Actor Mike Petersen reads and discusses the poem by Richard Dehmel that inspired the work. Award-winning violinist Olivier Thouin ("the highest mastery...a real violinist and above all a real musician" - La Presse, Montreal) leads the performance. Joining him are violinist Min-Jeong Koh, violists Carolyn Blackwell and Eric Paetkau, and cellists Igor Gefter (of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra) and Rafael Kuerti.

Rafael Kuerti, the featured Young Artist, also performs the Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 65, by Frederic Chopin. Pianist is TBA.

The son of cellist Kristine Bogyo, Artistic Director of Mooredale Concerts, and pianist Anton Kuerti, Rafael Kuerti began his cello studies at age five with his mother. He progressed as a member of the National Academy and Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestras, and as principal and soloist with the Mooredale Youth Orchestra. He has participated at the Scotiafest in Halifax, the chamber music program at the Banff Centre, the Festival of the Sound and the Greenwood Chamber Music Camp in Massachusetts. In 2006, he was a scholarship student at Indiana University under renowned cellist Janos Starker. He is currently pursuing his Bachelor of Music Degree at the University of Calgary under John Kadz.

Transfigured Night (Verklärte Nacht): Schoenberg's tone poem in one movement differs from other tone poems in that it restricts itself to portraying nature and internal emotions rather than external action or drama. The composer commented, "The heightened emotional states it depicts are primarily those of the 19^th century confession of sin, forgiveness, and transfiguration through love. Its expressive qualities are psychologically and musically so effective that its solid construction guarantees its integrity as 'pure' music." Schoenberg had not yet evolved his 12-tone theory, and the idiom of this work pushed Wagnerian chromaticism to new extremes.