Meet "St. Lawrence String Quartet"

In my third and last part talking about the New Creations Festival concert I attended last Friday, I'm delighted to write about St. Lawrence String Quartet who played with the  Toronto  Symphony Orchestra, the 3rd part of the concert, conducted by the great Composer, Conductor and Creative Thinker John Adams, who appeared with the world’s major orchestras in programmes combining his own works with a wide variety of repertoire ranging from Beethoven and Mozart to Ives, Carter, Zappa, Glass, and Ellington.
Adams presented a Canadian Premiere, "Absolute Jest" for String Quartet and Orchestra.

Here is the background of the  St Laurence String Quartet:
Geoff Nuttall, violin
Mark Fewer, violin
Lesley Robertson, viola
Christopher Costanza, cello

Established in 1989, the St. Lawrence String Quartet has developed an undisputed reputation as a truly world class chamber ensemble. The quartet performs over 120 concerts annually worldwide and calls Stanford University home, where the group is Ensemble in Residence.

Lesley Robertson and Geoff Nuttall are founding members of the group, and hail from Edmonton, Alberta, and London, Ontario, respectively. Christopher Costanza is from Utica, NY, and joined the group in 2003. Mark Fewer, a native of Newfoundland, begins his first season with the quartet in 2014, succeeding violinist Scott St. John. All four members of the quartet live and teach at Stanford, in the Bay Area of California.

The harmony between the four of them was remarkable, and their performance was outstanding leaving the audience in awe and asking for more.. And the combination between the Quartet, the Orchestra and Adams's energy in conducting made it an unforgettable night and the least they deserved a stand ovation with lots of applause that kept running for more than 10 min.

I hope I'll get to see the Quartet playing again, get to know great Canadian Artists and embrace more the wonderful local culture.

St. lawrence String Quartet - Scherzo

Meet "Brian Current"

I got a message from my friend David, asking me if I'm interested to attend a Classical Music Concert presented by Toronto Symphony Orchestra, part of the New Creations Festival at the Roy Thomson Hall. Without any hesitation I accepted his invitation and got super excited to see the Orchestra playing in this wonderful venue.
It was the closing night of the Festival, and 3 conductors were on the program of that night.
Peter Oundjian, the internationally sought-after Music Director and Conductor and the host of the night, introduced the first composer: Brian Current.
Brian was born in London, Ontario, in 1972.. He composed in 2013 three pieces for Orchestra.
And from Brian's notes about these pieces:
Like many composers, I like to put up drawings around the piano while working. These are just an impulse at the time, but when unpacked later, I am surprised at how clearly they articulate the central idea of the music. One little sketch, a single line under a cloud of densely tangled lines, ended up describing much of Earth So Much Like Heaven, Heaven So Much Like Earth. In the music, the two layers are always present and are always inseparable. I’m not really a religious person, but the relationship between these two layers has increasingly become a metaphor to me for heaven and earth. The string orchestra plays the lower, simple line, and a group of instruments (percussion, harp, piano, solo violins and flutes) play the upper texture. In many of these patterns I am trying to create music that is very active and very calm at the same time, like water or like sunlight.

The title of the second piece, Without Grace The Universe Is Just An Explosion, is from a text by the Canadian poet Christian Bök. This title seemed appropriate as it described the music I wanted to write—a piece about violence and beauty—and also spoke to why we might need music and symphony orchestras in the first place. Overlapping gestures fade in and out throughout the piece, and many sounds are inspired by electronic effects.

The final piece is called Motion Is The Default State. This sentence was another impulse taped to the piano when trying to describe the music in early stages. The first half is about assigning separate overtones to different instruments to create huge, pulsating blocks of colour. These get progressively bigger until we explode out into a middle section inspired by the fist-pounding energy of rock music. The final section features enormous, pin-wheeling arcs of colour, which grow and overlap with one another into a celebratory finish.

The 18 minutes passed like a dream, and the music left me in awe.. hypnotized me and totally captivated all my senses.
I'll be definitively looking for more magical music from Brian and was so happy to discover this great Canadian talent.

To know more about Brian, check http://briancurrent.squarespace.com/about/

Brian Current talking about the Three Pieces for Orchestra..

Meet "Paloma & Nancy"

As I mentioned in my previous two posts, I got my ticket for Ane Brun concert at the last minute and I didn't mind going alone, so when I reached the venue, I picked an empty table, had a glass of wine and took a seat, but had 3 empty seats on the same table, and a bit before the concert two ladies asked me if they can share the table with me..and "of course" was my answer..

They got a bottle of wine and they insisted on me sharing a drink with them.. We tried to have a quick chat before the concert started, and we kept talking a bit between the songs..

