In The Key of the World

In the Key of the World is the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra’s first full-length instrumental album. It features music by Canadian composers Dorothy Chang, John Oliver, Moshe Denburg, and Farshid Samandari, performed by an ensemble of 28 musicians playing instruments from a wide range of musical traditions, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Persian, Indian and European.

In the Key of the World, like the VICO itself, exists in several musical genres at once: classical, world, traditional. It’s fusion music on a global scale; music that transcends borders and breaks down barriers, throwing open the doors of contemporary classical music and forging a new path towards a truly diverse 21st-century Canadian music scene.

“Intercultural music has existed for centuries in most traditional cultures,” says VICO Artistic Director Mark Armanini. “The VICO has spent the past two decades developing a contemporary musical art form that draws on this history and brings the idea of “music as a universal language” to global fruition. We have developed a ground-breaking intercultural sound palette and repertoire that combines aural and written traditions, ancient and contemporary styles, and a huge variety of instruments (bowed strings, plucked strings, winds, brass, percussion) into one ensemble.