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Category: Music

More CREATE! to enjoy

More CREATE! to enjoy

Eastside Arts Society presents CREATE! Eastside Arts Festival July 22-28. (photo by Wendy D)

Eastside Arts Society (EAS) presents the fourth edition of its newly expanded, immersive summer arts event, CREATE! Eastside Arts Festival, at various Eastside Arts District (EAD) venues from July 22-28, in addition to its traditional all-day outdoor festivities at Strathcona Park July 27.

“We are thrilled to see the evolution of the CREATE! Eastside Arts Festival into a true, district-wide event that illuminates all that the EAD has to offer,” said Esther Rausenberg, artistic and executive director of EAS, who is a member of the Jewish community. 

The festival will offer affordable ticketed art workshops and performances at pop-up locations. Community highlights include CREATE! pop-up art workshops at Off the Rail Brewing, Luppolo Brewing and Strange Fellows Brewing from July 22-26 and studio art workshops at 1000 Parker Street Studios, the Mergatroid Building and the Arts Factory on July 28; Canadian musical artist Paul Pigat at the Firehall Arts Centre on July 25; singer-songwriter Art Bergmann at the Rickshaw Theatre on July 26; a roving piano and dance performance from Mascall Dance on July 26; live mural painting by Eastside Culture Crawl co-founder Richard Tetrault at East 4th Avenue and Ontario Street from July 22-26; and more.

On July 27, the festival returns for a full day of festivities at Strathcona Park, with a series of outdoor art-making workshops taught by EAD artists, including weaving, summer florals, introduction to flamenco (all abilities), crochet, charcoal drawing, and a BIPOC expressive art workshop.

For the first time this year, CREATE! will partner with 604 Records and Light Organ Records to present a live music concert stage at Strathcona Park (July 27, 2-6 p.m.), featuring homegrown artists Haleluya Hailu, Fur Trade (Steven Bays and Parker Bosley from Hot Hot Heat) and Sarah Jane Scouten.

A free all-ages CREATE! Festival Concert pass will also include access to the festival’s Art Zone, featuring public art activities, beer garden, food trucks and Art Shop, sponsored by the Strathcona BIA. CREATE! Art Zone public art activities will include zine making; planting flowers and painting your own pot to keep; and cyanotype, a photographic printing process activated by the sun.

A curated selection of local handmade artworks and goods will be available at the Festival Art Shop, and visitors can enjoy a fully licensed beer garden, serving beer, cider and wine from Strange Fellows Brewing, as well as an assortment of food from food trucks including Camion Café, Midnight Joe’s and Varinicey Pakoras.

Also on July 27, participants in Eastside Arts Society’s 9th annual Art! Bike! Beer! Crawl Brewery Tour Fundraiser will end their day of cycling/walking and imbibing at the CREATE! Art Zone. All fundraiser proceeds will benefit the Eastside Arts Society’s yearly activities and community events.

Art workshops are $35 for youth/adults and $20 for flamenco and children’s workshops. Children under the age of 12 must be supervised by an adult. The general public can access festival activities with a free CREATE! Festival Concert pass, sponsored by the Strathcona BIA. For full festival details and ticket info, visit createartsfestival.ca. 

– Courtesy Eastside Arts Society

Format ImagePosted on July 12, 2024July 10, 2024Author Eastside Arts SocietyCategories Music, Visual ArtsTags arts, Downtown Eastside, education, Esther Rausenberg, festivals
Obliquestra plays at folk fest

Obliquestra plays at folk fest

The accordion “has gradually and sneakily taken over my life,” says musician David Symons, member of the group Obliquestra. (photo by Stephanie Reed)

“Klezmer, choro, Tin Pan Alley, French musette, German songs, Russian waltzes, and so on” … Obliquestra plays the music they “most wanted to play after being isolated at home for so long” during the pandemic, David Symons told the Independent. The accordionist, singer and composer is one of the three members of the band who will be playing at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival, which takes place July 19-21 at Jericho Beach Park.

Symons will be joined at the festival by Dr. Sick on violin, guitar and musical saw, and Susanne Ortner on clarinet. It will be their first time performing together in Vancouver.

Obliquestra started when live music started returning in 2021, explained Symons. “Dr. Sick, who I had worked with for years in my band The Salt Wives (and one of the most unfairly talented musicians in town) called me up and said there was a new bar opening next door to his house and it would be amazingly convenient to play there every Saturday. I called Susanne Ortner, who I hadn’t played with, but who I knew was a master klezmer clarinetist, though she mainly does Brazilian choro and jazz now.” 

They started playing together in Symons’ backyard with banjoist Aaron Gunn and bassist Stoo Odom, “without any concept, really,” said Symons, just playing what they wanted to play.

“I’ve sort of always had this eclectic approach,” he said. “Discreet genres of music are mostly a marketing convenience. Musicians have always played and been influenced by whatever they heard, whatever was available, and whatever the public would pay them to play. Klezmer is a good example of this, being an amalgam of various musical styles from central and eastern Europe and, later, America. I doubt those old school musikers (you wouldn’t call someone a klezmer in those days unless you were trying to get punched) were concerned with notions of ‘authenticity’ or genre. They were playing what they heard and liked, and what their public wanted to hear. We are at least doing the first part of that.”

photo - Obliquestra – Dr. Sick, left, David Symons and Susanne Ortner – play at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival on July 21
Obliquestra – Dr. Sick, left, David Symons and Susanne Ortner – play at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival on July 21. (photo by Stephanie Reed)

While Symon has “gotten away from klezmer a bit these last few years, really since the pandemic started, mostly for lack of people to play it with,” he said “it’s still the music closest to my heart.”

Why that’s the case, and why he’s also been interested in Yiddish music, despite not being Jewish, is hard to put into words, he said. “In fact, if I could put it into words, maybe we wouldn’t need music. It makes me feel good?”

He said many people assume that a person is Jewish if they play klezmer, and even that it’s a strange thing for a non-Jew to do. 

“I’ve always felt this attitude contains an implicit condescension toward the music,” said Symons. “It would never occur to anyone that if someone plays Rachmaninoff they must be Russian, or if they play bluegrass they must be a hillbilly, etc. The music stands on its own merits, whatever one’s ethnic background. Most of the Jewish klezmorim I have known didn’t grow up with the music any more than I did. Still, you have to be careful and respectful. I used to do a lot of Yiddish song and, though I love it, I do less of that now because I realized that, unless I am prepared to devote a few years of my life to learning the language, there’s a lot of nuance that I’m going to miss, no matter how much I work on my pronunciation.”

