Click here for Press Kit  (photos, biographies, VAM logo file, downloadable press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2018

Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra (VAMSO) presents

Carnival of the Animals

VAMSO presents Saint-Saëns’ grand zoological fantasy with
the reveries of Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun

 Vancouver, BC – The Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra  (VAMSO) presents Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals, May 6, 2018, 2pm at the Orpheum Theatre. Under the baton of Kathleen Allan, VAMSO will delve into this sonic expedition of wildlife in addition to Debussy’s hypnagogic Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and works by Gabriel Fauré and Francis Poulenc.

“Saint-Saëns never envisioned Carnival of the Animals as suitable for public performance due to its frivolous nature; during his lifetime performances were largely limited to private settings” says Joseph Elworthy, Executive Director of the Vancouver Academy of Music. “The public premiere took place not long after the composer’s death and quickly became one of his most popular works. Beneath the whimsy lies an abundance of educational value; with instruments imitating the familiar sounds of animals, this piece is often used as a lighthearted but inventive introduction to the orchestra.” Saint-Saëns’ cavalcade of comical creatures ignites the imagination through evoking a variety of images including the march of regal lions, an elegant swan gliding on water, long-eared ‘characters’ (rumoured to depict the braying of music critics), and a chorus line of tortoises high kicking in slow motion accompanied by a rumbling adaptation of Offenbach’s Infernal Galop.

Spotlighting the dreamlike side of the French flair for musical imagery, VAMSO pairs Carnival of the Animals with Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. This orchestral reverie, inspired by the work of iconic symbolist poet Stephane Mallarmé, paints a tableau of a faun enchanted by nymphs on a warm sunny afternoon, drifting lazily in and out of sleep. The free and improvisatory style of Debussy’s writing in this piece not only evokes the carefree frolic of nature in vivid colours but also defied musical standards; Prelude was such a monumental piece of its time that famed composer and conductor Pierre Boulez once remarked that “the flute of the faun brought new breath to the art of music”.

Members of VAM’s Mary Buckerfield White Choral Program join VAMSO on stage for Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane and Cantique de Jean Racine, the latter of which won first prize in a composition competition held at École Niedermeyer, where Fauré  received training from Saint-Saëns. Kathleen Allan, who serves a dual leadership role at VAM as Associate Conductor of VAMSO and Director of Choral Studies, brings together VAM’s four choirs of nearly 100 singers combined for the afternoon’s choral-orchestral selections. Completing the concert program will be Poulenc’s Concert champêtre, or “Pastoral Concerto”, featuring harpsichordist Christina Hutten.

About Vancouver Academy of Music (vam.ca):
Founded in 1969, the Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM) is a non-profit institution that has been spreading a love of learning and musical excellence for generations of aspiring musicians. Located minutes away from downtown, VAM’s spacious facility features teaching studios, expansive classrooms, a library, and two recital halls – all set against the scenic backdrop of Vanier Park.

VAM’s fundamental purpose is to explore the transformative power of music through fostering an inclusive learning environment led by a team of devoted faculty with strong professional backgrounds. From Early Childhood Education to adult learning, VAM delivers world-class music education to students of all ages and abilities.

In addition to private lessons and class instruction, VAM students engage with world-renowned visiting artists in master classes, cooperate with other national and international music education organizations, and participate in numerous performances and competitions. VAM’s Orchestral Training Program is home to four levels of orchestra, which culminates in the Orpheum Series – four concerts that spotlight the VAM Symphony Orchestra in one of Vancouver’s most iconic cultural venues, the Orpheum Theatre.

VAM Symphony Orchestra: Carnival of the Animals

When: Sunday, May 6, 2018 at 2pm
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 601 Smithe St
Tickets: $15 Adults, $10 Students & Seniors, available at vamso.ca
Website: vamso.ca
_____________________________________________________________________________

For further media information, contact
Daniel Marshall, Marketing & Communications Manager
[email protected]  |  604.734.2301

VAM’s Orchestral Program is supported by RBC Foundation and the R & J  Stern Family Foundation

Click here for Press Kit  (photos, biographies, VAM logo file, downloadable press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2018

 Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra presents

Brahms’ Symphony No. 1

VAMSO pairs Brahms’ tempestuous symphony with
stereophonic world premiere co-written by Vancouver-based duo

 Vancouver, BC – The Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra  (VAMSO) presents Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, February 18, 2018, 2pm at the Orpheum Theatre. Under the baton of Music Director Leslie Dala, VAMSO will delve into this colossal orchestral masterwork in addition to Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor and electronic-infused music bridging the classical and popular worlds in a premiere by Jonathan Chan and Jan Bislin.

“Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony left such a powerful wake behind that Brahms once famously declared that he would never finish his own contribution to the genre, wary of the symphonic giant that preceded him” says Joseph Elworthy, Executive Director of the Vancouver Academy of Music. “After taking more than two decades to complete, Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 eventually emerged as a formidable monument in the orchestral canon that rose to meet the looming shadow of Beethoven.”

