About the Festival
It’s hard to believe this is already Season FIVE! When I first put together the premiere season, rather impulsively, I had little idea of what would develop. It just seemed instinctively right to partially fill the gap left by the just bankrupt Guelph Spring Festival.
The press was enormously supportive, and the enthusiasm of Guelph’s music audience led to a great success. So many people stepped forward to volunteer their help, making things far less daunting. And over the past few years, it seems I’ve developed a loyal core of supporters. For all of those who’ve helped, I’m most grateful, and encouraged to keep going.
Last year was a particularly excellent season, both in audience attendance and artistic achievement. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I could maintain the quality, even if it couldn’t be bettered. The solution turned out to be to create a ’different’ kind of series. Whereas there was no piano recital last season, Guelph Musicfest 2011 has two, and blockbuster ones at that.
The great Vancouver pianist Robert Silverman, one of the few Canadians to have explored and recorded all 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas (and one of only six pianists in history to have recorded the cycle twice) will offer rare insight into some of the greatest music ever created.
And it was good fortune that one week after I asked the amazing Cecilia String Quartet to return that it won First Prize at the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition. They will once again treat us to chamber music at the highest level.
Of course, I always like to perform once in each series, and this time will be joined by my musical friends from Waterloo, violinist Jerzy Kaplanek and violist Christine Vlajk (from the renowned Penderecki String Quartet) and Guelph-native, cellist Paul Pulford (soloist, chamber player, and longtime former member of the Penderecki). It will be great fun!
And finally, a special presentation that the Edward Johnson Foundation persuaded me to produce. The Life of Edward Johnson is based on a script by CBC producer Neil Crory, drawing on research from local historian Gloria Dent. Guelph-native, tenor Edward Johnson was a huge star in the opera world in his lifetime, and after a legendary performing career became director of New York’s Metropolitan Opera. This show (originally presented at Stratford Summermusic) presents a picture of life in words and music. Montreal tenor Ryan Harper teams with soprano Marion Samuel-Stevens and pianist Anna Jennewein-Ronai.
Please explore the web site, mark your calendars, and prepare to enjoy! Many thanks for your support over the years.
Ken Gee
Artistic Director, Guelph Musicfest
p.s. Now you can get the latest updates on Twitter (link at the bottom of each web page).
p.p.s. Here's a story that I wrote for the Music Times.
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