Symons grew up in rural New Hampshire. “My father plays Latin percussion and guitar, but my folks were divorced and I didn’t see him much, and I had very little interest in music until about 15,” he said. “I was into theatre and acting. Then, I more or less simultaneously discovered Tom Waits and classical music, particularly Beethoven, and suddenly fell in love with music. 

“I played guitar for a few years, but the Waits album Frank’s Wild Years convinced me to get an accordion. This was pre-internet in rural New Hampshire, so I put an ad in the local paper asking if anyone had an accordion I could buy. It turned out a lot of people did, and I was very lucky to get something playable. Then, the accordion more or less sat around decoratively for the next couple of years until I happened to see Itzhak Perlman on David Letterman’s show with a bunch of klezmer musicians. He had just released a klezmer album with the top American klezmer bands at the time, and I became obsessed with this music and went down a deep rabbit hole for the next 25 years or so. I taught myself accordion to play klezmer, largely while working in a parking garage in Burlington, Vt., which had nice, cathedral-like acoustics.”

Symons acknowledged, “Of course, no one is truly self-taught – that just means I’ve learned a lot of little things from a lot of different people, without ever having any one teacher or mentor. As for my relationship with the accordion, the damn thing has gradually and sneakily taken over my life. They’ll tell you that you can just pick it up for fun once and awhile and put it down whenever you want, no harm done, but don’t believe them, kids! For many years, I tried to resist accordion clichés and now, in my middle age, I own not one, but two pairs of lederhosen. I started fixing accordions when I moved to New Orleans and there was no one doing it here. Twelve years later, I am sitting in a room in my home with somewhere between 40 and 50 accordions around me, in various states of functionality. The accordions have won.”

About the move to New Orleans, Symons said, “I lived in Vermont for 15 years and was ready for something new. Or, in the case of New Orleans, something old and dirty. I had spent a month in here in 2003 when I was traveling around the country busking in this tiny, ancient Toyota camper. I always thought about going back and trying to live there. Loving New Orleans is like loving a complicated, brilliant, yet self-destructive person. Someone who might be utterly charming one day and destroy a hotel bathroom the next. I still feel like an outsider here most of the time, but I’ve come to terms with that. I’m happy that I’m able to make myself useful to my fellow accordionists by keeping their instruments in working order.”

Symons and his fellow Obliquestra musicians – “Mini-Obliquestra or Obliquestrio,” as Symons quipped – play the folk festival’s South Stage July 21, 11:50 a.m.-12:40 p.m. For the weekend’s full lineup and tickets, visit thefestival.bc.ca.

Format ImagePosted on June 28, 2024June 27, 2024Author Cynthia RamsayCategories MusicTags accordion, David Symons, klezmer, Obliquestra, Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Traditional yet contemporary

Traditional yet contemporary

Boris Sichon, above, and Jesse Waldman return to this year’s Mission Folk Music Festival, which takes place July 26-28 at Fraser River Heritage Park. (photo from missionfolkmusicfestival.ca)

“I know that people are going to find that new-to-them artist that changes their world. I know that new friendships will be forged among volunteers. And I know that people will just enjoy being together in the park in community,” said Michelle Demers Shaevitz, artistic and executive director of the Mission Folk Music Festival, about the upcoming weekend-long event. “That’s what I look forward to the most.”

Joining Demers Shaevitz at this year’s festival, which takes place July 26-28 at Fraser River Heritage Park, will be fellow Jewish community members Boris Sichon and Jesse Waldman. Both musicians are returning artists to the festival, but will be performing new material.

Sichon will be leading the interactive Recychestra, an orchestra that uses musical instruments made from recycled objects. The performance is the last part of an instrument-building program offered through the City of Mission next month.

The idea for Recychestra came from a meeting with Mark Haney, a composer and musician working for the City of Mission, said Sichon. The program comprises seven sessions between July 6 and 26 at the Mission Leisure Centre, culminating in the July 28 performance at the Mission Folk Music Festival – though Sichon would like the program to carry on.

“I hope we’re going to continue this project after the festival,” he told the Independent.

Anyone who is interested in participating can do so via mission.ca/culture or by emailing [email protected].

“We don’t know yet who’s going to sign up,” Sichon said. “Kids love to create musical instruments more than playing instruments, while adults enjoy both activities. It would be great to have some musician friends from the Mission community.”

Even if someone hasn’t attended the program, they will be welcome to join the orchestra at the festival performance, said Sichon. “We will have enough recycled instruments. It will be a very friendly atmosphere, joyful. Play and dance!”

Waldman is also looking forward to performing at the Mission Folk Music Festival.

“We’ve got some great new songs to share and a couple tricks up our sleeves, too!” said Waldman, who will perform in several music sessions, including in concert with Beau Wheeler on the Sunday afternoon of the festival. The collaboration with Wheeler has been a long time in the making.

“I’d seen Beau perform at an art space in East Van nearly 20 years ago and was blown away,” said Waldman. “Many moons passed, until 2018, where I was performing in the Monica Lee Band and we shared a bill with Beau at Pat’s Pub. Beau caught our set with Monica and invited the band to stay on stage and join him and it was a magical moment. We decided we should get together again and that’s how it all started. We have a lot of the same taste in music and are both very emotional players. I try and add memorable and atmospheric parts to fit the feeling of Beau’s amazing songs.”

Waldman has been busy since the Independent spoke with him in advance of last year’s Mission folk festival. Among the highlights, he said, are “[t]he completion of a new full-length album entitled The Shimmering Divide, set for release September 2024 [and an] outstanding full band performance at Or Shalom Synagogue featuring a rendition of ‘Papirosen,’ where the band played along with my grandmother’s voice from a tape from 1957.”

The video of that performance can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=5F5GNRMf1fQ. For more about the song, visit jewishindependent.ca/a-great-grandmothers-song.

photo - Jesse Waldman
Jesse Waldman (photo from jessewaldmanmusic.com)

Following Waldman’s first album, Mansion Full Of Ghosts, The Shimmering Divide “sees an even more introspective songwriting exploration by Waldman with lyrics that are both confessional and poetic, vulnerable and hopeful, spanning the personal and the universal,” notes the PR material.

“For me, the title The Shimmering Divide represents the age-old battle between good and evil, which path to take to do the right thing in your life – those points in your life are charged with possibilities that can change it forever,” said Waldman.

In all, some 30 artists from around the world will be participating in this year’s Mission Folk Music Festival. In selecting performers, Demers Shaevitz tends to focus on a theme. 

