MusicFest Vancouver
MusicFest Vancouver Celebrates Ten
Great Years with a Stellar Lineup
Of Extraordinary Classical, Jazz and
World Music Artists
Vancouver, BC – MusicFest Vancouver is back for a tenth year of bringing the world’s finest classical, jazz and world music artists to Vancouver, and its diverse 2010 program showcases the festival’s core mission to celebrate and promote live music in many styles and forms. This year’s lineup will include hundreds of international and local artists at the peak of their performing powers, ready to entertain thousands of music fans from August 6 – 15, 2010 in nine favourite Vancouver venues.
Two special themes will weave through this year’s anniversary program. The first, an annual festival tradition, is a spotlight on a particular region and this year’s focus is on the Music of Australia with over a dozen top Australian entertainers due to perform. The other theme is a tip of the hat to ten years’ worth of favourite past festival performers, and some of the best-loved and most gifted artists of past years are returning in 2010.
The festival kicks off with the Odlum Brown Opening Night concert, dubbed Celebración!, an amazing gathering of Latin jazz performers from the USA, Argentina, Cuba and Canada (August 6 @ the Orpheum Theatre). Headlining the show is the legendary jazz leader and conguero Poncho Sanchez with his Latin Jazz Band from Los Angeles. Also on the bill is a returning festival favourite, the Adrián Iaies Trio from Buenos Aires. And there’s more, with two dynamic Latin jazz ensembles, Orquesta Goma Dura and Zapato Negro. Celebración! promises to be a fantastic evening for Latin jazz fans.
The prestigious Scotiabank Chan Centre Series is a classical music fan’s idea of heaven, with three high-profile concerts presented in the acoustically superb environment of UBC’s Chan Centre 1200-seat hall.
• Concerto Köln Chamber Orchestra: Bach Orchestral Suites – A rare North American appearance by this brilliant European chamber ensemble which won Europe’s prestigious ECHO Klassik Award for “Symphonic Recording of the Year” in 2009. The Orchestra’s festival program will include two Bach Suites plus French baroque repertoire (Saturday, August 7 @ 8pm).
• Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 – Monteverdi’s masterwork was a glittering highlight of the festival’s inaugural 2000 season. This new Early Music Vancouver production features a vocal and instrumental ensemble of top Canadian and US early music performers including sopranos Suzie LeBlanc and Ellen Hargis and San Francisco’s acclaimed wind band The Whole Noyse (Thursday, August 12 @ 8pm).
• Vancouver Sings: Tenth Anniversary Choral Concert – This concert brings together the cream of Vancouver’s choirs in a six-ensemble event. Elektra Womens’ Choir, Laudate Singers, musica intima, the Vancouver Bach Choir and the Vancouver Chamber Choir will perform individually and en masse along with special guest Brilliant Harmony (Japan), one of Asia’s finest women’s choirs (Friday, August 13 @ 8pm).
Other popular series are returning, both at Christ Church Cathedral and at the Norman Rothstein Theatre.The festival will present two concert series at Christ Church this year, both generously sponsored by Industrial Alliance Pacific. MusicFest Flavours is an 8pm series of classical and jazz repertoire performed by artists from Canada, France and Australia. Opening the series is France’s acclaimed a cappella sextet, Ludus Modalis, famed for its exquisite renderings of French Renaissance repertoire (August 9). Then it’s the gifted Australian pianist Rita Reichman, with an all-Chopin recital in honour of the composer’s 200th anniversary (August 10). The next concert pairs an outstanding young Australian instrumental ensemble, Freshwater Trio with Vancouver baritone Tyler Duncan for a program of Dvořák, Ravel and a festival-commissioned new work by BC composer Stephen Chatman (August 11). MusicFest Flavours ends with a concert to showcase Australia’s top a cappella quartet, The Idea of North, with its ear-pleasing arrangements of American Songbook classics (August 14).
