Along the Inner Harbour Causeway at the centre of Downtown Victoria, there are a series of plaques
which commemorate sea voyages which included the harbour as a waypoint or destination. Amongst
distant bagpipes and Newfoundland Sea Shanty, one plaque reads, “TILIKUM— Captain J.C.
Voss— From Victoria, by Indian War Canoe, sailed with one crew across the Pacific, Indian, and
Atlantic Oceans. Presented by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, 1962.”

Tilikum is as much a depiction of Victoria’s Inner Harbour— a place which I am very fortunate to
observe at many times of day, throughout many seasons— as it is a tribute to the image of a solitary
sailor, facing harrowing conditions throughout his daring journey. These parallel tributes, one to the
historical, the other to the modern day Inner Harbour, are both found in the music – sea spray
juxtaposed with car horns, melodic ornaments of Thai music juxtaposed with Scottish folk tunes, the
greyscale of old photographs juxtaposed with the colours of flowers near the Parliament Buildings in
Spring.

I am very grateful to the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra and Maestro Yariv Aloni for commissioning this work.