Beautiful melodies will resound through some of the most elegant concert halls in Montreal this June. Talented artists from different parts of the world will meet on these grand stages to communicate with the universal language of music. The 28th Montreal Chamber Music Festival will connect young musicians with established performers and commemorate the careers of a few artists who are playing a farewell tune in Montreal. The festival also celebrates the dedication and imagination required to produce mesmerizing music.
Enjoy this look at the festival courtesy of Spotlight producer Paul Larson and festival founder Denis Brott.
The festival features the Emerson String Quartet from the USA in what may very well be their last performance in Montreal, as the group plans to disband.
Courtesy of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival
The events also include a tribute to jazz great Oliver Jones, featuring musicians who have played with the retired pianist, as well as those who collaborated with his mentor Oscar Peterson. Brott said he wanted to pay tribute to Oliver Jones and invite Mr. Jones to the celebration in his honor.
Courtesy of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival
To spark the imagination of the young and young at heart, the festival will include a family show featuring the enchanted pieces Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev and The Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. This event is free for people under 16.
More than 65 musicians will participate in the festival this year. They come from Asia, the United States, Quebec and other parts of Canada. Among them, 26 will appear for the first time at the Montreal Chamber Music Festival. The Montreal Chamber Music Festival begins June 4th and lasts until June 18th.
The venues include the Maison Symphonique at Place des Arts, and the Salle Bourgie at the Musee des Beaux Arts. For more information about performers, tickets, online events, and free concerts, head to festivalmontreal.org.
Good Bye Emerson Quartet
Eugene Drucker, violinist and founding member of the Emerson String Quartet, looks forward to the June 6th concert.“I have known Denis Brott for half a century, since we met at the Marlboro Festival. I went on a Music from Marlboro tour with Denis in 1975, during which we had the privilege of performing a Haydn trio with the legendary pianist Mieczysław Horszowski. Over the years we have periodically reconnected, most significantly at the Festival de Musique de Chambre de Montréal, which Denis founded in the 1990s. I know how hard he has worked to make this festival one of the major cultural attractions of his city; under his visionary leadership, the festival has expanded its scope in many directions. My wife (cellist Roberta Cooper) and I participated several times in the 1990s, and some years later, the Emerson String Quartet was finally able to accept Denis’s invitation to appear. Since then, we’ve played there several times, and this will be our second collaboration with him in the Schubert Quintet since Paul Watkins joined the ESQ in 2013. (We had previously played the Quintet with Denis at the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club — I believe it was in 1993 or ‘94— with Paul’s illustrious predecessor, David Finckel.) We look forward to joining forces again with a wonderful musician in Schubert’s masterpiece.
Denis has also asked us to collaborate with the rising Canadian star Jan Lisiecki in the Dvorak Piano Quintet. Our final appearance in Montreal should be a joyous and memorable occasion.”
Hear the Schubert Quintet in C Major with two cellos and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in the Salle Bourgie at the MBAM, June 6 at 7:30pm.
Spotlight is made possible, in part, by the Glenn and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation, dedicated to improving the quality of life for year-round residents of the Adirondack Park. Spotlight is also supported by Hill and Hollow Music.