Brahms initially began work on his first symphony at the age of 22, yet after completing three movements the effort was abandoned; the work-in-progress instead manifested as parts of his first piano concerto and German Requiem. The completed symphony premiered in 1876, more than two decades after Brahms’ first attempts, and was unveiled amidst much anticipation. Following its first performance, famed music critic Eduard Hanslinck remarked that “the new symphony is so earnest and complex, so utterly unconcerned with common effects, that it hardly lends itself to quick understanding; even the layman will immediately recognize it as one of the most distinctive and magnificent works of the symphonic literature.”

Generated from a long, painstaking process, Brahms’ Symphony No. 1 is presented alongside a work borne of improvisational proclivity, a premiere by violin duo Jonathan Chan and Jan Bislin. Chan and Bislin, both VAM alumni and graduates of Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London, partnered in 2013 specializing in extemporaneous music that explores the worlds of pop, rock, jazz, hip hop, and electronic music, and have since performed in the UK, North America, Switzerland, Germany and the Czech Republic. Under the moniker Midnight Meow, the two have made numerous covers of popular songs including music by Justin Bieber, Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, and Ellie Goulding.

The new work, composed collaboratively by the duo, features a pre-recorded track accompanying instruments imitating each other from across the stage, reproducing the stereophonic effect commonly associated with electronic music. Though the work is fully composed, the style evokes Chan and Bislin’s affinity with improvisational techniques and popular influences.

In addition to these two invigorating works, VAM honours a decades-old tradition of featuring the winner of its most prestigious competition as soloist in the VAMSO season. Hamilton Lau, winner of the 41st Kay Meek Competition, will offer his prodigious interpretation of one of the most popular works of the concerto realm, Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor.

About Vancouver Academy of Music (vam.ca):
Founded in 1969, the Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM) is a non-profit institution that has been spreading a love of learning and musical excellence for generations of aspiring musicians. Located minutes away from downtown, VAM’s spacious facility features teaching studios, expansive classrooms, a library, and two recital halls – all set against the scenic backdrop of Vanier Park.

VAM’s fundamental purpose is to explore the transformative power of music through fostering an inclusive learning environment led by a team of devoted faculty with strong professional backgrounds. From Early Childhood Education to adult learning, VAM delivers world-class music education to students of all ages and abilities.

In addition to private lessons and class instruction, VAM students engage with world-renowned visiting artists in master classes, cooperate with other national and international music education organizations, and participate in numerous performances and competitions. VAM’s Orchestral Training Program is home to four levels of orchestra, which culminates in the Orpheum Series – four concerts that spotlight the VAM Symphony Orchestra in one of Vancouver’s most iconic cultural venues, the Orpheum Theatre.

VAM Symphony Orchestra: Brahms’ Symphony No. 1

When: Sunday, February 18, 2018 at 2pm
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 601 Smithe St
Tickets: $15 Adults, $10 Students & Seniors, available at vamso.ca
Website: vamso.ca
_____________________________________________________________________________

For further media information, contact
Daniel Marshall
[email protected]  |  604.734.2301

VAM’s Orchestral Program is supported by RBC Foundation and the R & J  Stern Family Foundation

Click here for Press Kit  (photos, biographies, VAM logo file, downloadable press release)

Click here for press kit   (photos, biographies, VAM logo file, downloadable press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 19, 2017

Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra presents

Verdi’s Requiem

Thunderous rage and soft, tremulous prayers reverberate in the Orpheum Theatre with Vancouver Bach Choir 

Vancouver, BC – The Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra  (VAMSO) combines forces with Vancouver Bach Choir to present one of the most celebrated Romantic masterworks, Verdi’s Requiem. This formidable funeral mass resounds under the direction of Leslie Dala with Joslin Romphf Dennis (soprano), Leah Giselle Field (mezzo-soprano), Frédérik Robert (tenor), and Alan Corbishley (bass).

“The absence of costumes and staging by no means precludes Verdi’s Requiem from generating an experience any less dramatically compelling than his operas,” says Joseph Elworthy, Executive Director of the Vancouver Academy of Music. “From riotous outcries to quiet, trembling devotions, this massive work vividly captures a gripping pathos with sudden contrasts between sharply conflicting emotions.”

The origin of this concert mass stems from Verdi’s desire for a project involving several leading Italian composers collaborating to create a requiem in memory of Gioachino Rossini, regarded by Verdi as “one of the glories of Italy”. Verdi himself contributed the final movement, yet it never materialized as a memorial to his predecessor as planned; instead, the movement was expanded into the complete Requiem following the death of Alessandro Manzoni, a celebrated Italian poet and humanitarian and a second national figure whom Verdi viewed with great admiration.

Adapting his mastery of opera into a genre that forgoes visual staging, Verdi captures vibrant visual effects through sound: sharp strikes of the bass drum resonate with the sheer force of thunder in Dies Irae and the faint calling of off-stage trumpets in Tuba mirum grow into a fanfare that evoke the image of a mighty, majestic throne. Intricate theatrical threads are woven in long, dramatic arcs by the baton of Leslie Dala, director of both VAM Symphony Orchestra and Vancouver Bach Choir, in a work which Johannes Brahms declaimed “only a genius could have written”.