Paloma lives in Montreal, and Nancy lives in Ottawa, they both work for the police, this is how they met and became close friends.. And Nancy was visiting Paloma and they decided to attend the concert..

Paloma and Nancy were extremely friendly, I felt as if I knew them for quite some time and they definitely made me enjoy even more the concert without feeling odd of being alone, and it was much nicer to share with them our enjoyment with the wonderful performance of Linnea Olsson and Ane Brun.

Meet "Linnea Olsson"

I shared yesterday in my post "Meet Ane Brun" how I booked my ticket for her concert at Salle L'Astral and how excited I was to attend that concert..

And while waiting for Ane to go on stage, a beautiful women wearing black, holding a cello came on stage, and started playing.. It was like magic.. And then she introduced herself.. Linnea Olsson, a Swedish Cellist.. it was the first time I heard of her..

She continued playing her music and started singing.. My God.. She had a very charming voice.. You can't get enough of it.. And I was so happy when she mentioned that we can get her first album "Ah" at the door.. Which I did.. The entire album is composed of only Olsson’s velvet, gravityless vocals and her cello.

After few songs, she left the stage for Ane, but then joined her again playing the cello and contributing with vocals.. They made a fantastic duo on stage

I was so happy discovering a new artist, a real talent, which I became a fan and we'll be definitely looking forward for more of her.. More songs, more cello music, and more outstanding performance.

Meet "Ane Brun"

Last year, My dear friend Michael downloaded for me three CDs for Ane Brun, and strongly recommended that I listen to her songs and her great voice.. It was the first time I hear of her, and I was so pleased with this discovery as I really fell in love with her amazing voice and her music.. And I started following her on Facebook to know know her updates and her latest releases..

Ane Brun is a Norwegian international songwriter, guitarist and vocalist. Since 2003 she has recorded eight albums, six of which are studio albums and one live DVD. She has lived in Stockholm, Sweden since 2001, where she writes, records and runs her own label (Balloon Ranger Recordings) when not on tour.

And couple of weeks ago I discovered she's coming to Canada in a tour and three concerts between Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, and that weekend I was supposed to be in Montreal, so I looked for tickets but didn't book one waiting for my friend to confirm if he will join.. Then I kept postponing and the night I arrived to Montreal first thing I did is calling TicketMaster to check if there is any tickets left so they informed me that I have to call the venue as I'm calling super late..

I called L'Astral, where the concert is taking place, and I was so happy to know that there is 4 tickets left so I urged them to keep one for me as they don't take payment through the phone and I rushed to get mine..

By mistake I took the west side of Saint Catherine street where I had to go east, and when I realized I'm heading in the wrong direction I started running like a crazy in super cold Montreal until I reached the venue and got my ticket (huge smile)..

My mobile battery was dying, and I thought I need to take some picture of the concert, I had an hour left before the concert so I rushed to the hotel where I plugged it on the charger for 20 min and ran back to Salle L'Astral..

The venue wasn't huge but the ambiance was really warm and cosy, had a glass of wine waiting for Ane to come on stage..
I was alone but I was feeling so happy.. Listening to her wonderful voice knowing all the songs and enjoying her pleasant character..
I didn't want the concert to end -the whole audience didn't want it to end- and make her go on stage again for another round of 4 songs..

I will not talk much about her golden voice.. Her songs and let you enjoy few links..
After this concert I became a bigger fan of Ane, and her songs are my friends making my moments more enjoyable every time I listen to them.

Ane brun "One"

Ane brun "Do you remember"

Meet "Olga"

So after meeting my new friend Merwad for couple of times, she asked me if I’m interested to join her with a group of friends to a concert at Roy Thomson Hall where The Classic Albums Live will be performing Abbey Road – The Beatles, so without hesitation I told her I’m in.. and we agreed to meet 30 minutes before the concert.

I was excited like a kid, as I really liked the architecture of the building, and I was always curious to see how it looks from inside of course on top of my anticipation for the concert and to meet new people..

so I met them at the entrance of the hall, I arrived 10 minutes earlier, Merwad was already there with her friend Olga, and she introduced us.

Olga moved to Toronto around three years ago, she used to live in the UAE too so we had a starting point for our conversation, and she works in the medical equipment field, so we started discussing the health care system and the equipment of different medical centers and comparing it with the UAE and Lebanon, and of course she gave me couple of insights and tips from her experience the last three years..

It seems Olga is a big fan of singing, and she’s taking vocal classes, so I hope we’ll be able to hear her singing one day soon..

The concert was great, even though we felt quiet old (maybe the average age group was 50 at the concert) after all it’s the Beatles songs but we enjoyed every minute of it, and the performance of Classic Album live was fantastic..

After the concert, we went for dinner and drinks, where I had the chance to meet more friends which I will introduce in my coming posts.

Cheers.