“This year,” she said, “I was digging into this idea of tradition and looking for artists that are grounded in their tradition. What that means for me is finding artists who can emphasize a through line in their music. Who can take the best parts of their culture, genre, community or language, for example, and bring it to audiences in new and or exciting ways. This is key to me when I consider folk traditions: I want contemporary takes on this heritage artform. We’ll hear that in Moira & Claire and their Maritime song tradition. We’ll hear that in how PIQSIQ presents Inuit throat singing in a contemporary context. And we’ll hear (and dance) to how Kobo Town takes traditional Trinidadian sounds and modernizes them for today’s audiences.”

For more information about the festival, including the schedule and tickets, visit missionfolkmusicfestival.ca. 

Format ImagePosted on June 14, 2024June 13, 2024Author Cynthia RamsayCategories MusicTags Boris Sichon, Jesse Waldman, Michelle Demers Shaevitz, Mission Folk Music Festival, Recychestra
Festival unites sparks of light

Festival unites sparks of light

The Options Israeli music cover band closes the Festival of Israeli Culture on May 26. (photo from the JCC)

This year’s Festival of Israeli Culture takes place May 21-26, with the main event at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver the afternoon of Lag b’Omer, May 26.

Falling on the 33rd day of the counting of the Omer, between the second night of Passover and Shavuot 49 days later, Lag b’Omer is a celebration amid tragedy. It commemorates the end of a plague that is said to have killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef’s students during the Bar Kochba rebellion against the Roman Empire in the second century. Only five students survived, one of whom was Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the sage who wrote the Zohar, among other things. Jewish tradition states that, after Rabbi Shimon offered his last kabbalist teaching, he died, on Lag b’Omer, having requested that his death not be mourned. For Rabbi Shimon, death means a soul has taken its place with God.

Among the traditions of Lag b’Omer are bonfires (perhaps in remembrance of fires the Bar Kochba rebels lit to relay messages), weddings, a boy’s first haircut, singing and dancing.

“I felt that it is so sensitive to be celebrating when there is such a complex and sad situation going on in Israel,” Nomi Zysblat, organizer of the annual JCC festival this year, told the Independent. “But, after researching the meaning of Lag b’Omer, I really see it as our community coming together with our individual sparks of light, a way of staying together, of communicating, a collective medura [bonfire or campfire] of strength and warmth.”

This year’s festival will be on the quieter side.

“We thought about this a lot,” said Zysblat. “Is it OK to ‘celebrate’? Is it safe? After many conversations, we decided that we need a gathering, we need to feel safe, we need to remember and we also need to be proud. We aren’t having a huge event, it’s going to be slightly more intimate … more gatherings and community enjoyment rather than huge events, both for the general feeling and also for security reasons. We aren’t flaunting but are also still wanting to enjoy being together.”

On May 21, there will be a dance party, kibbutz-style, at the Anza Club (tickets, $15). The night will be hosted by DJ Guy Hajaj, who will showcase modern and alternative Israeli music.

“He’s had a show for 10 years on Israeli radio and also a popular music blog, among other things,” explained Zysblat. “He DJs at events in Israel throughout the year but has been based in Vancouver for six years.”

photo - On May 23, Moshe Bonen performs a sing-along-style show with festival organizer Nomi Zysblat
On May 23, Moshe Bonen performs a sing-along-style show with festival organizer Nomi Zysblat. (photo from the JCC)

On the afternoon of May 22, the JCC parking lot will become an arts space where kids/teens can participate in a collaborative mural project led by Zohar Hagbi, a local Israeli artist. And, on the evening of May 23, the JCC atrium will come alive with music in a sing-along-style show led by musician and former Israeli radio broadcaster Moshe Bonen with Zysblat (tickets, $10, include a glass of wine).

“I have a music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston and used to write and perform my own folk/rock music back in the day,” said Zysblat. “But, my favourite thing in the world to do when I was living in New York was to go up to the Bronx to Moshe’s loft and sing while he played his grand piano. He is an amazing player and accompanist.”

Zysblat’s professional background is both in music management and in the food industry. She started her own company 12 years ago – Paletas, which makes and sells natural popsicles. She got the idea while living in New York, discovering the icy Mexican treat at a grocery store. 

“After she brought the idea to the restaurant where she worked as a cook in Brooklyn and created unique desserts for the restaurant’s menu, she realized that it could be a lot of fun to make them in Israel,” it says on the company’s website. “Naomi went on a trip to Mexico to learn from local paleteros, their method and tradition, and get inspiration for special and different flavours, then came back and opened her small business here in Tel Aviv.”

“I was born in Jerusalem to Canadian-born parents – my dad was from Calgary and my mom is from Vancouver,” Zysblat told the Independent. “We grew up visiting our grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins every summer in Canada so it’s like a second home to me. I even spent a few sabbatical years my parents took here in Vancouver, and attended school here. I knew this was an experience I wanted for my kids as well and, after Oct. 7, realized there’s no better time to come here. My husband Adi always loved BC because he was a mountain biker and beer brewer, so it was a win-win.”

It’s not surprising then that a nature walk is also part of this year’s festival. On the morning of May 25 at Central Park in Burnaby, there will be a walk led by young community madrichim (leaders). The terrain is suitable for all ages and abilities. There will be songs, stories, snacks.

At the festival’s main event at the JCC on May 26, there will be food trucks (Planted and Meet2Eat), a marketplace (jewelry, glass work, flower arrangements, photography, home decor, Israeli popsicles and jachnun, a Yemenite Jewish pastry), DJ’ed Israeli music, Israeli dance shows (troops from across Metro Vancouver, including Or Atid youth dancers), a drum circle, wine-tasting, arts and crafts, a gaga pit, face-painting, and dance, art and hummus workshops. In the Zack Gallery, the Tikun Olam Community Art Installation is already on display. The day closes with a performance by the Options, a group of local Israelis who cover Israeli rock and other songs. 

For more information, visit jccgv.com/ event/festival-of-israeli-culture. 

Format ImagePosted on May 10, 2024May 8, 2024Author Cynthia RamsayCategories Music, Performing Arts, Visual ArtsTags arts, culture, Festival of Israeli Culture, Israel, JCC, Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver, Lag b'Omer, Nomi Zysblat
Klezcadia a June highlight

Klezcadia a June highlight

Veretski Pass – Joshua Horowitz, left, Cookie Segelstein and Stuart Brotman – will be joined by clarinetist Joel Rubin to present the world première of music from their new album, Makonovetsky’s Scion. (photo from Klezcadia)

Victoria will host Klezcadia, a hybrid klezmer and Yiddish culture festival showcasing a West Coast lineup of musical mastery and mavenry. Running June 4-9 in-person and online, there is no charge to attend.