About Vancouver Academy of Music (vam.ca):
Founded in 1969, the Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM) is a non-profit institution that has been spreading a love of learning and musical excellence for generations of aspiring musicians. Located minutes away from downtown, VAM’s spacious facility features teaching studios, expansive classrooms, a library, and two recital halls – all set against the scenic backdrop of Vanier Park.

VAM’s fundamental purpose is to explore the transformative power of music through fostering an inclusive learning environment led by a team of devoted faculty with strong professional backgrounds. From Early Childhood Education to adult learning, VAM delivers world-class music education to students of all ages and abilities.

In addition to private lessons and class instruction, VAM students engage with world-renowned visiting artists in master classes, cooperate with other national and international music education organizations, and participate in numerous performances and competitions. VAM’s Orchestral Training Program is home to four levels of orchestra, which culminates in the Orpheum Series – four concerts that spotlight the VAM Symphony Orchestra in one of Vancouver’s most iconic cultural venues, the Orpheum Theatre.

VAM Symphony Orchestra: Verdi’s Requiem
When: Sunday, November 12, 2017 at 2pm
Where: Orpheum Theatre, 601 Smithe St
Tickets: $15 Adults, $10 Students & Seniors, available at vamso.ca

__________

For further media information, contact

Daniel Marshall
Marketing & Communications Manager, Vancouver Academy of Music
[email protected]  |  604.734.2301

Click here for press kit   (photos, biographies, VAM logo file, downloadable press release)

VAM’s Orchestral Program is supported by RBC Foundation and the R & J  Stern Family Foundation

Click here for press kit   (photos, biographies, VAM logo file, downloadable press release)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 3, 2017

Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra presents the shining splendour of

Beethoven’s Emperor

Vancouver native Ian Parker leads from piano and podium
in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto & Symphony No. 7

 Vancouver, BC – The Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra  (VAMSO) will embark on a thrilling exploration of Beethoven with Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”) presented alongside Symphony No. 7 and Egmont Overture, October 22, 2017, 2pm at the Orpheum Theatre. In an afternoon of orchestral vivacity, VAM Symphony Orchestra performs with pianist and conductor Ian Parker leading from both piano and podium, including a dual conductor-soloist undertaking in the Emperor Concerto.

“The Emperor Concerto and Symphony No. 7 both exude heroism on an extraordinary scale,” says Joseph Elworthy, Executive Director of the Vancouver Academy of Music. “Beethoven crafted the Emperor Concerto in the midst of great political turmoil and Symphony No. 7, which premiered in the wake of victory, was embraced with great exuberance and celebration.”

The colossal nature of Beethoven’s final concerto, filled with shining splendour, finds a fulfilling match in the lively symphony described as “dance in its highest respect” by Richard Wagner, igniting the air with pulsating rhythms and sweeping melodic lines. Egmont Overture, composed as part of a commission for incidental music accompanying a theatre production, was inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s compelling story of resistance against occupation, mirroring the political climate from which the Emperor Concerto was born.

Tied together by tumult, defiance, and victory, the vigorous energy of this trio of orchestral masterworks is amplified by the magnetic charisma of Vancouver-born Ian Parker. The son of renowned pedagogue Edward Parker and cousin of pianists Jamie Parker and Jon Kimura Parker, the internationally acclaimed artist makes his first appearance on the podium at the helm of Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra.

About Vancouver Academy of Music (vam.ca):
Founded in 1969, the Vancouver Academy of Music (VAM) is a non-profit institution that has been spreading a love of learning and musical excellence for generations of aspiring musicians. Located minutes away from downtown, VAM’s spacious facility features teaching studios, expansive classrooms, a library, and two recital halls – all set against the scenic backdrop of Vanier Park.

VAM’s fundamental purpose is to explore the transformative power of music through fostering an inclusive learning environment led by a team of devoted faculty with strong professional backgrounds. From Early Childhood Education to adult learning, VAM delivers world-class music education to students of all ages and abilities.

In addition to private lessons and class instruction, VAM students engage with world-renowned visiting artists in master classes, cooperate with other national and international music education organizations, and participate in numerous performances and competitions. VAM’s Orchestral Training Program is home to four levels of orchestra, which culminates in the Orpheum Series – four concerts that spotlight the VAM Symphony Orchestra in one of Vancouver’s most iconic cultural venues, the Orpheum Theatre.

LISTING INFORMATION                

VAM Symphony Orchestra: Beethoven’s Emperor

Date: Sunday, October 22, 2017 at 2pm

Ticket prices: $15 Adults, $10 Students & Seniors, available at the door or online

Address: The Orpheum, 601 Smithe St., Vancouver, BC

Website: vam.ca
_____________________________________________________________________________

For further media information, contact

Daniel Marshall
Marketing & Communications Manager, Vancouver Academy of Music
[email protected]  |  604.734.2301

Click here for press kit   (photos, biographies, VAM logo file, downloadable press release)

VAM’s Orchestral Program is supported by RBC Foundation and the R & J  Stern Family Foundation