Jeremy Potts is no stranger to the valley music scene.
Growing up in Courtenay he began his violin studies at the age of six with Mary Hill, and frequently participated in the Comox Valley Music Festival, earning top prizes in his category.
At the age of 13 he studied with Marie-Andre Grey in Parksville and then finally with Dr. Calvin Dyck, concertmaster of the Vancouver Island Symphony, with whom he earned his Grade 10 RCM certificate.
Jeremy has participated in the junior strings and fiddle music programs with CYMC and from 2003-2006 he participated in the CYMC orchestral program as principal second violin and assistant concertmaster under the baton of Yariv Aloni.
After his graduation from G.P. Vanier in 2007, Jeremy was one of 90 musicians between the ages of 15 and 28 to participate in the National Youth Orchestra of Canada in London, Ont., and was principal second violin and assistant concertmaster at just 17.
Jeremy participated twice more with the orchestra, in 2009 as concertmaster under Alain Trudel and in 2010 under Jacques Lacombe, which marked the 50th anniversary of the program and a Canadian tour.
For the past four years Jeremy has been studying music performance at the University of Victoria with Ann Elliott-Goldschmid, first violinist of the Lafayette String Quartet.
Jeremy has won many awards, including the Murray Adaskin Endowment for Strings, the Daisy Thirlwall Scholarship for Violin and most recently the Johann Strauss Scholarship, which is sending Jeremy to study this summer at the prestigious Mozarteum Conservatory in Salzburg, Austria.
This April, Jeremy graduated from UVic with his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BMus) and will be playing with the Victoria Symphony in September for their 2012-2013 season.
Karl Hirzer grew up in New Westminster, where he started piano lessons at an early age.
After earning his ARCT certificate in 2007, he was accepted to the UVic school of Music in 2008, where he studied with Bruce Vogt.
In 2011, his talents earned him the highly competitive Johann Strauss Scholarship allowing him to study at the Mozarteum Summer Academy in Salzburg, Austria under the tutelage of the great Robert Levin.
Karl met Jeremy at UVic in 2008 and began to collaborate in 2010. From Jeremy’s graduating recital in March 2012, to a third-year recital in 2010, what started out as a friendship fostered into an incredibly energetic, dynamic and astounding musical collaboration.
Karl also graduated this April with his BMUS in piano performance, and is looking to eventually move to Germany to pursue his musical ambitions.
The concert will feature Mozart’s beautiful violin sonata in e minor (KV. 304) and Beethoven’s furious and virtuosic “Kreutzer” Sonata. Works by J.S. Bach and Franz Liszt will round out the evening.
Potts and Hirzer perform May 12 at 7:30 at the Stan Hagen Theater at North Island College’s Courtenay campus. Tickets are available at the door, and admission is by donation with a suggested donation of $10. A portion of the proceeds will be given to the Piano Society for their generous support.
— Jeremy Potts
