Friends! Are you a NOCCA season ticket holder who has yet to get your tickets for the upcoming season? Do you love having the same seat to watch every NOCCA concert at the Performing Arts Centre?
Time is running out to repurchase your season tickets with the chair that fits your body so comfortably! Monday, July 15th is the deadline to repurchase your tickets before they are opened up to the general public. Imagine someone else sitting in your perfectly curved seat! Or having to find a seat way in the back when you’re used to sitting up close. Or having to sit next to different people and renegotiating who gets which half of the armrest! Inconceivable!
Repurchase your season tickets before July 15th at ticketseller.ca to avoid these types of awkward situations.
On January 24, NOCCA presented its fourth concert of their seventy-first season and once again the audience was beguiled by the offerings showcased by the performers.
The introductory duo opened with Evy Erickson on violin accompanied by Jenny Sunderland on piano. The pair performed an energetic interpretation of O. Rieding’s Concertino in A minor. This piece was beautifully contrasted by the slow and emotive music of Jules Massenet, Meditation from Thais. Both pieces were played expertly from memory. When Ms. Erickson and Ms. Sunderland concluded their presentation, the audience seemed spellbound as it took several seconds for the resounding applause to occur.
Elizabeth Lee and David Fung graced the stage for the main section of the concert and treated the audience to a cornucopia of modern composers including Debussy, Ravel and Gershwin. The musicians performed with technical brilliance and passion. They encapsulated the different genres of music into a highly complex offering for the concert-goers. It was evident that Ms. Lee and Mr. Fung were thoroughly enjoying themselves as they exuded pleasure both on their faces, smiling widely and in their body language. They were one with their music, their instruments and with each other.
Their playing evoked many images; someone rushing around the streets with a great need to get somewhere fast, to the warm, relaxed ‘Summertime’ of the southern states.
They received a well-deserved standing ovation and were enticed back to the stage three times before offering the audience more brilliant musical prowess in an intensely beautiful, intensely Gershwin finale.
Review by Shannon V Marsh and Gerald Sholomenko.
NOCCA’s next concert will feature: Guitarists Adam Cicchillitti and Steve Cowan on Tuesday April 23, 2024. Tickets can be purchased atticket seller.ca or phone (250) 549-7469. For more information visit our website nocca.ca
Captivating audiences, leaving them breathless with impeccable phrasing and musicality.
Violinist, Haerim Elizabeth Lee has developed a playing style indicative of the very essence of her personality: passionate, deliberate and often witty. In 2015, Elizabeth performed as the concertmaster with Yo-Yo Ma at the Kennedy Center Honors concert in Washington, D.C. to recognize Maestro Seiji Ozawa, which was attended by former President Barrack Obama.
Elizabeth possesses a progressive philosophy when it comes to exploring and premiering works by living composers.
Elizabeth describes her interpretation of George Gershwin’s works for violin and piano as a “contemporary take on timeless music that captures the vibrant spirit of New Your City as it once was and as it is now. Her new album, My Time is Now, will delight die-hard Gershwin fans and capture the hearts of new followers. More about Liz Lee
Pianist, David Fung will be performing with Elizabeth. He is widely recognized for “interpretations that are elegant and refined, yet intensely poetic and uncommonly espressive.” David regularly appears with the world’s premier ensembles, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco Symphony, as well as the major orchestras in Australia.
David garnered international attention as a laureate of the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition in Brussels and the Arthur Rubenstein Piano International Masters Competition in Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv, he was further distinguished by the Chamber Music and Mozart prizes, awarded in areas in which he has a passionate interest.
David is currently on the faculty at the University of British Columbia and is a curator at the Chan Center for the Performing Arts. More about David Fung.
Click on the links below to view videos of violinist Haerim Elizabeth Lee and pianist David Fung.
Jaeden Izik-Dzurko with his parents & NOCCA president, Paul Maynes
On September 12, NOCCA’s ‘23-24 concert season was opened by Hadley Lanaway. Ms Lanaway treated the audience to three beautiful piano pieces. As she played, she relaxed into her chosen repertoire allowing concert goers to create images within each selection. Hadley ended her performance with a lovely Sea Dragon lilt by Ina Dykstra.
The featured artist, Jaeden Izik-Dzurko, is no stranger to NOCCA. He graced our stage as a youth performer playing on the “Dowager Steinway” in 2016. Tonight he enthralled audience members with his exquisite performance on NOCCA’S ‘lucky’ Steinway.
Jaeden welcomed the patrons into the evening’s offerings by opening with selected Moments Musicaux, D.780 by Franz Schubert. He played with seamless precision. He was one with his instrument and one with the music, gifting the listeners with a performance full of heart and passion.
His interpretation of Nikolai Medtner’s Sonata, Romantica, in B flat Min. Op 53 No.1 was a stunning rendition that showcased his profound technical ability and deep engagement with the music. The audience was spellbound and spontaneously rose in their appreciation of Jaeden’s immense musicality.
After a much needed intermission for both the audience and Jaeden, no doubt, we were once again left breathless by his performance of Ravel’s Miroirs. This technically challenging piece appeared easy under Jaeden’s fingers. It evoked images of moths flitting in the night to the movement of sparkling ocean water and brought concert goers to their feet yet again.
It was with immense pleasure that we were treated to his final selection, Scherzo No.1 in B minor, Op.20 by Frederic Chopin. This work was followed by Jaeden’s first encore leaving patrons thoroughly sophonsified. However, Jaeden offered us one more warm musical nightcap to send us on our way. When he concluded his concert, a collective sigh of absolute appreciation could be heard echoing throughout the theatre.
There are simply not enough superlatives to describe this magnificent performance and performer.
Review by Shannon Marsh, Emily Fraser and Gerry Sholomenko
Nocca’s next concert will feature Oktopus on Wednesday October 11, 2023. Tickets can be purchased atticket seller.ca or phone (250) 549-7469. For more information visit our website at nocca.ca
The 2023/24 NOCCA concert season begins with one of the North Okanagan’s great sources of musical pride, pianist Jaeden Izik-Dzurko. Over the past ten years, Jaeden has opened for NOCCA presentations as well as performed for the North Okanagan Youth Showcase of Excellence (NOYSE). After graduating from high school in Salmon Arm, he went on to the Juilliard School of Music and graduated in 2022 with his Bachelor of Music. Jaeden recently completed his master’s degree at UBC under Dr. Corey Hamm.
Celebrated by the CBC in 2021 as one of “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30” Jaeden Izik-Dzurko is earning a reputation as a promising young artist. Recognized by audiences, conductors, composers and critics alike for his exceptional communicative power and the thoughtfulness of his interpretations “… he projects a distinctive musical personality that imbues even the most routine passagework with character and individuality” (Calgary Herald). In 2022 Jaeden won piano competitions both in North America and in Europe, and his road to success continues here in Vernon as he entertains us with works by classical masters as well as, at least, one of his own compositions. Come out and enjoy the talents a rising star.
North Okanagan Community Concert Association 