curious about, gain the trust–which I think we had already last season–the trust of the audience who came to concerts where they didn't know what they were going to hear.”

Justo Valdés said one of the most important goals of the Vancouver Island Symphony is to continue to inspire and connect everyone with the experience of great and powerful music.

Tickets for the opening concert and the pre-concert talk can be purchased on the Port Theatre website and more information on the symphony’s 30th anniversary season can be found on its website.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.