Fialkowska is touring again, and here Sunday
After a two-year pandemic-prompted hiatus from international touring, Janina Fialkowska is back on the road again.
Not that the Montreal-born, Neusaess, Germany-based classical pianist let those two years go to waste. During that time, she completed a long-standing project, her 376-page autobiography, “A Note in Time,” which was issued in 2021by Novum Publishing, a Europe-based familyrun company specializing in new authors.
Currently, Fialkowska is in the midst of a five-province Canadian tour. On Sunday at 2 p.m., she returns to the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts, 126 James St. S., to close the 2021-2022 Performing Arts Sunday Series.
She’ll open her recital with Weber’s “Aufforderung zum Tanz” (Invitation to the Dance), the same opening selection in her YouTube video, “Janina Fialkowska’s 70th Birthday Recital — May 7, 2021.” The Weber will be followed by Schubert’s magisterial “Sonata in B-flat” D. 960.
After intermission, she’ll perform Sibelius’s “Valse triste” and three pieces by Chopin, the “Polonaise in A” op. 40 no. 1, the “Nocturne in F” op.15 no.1, which incidentally is also in her YouTube video, and the “Ballade no. 1 in G Minor,” op. 23.
Tickets are available online at hcarts.ca/PASS or by calling 905528-4020: $30, student/senior $25.
The Hamilton Conservatory is also the site of the Hamilton Music Festival’s annual grand concert which will take place on Saturday, at 7 p.m.
Founded in 2016, the HMF is a friendly competition for classical music students of all ages and levels who are studying strings, woodwinds, guitar, piano, voice, musical theatre and other genres.
The 2020 festival was cancelled due to the pandemic, and last year’s festival was held online. This year, from April 18 to 30, the festival returned in-person with 748 registrants from around the Golden Horseshoe adjudicated by eight professional musicians in two venues, First Hamilton Christian Reformed Church, and St. Cuthbert’s Presbyterian Church. Performers in all disciplines were eligible for scholarships and recommendations to proceed to the provincial Ontario Music Festival which will be held online later this spring.
“The grand concert will feature some of our scholarship winners from all disciplines-piano, voice, musical theatre, strings, woodwinds and classical guitar-from various levels and a variety of ages,” said Diane Manojlovich, festival cofounder and co-ordinator. “Scholarships will be presented at the concert, some of them directly from the donor.”
Admission is by free-will donation.
Saturday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind (MIMM) is holding a free, virtual “Science RendezVous.” This year’s virtual “Meet a Music Scientist” will offer a tour of the LiveLab, family-oriented activities for ages four and older, plus a Q&A session with MIMM grad students. Log on to livelab.mcmaster.ca/ events/science-rendezvous-2022 to receive a Zoom link.
Sinfonia Ancaster has never performed an entire, complete symphony. That will change on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Meadowlands Fellowship Christian Reformed Church, 211 Stonehenge Dr., Ancaster, when the orchestra traverses Haydn’s “Symphony no. 88” under music director Jeffrey Pollock during their season closing concert, “The French Connection.”
“Although not all composers on the program were from France, this is a whole evening of music specifically created for French audiences,” said Pollock.
The bill also includes Gluck’s “Overture to Iphigénie en Aulide,” plus Bizet’s “L’Arlésienne Suite no. 1” and “Suite no. 2” with guest narrator, R.H. Thomson.
“We are playing the movements of both suites in the order that they appeared in (Alphonse Daudet’s) play,” said Pollock of the Bizet. “R.H. will be reading a script that I wrote, which is essentially a synopsis of what takes place throughout the play. Each movement we perform will be set up beforehand explaining what just happened or what is about to happen onstage, and how Bizet’s music works to evoke the dramatic elements.”
Tickets at sinfoniaancaster.com: $20, senior $15, 14 and under $10. Limited tickets at the door, cash or cheque only.
Also Saturday at 7 p.m. in The Casbah, 306 King St. W., Zula Presents Susanna Hood’s Packet Trio and Ryan Barwin. Tickets: $12 at eventbrite.ca, $15 at door.
The Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s May 1 “Postcards from Buenos Aires” livestream is available on-demand until May 15.
Tickets at hpo.org: $31.