Totally Stokes

(Originally published in the Powell River Peak)

Composer Tobin Stokes is used to working across multiple genres.

The former Powell River resident has composed classical music, choral and scores for film and television. But the score he wrote last year for the miniseries Captain Cook, Obsession and Discovery, really pushed the envelope.

"It took everything," said Stokes. "Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii and Canada each has its own aboriginal music that had to be incorporated. And of course Cook started in England, so the producers wanted to have music by Johann Christian Bach worked in, much more formal."

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He said it's tricky balancing that many different styles and influences, but it makes for a wonderful challenge.

"The show needs to be congealing through the music," said Stokes. "So I take each of those influences and try to build it into the overall plan. What's interesting about Cook is that in the third voyage he starts to fall apart. So I took all the themes I'd developed in the first episodes and deconstructed them in strange ways. It was a lot of fun."

The miniseries has already aired on Australian Television, earning rave reviews, an audience of more than one million viewers, and several awards. In Canada, episodes one and two will air back-to-back on History Television at 8 pm and 9 pm on Tuesday, February 19, and episodes three and four will air at 8 and 9 pm on Tuesday, February 26.

Those familiar with Stokes' work will not be surprised to learn that the score involved choral music. Growing up in Powell River, Stokes was an active participant in the International Choral Kathaumixw festivals, which have been a major influence on his life and work.

And he, in turn, has been a major influence on the festival. His composition, The Spacious Firmament, is sung by a thousand-voice choir at each Kathaumixw's opening and closing ceremonies.

"Choral is my favorite form of music," he said. "I think when a person is singing, they're using their own instrument. The music goes right from brain, to voice, out into the air, and then to the ears of the audience. So, it's the purest form and it gives me so much satisfaction."

His original plan for the Captain Cook score had been to record the choral sections with the Powell River Academy Chamber Singers. "They have the facilities and a great choir that can learn stuff on the spot," he said. "They're very adaptable and eager, and wonderful to work with. Unfortunately, the scheduling didn't work out."

It's been a very busy year for Stokes. Apart from the Captain Cook project, he also scored the film http://www.mountainsidefilms.com/savingluna/, about an orphaned orca that lived in the Gold River area. The film will be shown at the Powell River Film Festival at 12:30 pm on Friday, February 8.

"My score features some of the same singers and some of the same aboriginal people as the Captain Cook series did," said Stokes.

He also had a piano concerto to compose for a world premiere with the Victoria Symphony on November 26, 2007. "With delays in the Captain Cook series, I barely managed to finish it in time," he said.

The production company liked his score for Captain Cook so much that they've brought him on board for its next project, a miniseries about another sailing scientist, Charles Darwin. Stokes is also scoring a documentary about famous Canadian photographer Ted Grant.

His next big project is an opera.

"It's about the first Europeans coming to Nootka, to Vancouver Island," he said. "I'm not sure yet, but somehow we're going to present some of it at Kathaumixw."