New works on the schedule include R. Murray Schafer's Ninth String Quartet, Robert Turner's House of Shadows, Jerry Semchyshyn's The Approach, and Jim Hiscott's North Wind.

Other contemporary composers to be featured include Anders Hillborg, Chen Yi, Michael Daugherty, Jennifer Higdon, and Sofia Gubaidulina. Performers include the Winnipeg Singers and the University of Manitoba Band as well as the WSO. Music director Andrey Boreyko conducts.

According to the Toronto Globe and Mail, the festival has eliminated its composers' competition and scaled back in recent years as annual attendance has dropped from a high of 15,000 to about 5,000.