Listen Up! The ESO Announces its 2013-14 Season

Photo Credit: Michael Woolley

Edmontonians are fortunate to have a resident symphony striving to bring innovative programming as well as provide musical favorites to create a diverse season. The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) has done exactly that with their 2013-14 season. Whether you're craving the Classical masters with season-selling names such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms or the nostalgic classics of Gershwin and Bernstein, the ESO's roster of artists and programming will be sure to satiate.  

Some of my Season Highlights:

Symphony Under the Sky (August 30 – September 2, 2013)

Ray Charles, Motown, BBC Proms, Mozart, Tchaikovsky & Dvořák. This labour day weekend in Hawrelak Park is like a compressed sampling of the ESO's season. It has become an annual Edmonton festival tradition to set up a lawn chair, cozy under a blanket with popcorn, and greet the Fall season as the ESO plays into the evening.  

See and Be Seen

Mad Men (Apr 25 & 26, 2014)

A Mad Men themed Symphony party? I can already imagine the amazing fashions audience members will be wearing as Broadway singer, Ryan Silverman, performs Top 40 hits from the early 60’s.

Late Night with Bill Eddins

Join the chill Arts crowd at ESO's Late Night series. All concerts begin at 9:30 PM and all tickets are priced at $29. That means ample time for dinner before heading to the Winspear Centre for some music. Ravel's French Impressionism and Leonard Bernstein's works will be the music showcased at each of these evenings. The vibe will be laid-back as drinks and live entertainment follow the show in the Winspear Lobby.  

New Media

Music of the Night Sky (Oct 26, 2013)

Images from Space + Intergalactic symphonic music = Beam me up!


Mark of Zorro (May 15, 2014)

Following suite with the successful performance of the classic Phantom of the Opera this season, a live cinema stream of the Mark of Zorro will be accompanied by the ESO and Dennis James on the Davis Concert Organ next year.  


Spread the Choral Love

Kokopelli + Òran (Choral Spectacular), Richard Eaton Singers (Messiah), Cantilon Chamber Choir (A Lightly Classical Christmas), Greenwood Singers (We Wish You a Merry Christmas) - are just a few of the names highlighting local choral talent in ESO's season.  

The ESO Hosts... 

 Chantal Kreviazuk (December 10, 2013)

Christmas at the Winspear is always festive and this December they have Canadian singer-songwriter, Chantal Kreviazuk, to serenade local audiences with her tunes in additional to holiday favorites.

Joshua Bell (September, 24, 2013)

Violinist, Joshua Bell, will join the ESO to perform Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto at their annual Gala concert. Bell has been hailed for his "breathtaking virtuosity, tone of sheer beauty and charismatic stage presence," however, the story of his violin, a Gibson Strad, has an equally famous history. His Strad has a history of being stolen from a backstage dressing room at Carnegie Hall, concealed with shoe polish for 50 years, and eventually being sold for $4 million to Bell. Bell sold his own violin for $2 million (which he played in the Oscar-winning soundtrack of the Red Violin) to go towards the Gibson Strad's $4 million price tag. The Strad's illustrious history is worth a read.



The ESO has ticket packages available including a 2-for-1 subscriber special, or if you value flexibility, sampler passes where you can purchase voucher packages for concerts. If you're between 18-29, you can join the Pulse8 Club for free and you can purchase advance tickets to shows for only $20. Depending on availability, rush tickets will also be available one hour prior to showtime. Take some time to explore the rest of the musical offerings the ESO has this season. It is well worth a look. -miss. sable

Diction Diction Diction

Greetings readers!

I've been busy with consecutive rehearsals and concerts lately so it's been hard to keep up. I suppose the first concert I should mention is the one that wrapped up last weekend with Pro Coro's Founder Concert. We achieved some really nice musical moments during some of the bigger pieces like Josquin's "Ave Maria", the rich-sounding Mendelsson pieces, and Shank's "Musica Animam Tangens". I feel like these are the pieces that Pro Coro should be singing all the time if we want to build up our full-voice body. Pieces with epic sound. Marc Michel Gervais by the end of our rehearsal period, after his initial verbose disgust at our tendency to sing at half voice, said that Pro Coro has a lot of potential and to think of where their next 30 years are going to go. Also, that Pro Coro needs to increase the choir by at least 10 singers to expand the realm of available repertoire.

