Lyell Gustin Recital Series
The Lyell Gustin Recital Series marks its 15th season with another roster of outstanding classical musicians on the Saskatoon stage! Since 2005, the Series has presented fine musicians originating in Saskatchewan and performers from across North America and Europe, globally-recognized professionals as well as emerging artists.
On January 31, 2019, Ensemble Made in Canada, the country’s premier piano quartet, opens the season with a unique program involving Canadian music and interactive nationwide artistic participation. The innovative Project Mosaique focuses on newly commissioned piano quartet music by 14 Canadian composers, each inspired by a region of Canada, and a specially designed website to document audience-generated artwork inspired by the musical commissions. Saskatoon attendees will join with other participants – the artists, composers, and online visitors – across the nation and beyond. With the aim of highlighting the diversity and richness of Canada through its people, Project Mosaique will be presented in all ten provinces and three territories. Ensemble Made in Canada comprises musicians known and admired across the country: pianist Angela Park, violinist Elissa Lee, violist Sharon Wei, and cellist Rachel Mercer.
Canada’s Rolston String Quartet performs the spring concert, Wednesday, April 3. The Quartet, after taking first prize at the 12th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2016, embarked on a Winner’s Tour that included performances in Germany, Italy, Austria, the USA and Canada. They have since appeared in Italy, France, Holland and Israel, everywhere receiving glowing praise from international audiences and critics alike. Their Saskatoon performance, co-presented with Prairie Debut, features music from the magnificent string quartet repertoire. The quartet – Luri Lee, Emily Kruspe, Hezekiah Leung and Jonathan Lo – has been described by Musical Toronto as having “a maturity and cohesion rivaling the best string quartets in the world.”
Piano virtuoso David Jalbert gives the summer recital on Wednesday, August 21, 2019. An artist with a warm, elegant style and wide-ranging repertoire, Jalbert is one of the elite of a new generation of classical musicians, and was recently named by the CBC among the 15 best Canadian pianists of all time. He dazzles audiences, critics, and the press, who have called him “a deeply musical pianist” (Cleveland Plain Dealer), with “wide-ranging musical imagination, phenomenal technique, and an unerring lightness of being.” (Toronto Star). A national and international prizewinner, David Jalbert has received several Prix Opus awards from the Conseil Québécois de la Musique and three Juno nominations; he was 2007 laureate of the prestigious Virginia Parker Prize of the Canada Council for the Arts. In his Saskatoon recital, he will perform romantic to modern piano repertoire.
Meanwhile, one recital remains in the 2018 series. On Tuesday, August 21, the radiant soprano Leslie Ann Bradley performs the program “Songs of Evening” – lieder, opera arias, and music of Broadway. About her, Toronto Star writes, “She brings the stage to life whenever she sets foot into the spotlight!” Following graduate studies in Toronto, Ms. Bradley attended Académie International de Musique Maurice Ravel in France, where she won the Académie voice competition and received the Prix du chant Pierre Bernac. Based in New York, she is in demand for opera and orchestral appearances, and recently performed with the Toronto Symphony. Pianist for this recital is Rachel Andrist, originally from Estevan, Saskatchewan and now of Toronto, known for her sophisticated and insightful work as collaborative artist and vocal coach in major European opera houses.
Concerts in the Lyell Gustin Recital Series are at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 436 Spadina Cres. East, 7:30 p.m., with a preconcert talk at 6:45. A season pass is available for all three recitals of the 15th Anniversary Series in 2019, with single tickets separately priced; children 12 and under, free if accompanied by an adult. Season passes/tickets at Mcnally Robinson, Yamaha Piano, Saskatoon Music Academy, Gustin Committee, or at the door. Tickets for singer Leslie Ann Bradley’s recital on August 21, 2018, also available at locations above. Information: (306) 373-1451, or gustinhouse.ca.