Eine Kleine Summer Music 2022

Following two years without live concerts, EKSM’s musicians and board of directors are excited about our return in June 2022. Our re-opening is being planned with everyone’s health and safety in mind. The seating capacity will be as it was before restrictions, but proof of vaccination will be required, masks will be encouraged, and ventilation of the hall will be a priority. We have missed the joyful experience of live chamber music, and we have missed you!

On June 11/12, our season opens with our resident musicians, the Muse Ensemble, in a program of Schubert, Mozart, and Mahler piano quartets. Violinist Terence Tam, violist Kenji Fuse, cellist Laura Backstrom, and pianist Lorraine Min will have just returned from a Gulf Island tour with this beautiful program.

June 19/20 brings back violinist Jasper Wood, whose tone and intensity enthralled us in last year’s virtual concerts. Jasper Wood has a thriving reputation as a soloist through his frequent performances with many of North America’s finest orchestras, in cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Buffalo, and throughout Europe. Jasper will collaborate with pianist Lorraine Min in Robert Schumann’s Fantasy Pieces, Clara Schumann’s Romance No. 1, Dvorak’s Sonatina op 100, and Eckhardt-Gramatté’s Caprice. Cellist Laura Backstrom will join Jasper and Lorraine in Schubert’s deeply expressive Piano Trio in E Flat, Op 100. (Famously featured in the Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon.)

We have admired the New Orford String Quartet ever since they formed in 2009. They truly created a new model of a touring quartet: four world-class orchestral leaders and soloists committed to performing chamber music at the highest level. Violinists Jonathan Crow and Andrew Wan, violist Sharon Wei, and cellist Brian Manker hold important roles in Canada’s cultural life: Jonathan is concertmaster of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Andrew is concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Sharon has won a JUNO award, toured every province and territory, and is a professor at Western University, and Brian is principal cellist with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. The quartet frequently tours the major cities of North America, as well as remote rural locations and smaller Canadian communities. The New Orford String Quartet is Artist in Residence at the University Club of Toronto.
On Sunday June 26 the New Orford String Quartet is bringing a very colourful program to our stage. Tango Ballet, by Astor Piazzolla, the Adagio for String Quartet by Samuel Barber, Dvorak’s famous American String Quartet, as well as two intriguing works by young women composers.

We first hosted the Calidore String Quartet in June 2019, and they were a megahit! The New York based ensemble has been described as “a miracle of unified thought…” (La Presse) and “nothing short of a revelation” (Calgary Herald). Highlights of their ’21-’22 season include returns to Wigmore Hall in London, Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. The Calidore will make their debut at the Library of Congress, Harvard University, Penn State University and internationally in The Hague and Antwerp. They will premiere a new work commissioned by Wigmore Hall and will collaborate with the Emerson Quartet. The Calidore Quartet’s program includes four works that share a common outdoorsy theme: Haydn’s Op 1 no 1, La Chasse; Mozart’s K. 458, The Hunt; Brahms’ Op 67 in B flat; and Jörg Widmann’s Jagdquartet. The quartet will play two mid-week concerts, June 28 and 29.

First Unitarian Church of Victoria, 5575 West Saanich Road (doors open 30 mins before event)
Sundays, June 12, 19, 26 @ 2:30pm (Muse Ensemble, Jasper Wood, New Orford String Quartet)
Tuesday, June 28 @ 7:00pm (Calidore String Quartet)

Deep Cove Winery, 11195 Chalet Road, North Saanich (doors open 30 mins before event)
Saturday, June 11 @ 2:30pm (Muse Ensemble)
Monday, June 20 @ 7:00pm (Jasper Wood)
Wednesday, June 29 @ 7:00pm (Calidore String Quartet)