June 2008 - Nr. 6
21st Brott Music Festival
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Grammy & Juno-winning Violinist James Ehnes Plays Mendelssohn 21st BROTT MUSIC FESTIVAL OPENS SATURDAY, JUNE 14 IN HAMILTON NATIONAL ACADEMY ORCHESTRA Hamilton, Ontario and the area are the destination for an array of great music this summer. From the opening Beethoven festival, Saturdays, June 14-28, to the rousing finale of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony on August 21, the 21st Brott Music Festival has music for many tastes – from the classics to hot jazz, Italian opera, Greek and Mediterranean song, classy high teas, klezmer, even a nod to rock. Artistic Director Boris Brott, the National Academy Orchestra and famed soloists perform at indoor locations in and around Hamilton, and in the lush outdoor settings of the Botanical Gardens and Muskoka’s legendary Windermere House. For more information and tickets, visit www.brottmusic.com or phone 1-888-475-9377. "This is our best festival yet!" exclaims Maestro Brott. "We are celebrating our orchestra’s 20th season with the return of the brilliant violinist James Ehnes, who performed with us 10 years ago. We have two of Canada’s hottest young classical and jazz artists. And we are performing in four exciting new venues, as well as favorite locales from the past." Grammy and Juno-winning violinist James Ehnes starts the season sizzling as soloist in the soulful Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Saturday, June 14, 7:30 p.m. at Melrose United Church, 86 Homewood Avenue (at Locke) in Hamilton. Maestro Brott and Associate Conductor Martin MacDonald share conducting duties on the program, the first of three headlined A Little Ludwig. It includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 in B flat and Leonore Overture No. 3. The Beethoven festival continues Saturdays, June 21 and 28, 7:30 p.m. at St. Christopher’s Anglican Church, 662 Guelph Line, Burlington. June 21 features the nature-influenced Symphony No. 6 ("Pastorale"), and a Beethoven-inspired composition, Concertino for Violin, by Maestro Brott’s late father, Alexander Brott. Soloist is the dazzling violinist Susanne Yi-Jia Hou. Beethoven’s Overture to Fidelio and the effervescent
Symphony No. 8 conclude the mini-series June 28. The concert
also marks the triumphant return of 13-year-old Calgary piano sensation
Jan Lisiecki, widely hailed as Canada’s next Glenn Gould.
He recently played to a full house at Carnegie Hall as winner of
the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition. Lisiecki
joins the NAO in Chopin’s poignant Piano Concerto No. 2 in F
minor. NATIONAL ACADEMY’S 20TH SEASON – the Brott Festival
celebrates the 20th year of the National Academy Orchestra,
which Maestro Brott founded in 1989 to give young players their
first professional experience of orchestral playing. In Canada’s
only professional training orchestra, seasoned pros sit amongst
exuberant young music graduates to provide mentorship. To date,
the NAO has graduated over 1,000 students, many of whom have gone
on to employment with virtually all of Canada’s major orchestras,
as well as with many others throughout North America and in Europe. FAREWELL TO MARTIN MacDONALD – This is also the final season
of Associate Conductor Martin MacDonald. After three seasons with
the Brott Music Festival, the Ironville, Cape Breton native returns
to his home province August 1 as resident conductor with Symphony
Nova Scotia. He was chosen from 19 candidates across Canada. MacDonald
has worked closely with Maestro Brott on programming this year’s
Festival. TICKETS & INFO: The 2008 Brott Music Festival offers three special ways of saving on tickets to multiple concerts. The Festival Passport offers 35% off for 10 or more concerts. The Festival Five-Plus Passport allows 20% off for five-nine concerts. For the Beethoven series in June, A Little Ludwig Passport gives a 15% saving for the three concerts. For more information and tickets, visit www.brottmusic.com, e-mail boxoffice@brottmusic.com, or phone 1-888-475-9377, or 905-525-SONG (7664). Following is the schedule for an unforgettable summer music experience
