About the Summer Solstice Festival
The absence of a summer chamber music festival in Edmonton was a question raised by Dr. Patricia Tao when she joined the ECMS executive in 2004.
A pianist and dedicated chamber musician, she had participated in many such festivals in Europe and North America and thought Edmonton, with its well-established chamber music audience and enthusiasm for summer festivals, would welcome a new entry onto the cultural scene. The ECMS supported her vision and in June 2008 presented the first annual Summer Solstice Festival.
Patricia Tao undertook the role of Music Director as well as performer. Organizer of the Hear’s to Your Health concert series at the Walter Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre, she drew upon her experience as a music programmer to create thematically linked but stylistically varied programs.
2010 Festival
In its third annual chamber music festival, the Edmonton Chamber Music Society once again brings together some of North America’s finest musicians.
New to the Festival this year are acclaimed clarinetist James Campbell, the amazing young American pianist Melvin Chen, two vigorous champions of contemporary music, violinist Jonathan Crow and cellist Matt Haimovitz, Edmonton’s own Tanya Prochazka, one of Canada’s leading cellists, and violinist/violist Scott St. John of the renowned St. Lawrence String Quartet. They join past Festival musicians, violinist Jasmine Lin, violist Sharon Wei, cellist Marina Hoover and pianist Patricia Tao.
The three concert programs offer a consummate blend of familiar works and new discoveries. Friday’s concert, Stories and Legends, includes several works inspired by gothic fables and folk tales — Janáček’s Pohádka, the Suite from Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du soldat, Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre and Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
Jazz Inflections, on Saturday, explores the rhythms and moods of jazz and the legacy of African-American musical expression. William Bolcom’s popular Graceful Ghost Rag, the blues infused movement from Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, and Allan Gilliland’s Suite from the Sound, with its nod to composer/arranger Gil Evans, are among works that map the reach and enduring influence of jazz.
The Festival concludes on Sunday with Summer Passion, a program of three works notable for their beauty and emotional depth – Beethoven’s Trio in B-flat Major, for clarinet, cello and piano, Samuel Barber’s String Quartet no. 1, with its beloved “Adagio” movement, and Brahms’ lyrical Piano Quartet no. 2 in A Major.
« back to Summer Solstice 2010
View videos of two of 2008 Festival's performances:
| Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) |
Trio pour piano, violin et violoncello
JACQUES DESPRÉS Piano |
| Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) |
String Trio in C minor, Op. 9, No. 3
LIVIA SOHN Violin |