Our Canada: Forecasting the Canadian Wind spans the nation and beyond in the creation and presentation of new works by five Canadian composers in collaboration with five Canadian wind quintets who are partnered with five international wind quintets, thereby initiating a worldwide network of wind chamber musicians to push the boundaries of the repertoire for this ensemble of flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and French horn.

Five Canadian wind quintets are each paired with a composer—Fifth Wind (Halifax, NS) with Emily Doolittle (Nova Scotia/Scotland); Choros (Montreal, QC) with Carmen Braden (Northwest Territories); Blythwood Winds (Toronto, ON) with Daniel Janke (Yukon Territory); Mistral 5 (Saskatoon, SK) with Cris Derksen (Northern Alberta/Ontario); and Ventos (Vancouver, BC) with Cameron Wilson (Vancouver, BC)—in this innovative pan-Canadian project.

The compositions are being developed over the course of seven months, November 2017 to May 2018. The development process includes simultaneous week-long workshops, each quintet with their composer. The quintets will document the workshops in order to share them with one another, allowing all five quintets access to the five composers, saving both time and costs in a true cross-Canada collaboration. The five quintets then have five months to rehearse all five new compositions.