Calgary's ChamberFest West, to 'resonate' all through the town once more

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How do you comply with up on the Huge Bang?

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Huge Bang was the appropriately grand and dramatic title of the inaugural ChamberFest West final July, which had violinist Diana Cohen and pianist Roman Rabinovich collect musicians from 9 international locations to carry out all through the town as a part of Calgary’s first chamber music competition.

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This yr, the unifying theme is Resonance. It’s maybe a bit extra delicate however nonetheless manages to seize an eclectic program of music that spans time and generations and options a number of tones and genres.

“We’re exploring all types of the way through which resonance is current in music: Traditionally, how one composer resonates with these of the previous,” Cohen says. “We’re exploring it from all totally different angles, and it makes a pleasant solution to pull all of the music collectively in a package deal.”

The competition runs from July 19 to 23 and options 22 musicians from across the globe and a program that gives every thing from Beethoven, Ravel and Mendelssohn to Canadian composer Dinuk Wijeratne’s Two Pop Songs on Vintage Poems and a brand new music cycle by American Michael Stephen Brown, which was impressed by Schumann and devoted to and carried out by soprano Susanna Phillips.

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“We do a spread of music, from Renaissance to music written yesterday,” Cohen says. “Any of that may be chamber music so long as there isn’t any conductor. The musicians we usher in are so compelling and every of them has such a singular voice. A lot of them are multi-faceted; some are artists, some are composers in addition to being simply wonderful gamers. I feel the viewers actually picked up on this high-intensity, high-level music-making and likewise the bond between the musicians and the bond between the musicians and the viewers. The vitality is de facto distinctive on this setting.”

The venues this yr embody the Bella Live performance Corridor, which is the place Resonance will open on July 19 with Blue Gown. That program options 12 musicians, together with Cohen, Rabinovich, Brown, Phillips, Cohen’s father Franklin Cohen on clarinet, South Korean violinist Hojean Yoo, amongst others, performing works by Schubert, Julia Wolfe, Brahms and Chausson.

It should additionally finish on the Bella Live performance Corridor on July 23 with If Music Be the Meals of Love, which is able to function items by Mozart, Schumann and Brown’s music cycle, “Loves Lives Misplaced.”

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Different performances will happen within the atrium within the Bow Tower in downtown Calgary, Studio Bell on the Nationwide Music Centre and the Jack Singer Live performance Corridor Stage.

The roster of musicians come from around the globe whereas many have connections to the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the place Cohen has been concertmaster since 2012.

“It’s form of a small group on the very high of the classical music world,” says Cohen. “A number of them are mates, have performed with one another earlier than. However none of them play with one another every day. This specific group might be coming collectively for the primary time. That’s one of many stunning issues about this setup; you’ve got so many desirable personalities. A few of whom know one another, a few of whom don’t. New friendships are made, actually shut bonds are made by means of music.”

ChamberFest West was impressed by ChamberFest Cleveland, which Cohen and her father Franklin, who’s principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra, based in 2012. However the true seeds of the competition had been planted in the summertime of 2020, when Cohen and Rabinovich started holding weekly concert events of their entrance yard through the pandemic, attracting lots of of individuals to their Crescent Heights dwelling.

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Final yr’s ChamberFest West attracted sold-out audiences, displaying there was a starvation for chamber music to be offered in intimate settings. Two concert events this yr – Emotional Echos at The Bow Tower on July 20 and Loops, the place each the musicians and viewers might be on the stage on the Jack Singer Live performance Corridor – are already bought out.

On Saturday, ChamberFest West will current its first free group live performance on the Crescent Heights Group Centre at 7 p.m., which Cohen says is an homage of kinds to the backyard concert events the couple held through the pandemic. It should function Cohen, Rabinovich and Jonathan and Nicholas Swensen.

“Roman and I initially felt like we had been creating a group throughout COVID once we had been taking part in out of doors concert events,” Cohen says. “Due to that, we thought this was a very nice solution to construct for the competition as nicely, to have one thing that’s accessible, that’s free, that’s in the neighborhood. Hopefully, we’re constructing some very nice bridges into communities. I’ve felt my complete life, however much more strongly now, that chamber music, when carried out like this, with such intense vivid color by people who find themselves absolute masters, is so accessible. Individuals simply get it immediately.”

ChamberFest West: Resonance will happen July 19 to 23 at varied venues. Go to chamberfestwest.com. The group live performance might be held Saturday, July 15, on the Crescent Heights Group Centre at 7 p.m.

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