CHAMBERFEST STAR POWER
Organizers turn to some big names in bid to stand out
Chamberfest 2017 is mindful of where it falls during Ottawa’s summer of wall-to-wall festivals and celebrations during Canada’s sesquicentennial, and is programming accordingly, artistic director Roman Borys says.
“We really know that people are going to have a lot of options this summer, throughout the summer,” Borys says.
“We’ve made a big effort to ensure that all the artists that we’re bringing this summer are either really familiar names that I know are much loved, or are really excellent and exciting new options.”
The chamber-music-and-beyond festival of 90 or so concerts and events runs from July 22 to Aug. 4, following not only the Ottawa International Jazz Festival and Bluesfest as it usually does, but also the National Arts Centre’s multidisciplinary Canada Scene festival, a mid-June to mid-July slew of 100 or so concerts, plays and more that will end just as Chamberfest begins.
Among the most eagerly awaited Chamberfest concerts, Borys says, is the July 23 performance at Dominion-Chalmers United Church of the celebrated British pianist and writer Stephen Hough, who will play for the first time in Ottawa. Hough, whom the Washington Post has called “a virtuoso who begins where others leave off,” is to perform works by Beethoven and Schumann as well as Debussy’s Clair de Lune.
Also making the trip across the Atlantic Ocean will be the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, which plays Dominion-Chalmers on July 28. The 35-piece choral group, renowned for its performances of hymns and sacred songs, has not sung in Ottawa in nearly two decades. Borys calls this concert “a huge deal … Ottawa is a choir town and this is something that I’m sure the thousands of choristers in town will not want to miss.”
Borys is equally enthusiastic about the performance by Viennese virtuoso violinist Julian Rachlin and a chamber orchestra, who will apply themselves not only to Vivaldi’s well-loved The Four Seasons but also the “very unique, fantastic” Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, a work inspired by Vivaldi’s violin concertos. With its iconic work, exciting soloist and an orchestra made up of “familiar faces,” Borys says, this Aug. 1 concert at Dominion-Chalmers caters to Chamberfest’s longtime patrons.
Some of the artists and concerts returning to Chamberfest are the Austin, Texas-based Miro Quartet, which plays Dominion-Chalmers on July 25 and which appeared at the festival in 2013 and 2014, as well an Aug. 4 re-imagining of the music from the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by Andrew Burashko’s Toronto-based Art of Time Ensemble, augmented by guest vocalists.
When Chamberfest presented Burashko’s Sgt. Pepper project in 2013, it drew a record-setting audience, almost selling out Dominion-Chalmers, Borys says. “We are thrilled to bring that back. It will be immediately attractive to people who might not know what our festival is all about,” he says.
Like the Sgt. Pepper project, many of this year’s concerts reach considerably beyond core chamber-music programming. Canadian jazz pianists John Stetch and David Braid will perform, presenting concerts that blend their interests in classical music with improvisation. On July 26, Stetch will present his imaginative takes of classical repertoire at La Nouvelle Scène on King Edward Avenue. Three nights later, Braid plays his original music with a string quartet at the same venue.
One innovative, genre-defying string player to be featured at the festival is cellist Cris Derksen, whose music, which also includes the use of electronics, connects her classical training and aboriginal roots.
“She just has amazing, powerful musical drive and soul,” Borys says.
Performing with Derksen at La Nouvelle Scène on Aug. 1 will be hoop dancer Nimkii Osawamick. Another is Kishi Bashi, an American indie-pop violinist who deploys looping gear and sings. His concert is July 28 at La Nouvelle Scène, and the Rolston String Quartet will also take part.
A July 30 concert at Dominion-Chalmers will take the films of Stanley Kubrick as a theme, presenting the classical music from such films as The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clockwork Orange, performed by artists including pianist Hinrich Alpers, the Cecilia String Quartet, the Penderecki String Quartet and the Gryphon Trio, the latter of which includes Borys on cello. A day before at the church, Jan Harlan, Kubrick’s brother-in-law and an executive producer for several of his films, will discuss the use of classical music in Kubrick’s films, with Alpers playing excerpts.
At least two Chamberfest concerts strike strong multicultural notes. Sweat, to be presented July 24 at École secondaire publique De La Salle, is a work that delves into today’s garment industry and sweatshop life, created for chorus and five soloists performing in English, Cantonese, Ukrainian, and Hungarian. On Aug. 3 at La Nouvelle Scène will be Home Within: The Syrian Experience, an hour-long performance by Syrian composer and clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and Syrian-Armenian visual artist Kevork Mourad. Their North American tour is raising funds for Syrian refugees.
Resolutely Canadian, in keeping with Canada 150 celebrations and co-presented by Canada Scene, is a July 23 presentation at École De La Salle of the Arctic-themed music from Danny Michel’s new album Khlebnikov, composed last year when the Canadian musician travelled through the Northwest Passage aboard the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov.
Three nights later at Dominion-Chalmers, the Canadian National Brass Project with wave the flag when the all-star brass ensemble plays works by leading Canadian composers.
Borys says this year’s programming has also been geared to tourists who will visit to Ottawa due to the myriad attractions and the strength of the U.S. dollar. While in previous years Chamberfest days began with morning events, this year’s festival will more often see programming begin in the afternoons, leaving mornings free for other activities.
Festival early-bird passes range in price from $150 to $369 before HST, and tickets for selected events go on sale March 20 at ottawachamberfest.com or 613234-6306. Other tickets and passes go on sale May 1, when selected pass prices will also rise.