One of the few silver linings of COVID is that it allowed artists, and creatives to focus on their craft, which was the case for Camilo Aybar who was still in high school when the pandemic broke out.
This young virtuoso used his own personal experience of being in lockdown to set out and write his first orchestral symphony. Now, he has come together with Cowichan filmmaker Joseph Boutilier to bring the world The Sound of a Pandemic.
"The lack of performances and rehearsals I had during the pandemic, combined with disappointment and fear for an uncertain future inspired me to take the hours upon hours spent doing nothing during isolation and turn it into a large-scale passion project," said Aybar.
"My favourite part of composing is being able to take the emotions in the heat of the moment and channel them directly into a medium which practically immortalizes this experience whether it be a positive, humdrum or negative one into an aural form which can be understood almost universally. No matter how intense the emotions I feel it basically can allow people to truly feel that they are reliving a moment and that music can keep an experience alive forever."
Aybar, who is now 19 and was born and raised in Victoria, has been composing music since the tender age of 12 and has covered a lot of ground since composing his first symphony. In 2022, as a clarinetist, he performed Crussell鈥檚 'Second Concerto' with three orchestras across Vancouver Island and won first-place at the B.C. and Canada West Performing Arts Festivals in 2023, and was invited to perform with the Emily Carr String Quartet.
He is now a student at the Royal Conservatory鈥檚 prestigious Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto, and is currently working on his second symphony."
Cowichan filmmaker Boutilier, who was born and raised in Victoria, has always had a hand in creative projects and has dabbled in both writing and music as well as working in video games, but he finds that film is a natural way to blend different art forms and has been a full time filmmaker for the past seven years.
He directed the feature Fragile Seeds, which was written by his long-time friend and collaborator Mia Golden, during COVID. It was shot entirely in the Cowichan Valley with recognizable locations including Providence Farm, Drumroaster Coffee, and the surrounding area of the Cobble Hill cenotaph.
"I love the duality of doing both features and documentaries because I love storytelling and figuring out how to make narratives work. With documentaries I get to meet so many diverse people and experience things I may otherwise not have an excuse to see," said Boutilier.
"One of my favourite parts on working on our most ambitious project was to see how the community could come together to create something greater than the sum of all its parts and to be able to capture locations that I always thought would look fantastic on film and to see them work in a local feature."
Boutilier's introduction to professional film began nearly a decade ago when he was given the opportunity to work with a producer who was based in Cobble Hill, and was his introduction to the world of professional film. He eventually moved to the valley to be closer to work, and now calls Duncan home. Eventually the producer relocated to Los Angeles, and it was seven years ago that Boutilier co-founded Cobble Hill's Empress Avenue Media Inc. with one of his fellow crew members Emrey Wright.
"We had been working for other producers here in town and had been working full-time with a lot of creatives that we really enjoyed working with, and we just really wanted to keep the gang together and didn't want to move to Vancouver to find full time work," said Boutilier. "The valley is a great place to be a filmmaker, it's affordable and close to countless beautiful locations, and there's tons of talent here."
Boutilier's mom recognized Aybar's undeniable talent while working for the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra during the same time the young prodigy played clarinet with them. She later heard about his pandemic symphony, and wondered if it might make a good subject for a film around the same time that Telus Storyhive was accepting submissions. Boutilier created a short pitch video to submit along with other materials, which was basically a trailer for the imaginary doc. It secured him funding for this powerful project.
"I'm very blessed that Camilo was on board from such an early stage, and willing to give up his time even if there was no guarantee that the film would get funded," said Boutilier. "They tend to focus on films reflecting themes of community and cultural health, so I thought Camilo's story would be a perfect fit.
"I used to play classical guitar in my youth, but it's been a long time. So, working with Camilo was a wonderful way to remind myself what I love about the genre, and to live vicariously through his wild enthusiasm for classical music."
Aybar's first symphony was inspired by his own personal experiences during the the COVID-19 lockdown. It crescendoes with a live performance in Hillsboro, Oregon, the subject of Boutilier's new documentary The Sound of a Pandemic. Aybar, a classically-trained clarinetist, found his inspiration when the lockdown forced the closure of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, and with it the lessons, master classes and chamber groups that meant so much to him.
Scored by Aybar's original 'Symphony No. 1 in D Minor', The Sound of the Pandemic takes listeners through five stages of the crisis from 鈥極utbreak鈥� to 鈥榁accine鈥�.
鈥淐amilo is one of those incredible Vancouver Island characters whose story, and work deserves more attention,鈥� says Boutilier. 鈥淚t鈥檚 always a win-win when you find a compelling story about a unique artist, whose work informs the style and soundtrack of the film itself. I was blown away by how articulate, earnest and candid Camilo was.
"In a way, he's very modest and reserved, so I thought I would be relying a lot on other subjects to tell his story. In the edit room, it almost became exclusively Camilo's narrative, and it was a huge relief to see that materialize. There were lots of great interviews, of course, but Camilo's personality is what really drives the film."
