Spring Arts Preview: with restrictions lifted, music thrives in Vancouver

by Steve Newton, Georgia Straight on February 24th, 2022

Live music is back big-time in Vancouver this spring with a wide range of in-person performances presented by companies like the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, Music on Main, the UBC School of Music, the Friends of Chamber Music, and the Vancouver Recital Society.

Queering the Air: Mignon at the SUM Gallery, February 25. Mignon, a non-binary icon of German Romanticism, is brought to life through the music of Zelter, Schubert, Schumann, and Wolf, performed by soprano Sarah Jo Kirsch and pianist Tina Chang.

VSO/Chooi Plays Mendelssohn at the Orpheum Theatre, February 25 and 26. Music director Otto Tausk leads the VSO and violinist Nikki Chooi in a program of works by Mendelssohn (Violin Concerto, Op. 64, E Minor), Linda Catlin Smith (Tableau, VSO Commission 2021), and Robert Schumann (Symphony No. 2, Op 61, C Major).

VSO/Chooi Plays Mendelssohn at the Orpheum Theatre, February 25 and 26. Music director Otto Tausk leads the VSO and violinist Nikki Chooi in a program of works by Mendelssohn (Violin Concerto, Op. 64, E Minor), Linda Catlin Smith (Tableau, VSO Commission 2021), and Robert Schumann (Symphony No. 2, Op 61, C Major).https://76951f3258f2dc75494e70c1bffe8c47.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

Rhapsody and the Blues at the Kay Meek Arts Centre, February 26. Vancouver premiere of a new arrangement of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Jazz Big Band, plus music of Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, and Nat King Cole.

Safia Nolin at Studio 16, February 26. As part of the Nouvelle Scène concert series, Le Centre culturel francophone de Vancouver presents Québecoise indie-folk singer-songwriter.

Inhale/Exhale at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, February 26 and 27. The Turning Point Ensemble presents major new works by composers Taylor Brook and Nova Pon, plus music by Arcade Fire multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry.

Rufus Lin at Lulu Island Winery, February 27. International jazz concert pianist Rufus Lin performs as part of the Live Jazz at the Winery recital series.

Sisters in Jazz Day at the VSO School of Music, February 27. Jazz workshops and jam sessions with Jodi Proznick, Amanda Tosoff, Laura Anglade, and Virginia Frigault-MacDonald.

Cellobration! at the Anvil Centre, February 27. The Vancouver Chamber Music Society presents Israeli-American cellist Amit Peled performing with pianist Noreen Polera.

Kits Classics + Worlds Beyond at Mel Lehan Hall at St. James, February 27. Clarinetist Johanna Hauser, cellist Olivia Blander, and pianist Anna Levy perform works by Brahms, Sumera, and Bloch.

Castalian String Quartet at the Vancouver Playhouse, February 27. The Vancouver Recital Society presents London-based quartet in a program of works by Haydn (String Quartet in D minor, Op. 76, No. 2 “Fifths”), Fanny Mendelssohn (String Quartet in E-flat major), and Schubert (String Quartet No. 15 in G major, D. 887).

VAMSO: Brahms Symphony No. 3 at the Orpheum Theatre, February 27. The Vancouver Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra presents performances of Wagner’s symphonic poem Siegfried Idyll, Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 3, conducted by Ian Parker.

Benewitz Quartet at the Vancouver Playhouse, March 1. The Friends of Chamber Music present a program of works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (String Quartet No. 4 in C major, KV157), Felix Mendelssohn (Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Opus 13), and Antonín Dvořák (String Quartet No.13 in G major, Opus 106).

VSO/Peer Gynt at the Orpheum Theatre, March 3. Conductor Anna Rakitina and host Christopher Gaze join the Vancouver Symphony in Edvard Grieg’s charming suite from the Ibsen play.

Aljoša Jurinić at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, March 2. Croatian classical pianist performs works by Ludwig van Beethoven (Sonata No. 21 in C major “Waldstein”) and Frédéric Chopin (Ballade in F major, Op. 38; Nocturne in D flat major, Op. 27, No. 2; and Ballade in G minor, Op. 23).

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