Classical Music - La Scena Musicale

Janina Fialkowska Frances Ginzer William Eddins Tracy Dahl
Schafer’s Amadeus in September, the CPO celebrates
the birth of Mozart 250 years ago on
Feb. 22 in the Jack Singer Concert Hall.
Principal Baroque Conductor Ivars Taurins will
lead the CPO with Canadian guest soprano
Karina Gauvin. www.cpo-live.com
The CPO continues its ode to Mozart with
"Mozart and Tchaikovsky" on Mar. 3 and 4 in
the Jack Singer Concert Hall. Calgary’s
favourite guest conductor Bramwell Tovey
Conductor, and pianist Janina Fialkowska, will
join the CPO. www.cpo-live.com
The Calgary Opera hasn’t skipped a beat
upon returning to its home in the Jubilee
Auditorium. It begins the new year in an unusual
manner with the Canadian premiere of Dead
Man Walking. Based on the book by Sister
Helen Prejean, the award-winning film of the
same name has been adapted to operatic form
by author Jake Heggie. It will run Jan. 28, and
Feb, 1 and 3. www.calgaryopera.com
Calgary’s Pro Musica Society presents
"Close Encounters With Music" on Jan. 16 at
the University Theatre. For more than 18 years,
Close Encounters has been presenting thematic
concerts of chamber music with commentary.
Pro Musica's "Discoveries" concert will
include piano trios by Joaquin Turina, Robert
Schumann and Anton Arensky. www.calgarypromusica.org.
New Works Calgary presents Saint Crispin's
Chamber Ensemble on Mar. 4 in the Eckhardt-
Gramatté Recital Hall, including some of the
best classical players in Edmonton. The planned
program will feature new and commissioned
works from Calgary composers Hope Lee and
Sonya Guha-Thakurta, as well as various
Edmonton composers. www.newworkscalgary.ca
The Millenium Music Foundation offers a
concert with the world renowned King’s
Singers, Feb. 21 at the Rozsa Centre of the
University of Calgary. The program promises a
variety of works, both ancient and modern, to
showcase the power and range of this breathtaking
ensemble. www.kingssingers.com
Edmonton Scene
GORDON MORASH
Edmonton is a hockey and football town. The
self-described City of Champions – a moniker
derived from the numerous Stanley and Grey
Cups acquired over the years – provides much
competition to Edmonton’s cultural side. In a
city that has been known for the Oilers and
Eskimos, a vibrantly active theatre community,
and some nationally acclaimed restaurants
such as The Hardware Grill and Jack’s Grill, just
how do you put bums in the seats for a burgeoning
classical season? Even when you have
prime acoustic real estate in the Francis
Winspear Centre for Music or newly renovated
performance halls such as the Northern
Alberta Jubilee Auditorium, it’s hardly a guarantee
that bums – and ears – will gather on cue.
In the case of the Edmonton Symphony
Orchestra, you could hire a socially outgoing,
precocious, headline-grabbing music director
by the name of William (“Call me Bill”) Eddins.
Or you might take the pizza route, as done
by at least three musical organizations. Several
years ago, Edmonton Opera inaugurated its
Explorers’ Club, designed to draw prospective
opera fans aged 18-29. In addition to a night
at the opera for $20 a ticket, a cold beer and
pizza is provided during intermission. Annual
club dues are $40; for more information call
(780) 429-1000 or go to www.edmontonopera.com.
Pro Coro Canada has Friends of the Quire,
which over the past year has undergone a tenfold
increase in membership. The trick to its
growth? “We simply got rid of the membership
fee,” says David Garber, Pro Coro’s administrative
director. Restricted to chorus lovers aged
15-25, Friends of the Quire offers best seats
available for $14, a logo baseball cap, and
pizza in the Winspear’s Founder’s Lounge during
the intermission. And that spelling, quire, is
not only absolutely and cheekily correct, but
appropriate. Says Garber: “If you look up the
word ‘quire’ in the dictionary, it means a group
of 24 or 25 pages. Which is what we as a choir
of 24 or 25 voices are.” For details, phone
(780) 420-1247 or go to www.procoro.ab.ca.
The Richard Eaton Singers, Edmonton’s 140-
voice symphonic choir, has an educational program
for high school students that this season
welcomes them to the dress rehearsal performances
of its Mozart-Haydn-Beethoven concert
with the Alberta Baroque Ensemble (Feb. 5)
and Edward Elgar’s massive and seldom-performed
The Dream of Gerontius with the ESO
(Apr. 30). Pizza – as well as scene-setting commentaries
and question-and-answer sessions
with composers – is the popular pre-performance
enticer.
Even the ESO has its entry-point program
called the Pulse8 Club, designed for music
lovers aged 18-29. The draw here is free membership,
$15 tickets, and a club members’ Web
site, with personably eccentric postings from
ESO music director Eddins and orchestra
players. For more information, go to
www.pulse8club.com.
A Choral Christmas: The Francis Winspear
Centre for Music will be festively alive with no
fewer than 10 Christmas concerts set for the
venue. These range from Pro Coro Canada’s
traditional A Pro Coro Christmas with the
Cantillon Choirs and Jubiloso! Handbells (Dec.
4), to Handel’s Messiah with the ESO and
Richard Eaton Singers (Dec. 16-17), to the
popular live broadcast Christmas Bureau
Singalong (Dec. 23), which last year drew a full
house to sing with the more than 300 choristers
in the choir loft and on stage. For a full list
of concerts, go to www.winspearcentre.com.
Edmonton Opera: On Feb. 4, 7 and 9, EO
offers what has now become a traditional pairing
of two modern classics. Robert Lepage’s
production of Bluebeard’s Castle by Béla Bartók
and Erwartung by Arnold Schoenberg hits the
Jubilee Auditorium stage. EO describes the
package as “the single most important and
unanimously praised operatic event ever to
come out of Canada.” Soprano Susan Marie
Pierson will sing the roles of Judith in
Bluebeard’s Castle and The Woman in
Erwartung. Welsh baritone Jason Howard will
sing the title role of Bluebeard. In keeping with
its promotional bent, EO has paired up with
the Delta Edmonton South hotel for the Jubilee
Dinners program, which provides a meal and
wine at the auditorium. (Edmonton Opera,
(780) 424-4040, www.edmontonopera.com)
Edmonton Symphony Orchestra: The ESO
will have the movies on show on Mar. 2, when
William Eddins conducts “Hollywood: Behind
the Silver Screen.” Among the works: Howard
Shore’s Suite from The Lord of the Rings, selections
from Bernard Hermann’s scores for
music scene Winter 2006 33