This Aug. 18 to 20, the Pender Harbour Chamber Music Festival will celebrate its 13th year and the 150th anniversary of Confederation. Pick up one of the beautiful 2017 brochures and see the maples leaves supporting the logo, an apt pairing for this year’s festival. Audiences will be treated to the music of Canadian composers in each of the four ticketed concerts as well as the free Rising Tide event, featuring two local singers – Rose-Ellen Nichols and Louis Dillon – accompanied by pianist David Poon.
This year’s Rising Tide concert, “Songs to the Stars and to Heaven,” opens the Festival on Friday, Aug. 18 at 1:30 p.m. That evening, at 7 p.m., guests will be transported “Into the Realm of Spirits,” with ravishing pieces from Brahms, Beethoven and Lovreglio, as well as Canadian James K. Wright’s setting of Letters to the Immortal Beloved, from Beethoven’s correspondence to a mysterious love.
Saturday afternoon’s “Through Rose-Coloured Glasses” explores everything from the jazz of Django Rheinhardt to klezmer (Canadian Srul Irving Glick) to Gershwin. Saturday night’s concert takes its title from Rebecca Clarke’s ravishing Trio – “But Do Not Quite Forget” – and will also feature Brahms, Ravel and Canadian Michael Oesterle.
Truly “Memories Abound” when the Festival concludes on Sunday afternoon with Christos Hatzis’s gorgeous Old Photographs and the exquisite Bartok Piano Quintet in C Major.
Artistic director and pianist extraordinaire Alexander Tselyakov has invited the wonderful Gryphon Trio, clarinettist James Campbell, violinist Joan Blackman, violist Maria Larionoff, and the Rising Tide musicians, with Brian Yoon and Jason Ho providing violin and cello for the final Bartok quintet. Every year the musicians make something fine and rich together, an alchemy of air, skill, strings, keys and the pleasure they take in each other’s company. This Festival promises magic.
Festival regulars know that tickets sell fast. Friends of the Festival had the opportunity to buy theirs early, on May 29. (The Friends are the supporting backbone of the Festival and more are always welcome to join this generous cohort.) The general public is welcome to purchase tickets beginning on June 12: by phone at 604-989-3995 or through www.penderharbourmusic.ca.
Spend a summer weekend listening to chamber music at the idyllic Music School in Madeira Park, Aug. 18 to 20.
– Submitted by Theresa Kishkan and Rosemary Bonderud
