PEISO looks ahead

The PEI Symphony Orchestra (PEISO) is inviting audiences to discover Canadian themes through the universal language of music. The Symphony’s 2026–27 season is entitled Our Story, the first in the four-cycle Discover arc that will reflect the stories that have knit Canada together. 

“I am excited to launch our four-year Discover series this fall,” said PEISO Music Director Jaelem Bhate. “I envision transforming the orchestra into a prism; reconciling the past, challenging the present, and imagining the future of Canada through music.” Bhate went on to say, “Each season will take on a new question and theme, a musical path to discovery through civic discourse and conversation.” With this approach, Bhate suggests that the PEISO has a unique opportunity to be recognized as a musical thought leader in Canada, employing music to connect, engage, and unite communities. 

Our Story opens October 18 with Belonging. PEISO’s principal flautist Morgan Saulnier will perform one of the most virtuosic pieces for orchestra, Aram Kachaturian’s Flute Concerto. The audience will belong to the orchestra during Eric Whitacre’s “Deep Field,” when smartphones will morph into instruments. “Deep Field” is inspired by the 1995 Hubble image that evokes the scale of the universe. A “Leap of the Heart” by Cecilia Livingston sets the stage for Laura Sgroi and Rebecca Thomas to tell Canada’s tragedy of colonization and the hope of reconciliation in “We’re Not Done Drumming,” when beat poetry meets the orchestra. Belonging promises an impactful opening to a season that will challenge the perception of what it means to truly belong to a community.

On November 15, the orchestra closes the Revolution-themed concert with the 11th Symphony of Dmitiri Shostakovich, “The year 1905.” Recounting the story of a people fed up with tyranny and oppression, this sonically descriptive work is terrifying for its entire fourth movement played as loud as the orchestra can deliver. Canada may not be known as the site of a major revolution, but Our Story chronicles a country seeking its own identity and resolving fundamental questions. To set the scene of Canada’s story and revolution, Maritimer Emily Doolittle’s “Falling Still” opens the concert with a gentle exploration of sounds from natural processes. Then the orchestra launches into Franz Liszt’s dark, yet triumphant “A Hero’s Funeral,” telling the tale of a heroism against terrible odds, and ending the afternoon with Shostakovich’s revolutionary bang. 

On March 7, Resurface questions the human story on Earth and our relationship with the natural world. A trio of Canadian premieres open the concert to tell Our Story. Maritimer Hope Salmonson warns of a time where climate change takes its course in “Ocean Solitudes,” followed by a PEISO co-commission and the Atlantic Canada premiere of Saman Shahi’s Viola Concerto “…then the sky was amber” featuring violist Sharon Wei. Thad Bailey-Mai delivers the live premiere of “Three short pieces about birds” evoking all manner of birds flying above it all. Tying it all together, almost 200 years to the day of Beethoven’s death, is Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, the ultimate sonic description of fate; in this case, both the human and natural world. 

With the season closer on April 11, Edge asks the audience to look beyond and strive for better. The concert will open with Mozart’s Overture from “The Magic Flute” which explores humanity’s never-ending mission to understand the beyond. “Bondarsphere” traces the life of Canadian astronaut Dr. Roberta Bondar in this original work by Montreal composer Nicole Lizée. Lizée employs soundtrack, video, and live orchestra, inviting the audience to reflect on Our Story in terms of Bondar’s trailblazing accomplishments, inciting a new generation to embrace a sense of discovery, experimentation and awe in the face of the infinite. In “O Virtus Sapeintiae,” the reimagined 900-year-old music of Hildegard von Bingen, a German polymath and the first composer of written works by a woman, frames the concert as one of endeavour and ponderance. And Kevin Lau sonically explores “The Infinite Reaches,” while Richard Strauss’ towering “Death and Transfiguration” ends the season with transformation, not to sadness, but to the next chapter of Our Story. 

Season subscriptions and tickets are now available through the Confederation Centre Box Office. Visit confederationcentre.com or call 1-800-565-0278. For more information, visit peisymphony.com.