Esprit Orchestra

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Esprit Orchestra is Canada's only full-sized, professional orchestra devoted to performing and presenting new music.

Founded in 1983 by Music Director and Conductor, Alex Pauk, Esprit’s commitment to commissioning and advancing contemporary music has set it apart as one of the few organisations of its kind on a global scale. Esprit consistently collaborates with outstanding composers, and performs with first-class soloists and ensembles from Canada and abroad.

With a dynamic annual subscription concert series, this skilled 65-member orchestra presents music that is otherwise unavailable in Canada, always performed to the highest standards in the acoustically acclaimed Koerner Hall at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning.

In the 2023/24 Subscription Season, Esprit Orchestra will present a series of five concerts at Koerner Hall comprising a co-commissioned work by Unsuk Chin, a tribute to Kaija Saariaho, a performance of Rita Ueda's Azrieli Prize awarded work and performances of 20th century masterworks by Ligeti, Xenakis, R. Murray Schafer and John Adams, alongside today's brightest voices in new music, including Žibuokle Martinaitytė, Vito Žuraj, Misato Mochizuki and Anna Meredith.