Tag: Craig Matterson

Even More NOYSE – An Absolute Pleasure!

by SillyGilly, posted in Review
Even More NOYSE 2020

Review by Jim Leonard

It was an absolute pleasure to attend the NOYSE (North Okanagan Youth Showcase of Excellence) concert at Vernon’s Centre for the Performing Arts at 2 pm. on Feb.1st. Besides providing excellent entertainment throughout the year at bargain prices, NOCCA (North Okanagan Community Concert Association) sponsors the NOYSE concert featuring auditioned talented young musicians. It was a most inspiring afternoon for this reviewer!

The program featured educator and vocalist/actor/performer Paul Rossetti as MC. Paul used his educator skills (he is Principal at St. James Catholic School in Vernon) to interview each performer and/or group. He did this from a comfy chair and couch installed on the side of the stage. His charm and insight brought out the best in each performer.

Teslyn Bates who is only 15, began the program with Debussy’s “Au Claire de la Lune” (By the Light of the Moon). She played the piece with great sensitivity and accuracy. Her second piece- Six variations on a Canadian Folk Song- “Land of the Silver Birch” by Pierre Gallant.(composer not in the program; I hope I heard right!) was mildly modern and very clever. She played it with confidence and rhythmic vitality. I liked it!

Angela Zeng, cellist extraordinaire, thrilled us with her virtuosity on the cello as she played Capriccio by Tchaikovsky. Her intonation was perfect and so was her bowing technique; she showed skills far beyond her 15 years.

Gus Hansen gave us a change in style by playing brilliantly on his guitar; offering: “Over the Rainbow’ ; accompanying himself singing “Running Away” (showing himself as an accomplished vocalist); and a stunning “Corcovado” as a guitar solo. One small reservation from this reviewer: The tone of the guitar was harsh. A much more mellow sound would heighten the listener’s enjoyment. The Line 6 amplifier appeared to have plenty of tone adjustment and the semi-acoustic guitar could be played with the neck pick up. Nevertheless Gus showed wonderful ability!

Noah Wessels, a 17 year old pianist, immediately took charge of things by playing the “Polonaise in A” by Chopin. He brought out the military character of the piece perfectly. The 3rd movement of the “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven was played with authority and brilliance. During his interview, Noah revealed that he made string instruments as a hobby!

After the Intermission, we were treated to the lovely ethereal sound of the VCMS vocal quartet. The four young ladies-Zaela Thiessen, Alex Thiessen, Julia Atkins and Ulyana Doerksen- exhibited perfect ensemble, blend and tuning during their renderings of folk melodies “All the Pretty Little Horses, She Walks With Beauty and Windy Nights.”

Craig Matterson, pianist, tossed off a virtuoso yet sensitive version of Bach’s Partita in C minor. There was lots of excitement in his playing; he knew his stuff. Craig then “changed gears” completely; offering his arrangement of the jazz standard “Someday My Prince Will Come”. It was stunning as he whipped up a hurricane of sound after giving us a solid foundation of the tune at the outset.

Holly McCallum, a 17 year old cellist, offered “Variations on a Rococo Theme”, opus 33 by Tchaikovsky as her part of the program. It is a lengthy work full of mood swings- from melancholy to energetic- and urgent runs up to the highest notes on the cello. Her bowing skills and control were evident in the way she played the runs; ending in exceedingly delicate tones.

“Roots and Strings”- a duo comprised of Anna Konrad violinist, and Jackson Buller electric ukulele,- ended the concert in a fun way. They offered “The Fox”- a medley by “Nickel Creek” followed by a lovely original song “You Don’t Know”. They also had very nice voices! To end on a rhythmic and fun note, the entire roster of performers joined the duo onstage to clap along to a lively foot stomper of a tune. What a great concert it was!

The next NOCCA concert is on Saturday, February 29 2020 at 7:30 pm. Featured is internationally renowned pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin who is returning to Vernon by popular demand. Find more information at nocca.ca.

Review by Jim Leonard for the Vernon Morning Star.

NOYSE 2020 Poster

Even More NOYSE Concert – Saturday February 1, 2020

by SillyGilly, posted in Concert

Even More NOYSE Concert – Saturday February 1, 2020 @ 2 pm
Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre

The North Okanagan Community Concert Association (NOCCA) is very pleased to be presenting the third North Okanagan Youth Showcase of Excellence entitled “Even More NOYSE” on Saturday, February 1 at 2:00pm at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre. This gala performance showcases young musicians from the North Okanagan and Shuswap.

