Pacific Region International Summer Music Association (PRISMA) Festival is tuning up for its most ambitious year yet, with 13 days of concerts, open rehearsals and masterclasses at Evergreen Theatre and Willingdon Beach Park from June 16 to 28.
“We’ve never fielded an orchestra this large—nearly 90 top-tier students from 12 countries,” says Andy Rice, PRISMA’s development and marketing director. “They’re coming from Juilliard, Eastman, Oberlin—places that set the bar for classical training. Powell River will feel that energy from the first downbeat.”
PRISMA artistic director Arthur Arnold has programmed back-to-back performances of Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder intertwined with Symphony No. 6 on June 20 (evening) and 21 (matinée).
“The song-cycle is so intimate and hopeful, even in tragedy, and the Sixth Symphony is raw and elemental,” explains Arnold. “Harmonically, they fit like a glove—it creates a single emotional arc.”
Rice believes local listeners will sense the moment’s importance.
“Mahler is red-hot on the world stage right now,” he says, noting that Arnold recently returned from attending Amsterdam’s sold-out Mahler Festival. “Hearing two of those works in our own hall—and his unique idea to program them in this brand-new sequence—puts Powell River on that map.”
Victorian mezzo-soprano Emma Parkinson will sing the Kindertotenlieder and, one night earlier, join a chamber orchestra for Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été at the French-flavoured opening gala on June 19.
Another highlight, Rice says, is the June 26 chamber concert.
“We fly in guest artists from Europe and top North American orchestras in Montréal, Boston and Chicago,” he notes. “Hearing them mix with our students, and with each other, is the kind of intimacy you don’t always get with big symphonic nights.”
The closing concert on June 27 gives the festival its world-premiere coup: Alexander Mosolov’s Symphony No. 3 (1958-59), a score Arnold smuggled out of a Moscow library several years ago.
“The piece doesn’t exist with a publisher or on a CD,” says Arnold. “Every tempo and balance decision is ours to discover. Bringing it to life in Powell River before anywhere else—it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our audience and players.”
PRISMA keeps its community roots front and centre. PRISMA for Kids (June 24) starts early, offers a lobby “instrument petting zoo,” and features the qathet Fiddlers, a 60-voice elementary choir and storyteller Sonia Zagwyn.
"We want to spark curiosity early," says Rice. "These moments can grow into a lifelong love of music."
The free outdoor showcase PRISMA on the Beach moves to the festival’s finale on June 28.
“By sliding it to the end, we give families a celebratory send-off,” explains Rice. “Pack a blanket, watch the sun set and enjoy a musical picnic with us. Where else can you hear a work that thrilled audiences over a century ago alongside something from Wicked, which set box office records just this year?"
Arnold says students around the world are practicing these pieces right now.
"There’s already a web connecting Powell River to conservatories on three continents,” he adds. “Everyone in the audience becomes part of that network.”
The 2025 PRISMA Festival runs from June 16 to 27 at Evergreen Theatre in Powell River Recreation Complex and at Willingdon Beach Park on June 28. Ticket prices are $30 for adults, $15 for patrons under 18, and $10 for children under 12, with full-festival passes available for $130, plus service charges.
Tickets can be purchased online at prismafestival.com or in person at the PRISMA office in Townsite Market (open Tuesday to Thursday until June 12) and subsequently at the Powell River Kings office in the recreation complex’s upper concourse. Prospective buyers are advised to confirm in-person box-office hours on the festival website, where the complete concert and event schedule is also available.
