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
The Edmonton Chamber Music Society once again brings together some of North America’s finest musicians in its third annual Summer Solstice Festival.
New to the Festival this year are acclaimed clarinetist James Campbell, the multi-talented American pianist Melvin Chen, violinist Jonathan Crow, whose impressive career includes his appointment, at 25, as Concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, cellist Matt Haimovitz, a major award-winning soloist and musical innovator, Edmonton’s own Tanya Prochazka, teacher and conductor as well as distinguished cellist, and violinist/violist Scott St. John of the renowned St. Lawrence String Quartet.
The three thematically linked 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’ The 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.