Cosmophony

Co-presented with the Powell Street Festival
Eleven composers share their inner reflections on outer space in Cosmophony, Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa’s solo piano project inspired by the beauty and mystery of the cosmos.

Praised in the Vancouver Sun as “brilliant” and “unforgettable,” the program opens with Denis Gougeon’s fiercely virtuosic invocation of the sun, Piano-Soleil, launching a journey to each of the planets from Mercury through Neptune, with pieces written especially for Iwaasa by stellar Canadian composers Rodney Sharman, Marci Rabe, Alexander Pechenyuk, Jocelyn Morlock, Chris Kovarik, Jeffrey Ryan, Stefan Udell, and Jennifer Butler. Jordan Nobles’ Fragments, a cluster of brilliant miniatures depicting the Asteroid Belt, nestles between Mars and Jupiter. Pluto, now demoted to dwarf planet status, is replaced by Gliese 581c, a distant planet in the Libra constellation speculated to be able to support Earth-like life. Composer Emily Doolittle’s sparkling depiction expresses a tremulous dream of interstellar travel, shadowed by our fears of environmental collapse.

Lit only by the projections of images of our solar system, Cosmophony creates a breathtaking multi-media spectacle. Released on CD by Redshift Records, Cosmophony was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Association Award.

Praise for Cosmophony:

“A fascinating adventure about unimaginable largeness and gravity, unknowable states, an invitation to wonder.” – Lloyd Dykk, Vancouver Sun “Pianist Iwaasa quite simply pulls no punches, attacking each composer’s work with passion, intensity and the nuanced playing she’s acclaimed for… she manages to instill a sense of dynamic tension and pull to every note.” – The Vancouver Province “The outrageously talented Vancouver pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa has united her favourite composers for this adventurous debut album inspired by the heavens… Iwaasa deftly spans an array of atmospheres with impressive mastery and stylistic clarity” – Musicworks Magazine