Vancouver ensembles have been preparing for the big 2010 Cultural Olympiad for months, if not years, so even if arts funding in the province has gone to hell in a handbasket, there are major classical events to take in over the coming months. From concerts by the likes of soprano Renée Fleming and percussionist Evelyn Glennie, to momentous new works by John Tavener and Larry Nickel, there’s no excuse for staying in. (Besides, these groups need all the support they can get right now.)

Evelyn Glennie with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra (September 19 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)
Evelyn Glennie’s performances aren’t for the faint of heart. The world’s first full-time solo percussionist performs with intense power and kinetic energy, and you can bet you won’t find anyone nodding off during this program of works ranging from Antonio Vivaldi to Dmitri Shostakovich. The Draw: Profoundly deaf since the age of 12, Glennie brings a unique perspective to what it means to “hear” music. Target Audience: Wannabe drummers whose parents need a little convincing.

Shlomo Mintz (September 26 to 28 at the Orpheum Theatre)
The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra isn’t taking any chances with their season opener, bringing out world-renowned, Russian-born Israeli violinist Shlomo Mintz to perform Max Bruch’s heart-tugging Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26. Kleenex is strongly advised. The Draw: Mintz doesn’t make it round these parts very often (he was last here in 1981)—you snooze, you lose. Target Audience: Classical music lovers who like their fare served with a heavy side of pathos.

St. Lawrence String Quartet (September 30 at Heritage Hall)
Now entering its fourth season, Music on Main is not only bringing in the famed St. Lawrence String Quartet, but also marking the group’s 20th anniversary by teaming up with the CBC to commission a new piece for the ensemble from Quebec composer Suzanne Hébert-Tremblay. The Draw: Hébert-Tremblay’s as-yet-untitled composition will have its world premiere in this program. Target Audience: Main Street hipsters looking to impress a hot date.

PREMIERE! Sir John Tavener & Peter Berring (October 10 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)
In celebration of its 40th anniversary, the Vancouver Chamber Choir has commissioned six works, and is premiering the first two in this concert: Miroir des Poémes by British composer John Tavener, and Hervor, Maiden King by B.C.’s Peter Berring. The Draw: Being the first to hear a newly composed piece of music of this scale is a unique thrill that everyone should experience at least once—or, in this case, twice. Target Audience: Adventurous spirits with open minds (and ears).

Voyages (October 16 at St. Philip’s Anglican Church, and October 17 at Christ Church Cathedral)
Vancouver’s musica intima choral ensemble will be spending most of September touring Eastern Canada, so it’s fitting that it will return home with a program titled Voyages. The core of the concert is Eric Whitacre’s Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine, which will be performed alongside works by such composers as Thomas Weelkes, Claudio Monteverdi, and Henryk Górecki. The Draw: With such a wide-ranging program, you’ll feel like you’ve been travelling through time and space. Target Audience: Would-be travellers in need of some escapism.

Stolen Voices (November 8 at Church of the Good Shepherd, and November 11 at West Vancouver United Church and Christ Church Cathedral)
Chor Leoni is presenting newly commissioned works by Larry Nickel, Marcus Goddard, and Ken Cormier, along with readings from wartime diaries written by children and mothers from World War I to the present. The Draw: A chance to stop everything and deeply reflect on the toll of war. Target Audience: Spoiled teens in need of a reality check.

Renee Fleming (December 1 at the Orpheum Theatre)
With her classy, cool demeanour and precise technique, the great soprano Renée Fleming doesn’t make everyone’s heart go a-flutter, but the depth of her talents and movie-star allure are undeniable. There’s no word yet of what she’ll be singing, but this Vancouver Recital Society concert is sure to be a hot ticket, even if she pulls out some cheesy jazz standards. The Draw: Hard to believe, but Fleming turned the big five-oh this year, and who knows how much longer she’ll want to keep up the touring circuit? Target Audience: Those who like their musical icons glamorous, not grungy.

Tallis Scholars’s Christmas concert (December 8 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)
A Tallis Scholars concert is a little like going to church—minus the guilt, sermons, and warbly hymns. The choral ensemble is devoted to the performance of Renaissance sacred music, and is renowned for a purity of sound. The Draw: In this Early Music Vancouver and Chan Centre copresentation, the group will perform Josquin des Prez’s heavenly Missa de Beata Virgine, alongside works by English composers. Target Audience: Lapsed Catholics in need of pain-free absolution.

Extremes and Polarities: 17th-Century Baroque (December 19 at St. Augustine’s Church, and December 20 at West Vancouver United Church)
After a series of financial and administrative challenges, the Pacific Baroque Orchestra has regained its footing, with its new artistic director Alex Weimann now settled in. To mark the winter solstice, the ensemble will present uplifting music written during a miserable century marked by plague and conflict. The Draw: The concert promises to present “a study of life between despair and optimism”—something many can relate to after a year of global economic collapse and war. Target Audience: Those in need of reassurance that light follows darkness.

Nixon in China (March 13, 16, 18, and 20 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre)
If you can make it to only one opera this year, it has to be Vancouver Opera’s Canadian premiere of John Adams’s minimalist masterpiece Nixon in China. The work commemorates Richard Nixon’s monumental 1972 trip to China, when he became the first American president to visit the People’s Republic. The Draw: VO is sparing no expense on this Cultural Olympiad production, which is being crafted by stage director Michael Cavanagh and scenic designer Erhard Rom. Target Audience: History majors in need of inspiration.