at the 21st Brott Music Festival, with locations:
Saturday, June 14, 7:30 p.m Melrose United Church, 86 Homewood Ave. (at Locke), Hamilton Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 3 and Symphony No. 4 in B flat; Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. Tickets: $40 | $35 seniors | $20 students Saturday, June 21, 7:30 p.m. St. Christopher’s, 662 Guelph Line (at New Street), Burlington With violinist Susanne Hou Celebrating the best of Beethoven’s symphonic achievement with his Symphony No. 6, "Pastorale", and his musical influence on one of Canada’s great composers. Hou performs Alexander Brott’s Concertino for Violin, which won an Olympic Award for composition and is considered the composer’s finest work. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Saturday, June 28, 7:30 p.m. St. Christopher’s, 662 Guelph Line (at New Street), Burlington With 13 year-old piano sensation Jan Lisiecki Beethoven’s Overture to Fidelio and Symphony No. 8; Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Friday, July 4, 7:30 p.m. Philpott Memorial Church, 84 York Blvd., Hamilton Rising jazz superstar, chanteuse Sophie Milman and her band wow with her intoxicating take on the standards and selections from her Juno award-winning album Make Somebody Happy. A rising jazz superstar, Milman has been compared to Ella Fitgerald and Sarah Vaughan. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Saturday, July 5, 7:30 p.m. Dofasco Centre for the Arts, 190 King William St. (at Ferguson), Hamilton Trumpet virtuoso Jens Lindemann returns to the Festival, in the popular Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E flat and a dazzling fantasy on Bizet’s Carmen. The program includes Dvorak’s folk-inspired masterwork, Symphony No. 9 "From the New World." $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Wednesday, July 9, 7:30 p.m. McIntyre Theatre (Mohawk College), 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5th), Hamilton Chan Hon Goh & Aleksandar Antonijevic, ballet dancers Favourite classical love themes from star-crossed love to fatal attraction. National ballet principal dancers Chan Hon Goh and Aleksandar Antonijevic dance the achingly beautiful pas de deux from Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty and Prokofieff’s Romeo and Juliet. Wagner’s Prelude from Tristan und Isolde and Bernstein’s rousing Symphonic Dances from West Side Story complement the dance selections. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Friday, July 11, 7:30 p.m. Melrose United Church, 86 Homewood Ave. (at Locke), Hamilton National Academy Orchestra Open Rehearsal A large-screen projection reveals a musical interchange between Boris Brott and the orchestra, and the secrets of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. Free Sunday, July 13, 3 p.m. St. John’s Anglican Church, 272 Wilson St. E., Ancaster Festival favorite, pianist Valerie Tryon charms with piano works by the masters, including Chopin, Scarlatti, Mozart and Liszt. Traditional tea served at intermission. $40 | $35 seniors | $20 students Wednesday, July 16, 7:30 p.m. Dofasco Centre for the Arts, 190 King William St. (at Ferguson), Hamilton Lara St. John, violin; Martin MacDonald, conductor The mesmerizing St. John performs two showpieces for violin and orchestra – Chausson’s Poème and Ravel’s Tzigane. The NAO also serves up Berlioz’s compelling Symphonie Fantastique. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Saturday, July 19, 7:30 p.m. Hamilton Place Great Hall, 1 Summer’s Lane, Hamilton Brian Jackson, conductor; Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders; Arcady Singers; Brogue The Festival kicks its annual Proms blockbuster up a notch! From being piped in the building, then serenaded in the lobby by Celtic band Brogue, the audience encounters one musical surprise after another - alongside such favorites as Handel’s Zadok the Priest, Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, and Rule Britannia. