SOMERS SONATA PENTAD 2026
Five Composers; Five Premieres: One Truly Canadian Legacy.
Harry Somers wrote five piano sonatas over his lifetime. In 2026, Piano Lunaire presents the complete cycle and what’s more: we are commissioning five living Canadian composers to write new companion works, one for each sonata. Five world premiere “nanoSONATA’s” presented in Toronto and Montreal. Launching October 15th, 2026, this project creates a living dialogue between past, present and the future of music in Canada.
With a particular focus on Canada’s musical heritage, Piano Lunaire has launched the centennial-based Somers Sonata Pentad Project in 2026, highlighting the piano sonatas of Harry Somers, one of Canada’s most important composers and a foundational voice in the development of this country’s own musical lineage. We celebrate Somers’ legacy through performances of his five sonatas, alongside five newly commissioned companion works by living Canadian composers. These world premieres will honour Canada’s musical heritage while contributing to the new repertory for future generations of artists and audiences.
Statement on Sonata 1
David Potvin
Pianist
“Harry Somers was just 20 years old when he wrote his first Sonata, shortly after being discharged from the military at the close of World War II. It is remarkable how mature Somers's artistic voice was at this early age.”
Keiko Devaux
Composer
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Adam Sherkin
Pianist
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Alison Yun-Fei Jiang
Composer
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Sonata No. 2 (1946): In many ways a continuation of Sonata No. 1, Somers experiments with a slow opening movement and an early essay in his iconic "scherzo" writing at the keyboard. This second sonata is capacious, emotionally dynamic and ultimately ambitious in its sonic palette and vasty harmonic language.
Lily Koslow
Composer
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Gabrielle Gagnon-Picard
Pianist
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Statement on Sonata 3
Adam Sherkin
Composer
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Statement on Sonata 4
Bryn Blackwood
Pianist
"Somers’s Fourth Piano Sonata has a concentrated sense of purpose within its relatively sparse textures, with great imagination and playfulness animating its lively gestural interplay."
Saman Shahi
Composer
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Statement on Sonata 5
Stephanie Chua
Pianist
"I studied and performed [Sonata 5] back in 2006 at my first all-contemporary solo recital at the Music Gallery. I love the breadth of moods and characters Somers is able to extract and develop through the humble interval of a 2nd."
