Friday, October 4, 2013
8 PM | Convocation Hall

LONDON HANDEL PLAYERS
Early Music

Friday, October 25,2013
8 PM | McDougall United Church

ISABEL BAYRAKDARIAN
Soprano
SEROUJ KRADJIAN  Piano

Saturday, November 9, 2013
**7:30 PM**
West End Christian Reformed Church

ANONYMOUS 4
A cappella quartet

Friday, January 31, 2014
8 PM | Convocation Hall

TRIO JEAN PAUL
Piano trio

Saturday, March 22, 2014
8 PM | Convocation Hall

JOSÉ MIGUEL MORENO 
Vihuela & baroque guitar

JAMES EHNES   Violin
ANDREW ARMSTRONG  Piano

The London Handel Players’ debut performance for the London Handel Festival 2000 initiated an enduring and very successful partnership of some of Britain’s leading early music specialists. The group performs regularly at the Wigmore Hall and has appeared at major festivals in Europe and North America, collaborating frequently with other artists, including singers Emma Kirkby and Daniel Taylor, and the popular Scottish fiddler, Alasdair Fraser. In addition to their appearances with the London Handel Players, members of the group pursue busy individual careers as soloists, directors, recording artists, and teachers.

The group’s concert program, Handel at Home, features some of his liveliest and most engaging works, adapted for chamber ensemble. Handel’s contemporary, the Italian violinist and composer Francesco Geminiani, is represented by his Trio Sonata in F Major, a work he performed before King George I, accompanied on harpsichord by Handel.

G.F. Handel (1685-1759)	Trio Sonata, Op. 5, No. 4 in G Major HWV 399 Violin Sonata in D Major HWV 371 Trio Sonata, Op. 2, No. 5 in G Minor HWV 390 Harpsichord Suite in E Major HWV 430 Arias from Semele:   “No, no, I’ll take no less”   “O sleep”   “Myself I shall adore”
Francesco Geminiani (1687-1762)	Trio Sonata, Op. 1, No. 9 in F Major

“The London Handel Players shine in immaculately prepared, finely balanced and lyrical performances.”  –Early Music Today

photo: Dario Acosta Isabel Bayrakdarian Soprano	Friday, October 25, 2013 8 PM Tickets »
	Serouj Kradjian Piano
McDOUGALL UNITED CHURCH 10025 – 101 St. | Edmonton, AB To purchase parking permit

A prize-winning performance at the 2000 Operalia competition introduced the world to Canadian soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian . In the years since, she has continued to delight an enthusiastic and ever-growing audience. Internationally acclaimed as an opera star, recitalist and recording artist, she moves with ease from Gluck and Mozart to Poulenc and Janáček.

Her wide-ranging musical projects include performances with Broadway’s Patti LuPone, in the premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Sheer’s one-act opera To Hell and Back; soundtrack recordings for the films Ararat and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; and a widely toured program of traditional Armenian music developed with her husband, pianist and composer Serouj Kradjian .

Their shared taste for musical exploration is reflected in two recent CDs – their Juno award-winning collection of songs by the 19th century singer and composer Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Tango Notturno, a chronology of the tango in its many and varied expressions. Included in the concert program are some of the rediscovered vocal treasures they have so successfully introduced in these recordings and in recitals throughout North America.

“She’s a soprano prized for the flexible color of her voice as well as for the dramatic urgency she brings to operatic roles.” –Boston Globe

What began in 1986 as a music reading exercise, adapting medieval chant and polyphony to female voices, led four young singers to a sustained commitment to a cappella performance and international success as the vocal ensemble Anonymous 4 .

From its early interest in sacred music of the 12th and 13th centuries, the group has broadened its research and repertoire to include secular motets and ballate of the early Italian Renaissance, traditional British carols and songs, and American folk and gospel music and shape-note hymnody. They have moved easily from medieval plainchant to modern minimalism; Richard Einhorn, John Tavener, and Steve Reich are among several contemporary composers who have written works for the group.

