PrettyInScarlett

I initially hadn't planned to go to Friday 18th May's Chamber Players of Canada concert featuring Angela Hewitt - Schubert's String Quartet No. 14, Death and the Maiden isn't really my thing. However, I had the chance to attend Friday's rehearsal. As part of 'Angela Hewitt Week' the rehearsal had been opened up to students from Glebe Collegiate, Carleton Heights Public School and Gowling Public School; there were also some attendees from the OrKidstra programme. Once all the students had arrived at Christ Church, the assembled musicians started by playing the final movement of Schumann's Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44. The sound quality from my seat at the back was of a warm, mellow sound (matching the late morning sun outside) combined with an exciting peformance - the kids were hooked. Sufficiently hooked to sit through a good few minutes rehearsing before hearing the first movement from the Piano Quintet . In between playing, both Hewitt an...

I just received information from a friend about Angela Hewitt Week in Ottawa, 14th-20th May as declared by Mayor Jim Watson. Ms Hewitt is performing with Chamber Players of Canada on Friday 18th May; there will also be An Afternoon With Angela Hewitt on 20th May at the National Arts Centre hosted by the Canadian Friends of the Trasimeno Music Festival .

In addition to all the fun of JUNOfest, those of us who like pianos were treated to the JUNO Pianos concept, inspired by Luke Jerram's Play Me, I'm Yours installations worldwide. Instead of having pianos on the street, JUNO Pianos featured 12 pianos in locations around Ottawa available for anyone to play. I found and played the Yamaha in University of Ottawa's Tabaret Hall and the Steinway grand piano (woop!) in Carleton University Art Gallery .  After playing in Tabaret on Wednesday 28th, I and the other people in Tabaret Hall were treated to a semi-impromptu concert (well, announced on Facebook) by some U of O music students for a few piano pieces, a flute sonata, violin solo and an opera song! The Steinway at Carleton University Art Gallery Saturday afternoon and a cycle ride to Carleton to meet some friends at the Art Gallery to play on another JUNO Piano, this time an antique Steinway grand. I'd not been to Carleton University Art Gallery bef...

Classical JUNOs performers Something of a musical melange weekend but an excellent set of events! Eschewing some of the bands and artists we knew, we chose less familiar sounds for our JUNOfest experience. First up was the Classical JUNOs in Concert event at the National Arts Centre , featuring both nominated performers and composers. The mix of contemporary music was brilliantly played by Christina Petrowska Quilico , Susan Hoeppner , Heather Schmidt and the New Orford String Quartet . Quilico amazed the almost 100-strong audience with her performance of Derek Charke's Sepia Fragments   in a reduction for piano; I found this piece a really captivating mix of earthly and ethereal elements. Quilico's second performance was of Ann Southam's Glass Houses No. 5 , an hypnotic piece which sounded both fiendishly difficult to play but also very clean and unembellished. Susan Hoeppner's excellent performance of Eldin Burton's Sonatina for Flute and Piano got the po...

There's a fair degree of excitement in the Ottawa media about the 2012 Juno Awards , running this year from 26th March-1st April, culminating in the awards show at Scotiabank Place. As well as the official site, the Ottawa Citizen has a special webpage with all sorts of information. JUNOfest, running 30th-31st March, celebrates the breadth and depth of Canadian artists will a huge variety of small shows in venues across Ottawa. The full list of artists is available here , with regular updates via Twitter . Co-presenters Specrasonic have a more detailed 'who's playing where' list on their site ; many events also have specific Facebook pages. For classical music fans, the National Arts Centre is hosting an afternoon event on 30th March entitled ' Classical JUNOs in concert ': Christina Petrowska Quilico and New Orford String Quartet, amongst others, will perform in a 1 hour concert in the NAC foyer, free and unticketed. The other JUNOfest events are door-ticket...

Sadly the stage area at Irene's Pub isn't the most photo-friendly but here are a few snaps from the 11th March show:   Lacroix and ONMC after the performance of Angels   Annalee Patipatanakoon of Gryphon Trio Patricia O'Callaghan During the set from Broken Hearts and Madmen

Intrigued by the music on offer and enticed by cider on tap, M and I went to Irene's Pub on 11th March for Ottawa Chamberfest 's 'New Music, New Places' concert featuring Gryphon Trio and players from Ottawa New Music Creators . A different atmosphere compared to The PepTides show in February but there were enough attendees for an interesting, relaxed evening.  The programme was intended to showcase 7 contemporary compositions under the 'chamber music' umbrella, however Chamberfest artistic director Roman Borys made a last-minute adjustment to incorporate a short set based on Gryphon Trio's new recording Broken Hearts and Madmen , featuring Patricia O'Callaghan. A fellow concertgoer who attended the Broken Hearts and Madmen themed show at Wakefield's Black Sheep Inn on 10th March described a superb evening, which was to be echoed at Irene's.  The first set comprised an abridged 'New Music, New Places' programme. Of the pieces ...