For Victoria’s growing audience of contemporary art music, the fourth Oak Bay New Music Festival will have plenty to offer. As in previous years, local composers and performers connected to the Victoria Composers Collective take centre stage to present the latest contemporary music sound.
We're very excited about our upcoming New Music Festival! Save the dates: June 2 & 3 #oakbay #newmusic https://t.co/yrp5YkUMmI pic.twitter.com/mLQjtgMLGc
— Oak Bay Music (@OakBayMusic) May 17, 2018
Festival organizers centered this year’s concerts around the theme The Art of Listening: Reinvigorating the Arts of Reception.
“Every performance on the program has been hand-crafted and designed in consultation with the composer, providing a unique perspective and a peak into the creative world of the composer,” said Lynne Penhale, composer and organizer of the festival since its inception in 2015. “My favourite element of our festival is not just the music, but the community that surrounds it: it brings people together.”
A new “Global Perspectives” concert, developed out of an international “Call for Scores” will be performed on Saturday night.
“The festival invites the audience to experience many different ways of listening, and with entries by composers from Croatia, Uruguay, New York, Texas and Scotland, this concert will offer an even wider variety of new music styles,” said Penhale, grateful for the large number of composers contributing to this year’s events.
The festival’s opening concert on Saturday afternoon showcases a program of Canadian Art Songs. Composed during the 20th and early 21st century, this program will be sung by Cathy Fern Lewis.
“Canada has a wealth of superb art songs, and I’m so pleased to perform these beautiful songs with pianist and contemporary music champion, Rachel Iwaasa,” Lewis said. “This program is close to my heart; I am carrying on the tradition of her teacher mentor, renowned Canadian soprano Frances James Adaskin.”
The final concert, consisting solely of works composed for keyboard instruments by members of the Victoria Composers Collective will be presented on Sunday afternoon.
All festival concerts take place on June 2 and 3 at St. Mary’s Anglican Church on Elgin Rd. in Oak Bay. Tickets $20/$15 are available at Ivy’s Books and at the door. For more details on the festival visit oakbaymusic.ca.
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