We are very pleased to be presenting Teslyn Bates, piano; Angela Zeng, cello; Gus Hansen, guitar; Noah Wessels, piano; the Vernon Community Music School (VCMS) Youth Ensemble made up of Zaela and Alex Thiessen, Julia Atkins and Ulyana Doerksen; Craig Matterson, piano; Holly McCallum, cello; and Anna Konrad, violin with Jackson Buller, ukulele and drum. We are also very grateful to Paul Rossetti for agreeing to be Master of Ceremonies.

Please join us in celebrating these amazing young musicians!

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Teslyn Bates
 Teslyn Bates has been playing piano since age 5, and completed her grade 10 RCM exam in June 2019 with First Class Honours. Teslyn comes from a very musical family and enjoys playing in numerous ensembles, at festival, and has been invited to complete at Piano Provincials. Teslyn plays trumpet in her school jazz band and ukulele as a hobby. She also competed at Ski Nationals in Quebec and her soccer team recently won the Provincials title.

Angela Zeng
 Angela Zeng has been playing cello since age 7, is now working on her ARCT with Morna Howie at VCMS, has been a member of the Okanagan Symphony Youth Orchestra (OSYO) for 6 years, and loves the opportunities the cello gives her to play alongside other musicians. She competes at festivals, has placed highly at Provincials, has been invited to audition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and hopes to pursue cello as a career. Angela also enjoys competitive swimming.

Gus Hansen
 Gus Hansen has always been inseparable from music. At age 5 Gus performed with his brother at the Vancouver Folk Festival, and can be found infiltrating performance venues, community theatres, and coffee houses across the province enjoying early jazz, soul and funk. Gus is delighted to be taking lessons with Neil Fraser, and has worked with several musical groups, and musical theatre bands, when he is not portraying a character himself! Gus enjoys composition and is working with other musicians on a feature-length album.

Noah Wessels
 Noah Wessels started playing piano in November 2015 after watching virtuosic music performance videos online. He studies with Daisy Penner at VCMS where he also takes violin lessons with Imant Raminsh. He plays second violin in the OSYO, enjoys listening to recordings by great pianists, studying compositions, is always striving to better understand the music he is playing, and builds violins in his free time!

VCMS Youth Ensemble
 The VCMS Youth Ensemble is guided by Kim van Wensem, and accompanied by Neta Petkau.

  • Zaela Thiessen is passionate about classical music, and along with voice, plays cello in the OSYO. She is writing a historical fiction novel, enjoys writing poetry, reading, crocheting and salsa (although she is not fond of tomatoes!)
  • Alex Thiessen loves harmony and prefers to sing those challenging lines that aren’t the melody. In addition to voice Alex studies music theory, piano, and plays viola in the OSYO. She will be taking exams in piano (grade 8), voice (grade 7), and theory (grade 9) this year, and is writing a fantasy novel.
  • Julia Atkins has been taking singing lessons with Kim van Wensem since grade 5, has a passion for musical theatre, and currently has a lead role in the VSS musical theatre production. Julia enjoys listening to alternative and pop music, musical theatre including production, calligraphy and hair styling.
  • Ulyana Doerksen began music in Quebec City singing in a school choir, and playing violin, piano and guitar. Since moving to Vernon in addition to studying singing with Kim van Wensem and violin with Imant Raminsh at VCMS, she sings in the Seaton show and honour choirs. Ulyana enjoys classical music and jazz, drawing, and dreams of becoming a Japanese comic artist.

Craig Matterson
 Craig Matterson has been studying piano since a very young age, studies with Geoff Barker at VCMS, and is currently auditioning for university at UVIC in piano and composition. In addition to classical piano Craig has been successful with jazz and rock, touring Canada, the US and Europe several times with his former band daysormay, and winning silver with his group at the BC Interior Jazz Fest. Craig believes each musical style helps one understand the others.

Holly McCallum
 Holly McCallum is currently working on her ARCT in cello and piano. She has won countless honours, scholarships and awards, and was the first in history to win best of the fest in two instruments at the Shuswap music festival. She has qualified to compete in the Canadian national finals. Holly is principal cellist of the OSYO and a member of the OSO cello section.

