Browsing: Chamber Music

OTTAWA — Ottawa’s internationally-acclaimed chamber music festival returns this summer with highly-anticipated live performances from cherished locals, living legends, and up-and-coming Canadian and international stars alike. From July 20 – August 3, 2023, ChamberfestTM will bring 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) laureates, the Isidore String Quartet; Ottawa’s darling piano virtuoso, Angela Hewitt; and longtime festival friends and collaborators, the Gryphon Trio—among many others—to Ottawa’s best venues. Early bird tickets are on sale May 1, 2023 at chamberfest.com “Following an unprecedented few years, Chamberfest is back in a big way. We’re moving ahead in full force with a lineup…

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Banff, March 28, 2023 – Banff Centre extends its sincere congratulations to the Isidore String Quartet as a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant for 2023. This extraordinary recognition comes just seven months after their Banff International String Quartet Competition (BISQC) triumph last September. The Avery Fisher Career Grants give professional assistance and recognition to emerging instrumental artists with great potential for major careers in classical music. The Isidore String Quartet from the USA is comprised of Phoenix Avalon (violin), Adrian Steele (violin), Devin Moore (viola) and Joshua McClendon (cello). Becoming BISQC Laureates and earning a $25,000 Avery Fisher…

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Fauré: Après un rêve / Lalo: Espérance María Dueñas, violin; Itamar Golan, piano Deutsche Grammophon (2022-23) No stranger to Canada, María Dueñas made her mark in Montreal at the age of 16, as a contestant in the 2019 CMIM Violin edition. Not long thereafter, she performed a prize-winning interpretation of Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie Espagnole at the Menuhin Competition and landed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. She continues to receive invitations to play with leading orchestras, including the TSO. To the sheer delight of audiences in Toronto, Ottawa, New York and Chicago, her fiery performances of the Symphonie Espagnole this…

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Takács Quartet with Jeremy Denk. Music by Haydn, Fanny Mendelssohn and Schumann. Koerner Hall, Toronto. March 23, 2023. Rating: ***** Bringing together thoughtful and talented musicians for a concert nearly always guarantees time well spent, and the experience might even be revelatory. That was certainly the case on March 23, 2023 at Koerner Hall in Toronto when the Takács Quartet led by Edward Dusinberre and American pianist Jeremy Denk took the stage. The Takács Quartet has been around since 1975 and Edward Dusinberre has been its first violinist since 1993. Dusinberre is a wonderful violinist and leader but he is…

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Montreal, March 16, 2023. The Montreal Chamber Music Festival (MCCF) is delighted to present the program for its 28th edition, which goes beyond the boundaries of the genre. Concerts will be held in Bourgie Hall at the Museum of Fine Arts and at Place des Arts for the first time in its history. With no less than 15 concerts in 14 days, the festival offers a superb array of music for all audiences. Each show is conceived as a unique moment, a true artistic event that offers a varied repertoire to satisfy the tastes of all music lovers: cello, tap…

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Schumann: The Three Violin Sonatas Andrew Wan, violin, Charles Richard-Hamelin, piano Analekta, 2022 After the award-winning album containing the Beethoven Sonatas, the principal violin of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the winner of the second prize at the Warsaw Chopin Competition devote themselves to the Schumann Sonatas. The balance between the two musicians is great. The difficulty of Schumann’s music is to do justice to an often tormented spirit, without therefore exceeding in an inappropriate sound. Wan and Richard-Hamelin succeed really well in this work of balance, which basically represents the problem of the whole Schumann esthetic, suspended between action…

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In 2017, the woodwind quintet Pentaèdre launched its Carte Blanche series, a project which saw individual members plan an annual concert, choosing repertoire and partners. This year, the member in question is bassoonist Mathieu Lussier, who will be joined on April 4 by fellow bassoonists Stéphane Lévesque, Alex Eastley, and Mary Chalk for a concert titled Carte Blanche: Bassoon as the Party Gets Going! “The idea is to explore as much as possible: my own works, arrangements of pieces for other instruments and South American music,” said Lussier. Since a bassoon quartet is made up of instruments with an identical…

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Duly recognized for its quality concert presentations, La Nef is equally known for bold programming choices that feature centuries-old music, folk traditions, and contemporary stylings. Tout tourne, the first of its New Year offerings, pairs two figureheads of the local baroque musical scene, flutist Vincent Lauzer and harpsichordist Dorothéa Ventura, with dancer François Richard. This music and dance encounter is all the more unusual and unique as it weds baroque virtuosity to the tune of modern American minimalism. The second event on tap, Red Sky at Night, will feature vocalist and cittern specialist Seán Dagher in a program of traditional…

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On November 2, the Silakbo Ensemble launched its Canadian tour with a first stop in Montreal, at Jeunesses Musicales Canada’s Joseph-Rouleau Hall. Formed by  three Bulgarian musicians (Angelina Gotcheva, clarinet, Yoanna Bozhkova, soprano, Bogdan Ivanov, piano), Portuguese violinist Edgar Gomes and Filipino American cellist Mikko Pablo, this quintet was joined exceptionally by Adam Vincent Clarke, composer and piper proud of his Nova Scotia roots. Together they presented their latest project, named Est-Ouest. More than a gathering, it is an exchange, an interconnection, between the Canadian and Bulgarian musical cultures. As part of this project, three creations commissioned by the Silakbo…

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The Trio Fibonacci will present a series of four concerts at Bourgie Hall this year. The ensemble will be heard on Oct. 26 on fortepiano and gut strings. The three musicians are excited about this rare and special experience of hearing the great trios of Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Schumann on period instruments. “This will be a unique concert, because playing classical repertoire on the fortepiano is not something you hear often,” says Julie-Anne Derome, the trio’s violinist. “Not only are there not many performers who do it, but the availability of period instruments is a problem. I have the impression…

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