Via Salzburg Chamber Ensemble Welcomes the Chinese Year of the Snake
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan 25, 2013) - Via Salzburg Chamber Ensemble welcomes the Chinese Year of the Snake on Friday, February 22, 2013 at 8:00 PM with The Breath of Life. In this cross cultural program, Canadian composer Alice Ho showcases Chinese style in a piece originally written for Peking Opera artist William Lau. Fair Maiden from a Distant Land describes the romantic and feminine side of a legendary female warrior. The lyrical writing evokes sounds of traditional Chinese bow and pluck string instruments, here depicting an innocent young woman yearning for her love, yet knowing that her fate lies in fighting to protect her homeland. Emily Cheung, artistic director of Little Pear Garden Collective of Toronto, will add authentic colour with a solo dance she has choreographed especially for this concert.
Guest artist Naomi Seiler, Principal Viola of the Hamburg Opera, also joins Via Salzburg in performing two very special viola quintets. The unique Phantasy Quintet by Ralph Vaughan Williams was written at the request of English industrialist W.W. Cobbett to model a work on the Elizabethan form of "Fancy" and features pentatonic melody, asymmetrical rhythm and echoes of folk song.
Rounding out the evening is Mozart''s String Quintet No.4 in g minor, K.516, regarded as one of Mozart''s finest pieces of chamber music. With grand scale and deft scoring, Tchaichovsky remarked on Mozart''s expression of pathos in this piece, "No one has ever known as well how to interpret so exquisitely in music."
The Breath of Life will be at 8 PM at Rosedale United Church, 159 Roxborough Dr., Toronto.
The program is:
Vaughan Williams - Phantasy Quintet |
Alice Ho - Fair Maiden from a Distant Land |
W.A. Mozart - String Quintet No.4 in g minor, K.516 |
Now in its fourteenth season, the critically acclaimed Via Salzburg Chamber Ensemble embraces the intimacy between string ensemble and audience in the acoustically wonderful setting of Rosedale United Church. Via Salzburg features guest artists and Canada''s finest young musicians under the direction of Mayumi Seiler, who skillfully blends diverse musical genres and art forms into the chamber concert experience and moves the audience into exciting new musical waters.
Tickets: $40/ $25/ $10 through Via Salzburg (416) 972-9193 or at www.viasalzburg.com.
The Via Salzburg Chamber Ensemble was created in 1999 by internationally renowned violinist Mayumi Seiler, with the mission of presenting high calibre chamber music concerts with an emphasis on strings. The ensemble boasts some of Toronto''s top professional musicians and best young talent, blended into a group that plays to consistent critical acclaim. The Globe and Mail has hailed the Via Salzburg as an "elite band of string players, that performs with passion and dedication," while The Toronto Star has lauded its "ebullience and glowing tone". John Terauds of Musical Toronto praised the October, 2012 concert, saying "Thank goodness for organizations like Via Salzburg for not only programming rarities alongside well-known works, but playing them as well as anyone else in the world." This dynamic and virtuosic chamber orchestra is comfortable in any repertoire. Each piece and every performance reflects the attention to detail and energy that is the signature of this group.
Artistic Director Mayumi Seiler began her musical upbringing in Osaka, Japan, where she was born of Japanese/German parentage. Wedded to the violin from the age of three, Ms. Seiler received her musical education at the renowned Mozarteum during the formative years of her childhood in Salzburg, Austria. She is currently based in Toronto, Canada.
With a busy schedule as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, the Far East and North America, Ms. Seiler is also the Artistic Director and founder of Via Salzburg Chamber Ensemble, a Toronto based chamber orchestra that Ms. Seiler leads from the first desk. Via Salzburg is now in its 14th season, featuring wonderfully imaginative programming and international guest artists performing with the best young Canadian talent.
Ms. Seiler has performed with numerous renowned orchestras and conductors including Neville Marriner, Christopher Hogwood, Maxim Vengerov, Peter Oundjian, Sandor Vegh and has been the featured soloist with orchestras such as the City of London Sinfonia, the Royal Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony, the Moscow Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Academica Salzburg and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. She has performed to critical acclaim in such major venues at Toronto''s Roy Thompson Hall, New York''s Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam''s Concertgebouw and Vienna''s Musikverein, the Barbican and the BBC Proms in London. Ms. Seiler has recorded many of the violin concertos and chamber repertoire for such labels as Virgin Classics, JVC Victor, Hyperion, and Capriccio.
Ms. Seiler''s faithful partner in her musical travels is an exquisite J.B. Guadagnini violin, circa 1740.