MusicFest Vancouver Celebrates Ten Great Years with Stellar Lineup – 2
Meantime, some of Canada’s brightest stars will appear in the Cathedral’s Industrial Alliance Pacific Pre-Dinner Concerts series, with performances starting at 5:30pm. The remarkable award-winning young Canadian soprano Yannick-Muriel Noah will appear with Vancouver pianist Rena Sharon (August 12) and Vancouver’s classical ensemble the Borealis String Quartet will perform with special guest, Australian didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton (August 13). The series’ other three concerts include a second festival performance by the French vocal ensemble Ludus Modalis (August 6), Australia’s Freshwater Trio with a program of chamber music by Haydn, Chopin and Brahms (August 10) and Japan’s award-winning women’s choir Brilliant Harmony (August 11).
This year’s Jazz at the Rothstein Series presented by Marsh / Mercer offers four great concerts and a world of fresh and engaging jazz ideas. First up is one of Australia’s most respected jazz pianists, Joe Chindamo in a quartet format (August 7), followed by Vancouver favourites Van Django and vocalist/ trumpeter Bria Skonberg with their salute to Django Reinhardt’s 100th anniversary (August 9). Buenos Aires’ Adrian Iaies Trio (August 12) makes a welcome return to the festival after its sold-out 2007 show, and the series wraps with trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, ex of Nanaimo and now a leading jazz light in New York City, fronting a quartet of top Canadian and US players (August 14). Also on the jazz menu, the festival has booked a five-night program into the Cellar Jazz Club. The Jazz Piano Series at the Cellar offers intimate performances by festival duos and soloists from Canada, Argentina and Australia (August 8 – 15).
VanDusen Botanical Garden, a popular festival venue for the past two years, will play host this year to a two-event program on August 15. From 10am – 3pm, it’s Music in the Garden: Family Day presented by BMO. This colourful outdoor event features performances by the Marc Atkinson Trio, William Barton and popular children’s entertainer Rick Scott There’s also the Tom Lee Musical Instrument Petting Zoo, where kids and their parents can get up close to a tent-full of fascinating instruments, plus music performances, drumming workshops and more. At 7pm it’s BMO World at the Garden: Sounds of Australia, when Australian musical stars William Barton and the jazz-pop a cappella foursome The Idea of North take the stage for a magical evening on the Garden’s Great Lawn. That concert includes early admission privileges for Garden exploration.
The festival offers two special performance events this year. The National Youth Orchestra of Canada will make a stop on its cross-Canada tour for a single Vancouver concert at the Chan Centre (August 8 @ 3pm). The festival will also premiere a witty, entertaining new “21st-century operetta”, Supernatural Noir, with music by Cameron Wilson and libretto by Kico Gonzalez-Rizzo. Produced by Fugue Theatre, it will be staged on three nights at the Cultch (August 12 – 14).
The festival continues its partnership with Early Music Vancouver, co-presenting three evening concerts staged at UBC’s School of Music. The programs focus on Madrigals of Monteverdi’s Time (August 8), Venice and the Chapel of the Doge (Venetian brass music) with the US wind band The Whole Noyse (August 10) and Monteverdi’s Combattimento highlighting a program presented by members of Montreal’s Le Nouvel Opéra (August 14). Full Early Music Vancouver concert details are at www.earlymusic.bc.ca
As well, the popular Inside the Music Series of free, educational events is back. This year, the Industrial Alliance Pacific-sponsored series includes sessions on how to get a job playing in an orchestra, the inside scoop on that most fascinating of Australian cultural icons, the didgeridoo, a jazz choir workshop with two Vancouver ensembles and The Idea of North, and top performers’ insights into the music of Bach and Chopin.
Full concert details and performers’ video and audio samples are on the festival’s website at musicfestvancouver.ca. Tickets for all concerts are available through Ticketmaster at 604.280.3311 or online at Ticketmaster.ca.
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