The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra presents the next in their Intimate & Immersive concert series on April 8, 2026. The event combines a live orchestra with chorists and immersive visuals, performing contemporary music in the atmospheric loft of The Cotton Factory.
HPO Music Director James Kahane conducts the orchestra, with soloist Linda Suolahti playing the violin, and McMaster University Choirs. The program consists of music by Canadian and Finnish
composers, including the world premiere of a work by HPO Composer Fellow Joseph (Sehyeok) Park.
Finnish violinist Linda Suolahti, soloist for the evening, is a groundbreaking musician based in Helsinki. Her music practice includes performance as a soloist, guest leader, and chamber musician. She routinely performs at major music festivals and concert halls. Linda founded the Kokonainen/Musequal festival in Finland in 2016, an organization devoted to equality, and has led the multidisciplinary Caisa Classequal concert series, also in Helsinki.
Linda plays a Carlo Bergonzi violin from 1732 on loan from the Foundation of Signe and Ane Gyllenberg.
“This concert is a journey in space and time,” said Music Director James Kahane, “The audience will hear sonic explorations from medieval plainchant, Japanese and Sri Lankan traditional music, Finnish and Bulgarian folk music and liturgical church music through the lens of the next generation of composers.”
The Music
As the title of the concert suggests, the theme of the program is the Earth and its inherent beauty, and ancient civilizations from around the globe.
The program comprised of works inspired by the beauty of our earth and ancient civilizations around the world features a world premiere by one of HPO’s 25-26 Composer Fellows.
Matthew Whittall: Ad puram anihilationem meam
The Canadian composer’s choral work puts together Gregorian chants and components of Christian liturgy alongside classical Japanese gagaku music and Buddhist elements.
Dinuk Wijeratne: Gajaga Vannama
Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne pays tribute to his roots in this work, which combines traditional Sri Lankan melody with a classical 18th century ‘Vannam’ dance-form. Vannam represents the divine elephant of the god Sakra.
Joseph (Sehyeok) Park: Elegy
HPO 25-26 Composer Fellow Joseph (Sehyeok) Park’s Elegy is presented in its world premiere.
Cecilia Damström: Earth Songs
The seven-movement violin concerto by Finnish composer Cecilia Damström, a love song to our planet and its diverse ecosystems, closes the concert.
LV caught up with Joseph Park to talk about his experiences as an HPO Composer Fellow, and his music.
J.S. Park’s Diptych for Chamber Ensemble (2025):
Joseph (Sehyeok) Park
Joseph (Sehyeok) Park earned a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from the University of Toronto in 2025. In 2022, he won the Carlos Surinach Prize at the 70th Annual BMI Student Composer Awards, becoming its youngest winner. Joseph has been recognized as a fellow by the Aspen Music Festival, Norfolk New Music Festival at Yale School of Music, and RED NOTE festival.
He is the founding artistic director of the Blank Canvas Sound Collective. His compositions have been performed by Orkest de Ereprijs and the Brevard Music Center Orchestra.
Joseph is also an active concert pianist.
LV asked him a few questions about his work.
Joseph Park: Q&A
LV: Can you tell me briefly what the Composer Fellowship opportunity has meant for your
development as an artist?
JP: The HPO Composer Fellowship was a very unique opportunity for me, especially as an early-career student, because this year-long program is more than just getting your piece played by a professional orchestra. Throughout the past few months, Abigail, HPO’s composer-in-residence, has been training me in various aspects of professionalism and community engagement that comes along with working with an orchestra. From presenting my perspectives on the programme to the community members at the Talk and Tea to engaging with the donors of the organizations, these are experiences that, as a budding student, you just don’t get that often. Not only that, just the fact that this program is almost a year long allows me to be super familiar with the ensemble.
Overall, it’s a really special opportunity that will help me to kickstart my professional career.
LV: Do you have specific goals you’d like to accomplish as a composer?
JP: As a composer, your music cannot have a life of its own without the players to fulfill your vision. In light of this, I hope to be able to write music that will rouse not only the audience and myself, but also the performers who play my music.
This is because no matter how enthusiastic I feel about my own music, if the players don’t feel the same way, that enthusiasm just isn’t going to transfer over to the audience. That’s whyI hope to be able to work with as many different types of performers as possible. I also just learn a lot about my music and my compositional practices from hearing the performers’ perspectives on my works.
LV: How do you describe your compositional style? Are there specific composers or works that
have influenced you?
JP: My compositions have a variety of palettes and atmospheres, but I do think there is one unifying characteristic across all of them, and it’s that they all have a toy-like mechanism built in.
Part of it might be owed to my love of composers like Bach, whose mind-boggling counterpoint I see as an intricate gearwork within a handcrafted Swiss watch. Speaking of Swiss watches, Stravinsky also praised Maurice Ravel’s music in a similar manner, and Ravel also happens to be my all-time favourite
composer.
I find it incredibly satisfying when I find the right kind of gearwork for my compositions. Of course, there is also the emotional aspect, but those emotions have to be guided by a logical mechanism, which, I hope, grants my pieces a sense of inevitability.
If I can name-drop just a few more composers, I have recently been obsessed with Henri Dutilleux, another French composer, and Guillaume Connesson, whose piece Techno Parade I listen to at least once a week.
LV: What can you tell us about Elegy, the piece that will premiere on April 8?
JP: The piece is a lamentation for the time that we’re living in. There’s a lot of wars and conflicts and suffering that it’s often difficult to get a positive outlook on our lives.
The piece, therefore, starts with this kind of muted, Gregorian-chant-like texture that feels stagnant and sterile. In short, it’s some sort of a musical prayer.
Performance
The HPO’s Intimate & Immersive series takes place on April 8, 2026 at The Cotton Factory.
It’s an intimate environment, where audience members can chat with the musicians and composers, and look at the art installations close up, during intermission.
- Find tickets and show details [HERE].
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