ARTS

ARTS VSO’s next season mixes classical with contemporary

by Charlie Smith

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will bring forth an eclectic lineup of guest artists in the coming season. ey include the legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman (September 15).

For VSO music director Otto Tausk, Perlman’s return to Vancouver carries a special signi cance. In an interview with the Straight last year, Tausk revealed that his “dearest experience and memory” in his time with the VSO was when Perlman came in January of 2019.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard of Itzhak Perlman, but he’s a very famous, great violinist, and he was a violinist I knew when I was really young,” Tausk said at the time. “He was a big star, and when he would come to the Netherlands to play in Amsterdam, I would go to my school and say, ‘Listen, I’m not coming tomorrow because there’s this guy coming to play the violin and I’m gonna listen to him.’

“I skipped school to go and listen to Itzhak Perlman,” the VSO music director continued. “So then having this moment of conducting the VSO with Perlman playing the solo part—that was a really, really special experience.”

In the upcoming season, the VSO will also welcome guitar-playing science educator and former astronaut Chris Had eld (September 16), as well as drummer Stewart Copeland (September 30, October 1) from the Police.

Copeland is part of the London Drugs VSO Pops series, along with JUNO- and Gemini-nominated musician Sarah Slean (October 28, 29), who will o er a tribute to Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Broadway performer Capathia Jenkins will lead the vocals in a separate tribute to Aretha Franklin (April 28 and 29).

Also on the guest list is violinist Hilary Hahn (January 13, 14), one of the leading lights in contemporary classical music. She will perform Sibelius’s Violin Concerto.

And James Ehnes will be back, this time to play Korngold’s Violin Concerto in May, replicating what he performed on the VSO’s Grammy Award–winning recording.

“ e quality and range of guest artists coming to Vancouver is a testament to our great orchestra and city,” Tausk said in a news release.

He also plans to showcase the beauty of the changing seasons with Brahms’s autumnal Symphony No. 3, Tchaikovsky’s Winter Daydreams, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été ( e Nights of Summer).

Another highlight of the coming season will be a performance of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, which has traditionally highlighted a quartet of instruments—trumpet, oboe, recorder, and violin—accompanied by a string ensemble. en there are premieres of Canadian music, including Marcus Goddard (Life Emerging: Antarctica, November; and Life Emerging: Paci c North-West, June), Vivian Fung (Flute Concerto, November), Cassandra Miller (new VSO commission, March/April), and Rita Ueda (new VSO commission, March). at’s in addition to 14 Masterworks programs, which will feature a return visit from Canadian soprano superstar Measha Brueggergosman and a performance by Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili.

“Creativity is at the core of all that we do,” VSO president and CEO Angela Elster said in the news release. “Innovation and inclusion are foundational to our music-making. Equity is key to the VSO and VSO School of Music’s thinking: repertoire selection, conductor selection, and composer selection.

“With the guidance of the VSO Indigenous Council, Indigenous content, guest artists, and composers are woven into our programming,” she continued. “We experienced this at our recent presentation of e Path Forward. We look forward to future co-creations with the VSO Indigenous Council and our creative partners within the Coast Salish Host Nations as we continue the VSO’s journey towards Truth and Reconciliation.” g

Singer-songwriter Sarah Slean will perform a tribute to Joni Mitchell. Photo by Myer Horowitz.

Creativity is at the core of all that we do.

– VSO president and CEO Angela Elster

Felix Landerer Everything will be ok Out Innerspace Strange Attractor Dorotea Saykaly RELIC

Queen Elizabeth Theatre | balletbc.com

PLATINUM SEASON SPONSOR HOTEL SPONSOR MEDIA SPONSORS

SUPPORT FOR BALLET BC HAS BEEN GENEROUSLY PROVIDED BY

DANCER JACOB WILLIAMS. PHOTO BY MARCUS ERIKSSON.

JOE INK

in partnership with SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs proudly presents the world premiere of

DANCE:CRAFT

MAY 20 TO 22

Performances + Exhibition 7pm 2022

SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre 149 West Hastings

Tickets: eventbrite.ca | Info: joeink.ca $30 Adults | $25 Students & Seniors + s/c

Performers: Heather Dotto & Joey Matt. Ceramic heads: Debra E Sloan. Photo: Michael Slobodian.

Become a Big Sister. Become a Study Buddy. Become a friend.

ARTS The Leonids explode onto the Vancouver choral scene

by Charlie Smith

There’s an unforgettable anecdote in one YouTube video of U.S. bass-baritone singer and composer Jonathan Woody. It came in conversation with Erick Lichte, artistic director of Vancouver’s Chor Leoni men’s choir and assembler of a new choral supergroup, the Leonids.

Woody—one of nine members of the Leonids—tells the story behind his impassioned and enthralling performance of composer George Frideric Handel’s “Why Do the Nations So Furiously Rage Together” with Kansas City’s Spire Chamber Ensemble in December 2016.

Earlier that day, someone in politics, whom Woody didn’t identify, had made a disgusting comment about then– rst lady Michelle Obama going back to Africa. is came as the Obamas were preparing to leave the White House.

“It kind of broke my heart, actually, particularly because they weren’t even going to be in power in a month,” Woody tells Lichte in the video. “You know, it was just like, why are we still attacking these folks?

“I don’t know—something personal just hit me that day,” the singer-composer continues. “I was really fortunate, actually, to have the opportunity to have the music to express myself.”

Woody’s singing of the Handel classic from Messiah is riveting. His voice ascends with tension, shakes with anger and pain, enunciating every word and exploding through the hall.

“It was cathartic for me,” he says. “ at was what I needed to do those days to get through those emotions.”

To stargazers, the Leonids are an annual meteor shower associated with Comet Tempel-Tuttle. Like their namesake, the Leonids choral group will return to Vancouver with a radiant and dynamic show every year.

“It was really a chance to bring together a lot of these people who are at the top of their game and put them together in a small ensemble,” Lichte tells the Straight by phone. e Leonids include soloists from some of North America’s most admired ensembles, such as bass singer Eric Alatorre, with the Grammy-winning Chanticleer ensemble. e group will perform with Chor Leoni twice at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church and once at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts from May 12 to 14.

Other members of the Leonids are bassbaritone Enrico Lagasca, baritone Sam Kreidenweis, and tenors Dann Coakwell, Andrew Fuchs, Jacob Perry, Steven Soph, and Steven Caldicott Wilson.

“ is program o ers Vancouverites the rare opportunity to hear one of the world’s greatest large male choirs [Chor Leoni] coupled with one of the world’s most distinguished small ensembles,” Lichte says.

He notes that their shows will focus on humankind’s relationship to the divine. is will be re ected in verses by Indian mystic poet Kabir, whose writings re ect Sikh and Hindu in uences. As well, performers will sing verses by Welsh mystic poet George Herbert and American Trappist monk omas Merton, among others.

“It’s some of the most exquisite, wild, and heartfelt music,” Lichte says. “You don’t always get that combination.” e Chor Leoni artistic director was determined to bring together singers with a sense of mission, artistic generosity, and educational experience. e goal was for them to share their expertise with younger singers at the two-day VanMan Choral Summit, culminating in the Leonids’ nal 2022 show at the Chan Centre.

“ e audience will hear something they’ve rarely heard in Vancouver,” Lichte says. “It’s going to be partly homegrown and partly exotic, coming in from other lands once a year.” g

Chor Leoni recruited singer Jonathan Woody into a supergroup. Photo by Sean Salomon.

It was really a chance to bring together…these people who are at the top of their game…

– Erick Lichte