Alon Sariel is Early Music Vancouver\u2019s artist in residence for this summer\u2019s festival. (photo by Suzette Vorster-Van Acker)<\/i><\/p>\n
‘We are thrilled to offer audiences an adventurous program of some of Bach\u2019s seminal works, but with a twist,\u201d said Early Music Vancouver artistic and executive director Suzie LeBlanc in a press release announcing this summer\u2019s early music festival. \u201cFrom traditional compositions reworked for unique instruments, such as mandolin and oud, to the introduction of vocal improvisation, inspired by Bach\u2019s own customary practice of instrumental extemporization, Bach Untamed welcomes listeners to seek out new perspectives of Bach\u2019s well-known and beloved classics.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s festival \u2013 which runs July 30-Aug. 8 at various venues \u2013 features almost 50 emerging and established early music artists from around the world, including mandolinist and multi-instrumentalist Alon Sariel, who is EMV\u2019s 2024 Summer Festival Artist in Residence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to headlining two concerts \u2013 Alon Sariel: Plucked Bach<\/i> at Congregation Beth Israel on July 31, in which he will premiere his own Bach-inspired Mandolin Partita, and EMV\u2019s festival finale at the Vancouver Playhouse, which features the Canadian premiere of Amit Weiner\u2019s 2019 reconstruction of Bach\u2019s Italian Concerto \u2013 Sariel will perform in several other festival concerts, as well as teach a workshop on Bach for plucked instruments.<\/p>\n Sariel, who was born and raised in Beersheba, Israel, met LeBlanc at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, in the Netherlands, last fall.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was playing there with friends from Profeti della Quinta, an Israeli vocal ensemble based in Switzerland, who was already a guest of EMV in the past,\u201d Sariel told the Independent<\/i>. \u201cSuzie and I had a chat and it turned out I had some very different programs to offer and that a residency could be a lovely idea to feature a few of those.\u201d<\/p>\n Sariel\u2019s first visit to Vancouver was more than 30 years ago, as a kid, with his family. He\u2019s excited to return. He arrived July 24 and will be staying until Aug. 9 \u2013 \u201cthe final concert, Bach & the Mandolin<\/i>, with the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, is on Aug. 8,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe program looks really splendid (a huge shout out to Suzie!) and I\u2019m very glad and proud to wear the artist-in-residence hat this summer \u2013 can\u2019t wait really!\u201d said Sariel.<\/p>\n LeBlanc started the artist-in-residence program in 2021 \u201cto create more exchanges between EMV\u2019s guests and the local community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEMV has under its wing a local baroque orchestra \u2013 the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, led by Alexander Weimann \u2013 and a Baroque Mentorship Orchestra Program (BOMP) at UBC for students and community players,\u201d she explained. \u201cIn addition to his own concerts in the summer festival, Alon will collaborate with these ensembles, working with professionals, students and community players, going beyond concert performances and delivering a collaborative and educational experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHe will also lead a three-day course called \u2018Unconventional Bach,\u2019 which focuses on playing and arranging Bach\u2019s works for different instruments,\u201d she said, noting, \u201cAlon is also a composer and his guiding principle is \u2018giving new life to existing material, as well as creating completely new works.\u2019 We\u2019re excited to have an artist in residence who shares this philosophy with EMV and will be so present beyond the concert stage.\u201d<\/p>\n LeBlanc described Sariel\u2019s Bach solos on mandolin as \u201ccaptivating and very personal.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe fully deserves his notoriety as one of the most versatile and gifted mandolin players, lutenists and ensemble directors of today,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A soloist, chamber player and artistic director, Sariel has performed more than 1,000 concerts in more than 35 countries, according to his bio. In his Plucked Bach<\/i> recordings (Pentatone), he interprets Bach\u2019s solo music and creates new arrangements for mandolin and lute, the baroque guitar and the oud. His album Telemandolin<\/i> (Berlin Classics) was awarded an OPUS KLASSIK, making Sariel the first mandolinist to earn the honour. But the path to professional success hasn\u2019t been easy and, said Sariel, \u201cthere are still many obstacles in the way of a mandolin player.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor any violinist, pianist, conductor, etc., there are many competitions which could serve as a jump step to a musical career \u2013 the mandolin has none,\u201d he explained. \u201cI attended several competitions which were open to all instruments and won them all and, even then, I kept getting lines like, \u2018Thank you very much for getting in touch, we\u2019ll contact you shall we be interested in the future.\u2019 Booking agencies, record labels and concert halls can still be very suspicious when it comes to the mandolin, that\u2019s why I feel a great responsibility in every concert that I play. It\u2019s not only about me getting re-invited, but it\u2019s about convincing this or that director and, of course, the audience, to give a chance to something new. The theatres could always go for another Rachmaninoff piano concerto or another Beethoven symphony, they don\u2019t have to \u2018take a risk\u2019 with a mandolin player, that\u2019s why I really have to stand out in my artistic profile in order to get the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n LeBlanc first heard about Sariel from Renaud Loranger, the artistic director of the Festival de Lanaudi\u00e8re in Qu\u00e9bec. When she met Sariel at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, she said, \u201cOur meeting was very pleasant \u2013 his playing was fabulous \u2013 and I immediately saw that he would be a great and versatile artist in residence. Also, I knew that Vancouverites love the mandolin player Avi Avital, who has played many times in Vancouver. What perhaps they don\u2019t know is that Alon has collaborated with Avi on a recording of Vivaldi\u2019s concerto for two mandolins (Deutsche Grammophon, 2020). I hope all mandolin lovers will come out to hear Alon \u2013 he has brought to light many works for the mandolin from centuries past and commissioned composers to write new pieces for him.\u201d<\/p>\n And to think that Sariel wanted to play the electric guitar when he was a kid.<\/p>\n \u201cI wished to learn e-guitar, but I was much too young for that,\u201d he recalled. \u201cThe director of the conservatory gave me a little basic test \u2013 I had to clap some rhythms and sing some tones, etc. She suggested I should take the violin, but I wasn\u2019t excited. Then she said there\u2019s also the mandolin \u2013 which I didn\u2019t know at all \u2013 and that it\u2019s in fact \u2018very similar\u2019 to the guitar, you hold it pretty much the same way, but the size would be perfect for an 8-year-old. She mentioned the mandolin orchestra and the fact it gets to represent the city occasionally, even abroad, so I agreed to give it a try and thought I\u2019d shift to e-guitar later on. Very soon I forgot about the guitar and was all invested in the mandolin, I absolutely loved it!\u201d<\/p>\n LeBlanc chooses EMV\u2019s artists in residence \u201cfirst and foremost for their great artistry, for their extensive knowledge of historical performance practice, and their ability to share their ideas and knowledge generously,\u201d she said. Previous artists in residence have been Cree-M\u00e9tis baritone Jonathon Adams (2021); Scottish Baroque specialists David Greenberg and David McGuiness, violin and keyboard (2022); and Catalina Vicens, keyboard and curator of the Tagliavini Collection of ancient musical instruments in Bologna, Italy (2023).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt has been extremely rewarding to watch the program grow over the past few years, and hear the enthusiastic audience feedback to our different artists in residence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n