According to festival director Laura Rosenberg, Klezcadia intends to position Victoria as a focal point for klezmer and Yiddish cultural tourism. In conjunction with the music, the six-day event will present classes, workshops, lectures, demonstrations and open rehearsals conducted by artists, language faculty and other guests.

“Klezcadia’s audiences can expect cutting-edge performances – including three world premières – by some of the world’s leading klezmer artists. Additionally, participants at any level of experience will have opportunities to attend classes, workshops and presentations by these same artists and their Yiddish-language colleagues,” Rosenberg told the Independent.

“Our guiding principle is to make the safe in-person attendance experience and the virtual attendance experience as equivalent and rich as current technology allows, as well as to give the same level of respect to all attendees,” she said.

Some of the featured artists will be Veretski Pass, a Bay Area trio that will perform with clarinetist Joel Rubin; Vancouver musician Geoff Berner; and Jeanette Lewicki in her new show as Pepi Litman, an early 20th-century Yiddish theatre drag star.

Comprised of Cookie Segelstein (violin), Joshua Horowitz (19th-century button accordion) and Stuart Brotman (bass), Veretski Pass offers a wide mix of East European influences. Reuniting with Rubin, they will present the world première of music from Makonovetsky’s Scion, their new album for the Borscht Beat label. 

Berner, a singer, songwriter, accordionist, novelist and political activist, will stage the première of Second Fleet, the Yiddish song cycle he recently co-wrote with Canadian writer Michael Wex, author of the bestseller Born to Kvetch, a humorous and scholarly look at the Yiddish language.

Lewicki will transmit the spirit of Litman, the original “drag king” of Yiddish theatre, in another première. The Pepi Litman Project will examine the time when a groundbreaking performer literally “wore the pants,” led her own touring troupe, turned taverns into theatres, and tested societal boundaries with her satire. Litman toured Europe and reportedly North America, too, singing, in male garb, at spas, inns and private homes in small towns and large cities alike. 

Some of the talks and workshops on offer at the festival are The Barry Sisters: America’s Yiddish Swingsters, with Andy Muchin, the host of the Sounds Jewish radio show on PRX; Yiddish Through Song Lyrics, with Seattle-based Marianne Tatom, a Yiddish teacher and klezmer musician; and Yiddish Through Conversation, with Sasha Berenstein, a multi-instrument musician and fellow with the Yiddish Book Centre’s Yiddish Pedagogy Program. 

On June 5, Christina Crowder of the Klezmer Institute will speak about the Kiselgof-Makonovetsky Digital Manuscript Project, an international endeavour connecting participants with the work of important klezmer musicians from the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

The festival will take a walk on the vilde side on June 8 with what organizers describe as “musical mash-ups, klezmer-adjacent adventures, song parodies, unusual instruments” and offering the forecast “you never know what will pop up in this clearing in the klezmer/Yiddish jungle.” The evening will feature Seattle neo-vaudevillian Mai Li Pittard, as well as local klezmer bands Kvells Angels and the Klezbians. A new klezmer ensemble, Kvells Angels, gave a concert last fall at the University of Victoria in which they performed works previously unavailable to musicians. The Klezbians, meanwhile, are a well-known band of “chutzpah-licious” musicians, and the group goes back many a year.

Victoria’s Congregation Emanu-El, under whose auspices Klezcadia is being produced, will host the finale concert at the Cameron Bandshell, located in Beacon Hill Park. The closing concert will be a gift to the city in celebration of the congregation’s 160th anniversary. 

Festival organizers have made a concentrated effort to ensure that all participants enjoy a safe experience. The hybrid environment, they stress, will prioritize the well-being of immunocompromised and high-risk participants, for both those onstage and in the audience. Indoor activities will include protective protocols, such as supplemental air purification, required masking and daily onsite COVID testing. 

“Klezcadia was inspired by deep listening to an online meeting of immunocompromised and high-risk musicians and Yiddish-language enthusiasts in early 2023,” Rosenberg said. “During the first two years of the pandemic, they had finally felt included in the klezmer/Yiddish community, since everyone’s only option was to gather online.”

The same groups felt marginalized again when most festivals returned to unmasked, in-person formats. Through dialogue with these groups, Rosenberg realized, Victoria had a chance “to become a host community for an inclusive form of cultural tourism.”

Rosenberg said her 45-year arts administration career came in handy when building a music festival from the ground up; she had already done so with two other festivals. It has been a year’s worth of full-time work to plan the format, bring in the artists and teachers, scout venues, initiate community engagement and, importantly, raise the money.

Locals seem eager for the festival to start. “I am optimistic based on expressions of pride I have heard from Victoria residents, on how quickly Klezcadia’s in-person registration reached capacity and on the eagerness of local tourism-sector businesses to be included in our visitors’ guide,” Rosenberg said.

People from more than a dozen countries have signed up to view events streamed online.

For more information, visit klezcadia.org. 

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Format ImagePosted on May 10, 2024May 22, 2024Author Sam MargolisCategories Music, Performing ArtsTags Congregation Emanu-El, culture, health, Klezcadia, klezmer, Laura Rosenberg, Victoria, Yiddish
Writing music for life

Writing music for life

Composer Ari Kinarthy writes music using interactive hardware and software systems that form sounds from movements. His story is told in the documentary Ari’s Theme, which will screen at Hot Docs in Toronto, then be available on TELUS originals. (photo from Salazar Film)

Ari’s Theme, about Victoria composer Ari Kinarthy, will make its world première this spring at Toronto’s Hot Docs Film Festival. Directors Jeff Petry and Nathan Drillot said the idea for the documentary came from an article about Kinarthy in the Jewish Independent, which was published in April 2020.

Petry and Drillot, who run Salazar Film, a production company located in Vancouver, were intrigued and inspired by Kinarthy upon discovering his method for composing music. By using interactive hardware and software systems that form sounds from movements, Kinarthy can use the movements he makes with his wheelchair to produce music that is recorded into multimedia platforms. For example, movements closer to the recording device create lower notes and movements further away result in higher notes.

“As we learned more about Ari’s story, we thought about how interesting it would be to work with a composer like Ari, who has a very particular life experience, and ask him to compose music about the most impactful moments, dreams and experiences of his life and let us create cinematic scenes around them,” Petry said.

