September 2009 - The Wholenote Magazine

eat by beat: orchestra and chamberConcerts EverywhereBy Allan PulkerFall FestivalsAs urban concert seasons are justgetting underway in the cities, threefestivals in smaller centres offer opportunitiesto hear unusual repertoireand also musicians new to many ofus. The earliest of these is the PrinceEdward County Music Festival (Picton,September 17-19). Under the artisticdirection of concert pianist, recordingartist and University of Ottawa professorStéphane Lemelin, the festival willpresent three evening and two daytimeconcerts. Distinguished Canadian composerand Bishop’s University professorAndrew Paul MacDonald, the festival’sComposer in Residence, will contributeone work to each of the three eveningconcert programmes, and will also performon the guitar at the September 19 Pianist Stéphane Lemelin servesSaturday afternoon concert with clarinetistJames Campbell.as artistic director of the PrinceOnly one day later in and near OwenSound, the sixth annual Sweetwater Music Weekend (September 18,19, 20) gets under way. The artistic director, Vancouver Symphonyconcert master Mark Fewer, has delegated responsibility for theFriday evening and Sunday afternoon concerts to the Banff Centre’sBarry Shiffman and the London Handel Players’ Adrian Butterfield,respectively. Each has come up with a programme that reflects his2009/2010SEASONJOHN BARNUM, MUSIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTORClassics Renowned & Singular!The MSO Masterworks & Rarities!Sinfonia Mississauga Orchestras Mississauga 20092010The World in Music!background and musical tastes, as does Fewer’s Saturday eveningprogramme, which will feature a commissioned work by jazz manPhil Dwyer as well as arrangements of songs by Leonard Cohen andEdith Piaf.By far the most ambitious of these three fall festivals is the seventhannual Colours of Music Festival (September 25-October 4), thecreation of one remarkable man: Barrie lawyer and former politicianBruce Owen. Along with presenting this ten-day festival and a winterconcert series, Owen also raised funds two years ago to purchasean excellent grand piano, a Shigeru Kawai. For this festival he hassagely chosen to put the piano in the foreground by selecting thepianist-composer Heather Schmidt as his composer-in residence, andthe Ames Piano Quartet as quartet-in-residence. At this year’s festivalthere’s also a singer-in-residence, soprano Suzie LeBlanc, who willappear in three concerts with repertoire ranging from Baroque, whichis her specialty, to music by Schubert, Mozart and the little-known(except possibly to flutists), Gabriel Grovlez. Certainly the greatstrength of this festival is the quality of the programming and the calibreof the artists whom Owen brings in.There is, of course, an abundance of additional information aboutthese three festivals in our listings and on their websites.UniversitiesThe academic year is a mere seven-and-a-half months long, whichmeans the university concert seasons need to be among the first offthe blocks. At McMaster University’s Convocation Hall, AmericanEdward County Music Festival. Continued on p. 2220 WWW.THEWHOLENOTE.COM September 1 - October 7, 2009