Nature Works: A recital of music inspired by nature with pianist and composer Jesse Plessis. 

The program opens with the Alexina Louie's effervescent musical recreation of Zen poetry "I Leap Through the Sky With Stars." The work "Turn" by Per Norgard follows, and is a painstakingly mathematically constructed hommage to the natural balance of order and chaos in the universe. The first half ends with "Doctor Blue Dream" the premiere of a brand ne...w piano work by Jesse Plessis. 

The second half will consist of a remarkable manifestation of minimalism in Canadian music: Selections from Sets II and III of Ann Southam's "Rivers." Southam's dauntless faith in simple processes is in full swing here as all the pieces consist of repeating patterns of notes and sequences of notes which flow through and around one another, and which are subject to simple processes of change as the music progresses. The continuous ongoing nature of the music is suggestive of rivers.

British Columbia born pianist and composer Jesse Plessis is a recent recipient of a Bachelor of Music Degree from the University of Lethbridge in Piano and Composition. As a pianist, he has studied with Arne Sahlen, Allen Reiser, and Dr. Deanna Oye at the University of Lethbridge. He has played in masterclasses with Eve Egoyan, Jeroen Van Veen, Marcel and Elizabeth Bergmann, James Nalley, and Jacques Després. Plessis is active as a solo and chamber musician in Western Canada, and has recently performed with the Lethbridge Symphony Orchestra, the Musaeus String Quartet, the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble and The Piano Ensemble as part of the Pulse Summer Advanced Chamber Music Workshop in Langley, BC. In addition to his pianistic activities, Plessis is active as a conductor, teacher, and has been awarded several national prizes for his compositions, a few of which have been broadcast on CBC radio. Jesse will begin graduate studies at Brandon University with Dr. Megumi Masaki this fall.