PrettyInScarlett

After Karkwa's excellent show on Thursday, we were eagerly awaiting the triple bill of Austra , Young Galaxy and Tasseomancy on Saturday 3rd... not to mention Feist! We first saw Tasseomancy in April supporting Timber Timbre ; I was impressed by them then. This time, the songs were still excellent (I've since listened to their new album Ulalume , which is superb) but their dreaminess seemed a tiny bit lost in Ritual.  They had a reasonable reception but I'm not sure how many concertgoers were familiar with their stuff. Young Galaxy In my mind Young Galaxy were equally as big a draw as Austra. Definitely an eagerly awaited set after muptiple spins of Shapeshifting ! Like Tasseomancy, Young Galaxy were limited to 30 minutes of performance; starting with 'Blowminded' and 'Long Live The Fallen World' certainly charged up the crowd! The rest of the set included songs like 'Peripheral Visionaries', 'We Have Everything' and 'Cover Y...

As a precursor to a busy December and something of an impromptu idea, we attended U of O School of Music 's Wind Ensemble concert on 25th November, featuring Victor Herbiet on saxophone. Wind ensembles are something of a rarity in our (classical) concert calendar, so it was interesting to find that most of the programme was 20th century. To suit the Friday evening mood, the first piece performed was Edward Gregson's Festivo , with it's jaunty edge - almost like the opening movement to a classic film. Much of the evening's performance was of exciting, engaging music. True to Steven Mazey's pre-review, Herbiet's solo in Claude T Smith's Fantasia for Alto Sax was superb, with a 'sax solo' interlude reminiscent of (or maybe inspiring) electric guitar solos. A high level of musicianship all round and on this basis, much of the 2011-12 season should be very good! A forthcoming concert that has caught my attention is the School of Music's Piano Duets...

Something of a late April/May bonanza for shows - now that spring is here (mostly - in between the rainy days) there seem to be events galore! First up, an interesting and unusual evening. M and I received complimentary tickets to see Chamber Music of Healey Willan from Chamber Players of Canada , 23rd April. Neither of us were familiar with his works, but there's a first time for everything. I particularly liked the evening's premiere, which was a Willan piece for cello and piano completed by Matthew Larkin. Very very interesting, but sadly far too short! The trio in B minor was pretty good too. The first half programme (Fugue in G minor, Introduction/Allegro, Romance for Violin & Piano, Sanata in E minor for Violin & Piano), didn't engage us quite as much, though. The Chamber Players series also includes Angela Hewitt on May 7th. From one festival to another. The Prairie Scene (co-promoted by the National Arts Centre) is a showcase of music, visual arts/media, th...