Come hear some of the finest players in the US play "Chamber Music in Any Chamber"!

The Chiara String Trio / and pianist Soyeon Lee - February 24, 2009 8pm at The Cellar 3611 West Broadway, Vancouver, BC.

Program:

Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478
Dohnanyi Serenade in C major for String Trio, Op 10
Schumann Piano Quartet in E flat, Op. 47

Playing "Chamber Music in Any Chamber," the Chiara String Quartet (Rebecca Fischer, Julie Yoon violin; Jonah Sirota, viola; Gregory Beaver, cello) reaches from the concert hall into clubs, bars and galleries, expanding the places to hear live classical music while returning chamber music to its roots in intimate spaces.

Described by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as "vastly talented, vastly resourceful, and vastly committed to the music of their time," the Chiara is also continually finding new meaning within pieces from the well-established quartet canon.

Their style is best described as a nonstop journey to the edge of expressive possibility: "luminous," "searing," (New York Times) "soulful," "biting," and possessing a "potent collective force" (Strings Magazine).

Lauded by the Washington Post for her "stunning command of the keyboard," Korean pianist Soyeon Lee's deeply communicative and passionate performances garner acclaim from audiences and critics alike around the world.

Her many distinctions include awards at the Concert Artists Guild, Cleveland and Paloma O'Shea Santander International Competitions and profiles in both Musical America and Symphony Magazine.

"...pianist Soyeon Lee displayed a stunning command of the keyboard, from the beautifully gauged weighting of her finger strokes to the scrupulous calibration of inner voices and dynamics " - The Washington Post

"...huge, richly varied sound, a lively imagination and a firm sense of style." - New York Times

"...the piece (Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12, K. 414) did feel more than ever like a conversation between the pianist and the grouped musicians. This allowed Lee to bloom, which she did with a widely varied palette of color and touch but, most of all, an unerring and lively sense of the signing line." - Orange County Register

Soyeon Lee Official Website

Chiara String Quartet Official Website
Chiara String Quartet MySpace

Mike Oldfield has always been famed for his unconventional approach to music. Throughout his career he has consistently broken musical boundaries, and with 'Music of the Spheres' he continues to do so.

Taking influences from Holst and Rachmaninov as much as Steve Reich or William Orbit, this piece is classical in nature, but yet is also immediately identifiable as classic Mike Oldfield.

Using a full concert orchestra and choir, and with solo parts from Mike himself on guitar, legendary soprano Hayley Westenra and renowned pianist Lang Lang, this is a work with huge emotional and musical scope. And whilst the piece was entirely conceived, produced and written by Mike, in order to translate his ideas into traditional classical notation arranged for musicians to play, he turned to popular modern classical composer Karl Jenkins.

The title of the piece is a reference to something that Mike feels strongly: that all music should aim to represent the spriritual, or otherworldly elements of life: something beyond the mundane and everyday.

In this he has clearly succeeded. 'Music of the Spheres' is by turns epic, tender, mournful and triumphant. It is the work of a composer who above all can make beautiful and substantial music, regardless of genre or instrumentation.

"A 'Planets' for the 21st century" - Classic FM

'Music of the Spheres' is released in the UK March 17th, 2008.

Tracklisting:

1. Harbinger
2. Animus
3. Silhouette
4. Shabda
5. The Tempest
6. Harbinger Reprise
7. On My Heart (feat. Hayley Westenra)
8. Aurora
9. Prophecy
10. On My Heart Reprise (feat. Hayley Westenra)
11. Harmonia Mundi
12. The Other Side
13. Empyrean
14. Musica Universalis

Music Of The Spheres on amazon.co.uk

Mike Oldfield Official Website

I just watched a funny interview on the BBC news. Classical violinist David Garrett must have a pretty good PR person working for him, because I think this was the first time that I've seen a musician play in the studio, on the news. Plus - I hadn't heard of him until today, and the the story that got him there was that he fell down a flight of stairs onto his priceless Stradivarius violin, that actually cost him $1,000,000, and now the repair bill will be for around £60,000.

He was also able to get a plug in for his upcoming album, 'Virtuoso', which is released in March, and that he's currently on tour. Pretty clever stuff - all because of his fall, a cracked Stradivarious and of course, the fact that he's an incredible performer. I'm sure he'll gain many new fans from this, including me.

The BBC interview was funny because the female news reader was all in a tither as David played his violin, and the other news reader, a man, was making fun of her. She had noted Garrett was once a model (to supplement his student income) and that people call him the David Beckham of the violin...which is a bit silly. He is very nice looking though - and he plays a great violin! The violin that he was playing in the studio was another Stradivarius that was brought over from Milan so that he can continue his tour. Hopefully he'll keep that one intact.

David Garrett has been playing the violin since a very young age, and was known as a child prodigy.

His new album, 'Virtuoso' is set for release March 2008.

'Virtuoso' track listings:

1. La Califfa
2. Carmen Fantasie
3. Nothing Else Matters
4. Csardas - Gypsy Dance
5. Duelling Banjos
6. Pachelbel's Canon
7. Paganini Rhapsody
8. Somewhere (West Side Story)
9. The Flight of the Bumble Bee
10. Serenade
11. Toccata
12. You Raise Me Up
13. Eliza's Song

David Garrett - Virtuoso on amazon.co.uk

David Garrett on amazon.com

For more information, go to:

David Garrett Official Website

By: Jenny May - BandWeblogs.com

Every now and then when listening to classical music, I wonder if I might have been better off had I continued with the clarinet? I was pretty good in school - and the way the music industry is going, playing classical music seems like it would have been a decent choice.

Maybe with my recent birthday, one year older and all that jazz, classical music has been appealing more and more to me. I've been spending quite a bit of time listening to Play Classical UK, and that station and has been turning me on to so many brilliant classical pieces.

Antonin Dvorak's "Silent Woods 'Klid' (Waldesruhe)" came on last night and it simply blew me away. I quickly looked it up on Google and have found a video on YouTube of Yo-Yo Ma playing "Silent Woods" on his cello. I really hope that the video stays up there. The more people that can see and hear such magnificence the better.

Yo-Yo Ma's performance is beautiful, but it's the last note that sends chills down my spine. If you watch the video you have to see Yo-Yo Ma's expression at the end. It's almost as though he wakes up from a trance. So much passion.

Watch video Yo-Yo Ma - "Silent Woods" (A. Dvorak):

The Dvorak Album (Yo-Yo Ma) on amazon.com

Antonin Dvorak on Wikipedia

Yo-Yo Ma Official Website

By: Jenny May - BandWeblogs.com