The Quietness of that Winter

Commissioned by the Vancouver Island Symphony, “The Quietness of that Winter” is an eleven minutes tone poem written for mezzo soprano Krisztina Szabo and strings orchestra.

The text of this work is based on a poem written by Tina Biello, who was the Poet Laureate of Nanaimo. The composition reveals a music journey of old memories collected or imagined in a small Italian village named Casacalenda, a place when the poet’s parents grew up. There are many breath taking images and feelings in the poem, I hope to capture the nostalgia, whims, and parody of the poetry through the darker quality of a mezzo voice, and to build a magical winter land using rich string colors and effects.

What strikes me is the gentle sweet sorrow flows in the poem, which inspire me to create a stylistic musical language to reflect the intimate atmosphere and a personal voice, which is the voice of an immigrant – the observation of injustice, heartbreak, yet full of hope and dreams.

Alice Ping Yee Ho