McGill Symphony Orchestra

Tickets are available online, at the Salle Pierre-Mercure Box Office.

Programme Notes

Sun Shower is inspired by the powerful, rapidly changing weather I have experienced while living in the scrubland of Northern Texas. In the late spring, temperature swings between the day and night often span 20 degrees Celsius, as intense sun-baked heat is broken by velvety mists of rain – or torrential thunderstorms and tornados. Sun Shower takes advantage of the orchestra’s huge variety of color to create a soundworld of ever-shifting intensity. Reedy brightness is engulfed in blurry shadows; re-emerges as powerful brassiness; is engulfed again; and so on, in perpetually changing cycles of dark and light, clarity and blurriness, dullness and resonance.

Jesse Maker is a writer and composer writing and composing in Arlington, Texas. His music is characterized by its breathless intensity. Dr. Maker's music has been performed in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Ann Arbor, Montreal, Italy, and Germany, by ensembles such as the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Tak, Ensemble L’arsenale, AndPlay, and Departure Duo.
Long-term compositional projects include music for speaking instrumentalists and the development of a Wordmusic notation, straddling the border between sound poetry and music. In addition to his compositional activities, Jesse actively engages in research into linguistic and semiotic models for composing music; meaning in music; and conceptions of sense and nonsense.
Dr. Maker is on faculty at the University of Texas, Arlington where he teaches composition and music theory. He holds degrees from McGill University, Bowling Green State University, and Oberlin College and Conservatory.

Alexey Shafirov was born in Ulan-Ude, Russia, and moved to Israel at the age of six, where he began his piano studies under the guidance of Mrs. Inna Lerner. After five years of deep involvement in software development, he decided to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in piano performance at the Jerusalem Academy, where he studied with Yaron Rosenthal and Eitan Globerson. Alexey holds a Master's degree in piano performance from the Schulich School of Music of McGill University, where he is now pursuing a doctorate under the tutelage of Michael McMahon and Ilya Poletaev. Alexey has won several prizes in solo piano competitions, including both Piano Concerto Competitions at McGill University in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. Alongside his solo achievements, collaboration with vocalists remains central to his artistic path. A graduate of the prestigious McGill-UdeM Piano-Vocal Arts Residency, he has learned from the leading experts in vocal music. Alexey has accompanied numerous award-winning vocalists in competitions both in Israel and Canada, including Sara Schabas, with whom he participated in the Franz-Schubert Institute in Austria, performing for some of the world's foremost interpreters of the German Lied. Alexey has been generously supported by scholarships from America-Israel Cultural Foundation, Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation, and Jenny Panitch Beckow Memorial Foundation.