Graciously funded by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Edmonton Arts Council. Poster by Gabe Wong.
PLACES // PARTING
Jun. 21, 2025, 7:00pm @ Robertson-Wesley United Church
Description
Join three local Edmonton composers—Geoff Li, Daniel Belland, and Allan Gilliland—for the premiere of their commissioned classical works, performed by the esteemed Obsessions String Quartet and Sarah Ho on piano!
The three composers are known for giving classical music a refreshing spin by interweaving it with their cornucopia of diverse influences, including forms of traditional Chinese and Korean music, jazz, K-pop, theater, and Brazilian choro.
The concert is a celebration of local talent and the sounds of today; the all-original program is both a celebration of the connections we make—to cultures, to land, to people—and a reflection of the various challenges of the 21st century.
Entry by donation. Wheelchair accessible.
Program
Allan Gilliland: Ruby Nights on Shining Shores (for Piano Quintet) - Premiere
Geoff Li: Towards Clarity (for String Quartet)
I —
II
Daniel Belland: Extinction Sky (for Piano Trio) - Premiere
Geoff Li: A New Era of Immigrant Stories (for Piano Quintet) - Premiere
I. Alpine Rainsong in the Moonlight
II. Years of Scarlet
III. Blue Silk (Everything’s a Guilty Pleasure)
IV. Han
🌷 Composers 🌷
Geoff Li is a composer and sound designer based in Edmonton. He is part of the music production team Madcap Labs, with whom he scores the Pokémon TV series. Unapologetic in his love of various styles and aesthetics, his music blends together elements of Western classical, progressive metal, jazz, electronic, early 2000s video game music, and his Korean-Chinese heritage.
Geoff has been commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton, Obsessions String Quartet, and the C’mon Festival (Chamber Music Old & New), and his music has been played by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra, and Yardbird Suite Jazz Orchestra. He is currently working with indie game developer Aerobox Games on their upcoming title Rogue Racer.
Outside of creating, Geoff is an avid Magic: The Gathering player, and loves getting lost in a good book, anime, or indie video game.
Known for his expressive playing and inventive, engaging compositions, Daniel Belland is an award-winning composer, pianist, and music director based in Edmonton. His music draws from extensive and varied influences such as impressionism, minimalism, musical theatre, contemporary jazz, pop, and folk music. Daniel has won numerous awards for his original work, including the Edmonton Pop’s Orchestra’s Edmonton Composing Competition (2018), Canadian Music Centre’s Prairie Region Emerging Composer Competition (2013), and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers Project (2012). His orchestral music has been performed by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and Edmonton Pops Orchestra.
Daniel is actively engaged in the Edmonton theatre scene as a composer, music director, and pit musician.
One of Canada’s busiest composers, Allan Gilliland has written music for orchestra, choir, big band, film, television and theatre. His music has been performed by some of the finest ensembles and soloists in the world and appears on over 30 CD's. For five years he was Composer-in-Residence with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and has written concerti for violin, trumpet, harp, cello, flute, oboe, accordion and clarinet. Other highlights include; The Winspear Fanfare composed for the opening of the Francis Winspear Centre for Music and Dreaming of the Masters III, given its American premiere by Jens Lindemann and the Edmonton Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 2012. Allan is currently the Dean of Fine Arts and Communications at MacEwan University.
Allan’s recent work includes his 4th commission for the Alberta Baroque Ensemble, a double concerto for flute and violin. In 2020 he released his 3rd album Dreaming: The Prague Sessions, an orchestral recording of Dreaming of the Masters I & IV featuring James Campbell and PJ Perry.
🌹 Performers 🌹
Obsessions String Quartet was founded in 2005 as an extension of a previously formed string trio, named Trio Con Brio. Once the Kent Sangster’s Obsessions Octet was created, the string group became an integral part of the octet and the ensemble automatically became Obsessions String Quartet.
Obsessions Octet is a crossover ensemble—a blend of jazz, classical and tango, which consist of two quartets: a classical string quartet and a jazz quartet. The group plays chamber-jazz over a mix of material that leaves room for improvisation. The quartet’s repertoire consists of unique string quartet hits such as music by Astor Piazzolla, Kent Sangster, Allan Gilliland, Chris Andrew, Radiohead, Maria Schneider, other tangos and jazz standards, and a few favourites by Ravel, Dvorak, Szymanowski, Bacewicz and S. Barber.
Obsessions has performed concerts across Alberta as well as USA, Greece, England, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Poland. They are part of four recordings by Kent Sangster’s Obsessions Octet as well as the Octet's debut in Carnegie Hall, NYC in 2012; and 2016 concerts in Rochester, recorded by PBS Public American Television.
The string quartet consists of four respected Edmonton musicians who are members of Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Alberta Baroque Ensemble, and other chamber groups: Joanna Ciapka-Sangster (violin), Yue Deng (violin), Leanne Maitland (viola), and Ronda Metzies (cello).
Canadian pianist Sarah Ho has performed internationally as a soloist and ensemble player in recitals, competitions, and festivals.
Sarah has been featured with orchestras across Canada including the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber Orchestra. She has performed in notable venues and festivals around the world, including the Schubert Theatre on Broadway in New York, the Kennedy Center, the Banff Festival for the Arts, the Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, Weekend of Chamber Music in New York, and Rudersdal Sommerkoncerter in Denmark. Sarah also travelled to China with Edmonton's Windrose Trio, when they became the first Canadians to perform at the Harbin Summer Music Festival, in Harbin, China.
Sarah holds degrees from the music schools of Indiana University and Yale University, where she studied under renowned pianists Menahem Pressler, and Claude Frank.
Sarah currently lives in Edmonton, Canada, with her husband Colin and their two sons, Markus and Sebastian. She is on the faculty of MacEwan University’s Conservatory of Music, and is the artistic director of the Edmonton Recital Society.