Jackson Buller & Anna Konrad
 Anna Konrad and Jackson Buller have formal training in both classical and contemporary music, and enjoy playing bluegrass, classical, folk, classic rock, pop, and more. With Anna’s sister Simone they form Roots&Strings which will release their debut album of original songs and arrangements this January. They play at farmers markets, sponsored gigs, church and school events, senior’s homes, and earned second place at the IPE youth vocal exhibition.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for NOCCA subscribers
$10 for 18 yrs and under, and $5 on the 8-12 program (grades 8-12 with student ID)
Available through Ticket Seller at Vernon’s Performing Arts Centre
ph: 250-549-7469  www.ticketseller.ca

NOYSE 2020 Poster

Sords-Severn-Duvall Trio

Celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Beethoven’s Birth

by SillyGilly, posted in Review
Sords-Severn-Duvall Trio
The Sords – Severn – Duvall Trio

Review by Matt Arnott

The Sords – Severn – Duvall Trio: A concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth.

The Audience attending the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre on Sunday December 1st was treated to a riveting variety of chamber works (including some well beyond Beethoven’s era) performed by the Violin, Cello, and Piano trio comprised of Andrew Sords of Ohio, Luke Severn of Australia, and Canada’s own Cheryl Duvall (Toronto).

Opening the evening was young artist Craig Matterson with two piano solo selections, the great Nocturne in C minor Opus 48 No. 1 by Chopin, and the favorite “Bells of Moscow” Prelude in C# minor by Rachmaninoff. The 20-year-old pianist, no stranger to both classical and jazz performance, enraptured the audience with his finely-honed dynamics and (especially in the Rach) carefully poised yet punctuated moments of surprise drama. The NOCCA Steinway concert piano responded perfectly to his ultra-sensitive touch.

First on the Sords – Severn – Duvall Trio programme was Brahm’s 6th Hungarian Dance in Db, in which we were immediately struck with the flair and ease that these musicians could portray the energetic jauntiness, quirky nature, and warmly personal characteristic of the third musical B’s happier of peasant dances.

Smoothly hosted by Sords, the listeners were next introduced to a selection from Beethoven’s earlier and easier period of life, his Trio in C minor, the key in which Ludwig “always meant business”. The rendering was clean, tight, and dramatic – the trio movement especially being darkly playful, giving the sense that the Grumpy L.van B. may have often had a twinkle in his baleful eye. The Finale prestissimo was slick, syncopated, satisfying. Overall a superior performance.

A radical change in compositional era followed with Severn’s own “…when the world was young” for cello and piano. In a word, stunning. The drama between a piano played (and masterfully so by Duvall) to its fullest emotive extent, and a cello being nothing short of a personal extension of its owner’s body, carried the audience on a tonal ozone expedition like no other. It wailed, it danced, it whispered from the heart of an 11-year-old child … yet it also proclaimed truth from the soul of an adult who sees things from a new and passionate viewpoint.

Finishing the first half was a suitably passionate display of Romany Freneticism with Ravel’s Tzigane for violin and piano. Pulled off with aplomb and panache by Sords’ and his dramatic posture, the music caught the whole audience up in a trance of drama and delight. The incredible pianistic skills of Duvall left the listeners still panting as the house lights came up for intermission.

The entire second half consisted of an incredibly mature and engaging performance of Beethoven’s Archduke Trio – in Sords’ own words: “If one were to attend church, musically speaking, then let the slow (third) movement be your entrance into worship.” And indeed, it was a long, heartfelt, and deeply transcendent moment of musical reverence. The skill required to play through this whole four-movement masterwork and maintain, to the last chord, its grace, strength, and depth of human portent was not lost on the listeners as they were carried into the very heart of Beethoven’s musical self.

Ending on a splashy note, the Trio elected to give an encore of the Scherzo (musical joke) by Shostakovich. Indeed, a virtuosically fun and fantastic way to end a full-bodied evening of chamber music from the best.

The next NOCCA concert is on Sunday February 29, 2020 at 7:30 pm and will feature the marvellously talented, award winning Quebec-born pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin – more information at nocca.ca.

Tickets are now available from ticketseller.ca for the NOYSE concert showcasing North Okanagan’s young musicians (this is not part of the regular NOCCA subscription series). Audition applications are welcome until January 4th. Auditions will take place at the Vernon Community Music School on Saturday January 11th. For more information please go to the NOYSE page of our website. The Gala Performance will take place at the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre on Saturday February 1, 2020 at 2:00 pm.

Review by Matt Arnott for the Vernon Morning Star.

Review: Now For Something Completely Different!

by SillyGilly, posted in Review

By Jim Leonard

The concert began with pianist Craig Matterson; an 18 year old graduate of W.L.Seaton Secondary School. Craig offered his own version of Errol Garner’s “Misty.” It started in a meditative style and picked up the pace part way through. Matterson changed the harmony with chord substitutions and created excitement with virtuoso runs. Well done!

