I’m currently away in Saskatoon conducting the 2024 Saskatchewan Senior Honour Band, but I wanted to reflect on a commission that premiered ten years ago today; one that is, quite probably, my wildest commission to date.

It was on a warm summer day in 2013 that I was asked to come to meet up with a lady named Janice Arnason, who was had been my piano teacher and my Grade 6 teacher. I met her at the New Iceland Heritage Museum in my hometown of Gimli, Manitoba, and she told me that she’d like to commission a piece. I was delighted and asked her if the Gimli band might play it, then she smiled and said it wouldn’t be for band; it would be for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Here I was, just thirty years old, and taken quite aback. She told me that there was still funding to secure and grants to sort through, but it was on the table. Because of who I was and where I was in my career, I was quite certain it wouldn’t happen, so I didn’t get my hopes up or let my anxiety get the best of me.

Then she called me a few months later – they’d secured the funding and the piece would be premiered during the WSO’s Nordic Festival in late 2014, sharing the program with Icelandic piano superstar, Vikingur Olafsson. I still had to have a quick meeting with the Icelandic Festival Committee, but it was pretty much locked in. I was equal parts elated and terrified. I didn’t think that I had the compositional toolbox to write for our province’s civic orchestra, and while that was probably true, I got the advice from other artists not to be too flashy or write outside my ability. Write who you are, don’t try and write who you’re not.

Because it was commissioned for the Icelandic Festival of Manitoba—the festival in my hometown over the August Long Weekend—I settled on writing it about the settling of New Iceland, of which Gimli was a part. I focused on the mixed feelings that the new settlers from Iceland were feeling upon their arrival on that first morning; the name Morgun is Icelandic for “morning.” From despair, to hope, to sorrow, to strength, the piece weaves through these emotions as themes and lines weave through an orchestra.

It took about four months (I think), but I had something that was pushing what I was able to do compositionally, but still had my artistic voice. The process was really challenging emotionally, trying to write my first piece for orchestra for the highest level orchestra in the land. Though I had been composing for the vast majority of my life (starting when I was about 12 years old), I was really at a critical place in developing my understanding of craft in my late 20s, which is when I was working on this. Filum Vitae and the choral version of We Are Stars had been published in 2012 (I think) and Prairie Wedding had just gone to print, but those were my published works at that time… then came this commission.

The orchestra rehearsed it in the third last week of October, with the premiere date of October 31st, alongside Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in a minor and Nielsen’s 3rd Symphony. Grieg, Nielson, and Kristofferson – one of these things was not like the other. Even still, the orchestra treated it with respect and gave it a lovely reading. We worked on a few tempo things then put it away. I’d never experienced the orchestra rehearsing, but that alone was worth the price of admission—what incredible musicians.

The morning of the premiere, I was on both CBC Radio One and Classic 107 in Winnipeg for the first time. They asked me about my piece, my life, and my work and I really felt like a real composer, especially seeing as I was leaving for a composition workshop/program/residency at the Banff Centre the following week. Here is that interview:

The piece opened on October 31st to very limited attendance (it was Halloween, after all), but my friends and family came and we celebrated together. We had gone for dinner to Hy’s Steakhouse before then, but I was so amped up that I could barely get through it; in fact, I think I left early to get to the concert hall.

The ensemble played it so beautifully. I have a recording of it, and though I can’t share it publicly because of union stipulations, I listen to it from time to time and it brings me such joy. They played it again on November 1st, then we took the show on the road to Brandon, MB on the 2nd. I got to ride on a bus with the orchestra, which was a hoot. They treated me so kindly, despite being some thirty year old who was clearly in over his head. We are so lucky to have the WSO in our community.

While it hasn’t gotten played to much lately, the then-principal violist, Dan Scholz, was conducting the Winnipeg Youth Symphony Orchestra and performed and recorded it for me the following year. Both the Brandon Community Orchestra and Winnipeg Pops Orchestra performed it and did a terrific job. Here is that recording:

Despite this work not getting to much action these days, the piece and these memories are so special to me. Collections of people from my hometown—people who have watched me grow up and been an important part of my life—believed in me, so did my civic orchestra who accepted the commission. Great things happen when you believe in people.

Here are some pictures from the event (photo credit: Leif Norman). Thanks for coming along for the ride, everyone.

-Kenley