What: Victoria Symphony: Brahms’ Requiem (with Michael Oesterle’s Home)
When: Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Where: Royal Theatre
Tickets: $18 to $75 at rmts.bc.ca and 250-386-6121
Michael Oesterle has difficulty saying what it feels like to wrap up his tenure as composer-in-residence with the Victoria Symphony.
On one hand, it’s satisfying to present the final chapter of his New World cycle, the four-part work he created over the course of his tenure. On the other, it doesn’t really feel like the end.
“You don’t really leave,” he said, referring to the way past composers-in-residence such as Tobin Stokes and Christopher Butterfield have maintained strong relationships with the orchestra.
“It’s not like, ‘Thank you, bye, you’re gone.’ My involvement with the symphony will continue.”
Oesterle was selected for the position in 2011 and has travelled between his home in Deux-Montagnes, Que., and Victoria to fulfil his duties. While others have composed several distinct works during their residencies, Oesterle pitched a single, substantial work, presented in four parts.
New World references Dvorak’s New World Symphony, but Oesterle sought to present a more current version of the immigrant experience, having lived it himself. Oesterle, now 45, migrated from Germany to Canada at 14.
“I’ve been in Canada far longer than I lived in Europe,” he said. “But it’s an interesting thing, this idea of being an immigrant … I’m always affected by it.”
At the same time, he said New World isn’t about him. It’s about universal experiences, or as Oesterle says, “the great ebb and flow of humanity we know as the immigrant experience.”
The first chapter, Crossings, took a child’s perspective, mimicking short attention spans, frights and curiosity.
The second, living as a teenager in the new world. For Oesterle, that meant struggling to perfect his English. Of Hope and Refuge also reflects the hopes and dreams that parents have for their children in a new country.
The third, an adagio called Golden Door, takes a sad tone.
“Maybe things don’t work out in the new world. I’ve seen that a lot, especially in older immigrants. They just can’t let go of that feeling of the old world,” he said.
While the pieces are strictly musical, Oesterle said he wrote them in an easy narrative form.
It seems appropriate to present Home, the final instalment, now. The piece signals nostalgia and maturity, while asking the question: What is home?
“It’s the first time in the entire set of pieces where I put some musical quotations that have dealt with nostalgia.”
The 22-minute piece is the longest of the chapters. He said there are complex emotions in the piece, including a bit of anger. He wrote it at a time when Quebec was debating the proposed charter of values, which was criticized as anti-immigrant, and Oesterle said there was a feeling of relief when voters rejected it.
But the mood also shifts from sombre to humorous to happy.
Home for Oesterle is still elusive. He and his family are considering a move and he says he’d be happy to remain mobile all his life.
“Home is being with my wife and my child, but in terms of geographical location, I don’t know,” he said.
And what’s next?
The Victoria Symphony has already commissioned two more of his works and he’s also looking forward to writing a piece for Tafelmusik, Toronto’s baroque orchestra, premièring in April.
Jared Miller, 25, has been named his successor.
Oesterle said that the residency is different for each composer and it would be up to Miller to define his own role. But he gave a few words of advice.
“It goes by very quickly, so really enjoy every moment.”