If you are feeling socially isolated and voting day doesn't fill you life with joy, the solution is to come to the VICTORIA SHOWCASE - Classical Guitar and More! concert on Saturday October 24th at St. Mary’s Anglican Church 1701 Elgin Road in Oak Bay from 6-8 pm.
Not only will you feel uplifted by beautiful music but you will also be helping to support local talented musicians by providing an audience. Musicians have been hit hard during the past 9 months with limited performing options.
For those who wish to view from home, the concert will also be live-cast through the VGS website. The live venue will be as contact-less as possible and masks are encouraged to be used at the venue when not seated.
The Victoria Guitar Society is excited to stage this programme of diverse repertoire performed by local talents. From Renaissance and Baroque favourites and early vocal music, through the development of solo guitar repertoire to contemporary Cuban and Russian guitar composers, this evening has something for every music lover.
ADRIAN CHEN is an aspiring young classical guitarist currently studying under Dr. Alexander Dunn. Prior to winning the Performing Arts BC Festival in 2019, Adrian won first prize in the Greater Victoria Performing Arts Festival for the past three years. Having performed at several Performing Arts BC highlight concerts, he received the Susan and Colin Boyer Bursary from the Victoria Conservatory of Music in 2019 for his talent and passion to pursue his musical studies.
SIMON FARINTOSH will begin his Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree at the University of Toronto and has garnered top awards at various competitions in Canada and the US, including 1st Prize at the 2018 Northwest Guitar Festival & Competition and 1st Prize at the 2020 Quebec International Music Competition. He is a four-time recipient of the British Columbia Arts Council Award, and has been a featured artist for the VCM Summer Guitar Academy (BC), The Classical Guitar Society of Tri-Cities (WA) and Madison Classical Guitar Society (WI).
Russian born MISHA SMIRNOV began studying classical guitar at age 10 and broadened his musical education by performing in varying styles on classical and electric guitars. He studied under Michael Strutt at the University of British Columbia and graduated with a Bachelor of Music in classical guitar performance in 2009. Misha was a prizewinner in the Northwest Guitar Festival in 2017.
A graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, DOUGLAS HENSLEY has studied classical Persian music with several Iranian masters in California and Paris. He has worked with many ensembles including the Symphony Orchestras of San Francisco, Berkeley and Marin. He co-founded and co-directed several music ensembles including ISKRA with conductor Kent Nagano and the Continuum Consort and has recorded, on several labels, a wide variety of pieces for classical and electric guitars, lutes, viola da pendola, oud, and setâr.
Born and raised in Scandinavia, ANNETTE LAMPSON studied Voice and Choral Conducting in England and Germany, where the study and performance of Folk Song through the ages and in original languages became a special interest. She has performed as a soloist in Canada since 1995, including appearances with the Continuum Consort and as part of Ensemble Laude since 2003.
Tickets are $30 each for the live event/ $10 for the live stream and are available here.
FORGOTTEN ROMANTIC THE MUSIC OF RUDOLF LEBERL
Friday Nov. 13th - Leberl Evening (online)
Saturday Nov. 21st - VGS presents Forgotten Romantic - the Music of Rudolf Leberl (live and online)
A note from VGS Artistic Director, Dr. Alexander Dunn
At a time of self-isolation and limited travel opportunity, I have embarked on an extended visit to the heartland of Romantic piano music – Germany, Austria, Bohemia. For lovers of Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Dvořák and Brahms, we guitarists have been unfairly deprived. We enjoy savoury Matiegka, Molitor, Diabelli and Giuliani to satisfy our classical period cravings. But if you desire a hearty German Romantic meal, we are sadly bereft. Arrangements from piano are always somehow unsatisfactory, and the Olympian efforts required to present even medium-difficulty piano pieces induces indigestion. With the discovery and dissemination of music written not in Brahms’ time, but a full generation later, we now have Romanticism lovingly crafted for our own instrument that ranges from the immediately learn-able to highly challenging
Austrian Ferdinand Rebay (1880-1953) wrote a vast amount of guitar music from solo pieces and guitar ensemble music, songs with voice, to chamber music of every imaginable combination of instruments. His output exceeds Castelnuovo-Tedesco; to this day being discovered and published. Brahms is recognizably his strongest stylistic influence.
And Bohemian Rudolf Leberl (1884-1952) whose music belongs to the aesthetic family of Dvořák and Janáček, worked in the Czech Republic and Bavaria, producing over 1500 works for guitar which are only now receiving their due respect. His entire output includes thirty large solo cycles for guitar as well as works for orchestra, strings, winds, piano and chamber music. Leberl suffered from the socio-political devastation following two World Wars. His works, which he had to abandon to escape oppression, were salvaged by his former students. Rudolf Leberl died in 1952 both destitute and blind. With a recent surge in interest in Leberl’s fine works, guitarists can now be nourished by his enchanting and delectable legacy.
I am delighted to be offering a hybrid live venue/live-streamed concert event: Forgotten Romantic - the Music of Rudolf Leberl, in the afternoon of Saturday November 21st. Exploring works for piano and guitar, guitar with strings, duo arrangements of Grieg, and solo works - it will be a feast of music by Leberl performed by some of Victoria’s finest musicians.
Vielen Dank an Herrn Leberl!
VGS MEMBERSHIP
If you have not already done so, please consider becoming a member. This helps us to externally demonstrate our community support and is only $10.
Membership benefits include:
Classical guitar teacher/performer listing
Classical guitar local event posts
Participation in Open Mics
A spot in VGS Community Ensemble
Advance notification and discounts on VGS concert tickets
