Maybe it’s the sunshine and the unseasonably warm temperatures. Maybe it’s the relief of having survived another grey winter. Or maybe it’s the realization that the performances listed below are just a handful of the many brilliant musical events on offer this spring. In any case, we’re feeling optimistic: despite Vancouver’s many problems, our city’s concert scene continues to grow in excellence, diversity, and adventure.

Die Fledermaus

(February 28 to March 8 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre)

Don’t let its three-and-a-half-hour running time throw you off: Vancouver Opera’s glittering “Bat” is a romp.

The Draw: Johann Strauss II’s wicked Vienna, and a guest turn from Bard on the Beach’s Christopher Gaze.
Target Audience: Well-heeled waltz fans.

Ghazal

(March 13 at the Kay Meek Centre)

Persian and North Indian classical music spring from a common source, but they’ve taken separate paths over the past few hundred years. Here, sitarist Shujaat Khan and kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor reunite the cousins.

The Draw: Two great virtuosos on a thrilling voyage of discovery.
Target Audience: Anyone with a valid passport.

Steven Isserlis

(March 13 to 15 at the Vancouver Playhouse)

Accompanied by Robert Levin on period-appropriate fortepiano, the great cellist performs Ludwig van Beethoven’s complete works for cello and keyboard.

The Draw: The most luscious history lesson you’ll ever hear.
Target Audience: Anyone who’s ever asked the question “Why Beethoven?”

Jack Quartet

(March 14 at the Orpheum Annex)

New York City’s avant-garde string quartet plays a program of composers you’ve never heard of—unless you’ve really been paying attention.

The Draw: A chance to skate on the musical cutting edge with four sublimely skilled guides.
Target Audience: Risk-takers with sophisticated ears.

Lang Lang

(March 17 and 18 at the Orpheum)

It’s not your usual big band: for the first of piano phenomenon Lang Lang’s two shows, 100 VSO School of Music keyboard students will join him for a public master class and 51-piano performance. A day later, he’ll play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major with the VSO.

The Draw: Assuming that there are 230 strings on the average piano, the biggest string band you’ll ever hear. 
Target Audience: A couple of hundred proud parents, the curious, and the conventional.

Voice Over Mind Festival

(March 18 to 21 at the Western Front)

A fearless exploration of the human voice, with artists ranging from Japanese sound poet Tomomi Adachi to Israeli Canadian Ayelet Rose Gottlieb.

The Draw: Gottlieb’s new 12 Lunar Meditations, an avant-garde song cycle for voice, guitar, cello, and percussion.
Target Audience: The impatiently experimental; miss this and you’ll have to wait two years for the next installment.

Elijah

(March 28 at the Orpheum)

The season’s choral blockbuster is this Felix Mendelssohn classic, as performed by the Vancouver Bach Choir, the VSO, and a strong quartet of soloists.

The Draw: What could be more timely than the story of a desert-dwelling religious fanatic? 
Target Audience: Monotheists, as Elijah is an important figure for Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.

Turning Point Ensemble

(April 17 and 19 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts’ Telus Studio Theatre)

Impeccably programmed, Masque Early and New: A Musical Time Capsule finds Benjamin Britten channelling John Dowland, Peter Maxwell Davies exploring the Renaissance, and local jazz guitarist and arranger Tony Wilson unveiling some new music of his own.

The Draw: A fabulous program and an all-star band.
Target Audience: Time-travellers and shape-shifters.

The Dream We Carry

(April 18 at St. Andrew’s–Wesley United Church; April 19 at West Vancouver United Church)

Leading choral composer Ēriks Ešenvalds sets the poetry of Leonard Cohen in a Chor Leoni program that also includes new works from Imant Raminsh, Rodney Sharman, and VSO composer in residence Jocelyn Morlock.

The Draw: A secular “Hallelujah” in two acoustically vibrant venues.
Target Audience: Men and those who love them.

Voices and Strings

(April 18 at the Orpheum Annex)

The last time Mary Margaret O’Hara played Vancouver was at the infamous PuSh Festival event where artistic director Norman Armour suffered a near-fatal heart attack. This Vancouver New Music celebration of art song should be a less stressful—but no less gripping—chance to hear the reclusive Toronto thrush.

The Draw: A legend in the flesh.
Target Audience: Listeners who don’t mind swooning in public.

Touching A String

(April 26 at the Orpheum Annex)

Vancouver Symphony Orchestra principal harpist Elizabeth Volpé Bligh gets a rare showcase that’s rarer still in that it focuses on contemporary music.

The Draw: An underappreciated virtuoso, the premiere of Edward Top’s Concerto Grotesque, and Giacinto Scelsi’s beautifully ominous Anagamin.
Target Audience: Connoisseurs.

Yo-Yo Ma

(May 1 at the Orpheum)

The acclaimed cellist joins Bramwell Tovey and the VSO to play Anton Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor.

The Draw: The nicest person in classical music also happens to be a pretty good cellist.
Target Audience: Who wouldn’t want to go?

Portland Baroque Orchestra

(May 1 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)

No matter how many times you’ve heard Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, you won’t have heard a better version than the one violinist Monica Huggett and her Oregon ensemble will deliver this spring.

The Draw: Old-school musical mastery.
Target Audience: Seekers after indoor sunshine.

Wu Man And The Shanghai Quartet

(May 9 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts)

Equally at home with Chinese classical music and the international avant-garde, Kronos Quartet collaborator and pipa virtuoso Wu Man joins a top Chinese string quartet in an adventurous and wide-ranging program.

The Draw: One must-hear inclusion is a chamber version of Tan Dun’s spooky and inventive Ghost Opera.
Target Audience: About 17 percent of Lower Mainland residents—in other words, those of us who enjoy really good music.