LISSA ALEXANDER
reporter@pqbnews.com
A piano trio will captivate a local audience Sunday afternoon at Vancouver Island Opera’s last recital performance of the season in Parksville.
A piano trio is chamber music for piano as well as two other instruments, and on Sunday that will include Eric Wilson on cello and Gwen Thompson on violin. The two will accompany Nikolai Maloff on piano.
Maloff has won a number of major piano competitions around the world including the Virginia Waring in the United States, Franz Liszt in Italy, and the Eckhardt-Gramatt in Canada. He holds a doctoral degree in musical arts from the University of British Columbia (UBC) and runs a private studio in Vancouver as well as teaches at the School of Music at UBC.
Artistic director with Vancouver Island Opera, Tatiana Vasilieva, is Maloff’s mother. She said chamber music is a form of classical music for a small group of instruments which could traditionally fit into a palace chamber.
Musicians also got together at residences socializing and enjoying playing music, she said. A German poet described this chamber music gathering as a musical conversation between musicians and it became known as the music of friends. Hence this concert is titled, Nikolai and Friends, Vasilieva explained.
Besides the piano trio, Wilson will play the cello with piano accompaniment on Sunday, and similarly Thompson will play the violin complimented by piano.
“It will be wonderful music: Beethoven, Mozart and the music our people here love,” Vasilieva said.
Wilson has performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He is Head of Strings at the University of British Columbia’s School of Music.
Gwen Thompson has been performing, teaching and coaching music for 45 years. She has acted as concertmaster of Orchestra London, the CBC Chamber Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony.
The recital on May 25 will take place at 3 p.m. at the McMillan Arts Centre, located at 133 McMillan Street in Parksville. For more information call Vasilieva at 250-586-6095.
VIO will present the full length opera Rigoletto October 18 and 19 at the Qualicum Beach Civic Centre accompanied by a full orchestra.