Petry and Drillot pitched the project to TELUS originals, which supports local documentaries by independent filmmakers in British Columbia and Alberta, with the objective of bringing films on various social topics to wider audiences.

“As the filmmaking relationship between Ari and ourselves developed, it turned into a really deep collaboration, and other themes we hadn’t expected started to grow and evolve,” said Petry. “Ari showed a lot of strength and vulnerability in creating this film with us and, for this, we are really honoured by his trust.”

Kinarthy, now in his 30s, has used a wheelchair since childhood because of type-2 spinal muscular atrophy, a condition that continues to weaken his muscles. Kinarthy is profoundly cognizant of his mortality and Ari’s Theme delves into his desire to tell his story, as he endeavours to create a new composition inspired by some of the most meaningful moments in his life.

“This film has been nothing short of a gift from God,” Kinarthy said. “The ability to install my music in a visual project is already amazing, and my dream, but to have that project be a complete portrayal of my life is truly special. I have always wanted a way to not only inspire others but to have my memory, or legacy, encapsulated so that I live on beyond my body.”

Kinarthy said he enjoys the challenge of creating grand symphonic music of the sort John Williams writes – the kind composed for a hero. There have been times in his life, he said, when he has had to fight like one.

For Kinarthy, the process of working on the film was a journey from stress to happiness. 

“Looking back and reflecting on my past, myself, and my life was challenging and rewarding. I have been through a lot and I got to write music about key moments,” he said.

“Working with Salazar was a wonderful experience,” he added. “The studio was always very understanding of my situation and gave me tons of flexibility to write how I write. They were also very helpful in helping me articulate my thoughts. The directors and I became close during the process of the film, and I am so glad I got to meet them. I will never forget them.”

Petry and Drillot have several documentaries to their credit, including Becoming Sumo, the story of Ōsunaarashi Kintarō, the world’s first Arab Muslim professional sumo wrestler; Handsome and Majestic, a short film about a teenage transgender boy growing up in Prince George; and Wizard Mode, a feature-length movie (eventually acquired by Netflix US) about Robert Gagno, a world champion pinball player.

Over the past decade, Petry and Drillot have filmed around the world, from Nunavik to Bolivia, to the Democratic Republic of Congo. They received Juno and Grammy nominations for best full-length music documentary for their work with Canadian indie rock duo Tegan and Sara. 

Despite some problems, which were recently reported in the entertainment media, it appears the show will go on for Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, now in its 31st year. In late March, director Hussain Currimbhoy stepped down for personal reasons, according to the festival. Ten other members of the programming team also left, for undisclosed reasons.

Ari’s Theme will first screen in Toronto on April 30, followed by another festival screening on May 2. After its Hot Docs run, the film will be available on TELUS Optik TV Channel 8 and online at TELUS originals.

To read the article that sparked the idea for Ari’s Theme, visit jewishindependent.ca/no-barriers-to-music. To view the documentary following its showing at Hot Docs, go to watch.telusoriginals.com. 

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Format ImagePosted on April 12, 2024April 10, 2024Author Sam MargolisCategories Music, TV & FilmTags Ari Kinarthy, composers, documentary, Jeff Petry, Nathan Drillot, Salazar Film, TELUS originals
Many invaluable contributions

Many invaluable contributions

Harley Rothstein has just released a three-CD compilation of Jewish music and secular folk songs. (photo from harleyrothstein.ca)

A little over a year ago, my friend and musical colleague Harley Rothstein – cantor, songwriter, folk singer – shared with me his freshly minted three-CD compilation of both Jewish music and secular folk songs. The recordings, several years in the making, are Modim: Songs of Spirit and Gratitude; Songs of Love and Humanity: Folk Songs of Fifty Years, Volume I; and Songs of Love and Humanity: Folk Songs of Fifty Years, Volume II.

Before getting into more “nuts and bolts,” let me say something well understood by all hardworking creatives: the life of an artist is, in a very real sense, an act of service to the community in which they live. This contribution to the community is what stands the test of time, and Harley Rothstein is undoubtedly one such indefatigable contributor, an artist who has dedicated himself to serving the community in which he lives, and sharing his work unselfishly. The compilation under discussion here is only the most recent of the many invaluable gifts of music Harley has given us over the years.

As many readers may know, Harley is a scion of the philanthropic Rothstein family; indeed, his parents are the benefactors of the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre. So, he comes by “service to the community” quite honestly.

Harley Rothstein has been singing since the age of 6, and he learned to play the guitar at age 18. Since then, he has played and performed folk songs in many locales – from Vancouver’s Bunkhouse coffeehouse in 1965 to the Princeton Traditional Music Festival from 2016 to 2019, and numerous other venues and occasions in between. He was inspired by a trip to New York’s Greenwich Village coffeehouses in 1965 and to the Berkeley Folk Festival in 1966. 

Harley also played in rock bands in the late 1960s, taught elementary music and university-level music education from 1975 to the early 1990s, and sang for 10 years in the 150-voice Vancouver Bach Choir. He studied Jewish liturgical music with several cantorial teachers and has led congregations in synagogue services for 40 years. Harley has led many sing-alongs at political and social gatherings.

Harley’s musical contributions to local Jewish life have included years of performing, teaching and mentoring others who wish to lead services. He regularly conducts services at Or Shalom and Beth Israel, and has recorded a seven-CD set of instructional recordings, which are on the Beth Israel website.  

Now to the music at hand. On Modim: Songs of Spirit and Gratitude, Harley’s meticulous work makes accessible a raft of songs for the Jewish community, for prayer and for simple enjoyment. There is a variety of offerings – a klezmer song, two songs in Ladino, and two Israeli folk songs from the 1950s. The majority of the songs are prayers from the siddur, set to music composed by pioneer songwriters such as Shlomo Carlebach and Debbie Friedman, as well as contemporary songwriters including Hanna Tiferet Siegel, Myrna Rabinowitz, David Shneyer, Jeff Klepper and Dan Freedlander, plus five of Harley’s own compositions. Harley notes: “I focus on these because all of these writers have inspired a whole new repertoire of contemporary Jewish spiritual music.”

Indeed, the music of the synagogue has been transformed by contemporary songwriters, like Harley, who, over the past generation or so have introduced the melodic and harmonic sensibilities of North American folk song into congregational song. Harley’s compositions reflect this line of creative work, and are part of a revival, for many, of a Judaism that is closer to the people, enabling all attendees to participate in services in a meaningful way. This folk music thread serves as a common sinew running through the entire three-album project. 