Much admired for the singular beauty and purity of its vocal tone, Anonymous 4 has released more than 20 recordings, won numerous awards, and been listed twice among Billboard’s top classical artists.

Their program Marie & Marion, derived in part from the Montpellier Codex, an important source of 13th century French polyphony, combines songs of devotion to the Virgin Mary and songs of earthly love for the Lady Marion.

“The artistry of the female vocal quartet Anonymous 4 has never been about melding near-identical voices into a homogenous whole....what makes this group special is the way it forges a sweetly concordant sound from a set of significantly different voice types.” –Washington Post

Named for the German poet Jean Paul, a contemporary of Goethe and Schiller, the Trio Jean Paul draws inspiration for musical expression from the inflections of literary language. The Trio’s admired poetic fluency serves music of any era — the group is as much at home premiering new works as it is performing works from the Classical and Romantic repertoire.

Founded in 1991, the Trio Jean Paul won early notice as the first-prize winner at international competitions in Osaka, Melbourne and Germany and remains one of today’s most esteemed and sought-after chamber ensembles. It performs frequently in Europe and has toured Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South America. In North America, the Trio has appeared, most recently, in New York, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Quebec City and Montreal.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)	Piano Trio in E-flat Major Op. 1, No. 1
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)	String Sextet no. 1 in B-flat Major Op. 18 –arranged for Piano Trio by Theodor Kirchner
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)	Piano Trio no. 1 in B-flat Major D. 898, Op. 99

“Here’s an ensemble that really knows how to highlight the rhetorical flourishes and the conversational cut-and-thrust that are the essence of chamber music.” –The Times

José Miguel Moreno Vihuela and baroque guitar Saturday, March 22, 2014 8 PM Tickets » CONVOCATION HALL | U of A Campus Parking map | Visitor parking rates

A soloist and chamber musician, founder of two ensembles dedicated to the performance of Spanish and European Renaissance and Baroque music — La Romanesca and Orphénica Lyra — José Miguel Moreno is recognized worldwide as an original instrument and early music specialist. He plays the vihuela , a flat-backed stringed instrument contemporaneous with the lute, as well as Renaissance and Baroque guitars, lute, theorbo, and Romantic guitar.

His performances display not only extraordinary mastery of his instruments but also reflect his deep knowledge of period performance and extensive research into the construction of early plucked string instruments. He has appeared in festivals and recitals around the world, collaborating with such artists as mezzo-soprano Teresa Berganza and gambist Jordi Savall.

His concert program, The Spanish Guitar: 200 Years of History, 1500 – 1700, features works by Luys de Narváez, Diego Ortiz, Alonso Mudarra, Francisco Guerau, Antonio Martín y Coll, and Gaspar Sanz.

“José Miguel Moreno is one of the great Spanish musicians of our century…” –Luis Gago, El País

Canadian-born James Ehnes has thrilled audiences worldwide since his orchestral debut with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at the age of 13. The recipient of numerous awards including a Grammy, a Gramophone and seven Junos, he continues to win superlatives for his artistry and impressive technique.

Recent engagements have taken him to New York to perform the Brahms concerto with Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra; to Aix-en-Provence for a solo violin recital; to Rotterdam, Birmingham, San Francisco, Toronto, and to Canada’s far north with the National Arts Centre Orchestra.

The American pianist Andrew Armstrong performs frequently with James Ehnes and has recorded with him two highly praised volumes of works for violin and piano by Béla Bartók. A prize-winning soloist, Andrew Armstrong has appeared with major orchestras in Europe and Asia and throughout North America.

Jean-Marie Leclair (1697-1764)	Sonata in D Major Op. 9, No. 3, “Tambourin”
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)	Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor Op. 108
Alexina Louie (b. 1949)	A new work; to be announced
Richard Strauss (1864-1949)	Sonata in E-flat Major Op. 18

“Mr. Ehnes has technical brilliance to spare, but there was not a trace of flashiness in his majestic, poetic and transparent playing.” –New York Times