Friday, November 2, 2012
8 PM | Convocation Hall

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN
Piano

Saturday, November 17, 2012
8 PM | Convocation Hall

CAPPELLA ARTEMISIA
Early Music Ensemble

Saturday, December 1, 2012
7 PM
West End Christian Reformed Church

BEN HEPPNER
Tenor

Friday, March 1, 2013
8 PM | Convocation Hall

CONSTANTINOPLE
Early Music Ensemble

Saturday, April 13, 2013
8 PM | McDougall United Church

TOKYO STRING QUARTET
JON KIMURA PARKER  Piano

photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke

Marc-André Hamelin Piano Friday, November 2, 2012 8 PM CONVOCATION HALL | U of A Campus

Acclaimed for his superb technique and refined expressiveness, Montreal-born
Marc-André Hamelin is internationally known as a brilliant pianist, one of the most compelling musicians of his day. A musical explorer, he has brought to notice many lesser-known works of the past two centuries and re-invigorated familiar repertoire with his energy and insight. A prodigious recording artist, he has been nominated for nine Grammy awards, most recently for his 2010 CD, Hamelin: Études, a collection of his own compositions.

He will be performing on the Steinway & Sons Model D Horowitz Piano , provided for the concert by the Piano Centre . A gift from Steinway & Sons to the famed pianist Vladimir Horowitz and his wife Wanda, the CD 503, as it came to be known, was one of Horowitz’s favorite pianos. It was kept in his New York townhouse, was used in many of his recitals and recordings, and went with him on tour in his final years. Steinway & Sons is currently sponsoring a North American tour of the Horowitz Piano, allowing the public a rare opportunity to see and hear this legendary instrument.

The concert program includes some of the most beautiful but challenging works in the piano repertoire; a showcase for Marc-André Hamelin’s exceptional talent.

Alban Berg (1885-1935)	Piano Sonata, Op. 1 (1907-8)
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)	Impromptu No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 31 (1883) Barcarolle No. 3 in G-flat Major, Op. 42 (1885)
Claude Debussy (1862–1918)	Images, series I (1901-5) L’isle joyeuse (1904)
Marc-André Hamelin (b. 1961 )	Variations on a theme by Paganini (2011)
Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)	Prelude in G Major, Op. 32, No. 5 (1910) Prelude in G-sharp Minor, Op. 32, No. 12 (1910) Sonata No. 2, Op. 36 (1931 version)

“Beyond his electrifying technical skills, the Montreal native is probably one of the most complete musicians of his generation: a virtuoso, certainly ... a real musical thinker...”  –La Presse

	Cappella Artemisia Early Music Ensemble   Saturday, November 17, 2012 8 PM CONVOCATION HALL | U of A Campus
Candace Diane Smith Artistic Director Soprano Bruce Dickey Associate Director Cornetto	Kiri Tollaksen  Cornetto Erin Jean Headley   Viola da gamba Miranda Aureli   Harpsichord, organ Pamela Lucciarini   Soprano Phoebe Jevtovic Rosquist   Mezzo-soprano Elena Carolina Biscuola   Mezzo-soprano Patrizia Vaccari   Contralto Silvia Vajente   Contralto Biographies

Program: English | Latin
Program notes

Founded in Bologna, Italy in 1991 under the direction of Candace Smith, Cappella Artemisia is a ten-member all-women's vocal ensemble consisting of 6 singers with two cornetti and continuo [gamba and organ]. Since its inception, the ensemble has received critical and popular praise, both for the rarity and originality of its repertoire and for the high quality of its performances.

They have appeared at such prestigious venues as the Festival of Flanders, The Holland Festival of Early Music, Il Festival Monteverdiano di Cremona, the Osterfestival in Innsbruck, the WDR Festival der Alten Musik in Herne, the Tage Alter Musik in Regensburg, and I Concerti al Quirinale (Rome). They have been broadcast by national radio networks in Italy, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the USA. Now for the first time, they undertake a major Canadian tour.

Cappella Artemisia explores a musical world inhabited by women singers, players and composers and presents a unique sampling of Italian music created and originally performed within the hidden walls of convents. In addition to this traditional repertoire of music from the Italian cloisters, the singers of the ensemble have also been involved in a modern staging of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas in an all-women's performance recalling that of 1689 at a fashionable boarding school in Chelsea for “Young Gentlewomen.”

Cappella Artemisia takes its name from the painter Artemisia Gentileschi, a striking female figure in the 17^th century Italian art world whose accomplishments — like the Convent inspired music that paralleled her life — are only now beginning to be recognized.

“The Cappella Artemisia concert [was] truly wonderful ....The level of performance ... is extraordinarily high, combining a studious precision with ... emotional expressiveness ...” –Jonathan Saville, San Diego Reader

photo: Kristin Koebermann

Ben Heppner Tenor Saturday, December 1, 2012 ** 7 PM **   WEST END CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH 10015 – 149 St. | Edmonton, AB

Program

One of the finest dramatic tenors of today, Canadian-born Ben Heppner has been a major star of the opera stage since his performance in Seattle Opera’s 1998 production of Tristan und Isolde. Hailed as a “Tristan for the new millennium,” Ben Heppner confirmed his reputation as an outstanding interpreter of Wagner in later performances for the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Berlin State Opera and the Paris Opera.