The Songs of Love and Humanity: Folk Songs of Fifty Years recordings are a unique compilation of folk music that, I hope and expect, will help a younger generation become aware of the significant thoughts and hopes of their forebears. This in itself, apart from being an authentic and loving look back upon the artist’s personal musical history, makes the project irreplaceable. I salute Harley for his singular dedication.

The two CDs of folk songs are comprised of numerous pieces, 32 in all, which cover a truly large sweep of folk music history. Being Harley’s contemporary, I recognized many of these songs, but there were some that I was not aware of, or only dimly so, such as those that make up the track “Union Medley,” for example, and the rare gem “Toy Gun,” a 1960s antiwar song. There are classics by Woody Guthrie (“Blowing Down the Road”; “Hard Travelin’”), Bob Dylan (“Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right”; “I Shall Be Released”) and Pete Seeger (“God’s Counting On Me God’s Counting On You”). And other heroes of folk music are well represented – Tom Paxton, Ian Tyson, Gordon Lightfoot and Stan Rogers, among others. It’s a heady mix of work and labour songs, spirituals, political songs from the 1960s and Canadian songs. Harley says, “the unifying theme was that each song has been important to me in my career of over 50 years. This is why I refer to the recordings as a ‘legacy project.’”

Regarding the production elements, I really loved the focus on voice as foreground, unfettered by excessive tech. The songs are thus presented as primary and the accompaniment is just that, in support. It is also evident that these songs have been loved by the artist for many years, and one can hear this in his renditions. On Modim: Songs of Spirit and Gratitude, check out Harley’s own settings of “Yosheiv B’seiter” (“Dwelling in the Shelter of the Most High”), “Luley He’emanti” (“Mine is the Faith”) and the titular piece “Modim” (“We Give Thanks to You”). On Songs of Love and Humanity, I was delighted by his renditions of “Pack Up Your Sorrows,” “Follow the Drinking Gourd” and “Blowing Down the Road,” among many others. Throughout the recordings, Harley’s lyric baritone voice is always a pleasure to listen to.

Included with each CD is an informative booklet, with texts and backgrounders for all the songs. To find out more about the recordings, how to purchase them digitally or in hard copy, visit harleyrothstein.ca. 

Moshe Denburg is a Vancouver-based composer, bandleader of the Jewish music ensemble Tzimmes, and the founder of the Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra (VICO).

Format ImagePosted on April 12, 2024April 10, 2024Author Moshe DenburgCategories MusicTags composers, folk music, Harley Rothstein, history, Judaism, labour songs, liturgical music, prayer
Dance as an act of solidarity

Dance as an act of solidarity

Iraqis in Pajamas’ new album is a tribute to the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre.

In the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre of Israelis…. And the celebrations that followed worldwide – glorifying the raping, burning and decapitating of my people…. 

And the subsequent mass destruction of posters raising awareness of Israeli hostages being tortured in captivity by Hamas…. 

And the simultaneous call for a violent uprising against Jews worldwide…. 

And the astronomical spike in hate crimes against Jews – among other things, leading to incessant harassment, assaults and death threats of students at my alma mater, Columbia University, and additionally leading to the murder of a kind Jewish man I knew in Los Angeles….

And the international mob chants of “From the river to the sea,” harkening back to the harrowing cries my father heard on Arabic radio stations as a child in Iraq, “We will throw the Jews into the sea.”…

And the palpable terror I then felt as a Jew, whose family had seen this before, had fled this before, in a pro-Nazi uprising in Baghdad, where a similar massacre had taken place during my father’s childhood….

And the deafening silence in the wake of all this – not even one word of care or kindness from the vast majority of non-Jewish people I had loved, had lived with, had broken bread with….

And I felt as if I had died.

I stopped journaling, stopped writing poetry, stopped writing music, stopped singing, stopped playing bass, stopped dancing. I got sick repeatedly and continuously over the course of two months, even ended up in the emergency room with symptoms of a possible stroke at 2 a.m. one night – this, after years and years of never getting sick, not once, not even when my ex got COVID and I nursed him back to health. 

I couldn’t sleep, had nightmares, woke up in the middle of the night, lying awake for hours, my mind circling around and around, imagining the horror and terror the hostages must be suffering through. I was haunted by the video image I accidentally had seen of a young Jewish woman who was naked and chained, publicly being dragged around by Hamas, as they filmed her – one of the many Jewish women they gang raped and mutilated that day, often next to the dead bodies of these women’s friends – filming that violence, too, in something akin to snuff porn. 

I could feel it in my body.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t move.

Despite the impact on me, I felt that, somehow, by energetically experiencing and, by extension, by physically experiencing the pain that my people were enduring, I was communicating a telepathic message to them: I will not forsake you, I will not forget you. 

No, I will not frolic on the beach beneath the misty grey soothing skies. No, I will not enjoy the quiet, peace and comfort of the vast rainforest just outside my door. No, I will not detach myself from something “happening on the other side of the world,” as a non-

Jewish acquaintance kindly advised, because there is no “other side of the world” when it comes to Jews. You are me, and I am you, and we are connected. I cannot control the world’s response, but I can control mine. I will face, see, hear and feel your pain, until it is gone.

But wait…. That’s exactly what Hamas wants, isn’t it? To demoralize and destroy Jews. To suffocate us, hijack our imagination. To strip us of our dignity, safety, peace and, perhaps most of all, joy.

So, to reclaim my joy is, in fact, a radical act of Jewish power and solidarity. To flip imagination on its head – instead of visualizing all the horrors and shrinking in my body, to instead expand in my body and visualize all the hostages, injured people and 

grieving families as resilient, grounded, surrounded by love, and the dead as soaring freely and peacefully, wrapping their loved ones in comfort.

Nothing is black and white, but this is an article, not a book, so I’m trying to keep it short and sweet. Suffice it to say, I actively and repeatedly attempted to turn the images around over the course of two months – to send white light, to bless the hostages, to emit some kind of protective energetic shield, but it kept seeming silly, foolish, without actual impact, perhaps just making myself feel better, like a hollow New Ager. My prayers would not stop a psychopathic Hamas gunman with absolute control over a hostage, I reasoned, because G-d gave humans both the gift and curse of free will. 

But then….

But then I went to a concert of Yemen Blues, which was more of a primal howl of freedom than a “performance,” and which featured an Israeli woman dancing with a defiant, raw ferocity that brought back to life the sanctity, dignity and power of the Jewish female body – and, with that, permission to dance.

