Alexander Tselyakov, artistic director of the freshly minted Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival, loves the Sunshine Coast. The renowned concert pianist lives in Manitoba Ñ he's performed on the Coast twice, once in Sechelt and once in Pender Harbour.
It's not only the scenery he's wild about, but the great audiences. "They were knowledgeable, warm and very responsive," he said.
Following one of the performances, he dined with two of Pender Harbour's music lovers, Lise Aylmer and her husband. Over a dinner of white wine and prawns they daydreamed together about a festival of chamber music, a prominent event on the Canadian music scene that would bring some of the finest performers to the little community on the water.
After two years of planning, that dream has become a reality.
The Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival will open on Friday, Aug. 19, at the music school's performance centre in Madeira Park and will run until Sunday, Aug. 21, with a varied selection of concerts and performers.
Volunteers in the Pender Harbour community are busy demonstrating support of this new festival by painting banners, providing accommodation for musicians and even designing a brand new, modular stage that can take the weight of the grand piano.
It will be an informal atmosphere, says Tselyakov, that will appeal to all ages and musical backgrounds. In fact, the Saturday afternoon session invites the novice. Chamber Music Does Not Bite is a free session that will present popular pieces using extracts from other concerts and with time for questions afterward.
"It's short and nice. The audience will recognize the music," says Tselyakov.
Chamber music is often a musician's music, composed and performed for family and associates, that the public now has the opportunity to hear. Classical composers often reveal their deepest thoughts in this style of music and are at their lightest in these instrumental works.
Saturday evening's concert, an Evening in Vienna, will feature distinguished chamber musician and teacher Paul Marleyn on cello and Oleg Pokhanovski, who has an international reputation for violin. Tsel-yakov will play piano at all the concerts.
Born into a musical family in Baku in the former Soviet Union, Tselyakov made his debut with the Azerbaijan Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of nine. After studying in Moscow at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, he was distinguished as a prize winner at many international piano competitions, including the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition. He performs regularly at London's Wigmore Hall and New York's Carnegie Hall when he is not teaching piano at Brandon University in Manitoba.
The Sunday afternoon concert features a range of composers beginning with the more contemporary Sophie Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatte's Caprice for solo violin #5.
Originally from Russia, Eckhardt-Gramatte emigrated to Canada in 1954. She made composition come alive in Manitoba, says Tselyakov. The Sunday concert also features Antonin Dvorak's Piano Quintet No 2 in A major, Opus 81.
Sunday's show will be broadcast by CBC producer Michael Juk of Westcoast Performance.ÊIt is the Friday evening opening concert that Tselyakov regards as most important. "We've put together a nice selection of work," he says. "Starting with the father of chamber music, Papa Haydn."
It moves through all periods in the evolution of the form including a fascinating piece entitled Old Photographs by contemporary Canadian composer Christos Hatzis. The piece is the next to last movement in a multimedia work, Constantinople, that Hatzis composed for the Gryphon Trio in 2000.
Also performing at the festival will be Yariv Aloni on viola and Andrew Dawes on violin.
Tselyakov is delighted that sponsors and so many of the community have rallied behind this festival. "Jazz has been really popular in Pender Harbour," says Tselyakov. "I think we need classical now for balance."
Tickets for all concerts are available for $25 each from Harbour Insurance in Madeira Park, Talewind Books and Coast Books.