His repertoire includes some of the most challenging roles in opera. He has sung, at the Met and elsewhere, title roles in Otello, Lohengrin, Parsifal, and Andrea Chénier, and performed as Aeneas in Les Troyens, Ghermann in The Queen of Spades, and Florestan in Fidelio. In 2010 he created the role of Captain Ahab in the Dallas Opera premiere of Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick.

His orchestral repertoire is equally impressive. He has appeared with orchestras throughout Europe and North America in such works as Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Das Lied von der Erde, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Britten’s War Requiem, and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius.

Ben Heppner’s powerful voice is matched by a warmth of personality that connects him very directly to audiences, as his ongoing recital tours throughout Canada so delightfully reveal.

“Mr. Heppner again gave an impassioned, courageous and vocally thrilling performance ... [he] sang every phrase with maximum expressivity, utter honesty and visceral power.” –Anthony Tommasini, New York Times

The well-known collaborative pianist John Hess accompanies Mr. Heppner.

John Hess

John Hess is the recognized authority on contemporary opera and song in Canada and is Co-Artistic Director of Toronto’s Queen of Puddings Music Theatre. He has been involved with the creation of many new productions for the Canadian Opera Company and has collaborated with virtually every contemporary opera company in Canada. At the Banff Centre for the Arts, he served as Associate Artistic Director of the 20th Century Opera and Song program.

John is equally in demand as a vocal coach and pianist. He works regularly with Ben Heppner in Canada along with many other singers and instrumentalists of note. John is heard regularly on CBC Radio and has recorded numerous CDs, including the complete vocal works of Canadian composer Harry Somers with singers Valdine Anderson, Jean Stilwell and Ben Heppner. Review   Dec. 2, 2012 | Edmonton Journal

photo: Jocelyn Michel	Constantinople Early Music Ensemble Friday, March 1, 2013 8 PM CONVOCATION HALL  U of A Campus
Irasema Terrazas Soprano (Mexico) Enrique Solinis Baroque guitar (Spain) Kiya Tabassian Setar; Artistic Director (Iran – Canada) Pierre-Yves Martel Viola da gamba (Canada) Ziya Tabassian Tombak & percussion (Iran – Canada)

PROGRAM

Internationally acclaimed Constantinople draws upon the diverse musical traditions of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cultures to create a vibrant blend of classical Persian and early European music in a modern context. Founded by brothers Kiya Tabassian and Ziya Tabassian in 2001 and later joined by gambist Pierre-Yves Martel, the Montreal-based ensemble often expands to include other artists; some specialists in traditional instruments and performance style, others devoted to contemporary expression, in dance, spoken word, and electronic sound.

Irasema Terrazas

Enrique Solinis

Soprano Irasema Terrazas and guitarist Enrique Solinis join Constantinople to present new vocal and instrumental works built upon the music of 17th century composers Lucas Ruis Ribayaz, Santiago de Murcia, and Gaspar Sanz.

“...The sacred is there, ... through the great communion of the musicians, by their complicity in the improvisations, by the invisible joining of their talents that they have all shown with brio.”  –Guy Marceau, La Presse

photo: Christian Ducasse	Tokyo String Quartet Farewell Tour Saturday, April 13, 2013 8 PM Martin Beaver  Violin Kikuei Ikeda  Violin Kazuhide Isomura  Viola Clive Greensmith  Cello
photo: Tara McMullen	Jon Kimura Parker Piano McDougall United Church 10025 – 101 St. | Edmonton, AB

One of today’s most esteemed chamber ensembles, the Tokyo String Quartet has retained, through 44 years, impeccable musicianship, flawless technique and an assured elegance of style. It performs more than 100 concerts worldwide each season, has made numerous award-winning recordings, including seven nominated for a Grammy, and has been Quartet-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music since 1976.

Now, the Tokyo String Quartet has announced that 2013-2013 will be its final season . Its appearance in Edmonton is part of a year-long international farewell tour.

The Quartet has collaborated with many distinguished musicians and composers throughout its career. The well-known Canadian pianist Jon Kimura Parker joins the Quartet for a performance of Brahms’ great Piano Quintet in F Minor. An accomplished chamber musician as well as a noted soloist, Jon Kimura Parker has been a duo partner with violinists James Ehnes and Cho-Liang Lin and cellist Lynn Harrell, a guest artist at several chamber music festivals, and is currently Artistic Advisor to the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival.

The ensemble performs on the Paganini Quartet, a group of renowned Stradivarius instruments named for legendary virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, who acquired and played them during the 19^th century. The instruments have been on loan to the quartet from the Nippon Music Foundation since 1995, when they were purchased from the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)	Quartet in D Major, K. 499 “Hoffmeister”
Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967)	Quartet No. 2, Op. 10
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)	Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34

“These days, the Tokyo sound is big-boned, rich, with an almost glossy sheen.”
–Richard Fairman, Financial Times

“...The Canadian pianist delivered a powerhouse performance .... Parker brought the requisite big sonority as well as the poetic sensibility to this music.”
–Chicago Classical Review