It being the 400th anniversary of the Vespers—not to mention the 40th anniversary of Early Music Vancouver and the 10th anniversary of MusicFest Vancouver—this was the year to do it.
Commissioned by the Kronos Quartet in 1994, String Quartet No. 12 (From Ubirr) is Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe’s sonic tribute to his homeland’s landscape and its original inhabitants.
It’s no surprise that weaving and tapestries are often referred to when discussing Renaissance vocal music and its play of melodic versus harmonic —its warp and woof.
Most opera singers don’t get to perform their dream role as their main-stage debut. But there was Yannick-Muriel Noah, bringing to life Tosca, her be all and end all of the big Giacomo Puccini roles.
Jazz pianist Joe Chindamo has been kicking keyboard ass in his native Australia since the early ’90s, and now he’s starting to make an equally big impression in North America.
For music scholars, Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 is an enigmatic and even controversial work, and the hottest debate is over the composer’s intentions.
Poncho Sanchez is one of the greatest Latin jazz and salsa percussionists, but he started his career as a singer, although he wanted to be a guitarist.