And, after that, I started dancing again. And, after that, I started singing again. And, after that, I started frolicking with my beautiful dog beneath the misty grey, soothing skies on the beach, and through the vast rainforest just outside my door.

And I came back to life.

In this very difficult but transformative journey, I learned that life begets life begets life, and artistic self-expression is not an indulgence, but rather, a superpower. 

As I danced on the beach with my dog over a couple of days, a vision emerged – a global movement of Jews and our allies taking videos of ourselves dancing joyfully, and sending those videos to the people wounded in the Oct. 7 massacre, the families of those who died, the families of those taken hostage, and the young women and men on the frontlines defending Israel from further attack – turning “we will dance again” into “we will dance for you until you can dance again” – sharing whatever strength, freedom and joy we have to uplift those who are in the thick of it, struggling and suffering.

Having snapped out of an emotional coma of sorts, I then picked up my bass, and out poured both the melody and lyrics of a new song, “’Til You Can Dance Again.” That same day, I finally finished the song I had started a few weeks after Oct. 7, “Dear Hostages.” Not having touched my bass for the better part of three months, I played until my fingers were blistered and almost bleeding. Over the next 24 hours, I wrote two additional songs, and then worked with my band on developing a full album, ’Til You Can Dance Again, offering both my journey and my joy as a catalyst for healing and transformation.

It is through song, dance, story, prayer and food that Jews historically have not only overcome tragedy, but have taken that very experience and transmuted it into an vehicle for joy – the ultimate “f*** you” to those who have tried to destroy us. For this reason, my band released our new album on March 23, at the start of Purim, a holiday marking one of many historical traumas that the Jewish people have turned on its head and morphed into a cause for celebration. My heartfelt prayer for this album is that, as broken as we may feel right now, we shall once again rise up, sing and dance ourselves back to wholeness, and honour the victims of Oct. 7 not only through our grief and pain, but also through our fierce and irrepressible Jewish joy – emerging, once again, like that unstoppable phoenix, soaring up and out from the ashes. 

Loolwa Khazzoom (khazzoom.com) is the frontwoman for the band Iraqis in Pajamas and editor of The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage (theflyingcamelbook.com). She has been a pioneering Jewish multicultural educator since 1990, and her writing has been featured in the Washington Post, Marie Claire, Rolling Stone and other top media worldwide. This article was originally published in the Times of Israel.

More about the album

On March 23, Iraqis in Pajamas released the album ‘Til You Can Dance Again, as a tribute to the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre.

Its creation served as a vehicle for Khazzoom’s processing and healing, and the tone of the songs evolved as Khazzoom herself evolved from feeling despair to outrage to core power.

“Dear Hostages” is a love song to those held in captivity, in which Khazzoom pledges, I will not forsake you, I will not forget you, as she explores what it means to act in solidarity from afar. 

“’Til You Can Dance Again” is a spin on the Israeli promise, “We will dance again” – vowing to spread the life energy of dance, to help uplift the spirits of those who were shattered by the massacre. 

“Bataween” draws from a conversation with an Iraqi Muslim friend, exemplifying the healing imperative of Arab Muslims recognizing and caring about the history of indigenous Middle Eastern Jews, including the experience of Arab Muslim oppression. 

“Kids from the Sandbox” builds on that imperative, holding out a vision for Arabs and Jews to embrace the complexity of shared history, using art to express love and hate in healthy ways, effectively co-creating a new reality. 

“I’m a F***-You Jew” fuses ancient and contemporary stories of Jewish defiance and soul power in an unabashed expression of Jewish pride and strength amid an onslaught of global accusation and condemnation. 

“These Boots” is a campy spin on “never again,” calling out the left’s hypocrisy and betrayal in the wake of Oct. 7, and refusing to contribute Jewish energy and resources to those who do not offer the same in turn. 

“Bloody Cross” is a scathing critique of the Red Cross’s racism and hypocrisy in its failure and refusal to properly care for the Israeli hostages in Gaza.

For the full press release, and to listen to the recordings, visit khazzoom.com/blog and click on ’Til You Can Dance Again – New Album Release.

– Courtesy Iraqis in Pajamas

Format ImagePosted on April 12, 2024April 10, 2024Author Loolwa KhazzoomCategories MusicTags creativity, Iraqis in Pajamas, Israel, mourning, Oct. 7, terror attacks
Songs released since Oct. 7 

Songs released since Oct. 7 

At Beth Tikvah Synagogue on April 2, Israeli music expert and radio personality Josh Shron will present A Musical Hug from Israel. (photo from Josh Shron)

Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Richmond welcomes Israeli music expert and radio personality Josh Shron on April 2. Shron, longtime host of the radio show and podcast Israel Hour Radio, will be in Calgary and Vancouver as part of a North American tour. He will present A Musical Hug from Israel, which explores songs that have been released in Israel since Oct. 7.

For Shron, Israeli music has always meant more than just nice tunes in Hebrew. It’s been a window into Israeli society, providing a meaningful glimpse into the heart and soul of the Jewish state. “I’ve long believed that Israeli music has the power to connect us to our homeland unlike anything else,” Shron said. “The songs are great, but the stories behind them often teach us a great deal about the amazing spirit of Israel.”

It’s that amazing spirit that has enabled Israelis to cope with the horrific events of Oct.7.  Music has been a large part of the healing process.

“The music that’s emerged from this tragedy has been nothing short of inspirational,” said Shron. “It makes us cry, makes us sigh and makes us proud to be supporters of Israel – sometimes all in the same song.”

The presentation will feature a selection of Israeli songs, seen on video with English subtitles. The music will highlight the unity, optimism and determination that have characterized the Israeli people throughout this challenging period, showcasing the resilience and strength that unite them in the face of adversity. The repertoire will include songs that touch on themes of sadness and death. Other songs will shed light on the plight of Israeli hostages in Gaza, serving as a reminder of the desperation felt around the world to bring them all home.

Several Vancouverites have previewed Shron’s presentation and agree that it is a powerful and unique way for the local community to understand the rollercoaster of emotions that Israelis and other Jews around the world have been experiencing.

A former resident of New Jersey, Shron recently fulfilled a lifelong dream by making aliyah with his wife and four of his five children, moving to Modi’in in August 2023.

