{"id":122750,"date":"2026-03-19T15:37:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T19:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=122750"},"modified":"2026-03-20T14:00:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T18:00:01","slug":"interview-composer-aziza-sadikova-talks-toronto-premieres-music-esprit-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/03\/19\/interview-composer-aziza-sadikova-talks-toronto-premieres-music-esprit-orchestra\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Composer Aziza Sadikova Talks About The Toronto Premieres Of Her Music With Esprit Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"
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L: Conductor Alex Pauk and Esprit Orchestra at Koerner Hall (Photo: Karen Reeves); R: Composer Aziza Sadikova (Photo: Alina Leonova)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Esprit Orchestra continues their 43rd season with Heat Efficiency, a program that includes a world premiere, the return of an audience favourite, one North American premiere, and the Canadian premiere of two works by composer Aziza Sadikova. The concert takes place March 26 at Koerner Hall.<\/p>\n

Uzbek-German composer Aziza Sadikova has found champions for her music in conductors Omer Meir Wellber, Jonathan Stockhammer, and Kent Nagano. The latter gave the world premiere of her Farbenzeiten with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montr\u00e9al in December 2024.<\/p>\n

LV caught up with the busy composer to talk about her music.<\/p>\n

Aziza Sadikova<\/h2>\n

Aziza Sadikova grew up in Uzabekistan, and began studying both piano and composition at the age of five. She went on to music studies at the Tashkent State Conservatoire, followed by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Trinity College in London.<\/p>\n

Her music has been performed by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre Symphonique de Montr\u00e9al, Orchestre National de France, BBC Philharmonic, SWR Symphony Orchestra, and other leading ensembles. It has been programmed at the BBC Proms, Bachfest Leipzig, Wien Modern, Philharmonic Academy Concerts in Hamburg, Aspekte Salzburg, Klangwerkstatt Berlin and ReMusic Festival St Petersburg, among other festivals and organizations.<\/p>\n

Aziza Sadikova: The Interview<\/h2>\n

Her music may sometimes draw from classical traditions, but takes them in directions that are thoroughly modern, and often unexpected.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’d like to say that I live in Berlin,\u201d she says, \u201cand you know it’s full of interesting experimental concerts and ensembles here. That\u2019s why I moved here from London.\u201d<\/p>\n

She found the new music scene in the UK a little more conservative.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut here, it’s just crazy. You hear all kinds of stuff,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived here, I was really into experiments.\u201d She worked with a number of experimental ensembles, creating unusual sounds and using unusual objects, like stones. She still enjoys working with experimental groups, even as larger orchestras have come to embrace her music.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy aim is to try and connect that with, I would like to say classical tradition, but more classical orchestral concert stage music,\u201d she explains. \u201cWhat I hear mostly, what is written mostly for the concert stage, is pretty classical.\u201d She calls it \u201ccareful\u201d music.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don’t want to do that. I want to kind of create this, maybe start with this, but take my listener on another journey, and open up the boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say she\u2019s looking to create the kinds of dissonance, noise music, and other sounds that many still associate with the term \u201cmodern music\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t want to write purely experimental stuff for concert orchestra. That’s been done,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more a kind of synthesis of both ends of the spectrum that she aims for. \u201cI love the music of romanticism,\u201d she says. \u201cI love to listen to Rachmaninoff. I feel like tonality still has to much to give to us. I don’t want to write it off completely.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her music, she looks to broaden the harmonic textures of tonal music, while pushing its boundaries. \u201cI believe in tonality, and I don’t want to walk away from tonality,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo take my listeners to surprising moments in my music \u2014 that’s one of the things that I have done with my Vivaldi project,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did some crazy stuff. Funnily, [those] very classically trained audience members loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n