> Jessica Werb

New Music

Critics’ Picks

What should be a celebratory season has been sullied by an atmosphere of betrayal and fear, and you know why. So rather than repeat the dismal facts, let’s just point out that all of the events listed below have benefited from public support for the arts.

Ten Thousand Miles to Kai-Feng (October 3 at the Vancouver Community College auditorium)
Orchid Ensemble founders Lan Tung and Jonathan Bernard have embarked on an extraordinary project: reimagining the lost music of the Jewish communities that once thrived along the Silk Road. The Draw: New sounds from an ancient world. Target Audience: Mavens of multiculturalism.

Too Strange (October 11 at the Cultch)
Vancouver’s ultra-accomplished chamber quintet Standing Wave presents a solid program that includes new works from the ever-interesting Jocelyn Morlock and Achim Kaufmann, along with George Crumb’s whale song–inspired Vox Balaenae. The Draw: A chance to go deep, really deep. Target Audience: Nature lovers who like to go outside—even when they’re indoors.

The P*P Project (October 15 at the Western Front)
Pianists Gregory Oh and Simon Docking and percussionist Aiyun Huang make up Toronto’s Toca Loca, and for the P*P Project, the three have commissioned a clutch of cutting-edge composers to rock down the walls that normally separate pop music and new music, with an assortment of “P*P-length, P*P-inspired” pieces. The Draw: Gleeful iconoclasm. Target Audience: Gleeful iconoclasts.

Copyright/Copyleft (October 21 to 24 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre)
For 2009, the Vancouver New Music Festival looks at sampling, sonic collage, and radical reinventions of the familiar. Big names include Plunderphonics mastermind John Oswald, revolutionary art-rock drummer and composer Chris Cutler, and keyboard phenomenon Uri Caine. The Draw: Even if some of these artists have been radical for decades, they’ll still provide the shock of the new. Target Audience: Explorers of all kinds.

Jelena Milojevic (November 27 at the Kay Meek Centre)
Recent immigrant Jelena Milojevic has already established herself as one of our leading performers on the accordion—and no, that doesn’t mean she’s gunning for Walter Ostanek’s polka crown. Instead, she draws on a rich repertoire of Eastern European works. The Draw: Discovering a new universe of sound. Target Audience: Those clever enough to have figured out that the accordion is really a kind of acoustic synthesizer.

Baby Dee (December 5 at the Roundhouse Community Centre)
Not only is Baby Dee a hulking transsexual with a mane of flaming red hair, she’s also a sublimely gifted pianist and harpist, a shrewd observer of the human condition, and the kind of entertainer who can crack you up one minute, and make you cry the next. The Draw: Extraordinary avant-cabaret art songs. Target Audience: Those who find Tom Waits tame.

Anthony Braxton (January 29 at Christ Church Cathedral, and January 31 at the Roundhouse Community Centre)
The word genius gets flung around pretty freely, but it seems apt for the MacArthur Fellowship–winning composer, saxophone virtuoso, and theorist Anthony Braxton. His long-overdue return to Vancouver includes a performance by his all-star ensemble 12+1 Tet, who’ll then be joined by a few dozen of Vancouver’s best for the world premiere of his Sonic Genome Project. The Draw: The presence of greatness. Target Audience: Marathon men and women—the Sonic Genome Project reportedly runs for eight hours, nonstop.

Kronos Quartet with Tanya Tagaq (January 30 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)
We saw the 2006 debut of this collaboration, and although it had its striking moments, it also contained passages of meandering. With composer Derek Charke coming on board to pen Tundra Songs, that won’t be an issue. The Draw: Fearless string quartet meets fearsome vocal improviser. Target Audience: We’d say gamblers, but this collaboration has been around long enough that it’s looking like a sure thing.

Son of Chamber Symphony (February 24 at the Vancouver Playhouse)
The highlight of the Turning Point Ensemble’s strong, three-concert season features a 20th-century masterwork (Arnold Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No. 1), a new piece that reflects on said masterpiece (John Adams’s Son of Chamber Symphony), and a premiere (Vancouver resident John Oliver’s Chamber Concerto). The Draw: Schoenberg influenced Adams, who taught Oliver. Target Audience: Sonic genealogists.

Thomas Ades (March 14 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)
The Vancouver Recital Society has partnered with San Francisco Performances and the Barbican in London, England, to commission a new work from top-flight British composer Thomas Adí¨s—and he’s going to perform it himself. The Draw: A chance to see whether Adí¨s’s pianistic skills are as masterful as his compositional style. Target Audience: The curious and the star-struck.

Symphony at the Roundhouse (April 24 at the Roundhouse Community Centre)
The VSO series kicks off with an October 19 concert that includes Steve Reich’s 8 Lines. But we’re even more intrigued by the April 24 program, which features Giancinto Scelsi’s rarely heard Anahit. The Draw: The big band’s best players tackling new music in a small room. Target Audience: Classical fans willing to walk on the wild side.

> Alexander Varty