How does a composer begin to organise sound into music? Where does the inspiration come from? What do we hear in our "inner" ears?

Visions of Joy explores these questions from the point of view of Ludwig van Beethoven, who was, in his maturity, profoundly deaf. It has been suggested that Beethoven's deafness forced him to live not in a world of silence, but a world of constant static, or "white noise." Was Beethoven able to hear "beyond" his deafness? Was his inner ear able to filter out the noise? How frustrating must that have been?

Using both audience and orchestra as sound sources, and drawing on elements of the Ode to Joy theme that Beethoven incorporated into his last symphony, Visions of Joy creates an enveloping cloud of sounds and textures from which, in moments of relative clarity, fragments of the theme emerge in fleeting dreamlike passages.

Visions of Joy was commissioned by the Windsor Symphony with the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council for the 1997 Windsor Rotary School Concerts; it was premiered by the Windsor Symphony with Sarah John, conductor, on March 19, 1997, in Windsor.