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Sunday, July 20, 3 p.m. Royal Botanical Gardens (outdoors), 680 Plains Rd. W., Burlington Hannaford Street Silver Band Canada’s finest massed brass ensemble makes its Festival debut. Bask in the afternoon beauty of the gardens, and such British delights as Alford’s Colonel Bogey March, Walton’s Crown Imperial, and Vaughan Williams’ English Folk Song Suite. Traditional tea served at intermission. $40 | $35 seniors | $20 students Wednesday, July 23, 7:30 p.m. Melrose United Church, 86 Homewood Ave. (at Locke), Hamilton Valerie Tryon, piano An exhilarating night of Russian music. Valerie Tryon joins the NAO for Rachmaninoff’s famous Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. The NAO complete the program with Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Rimsky-Korsakov’s intoxicating tales of 1001 nights, Sheherazade. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Saturday, July 26, 3 p.m. Windermere House, Lake Rosseau Michael Burgess, tenor Boris Brott brings his Festival and National Academy Orchestra to Muskoka for its 12th performance on the lawn of Windermere House. Free. Wednesday, July 30, 7:30 p.m. McIntyre Theatre (Mohawk College), 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5th), Hamilton Sinead Sugrue, soprano; Mia Lennox-Williams, alto; John Tiranno, tenor; John Fanning, bass A glorious tour of opera favorites with arias, duets and overtures from Puccini’s La Bohème, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and much more. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Friday, August 1, 7:30 p.m. McIntyre Theatre (Mohawk College), 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5th), Hamilton Jeans ‘n Classic The Brott Festival "will rock you" when revival band Jeans ‘n Classics joins the NAO for a rock extravaganza celebrating the greatest hits of the legendary band Queen. It’s not every day you hear classics like Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites the Dust or Under Pressure accompanied by a choir (the Jeans ‘n Classics Symphonic Chorus, Mark Payne, music director) and live symphony orchestra. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Wednesday, August 6, 7:30 p.m. St. John’s Anglican Church, 272 Wilson St. E., Ancaster Lindsay Deutsch, violin A sensuous musical interplay in which Vivaldi’s virtuosic baroque concerti, the Four Seasons, share the program with Astor Piazzolla’s stunning tango-inspired Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and Spring from fiddler Mark O’Connor’s Appalachian-flavored American Seasons. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Tuesday, August 12, 7:30 p.m. Adas Israel Synagogue, 125 Cline Ave. S., Hamilton Kleztory Klezmer Band Award-winning ensemble Kleztory has delighted audiences from Central Park to Paris with its upbeat, fast-paced and uplifting music inspired by nomadic Jewish musicians of the 19th and 20th centuries. $30 | $25 seniors | $10 students Friday, August 15, 7:30 p.m. Royal Botanical Gardens (outdoors), 680 Plains Rd. W., Burlington Maria Antonakos, singer Antonakos and her band evoke the mystique of the ancient cities of Greece, Italy and Spain, through such favorites such as Besame Mucho, Lascia Ch’io Pianga and songs from her own CD, Mystras. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students Sunday, August 17, 3 p.m. St. John’s Anglican Church, 272 Wilson St. E., Ancaster Giampiero Sobrino, clarinet The great Italian clarinet virtuoso plays two of the most beloved concerti written for his instrument – Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622 and the jazzy Copland Clarinet Concerto. Barber’s haunting Adagio for Strings completes the program. Traditional tea served at intermission. $40 | $35 seniors | $20 students Thursday, August 21, 7:30 p.m. McIntyre Theatre (Mohawk College), 135 Fennell Ave. W. (at West 5th), Hamilton Leslie Fagan, soprano; Marcia Swanston, mezzo; Arcady Singers,
Brott Festival Choir Mahler’s awe-inspiring "Resurrection" Symphony with its
sublime lyricism and choral passages brings the 21st
Brott Music Festival to a thrilling and transcendent conclusion.
The evening opens with the world premiere of Barbara Croall’s
Dagwaagin (Ojibway for "It Is Autumn"), the first of the
Canadian Four Seasons, which the Festival is commissioning from
Canadian composers. $25 | $20 seniors | $10 students |
