Voyage Across Centuries was commissioned by the North Bay Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Thomas Jones and was funded by the Canada Council to honor the 250th birthday of Beethoven. I decided to combine the histories of the founding of North Bay by explorer and mapmaker Samuel de Champlain and Beethoven, the composer who explored new ways of using tonality in his works leading to the harmonic language of the 19th century. I also incorporated a Voyageur song known to be used by Champlain and his men as they traveled the rivers and rapids exploring Canada all the way to Lake Superior. This composition is best described as a tone poem to Beethoven and North Bay.
The premiere of the work was scheduled for the 2020 season and rehearsals had begun when the COVID-19 pandemic began. The work has not been rescheduled. However, with some revisions for instrumentation, the work has been recorded by the Janácek Philharmonic Ostrava with Stanislav Vavcínek, conductor on the Navona label on the album Inviting Worlds Vol. 3.