“I’ve immersed myself in Israeli music for more than 25 years,” he said, “and the more I listened, the more I felt like I belonged there. We put it off for years, but, with our kids getting older, we realized it’s now or never – and we weren’t prepared to say never. Obviously, we wish the circumstances were different, but, during this challenging time, it just feels right to be there. It’s only been a few months, but we can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

Thanks to sponsor support from the Kehila Society, Richmond Jewish Day School and the Vancouver Israeli Folkdance Society, tickets to A Musical Hug at Beth Tikvah April 2, 7 p.m., are only $10 each. As part of the event, Hadas Klinger will lead an Israeli dance session immediately following Shron’s presentation.

The event is for adults 19+ and registration is recommended, as space is limited. Visit tinyurl.com/28anpjab. 

– Courtesy Beth Tikvah

Format ImagePosted on March 22, 2024March 20, 2024Author Beth Tikvah CongregationCategories MusicTags Beth Tikvah, Israel Hour Radio, Josh Shron, music, Oct. 7, social commentary, terrorism
Lanyi’s live Canadian debut

Lanyi’s live Canadian debut

The Vancouver Recital Society hosts London, England-based pianist Ariel Lanyi on March 3. (photo © Kaupo Kikkas)

“Art is there to remind us that there is something bigger and greater than the present moment, something that will remain long after we are gone, which is worthy of our devotion and commitment,” pianist Ariel Lanyi told the Independent in a recent interview. Lanyi will perform an afternoon concert at Vancouver Playhouse March 3.

Hosted by the Vancouver Recital Society, Lanyi will play works by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849) and Max Reger (1883-1916). In a Facebook post, the London, England-based pianist noted his pleasure at working on Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Bach, calling it an “underrated masterpiece of the late-Romantic era” that he couldn’t wait to bring to the stage in 2024.

“Max Reger had a problem: writing fugues was too easy for him. He could jot down fugues with the same ease that Picasso could scribble drawings. Hence, his music sometimes falls into a trap of gratuitous polyphony. However, when he put his heart and soul into a work, as he did with the Bach Variations (which he considered to be his finest work), the result is worthwhile,” Lanyi explained to the Independent. “We hear a multitude of styles in this work – at times, we hear the world of Brahms and his traditional harmonic language; at times, we enter the post-Wagnerian sphere, and we even get a glimpse of more decadent music that was yet to be written. Still, it hangs together organically, and comes to a rousing ending, as all threads convene and the piano truly emulates the sound of the organ. 

“The reason this work is underrated and underplayed is quite obvious,” he added. “People tend to avoid Reger, and it takes a Herculean effort to learn this work. However, I earnestly believe that it is a masterpiece of piano literature.”

Last spring, Lanyi was awarded the Prix Serdang, which is given to young pianists at the beginning of their careers who excel in musicianship and artistic vision. The head of the selection panel, Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, said of Lanyi: “His playing is precise, nuanced and virtuosic, but he is no superficial virtuoso. What sets him apart is his ability to delve deeply into the music and to establish a connection with it. He doesn’t simply play the notes, he lives the music, seeks to capture its essence, and reflects it with extraordinary intensity, sensibility and expressive maturity.”

If one reads Lanyi’s posts and blogs, one gets a hint of the research that he puts into his performances, which have garnered critical acclaim. In addition to the Prix Serdang, Lanyi won third prize at the 2021 Leeds International Piano Competition. Also in 2021, he was a prize winner in the inaugural Young Classical Artists Trust (London, England) and Concert Artists Guild (New York) International Auditions, as well as being a finalist in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. Other honours for the 26-year-old pianist include first prize at the 2018 Grand Prix Animato Competition in Paris and first prize in the 2017 Dudley International Piano Competition in the United Kingdom.

Born in Jerusalem, Lanyi studied piano at the Conservatory of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and moved to London in 2015 to study at the Royal Academy of Music. He remained in the city after graduating in 2021. Last month, he was among those selected by the Royal Academy for a 2023-2024 associate honour, which will be conferred in April: the award recognizes former students who have made “significant contributions to the musical landscape.”

Lanyi has performed around the world, both as a soloist on his own and with orchestras, and as a chamber musician. When he plays concertos or chamber music, he said of his preparation, “I always make sure to study the full score, in order to grasp the music from all points of view, not just through the prism of my individual part. When playing alone, obviously, this doesn’t apply.”

Among the highlights listed on Lanyi’s website for this season is the VRS concert next month. In 2021, during COVID, the recital society shared Lanyi’s Virtually VRS recorded performance on its YouTube channel. The March concert will be his live debut in Canada. In addition to the Reger composition, it will feature Beethhoven’s Sonata No. 30 in E Major, Op. 109; Chopin’s Mazurkas, Op. 59; and Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op. 61.

“Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 109 is a work that has been in my repertoire for quite awhile,” Lanyi told the Independent. “It was the first of the late Beethoven sonatas I worked on as a teenager, so coming back to it now feels enormously gratifying, as my idea of it has evolved in the years since. (It is also, if I remember correctly, the first work for piano to have ever moved me to tears.) The first two movements are concise and contrasting – from the relative serenity of the first movement to the fearful obsessiveness of the second. The third movement begins and ends with a hymn of gratitude and, in between, we are taken on a comprehensive journey through six distinct variations, each inhabiting its own world, deviating from the theme in the most fascinating ways while retaining the same epicentral connection to it.

“The two Chopin works in this program – the Op. 59 Mazurkas and the Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op. 61 – both stem from the composer’s late period, which is characterized by harmonic and structural exploration we seldom find in his earlier works. The mazurkas are elegant and poignant at the same time – in the midst of mellifluous music, Chopin finds ways to express intense distress with bold, dissonant harmonies, often left exposed. The Polonaise-Fantaisie is among his most symphonic works, I find. He never wrote any symphonies and, in my view, some of the late works make up for that by using the piano orchestrally. In the slow middle section of the Polonaise-Fantaisie, we almost hear a foretelling of Bruckner in the long, interwoven lines, which lead to the most unexpected places.”

Lanyi said he doesn’t have any specific formula for choosing performance repertoire.

“Usually, I have an idea of one or two central works I want to include in a program, and look for works which will complement them in a balanced way,” he said. “In the case of this program, the Reger has been on my mind for many years, so I was looking to combine it with works which aren’t as heavy.”

Lanyi’s March 3 performance takes place at 3 p.m. and is followed by a talkback. For tickets, visit vanrecital.com/concert/ariel-lanyi-2. 

Format ImagePosted on February 9, 2024February 8, 2024Author Cynthia RamsayCategories MusicTags Ariel Lanyi, Beethoven, Chopin, piano, Reger, Vancouver Recital Society, VRS

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