The second piece was Rachmaninoff’s “Prelude in C#minor,” which began very mysteriously and quietly; giving a new interpretation to the work. Apparently it represents the lowering of a casket-with a live person in it- into the grave. The restless middle part represents the panic of the person inside the casket. Matterson conveyed this very effectively through his playing. He has a bright future in front of him as a performer, composer and bandmate in his band “Daysormay.”.

Parker Crook gave a thorough introduction of the “collectif 9” (“neuf”-French for 9) in the Nov.17 issue of the Morning Star. As their name indicates, there are nine members in the group from Montreal. They are
all virtuoso string players (4 violins,2 violas,2 cellos and one bass)playing virtuoso parts generated by their bassist Thibault Bertin-Maghit. They were all amplified through the house system. I think they were all brave to do this as any flaw would be amplified. I didn’t hear any flaws all evening. Their ensemble was tight as was their execution of the myriad of notes they had to play.

The repertoire they played was from the classical and romantic eras as well as the avant garde. One piece had a member calling out phrases during the playing. Personally, I thought that one was too long; the idea had run it’s course and the phrases didn’t seem to have any logical order to them. More successful were the two Mahler pieces- “The Hunter’s Funeral Procession” and the “Farewell.” At times I thought I heard a french horn and a flute! Theplayers had done their sonority research and found a way to imitate these
instruments!

The folk music genre was well represented by the “Taraf de Haidouks” by Turceasca; The “Romanian Concerto No.5” by Ligeti; and the “Romanian Folk Dances “ of Bartok.The violin soloists adopted the characteristic swooping between notes which gypsy violinists did in their playing.These pieces were full of energy as the soloists showed off their abilities.

The audience was given two encores; one in the style of a Quebec reel- to which the crowd added their enthusiastic clapping on the beat; and a slow reflective sonorous piece-the announced title’s weren’t audible to me; they didn’t use a mic. If one wanted something completely different- musically speaking, this was the concert to attend. There were unique arrangements played by a brilliantly talented string ensemble.

The next NOCCA concert is on Thursday January 18, 2018. It features the energetically talented “Cheng2 Duo” on cello and piano. Click here for more information.

Review By Jim Leonard For The Vernon Morning Star

Collectif9

collectif9 – Sunday November 19, 2017

by SillyGilly, posted in Concert

Collectif9collectif9
Sunday November 19, 2017 7:30 pm
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Montreal’s cutting-edge classical string band collectif9​ ​has been gathering steam since its 2011 debut, attracting diverse audiences in varied spaces. Known for energized, innovative arrangements of classical repertoire, collectif9​ ​employs lights, staging, and amplification more commonly seen at rock acts, and heralds a new age in genre-bending classical performance.

The ensemble’s debut album “Volksmobiles” was released in 2016 and collectif9​ ​has already performed over 80 concerts across North America, Europe, and Asia. From outdoor concerts at Canadian summer festivals, to winter tours in the north, to Christmas-time in China, the ensemble combines the power of an orchestra with the crispness of a chamber ensemble. collectif9​’s new show, VolksMusica, expands upon the folk melodies and rhythms audiences have come to expect in a collectif9 performance, but integrates an ironic flavour with works by Mahler, Ligeti, Gabriel Prokofiev, and others.

The musicians in collectif9 include: Thibault Bertin-Maghit (bass and arrangements), Scott Chancey (viola), Jérémie Cloutier (cello), John Corban (violin), Yubin Kim (violin), Robert Margaryan (violin), Elizabeth Skinner (violin), Andrea Stewart (cello), Jennifer Thiessen (viola), and Rufat Aliev (sound engineer).

collectif9 has received a great deal of support and encouragement, and are very grateful to the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts de Montréal, FACTOR, and Musitechnic. www.collectif9.ca

The warm-up act for this concert will be performed by pianist Craig Matterson. Now 18, Craig started taking piano lessons at a very young age and plays numerous genres including classical, jazz, and alternative rock. He is a member of the local alternative rock band Daysormay (formally //AMISTAD//), who just returned from a tour in Ontario. He plays in several other groups, as well as giving solo performances.

Click on the image/link below to view a short video of collectif9 performing.

SINGLE CONCERT TICKETS
Adults – $40  Under 18 – $20
Students on the 8to12 program – $5

Purchase tickets at:

TICKET SELLER
Phone: (250) 549-SHOW (7469)
E-mail: boxoffice@ticketseller.ca

– or –

Visit The Performing Arts Centre Foyer
3800-34th Street, Vernon
All concerts are held in the Vernon and District Performing Arts Centre.