This is Boutilier's third documentary. He made his first in 2019 titled Penny Girl about Frankie Edroff, the young philanthropist who established Jeneece Place at the Victoria General Hospital, and his second in 2021 was titled Growing Hope, which highlighted the work of one of the former executive directors of Providence Farm.
"Being an amateur photographer, and videographer myself my favourite part working with Joseph was seeing how the professionals get things done with their high-end equipment," said Aybar. "The creative direction, use of B-roll footage and how they are able to take tens of hours of interviews and condense them into an engaging and cohesive 45-minute narrative also fascinates me."
The Sound of a Pandemic was made possible with the support of Telus Storyhive through the All Access Documentary Edition, as well as with the support both financially and through mentorship from the National Film Institute, Cinevic, The Victoria Conservatory of Music, the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, and mentoring producer John Bolton of Opus 59 Films.
Boutilier's new documentary was co-produced by Cobble Hill's film production and post-services studio Empress Avenue Media Inc. Empress is currently producing two independent documentaries. As a Cinevic member Boutilier received an annual grant called Dynamo, which provided both funding and in-kind equipment rentals. He said the project ended up taking more than a year, including both filming and post.
"I'm incredibly grateful for the extra help," said Boutilier. "I also have to credit John Bolton, a very accomplished film producer who specializes in music docs. He was a fantastic mentor, especially through post production, and really helped me solidify the edit."
Empress Avenue Media Inc.'s VFX and post production work can be seen in upcoming feature films like Orchid Cove Media's Sweet Summer Pow Wow with Graham Greene and just wrapped work on Viper starring Peter Facinelli and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
"We also did post-production and production services for the Great Salish Heist which was Orchid Cove's last feature," said Boutilier. "We also assisted with some of the filming with that, as well as for their feature documentary Tzouhalem, so we've done a bunch of work with them and they are awesome to work with. We have also been doing production support and post support for two action movies of the United States as well, one is called Clear Cut starring Alec Baldwin which just came out."
Both of these Vancouver Island creatives have a lot on the go, which is sweeter than the sounds of Aybar's first symphony. The young composer has more pieces in the works, all which he describes as late-romantic in nature, which include Symphony No. 2 in F# Minor 'The Futile Pursuit of Love' (Op. 19), 'Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major-Minor 'Not in Service' (ut79), and 'Symphony No. 4 in A Major' (ut100).
Aybar notes that Symphony No. 2 programmatically takes the listener on an ill-fated journey through his failed love pursuits, with the Mahler Hammer (which is featured in the documentary) crushing new hopes from rejection to rejection. Symphony No. 3 is Aybar's nod to his transit enthusiasm, and follows TransLink on its fiscal and political struggles as it faces bankruptcy in the near future, and is also a general commentary on the car culture of North America treating alternative options to driving as second class. He describes Symphony No. 4 as a theoretical symphony-song cycle for a mezzo-soprano which is modelled on Mahler's 'Das Lied von der Erde' and serves as stark contrast to the bleakness of Op. 19.
Aybar has also been working on three concertos: a Viola Concerto in C minor originally for a violist who inspired the finale of Op. 19, a Alto Saxophone Concerto on B-flat minor which was written in honour of Aybar's first teacher who was a saxophonist, and a a Clarinet Concerto in Minor which Aybar will perform at the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto later this year. If that is not enough to keep this musical maven busy he has also been delving into an array of chamber works and operas as well.
"My plan, as you can see from the slew of works I am cycling between working on, is to never stop composing (I like to say "compose 'til I decompose"), and to take every opportunity to write for someone 鈥� whether as a commission, in their honour, or simply because of matters of the heart," said Aybar. "I am currently experiencing a peak period both for my composition and clarinet studies during my time at GGS."
Boutilier also has a lot on the go. He has received another grant through Telus to work on his original fictional short titled Hospice. It is a drama-comedy about a guy who accidentally finds himself working in hospice, which Boutilier plans to begin shooting this summer.
"It's nice to jump back into narrative stuff, and to have a little more creative control," said Boutilier. "The main character is also terrified of death, so it is a contrast of him coming to terms with that, while trying to bridge the inter-generational gap between him and the folks who are living there."
Boutilier is also currently in the process of securing funding for two feature documentaries revolving around climate change. One is titled The Brink about the people on the front-line of the efforts to save the Vancouver Island marmots as it looks at the social impacts of people and conservation efforts. The other is titled Thin Ice about climate change and its impact on winter sports, and the potential harm to the pond hockey culture in Canada.
Before he gets underway on his next creative projects he and the crew at Empress Lane keep themselves busy doing visual effects and editing work on a few third-party films and filming commercials across the island.
The Sound of the Pandemic is now free to view on Telus Optik TV channel 9, Stream+ as well Storyhive鈥檚 YouTube channel. Telus Storyhive has been supporting thousands of local content creators across British Columbia and Alberta since 2013. For more information, visit . It can also be viewed on .
"I hope people who watch this documentary will take away just how powerful music can be, especially during tough times," said Aybar. "It takes a community that is able to listen to each other, a skill every musician would know deeply, in order to pull through intense struggles like the pandemic, where it otherwise becomes so easy to grow resentment towards each other."
