PrettyInScarlett

Mark Weiner As part of Ottawa chamber music and multi-disciplinary festival, tonight we went to see... a heavy metal band. Yes, Chicago doom band Earthen Grave performed at Saint Brigid's Centre for the Arts. The link comes by their resident violinist, classical (and metal) virtuoso Rachel Barton Pine. A very refreshing evening, as we haven't been to a dirty-guitar live gig in far too long. Not that I am criticising the excellent Apocalyptica ! It seems that something got lost in the promotion, as Saint Brigid 's wasn't that full and most of the audience were festival-goers, though this was somewhat balanced by the very enthusiastic metalheads at the front. We did find it rather weird to go to a metal gig in a former church that is still very much a church (plus no alcohol), though there was sufficient space to stand near the stage rather than remain seated. Most of the set comprised songs from the band's self-titled album, though there were covers of T...

Starting this Wednesday I am blogging for Music and Beyond during their 2012 season. With 80 events there are lots of exciting concerts to come! I am particularly excited about the four-part series The Rivered Earth and An Equal Music , all featuring Vikram Seth. Furthermore, Rachel Barton Pine is back! This year's 'Heavy Metal Violin' concert features here full band, Earthen Grave . I listened to their 2012 album (self-titled) on Spotify the other day and it's pretty good! Posts during the festival are on the Music and Beyond blog . Also coming up this week is The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring live at the National Arts Centre . Something to keep film fans happy until The Hobbit, Part 1 comes out in December, the concert features the film on a 60ft screen with over 200 musicians providing the score. Fantastic!   

Now both chamber festivals are over, I've finally had a chance to sit back and relax! As to which festival I most preferred, Music and Beyond and Chamberfest serve slightly different audiences and purposes; I found both immensely enjoyable. Chamberfest had the edge on big name stars, for example both Simone Dinnerstein , Marc-André Hamelin and Anton Kuerti on the piano side, along with groups such as the Nash Ensemble of London . Like Music and Beyond, I didn't go to a bad concert (there was some concert-goer discussion about the merits of Dinnerstein but I missed that show) so picking a clear favourite is difficult! In terms of innovation, Chamberfest's Late Night at the Kildare series was brilliant, with a wide range of 'fringe' chamber music. Cello grunge (courtesy of the Samurai String Squad ), Lara St. John performing Stomp! and Starbachs: The Coffee Cantata were all fantastic. It's a great breakout too - smaller audience, more intimate feel, slight ba...

The whirlwind that was Music and Beyond has now finished. My final tally was 24 events, pretty much all of them excellent. Perhaps the only disappointing show was Don Campbell's 'Beyond the Mozart Effect', which whilst having excellent musical performances, was rather more an illustrated history of Mozart than an evening about The Mozart Effect . Top marks to Igudesman and Joo for their hilarious 'A Little Nightmare Music' - I highly recommend their online videos! Of the more traditional style concerts, The Jupiter String Quartet were amazing, as was Stéphane Lemelin, who looked and sounded as if he was having a great time. The Music from Turkey concert with Tahir Aydoğdu on kanun was riveting and highly entertaining, as well as the 'tango' concert from Les Violons du Roy and Tango Boreal. From the closing gala, I also really enjoyed Marc Djokic's performance from Richard Mascall's Labyrinth . Reminded me of Nicolas Bolens ' Tempus Fugit . ...