PRISMA Festival returns to Powell River with symphonies and song cycles, June 16 to 28

With guests such as mezzo-soprano Emma Parkinson, the themed programs range through masterpieces, from the Romantic to the avant-garde

By Helen Wu

Emma Parkinson. Photo by Ben Owens

PRISMA at the Beach concert.

The Pacific Region International Summer Music Association presents the PRISMA Festival from June 16 to 28

EACH JUNE, THE PRISMA Festival transforms Powell River into a hub for classical music, drawing over five thousand concertgoers from across the province. Now in its 13th year, the two-week musical feast continues to feature the PRISMA Festival Orchestra, conducted by cofounder and artistic director Arthur Arnold, while training top international music students through the PRISMA Academy.

Symphonies and song cycles lie at the heart of PRISMA’s concert programming. The gala opening concert, Premieres in Paris, takes place on June 19, with a program tracing the arc of French classical music—from the Romanticism of Gounod and Dukas to the impressionist icons Debussy and Ravel.

The evening concludes with Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, a song cycle that journeys through innocence, loss, and the renewal of love. Chinese-Canadian mezzo-soprano Emma Parkinson joins the orchestra with her rich and expressive voice, following her recent performance with the Victoria Symphony in Handel’s Messiah.

Parkinson returns the following night to perform Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children), a deeply psychological meditation on grief set to poetry by Friedrich Rückert. The program also features Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 6, known as the “Tragische” (Tragic). Though nearly three times longer than the song cycle, it has the same emotional depth, offering a powerful reflection on the inner world of the human spirit. 

Beyond the symphonic stage, PRISMA presents chamber concerts and masterclasses with internationally renowned artists. A standout this year is Vienna Through Time (June 26), spotlighting composers from both the First and Second Viennese Schools. Joined by selected PRISMA students, guest artists will open with Schönberg’s tonal sextet Verklärte Nacht. The composer’s later avant-garde innovation, the 12-tone row technique, will then be represented by Webern’s Concerto for Nine Instruments. Closing the evening is Schubert’s beloved Trout Quintet, a good-humoured four-movement piece scored for the unusual ensemble of piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. 

And on June 27, Arnold—former artistic director of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra—will conduct the world premiere of the long-lost Third Symphony by Soviet-era composer Alexander Mosolov.

PRISMA concludes on June 28 with Cultural Connections, a free outdoor concert at Willingdon Beach Park uniting festival musicians and members of the Tla’amin Nation in a program that features classical masterpieces, film scores, and Tla’amin singers and drummers.

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