Nystedt's "Immortal Bach" was our encore piece. I found it very self-indulgent to sing. It begins with a simple Bach chant and then the voice parts begin to deconstruct upon the second repetition, singing at their own pace, and by the third repetition each chorister gets to choose when to change notes. It was lovely since you can bask in the vocal dissonances for 10-15 beats if you'd like before moving notes. Also, there's an magical acoustic lock when everybody eventually settles on the same end vowel. The acoustic ambiance was also aided by the fact that we all stood in the balconies of the church and enveloped the audience in sound.



After Pro Coro's concert it was time to start a new rehearsal cycle for Durufle's "Requiem" with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Da Camera Singers. The big thing to remember from conductor Bill Eddins was "diction, diction, diction". Fair enough, diction is the acoustic cut the choir needed to use to be heard over the symphony but I felt like our musical sensitivity and phrasing was being lost. There is still a way to give those elements and provide crisp diction, however, I felt like the emphasis on diction prompted some choristers to oversing and be reduced to jolting entities that projected staccato word segments. From what I heard from reports from the audience, they were able to hear us quite well. My main fear-inducing moments during the performance were mostly for the men's parts. It took a while for the tenors and basses to consolidate and I still felt they were unsettled by the days of the performance. The soprano section was absolutely gorgeous. I always looked forward to their beginning solo line at the start of "In Paradisum". They had a soaring and gentle beauty to their sound which suited the transcendental line. The alto section I was a part of felt pretty solid too. It's hard to hear what we sounded like as a group, since all I could hear were the individual voices around me, but hopefully a cohesive blend resulted. There were gorgeous orchestra moments in the Durufle as well. I always loved hearing the lilting melodic bassoon line at the beginning of the "Lux Aeterna" movement.

On the Friday performance I could see that our clean cut-offs and diction was good enough for Eddins to give us a smile at two points during the piece, which I didn't see repeated for the Saturday performance. However, he lingered on the ending during Saturday night's performance when he refrained from putting his baton down at least for a good 10 seconds. A sign that he wanted to hold onto the musical magic in the air? I definitely had moments of "Man, I'm so lucky to sing with the ESO on stage at the Winspear!" during the two nights. I'm glad I signed up to sing the Durufle. It's another beautiful piece to add to the choral repertoire I've learned.

As I move into the next phase of my choral projects Pro Coro's St. John's Passion and Belle Canto's music festival preparation begins. Should be a busy few months!

Until next time, take care!

Sparkling Classics

I am so thankful the weather held up this evening. The whole afternoon was rainy but I am glad that Symphony Under the Sky could go ahead as planned this evening. The grass was slick but refreshing and all my lawn chair neighbors were lovely and excellent company as we tucked into our blankets for warmth throughout the performance.

Delightful and pleasing Classical pieces were on the program as well as some vivacious Gershwin. The first piece was O Canada and I always enjoy how a musical audience is never afraid to step up and sing the national anthem when prompted.

A Night on the Bare Mountain by Mussorgsky was next and it was extremely entertaining to listen to. There was so much flare to the performance and it just sounded like the string players had such a colorful swagger as they were playing. There was just a vibrant quality to the whole performance which made me excited for the whole weekend and the other musical offerings I would be treated to in the next few days. The brass section was also excellent with their commanding and sparkling sound. It was also very fitting at the end of the piece, when there were echoing chimes and quiet soaring melodies to mimic the entrance of dawn, the sun also was finally emerging after the afternoon storm.

Following Mussorgsky was Mendelssohn's Italian Opera. It was delightful and my Mom was excited to hear something she recognized. By far my favorite movement was the second one, the Andante con moto, since I really enjoyed the interplay of sound between the strings and the brass. It just felt like they were engaged in a very relaxing but enjoyable dance with one another.

Of course, watching William Eddins play Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F was the highlight of the evening. Eddins naturally radiates infectious energy and this is extends to his playing. He plays with power, but with great flexibility, and it just looks like his torso is just another bodily attachment as his fingers have a life of their own. The music would send shockwaves through his body as he was just another expressive vessel for the great entity that is music. He just has so much potential energy that the kinetic explosion of stored energy fuels his power and electric stamina throughout the piece. It was mesmerizing to watch his fingers and arms move faster than my eyes could follow. His arms and hands just turned into a blur of motion. Pretty good for a man who had just finished traveling from Capetown South Africa!

Overall, I had a fantastic evening outside. Sure, the weather was a bit chill but I was bundled up and listening to some fantastic music. Sometimes when music is that good you just forget where you are and the weather doesn't feel so cold after all.