A pair of twenty-something prodigies who have made a home on the Sunshine Coast looked no further than their own backyard when naming their musical duo.
Duo Mycelia — composed of Isabella Perron and Simon Gidora — will perform two midsummer concerts starting next week, in Pender Harbour and Sechelt. Mycelia, the Latin plural of mycelium, reflects more than the couple’s shared love of foraging (“We’ve always been interested in the whole fungal world,” said Perron).
“In the forest, the mycelium connects all living beings underground,” explained Gidora. “We think of music as the same idea: it’s a big web of interconnectedness, so our hope is that through music we can achieve a similar sort of nurturing symbiotic relationship.”
Victoria-born Gidora, who was raised on the Coast, is a violinist, singer, pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. He graduated from Toronto’s Glenn Gould School after completing undergraduate studies in violin and conducting at McGill University. Even though Perron was simultaneously at the Glenn Gould School (studying violin performance), the two first met more than a decade ago while competing at the Canadian National Music Festival. She earned first prize at the festival; in subsequent years, she received top-rank recognition from the Canada Council for the Arts — and a host of other awards.
Perron is a violinist, violist, singer, and pianist who got her start in Montreal. After a solo debut at seven (with the I Musici de Montréal chamber orchestra), she released her first album at the age of 12, has performed with orchestras worldwide, and appeared at Carnegie Hall last year as part of a North American tour performing Vivaldi’s and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons.
“I’ve jumped quite a few places,” said Perron. “I come from a very musical family; my grandmother is actually the one who started me on violin when I was two-and-a-half. She was really passionate about teaching kids violin, piano and cello. She did that with her entire family, and my mother is an amazing cellist and pedagogue as well.”
During his youth on the Sunshine Coast, Gidora was heavily influenced by the Coast Recital Society and its artistic director, Frances Heinsheimer Wainwright. The COVID pandemic prompted the couple to start considering the possibility of a base outside the urban hurly-burly of Toronto’s music scene. Gidora looked to the example of Arthur Arnold, the Dutch-born conductor who co-founded the Pacific Region International Summer Music Association (PRISMA) in Powell River.
“He could be anywhere, but he’s chosen to be in Powell River at least half the year,” said Gidora. “So while I feel it’s selfish that we’ve chosen to be somewhere that’s very beautiful and out of the city, it’s also selfless in that we’ve chosen this place because I think we can offer something and bring something to the community.”
Gidora has become instructor to the Coast String Fiddlers (he is an alumnus of the ensemble), and last year was installed as the bowed strings coordinator for the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts.
Meanwhile, he and Perron have a vision to instill passion for classical music among emerging generations. “We both have a lot of young friends and colleagues who are just entering into the professional scene, and I have dreams of bringing these people for maybe a summer chamber music festival,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for what the Coast Recital Society does and of course the Pender Harbour School of Music too. I definitely feel that there’s room for even more classical programming on the Coast.”
At their upcoming concerts, Girdora and Perron will perform pieces by George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim, and their own arrangement of The Beatles’ Blackbird, which was created at the suggestion of the associate dean of the Glenn Gould School. “I didn’t realize how much we liked writing,” said Perron.
“But since there’s just so much on the go, it just kind of wasn’t happening,” added Gidora. “This seemed like the perfect opportunity.”
The upcoming concerts by Duo Mycelia take place on July 27 at 2:30 p.m. at the Pender Harbour School of Music, and at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church in Sechelt on Aug. 3 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets ($30) are available in advance online via duomycelia.ca or at the door.
