For those who could do with a relaxing ride on a river of music, composer-pianist Serge Mazerand will oblige Saturday, March 12 at the SAGA Public Art Gallery with Impromptu on Stage: A piano conversation with Serge Mazerand.
The CD is a melding of Debussy’s Clair du lune with Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata first movement, spun together with the haunting cry of the loon.
“I was fly fishing on a lake early in the morning and heard the loon in the mist. And I had been at home practising Clair de lune,” he says. “I thought the cry of the loon was very close to the opening notes of Clair de lune. I was so excited I had to rush back to work on that.”
Mazerand says the inspiration for his music comes from nature.
“Nature is my temple and music is my prayer,” he says, noting his concert will also include improvisations as well as music from various recordings.
Mazerand says the CD has been well-received and well-reviewed.
“Serge Mazerand’s CD Clair de loon is a very imaginative and tasteful disc which contains beautiful arrangements of well-known classical works, as well as an original composition,” says Les Dala, music director and conductor of Vancouver Opera and the Prince George Symphony Orchestra.
“All are performed with subtlelty and beautiful sound and the effect is truly that of creating a soundscape which offers the listener peace and tranquility.
“Although I have never been a fan of this genre, I greatly enjoyed listening to this recording. Highly recommended!”
In this, Mazerand’s second appearance in Salmon Arm, he will focus primarily on the title track of his CD. But there will also be pieces by Mendelssohn, Schubert and Massenet’s Thais Meditation for piano.
“You know how inspired I am by water, so most of my pieces will be flowing,” he says. “I want people to come out of this refreshed as if they had spent time around a stream lying on cool moss and listening to the water gurgle and flow. “
Born in France, Mazerand began playing the piano and training classically at age five. It was around the same time his father taught him to fish in a small lake near the family’s country home.
Music took backstage for a while as the artist embarked upon an international career in the luxury perfume industry, during which he managed to fish some of the oceans and rivers of the world, playing the piano occasionally in bars and lounges.
Yet fishing seemed to emerge as the overwhelming passion, so much so, that eventually he decided to immigrate to British Columbia and operate a first-class, floating salmon fishing resort.
But his drive to play and compose returned with a vengeance when he sold the fishing lodge and bought a home on what he calls a blue-ribbon steelhead river in the Bulkley Valley.
A finely-tuned performer as well, Mazerand enjoys taking his music on tour.
“I very much look forward to this, I love the piano in the SAGA Art Gallery,” he says, describing his performance as a therapeutic concert designed to re-establish the listener’s own flow of subtle energy. “And I hope the great people who came the first time will be back – and bring some friends.”
The March 12 concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at the art gallery. Tickets at $15 are available at Acorn Music or at the door.
Tickets are also available by visiting www.sergemazerand.com, and clicking the paypal logo on the site then send the payment to serge@sergemazerand.com.
Mazerand’s site also provides the opportunity to sample some of his music, including his latest CD,
