Buzz Brass Sunday April 26, 2020 7:30 pm CANCELLED
Unfortunately due to the Covid-19 virus outbreak NOCCA’s Buzz Brass concert on April 26th, 2020 has been cancelled. We are sorry for any inconvenience. Ticket seller will be contacting all patrons with information on how to obtain a refund or credit.
Instead we offer you some samples of Buzz Brass to enjoy from the comfort of your home. Not the same as a live performance, we know, but the best we can do for now. Stay safe and healthy.
Please click on the images/links below to view the videos:
Unfortunately due to the Covid-19 virus outbreak and other presenters in BC cancelling their concerts, Il Violincello Italiano! have had to cancel their whole BC tour. So the NOCCA concert on March 28th, 2020 has also been cancelled. We are sorry for any inconvenience. Ticket seller will be contacting all patrons with information on how to obtain a refund or credit.
Charles Richard-Hamelin (right) and Noah Wessels (seated)
Review by Jim Leonard
The concert began with 17 yr. old Noah Wessels – a student at Vernon Christian School. He began the concert with 3 Chopin pieces; the most dazzling being the “Revolutionary” Etude by Chopin. The piece has a difficult passage for the left hand that surges up and down the keyboard while the right hand issues fanfare like chords. Noah was certainly up to the task even though he began studying piano in 2015!
After hearing Charles Richard-Hamelin play only the first few passages of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No.13 in Eb major (In a fantasy style), I knew I was in the presence of one of the world’s great pianists. To quote Robert Harris of the Globe and Mail (January 17, 2016) “His sense of time, harmony, above all, his structural originalities, are immensely sophisticated and daring. He seemed to be aware of the total Chopin by exposing inner voices and harmonic twists in both left and right hands.” I agree whole heartedly with Robert. All these accomplishments at the age of 30! His virtuosity never got out of hand nor did his playing become grotesque during loud passages.
During the Moonlight Sonata ( which was named such after Beethoven’s death) opening Adagio, I heard the real intention of the music with the rising sounds of sadness and despair brought forward by Richard-Hamelin’s skill. A furious Presto ensued, possibly representing anger or despair. This man gets you thinking by the way he plays!
Before intermission, Richard-Hamelin played a little known Fantasia in F sharp minor by Mendelssohn. I know why the piece was not played often – it is so difficult. No problem for our soloist. He breezed through the 3 movements with total abandon. His playing was so steady and confident throughout the piece.
After intermission we were treated to 12 Preludes, from opus 28 by Chopin. There was lots of variation in the length and character of each. They were played close together like a Suite. To finish the program, Richard-Hamelin played Chopin’s Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise op. 22. The latter of the two was a stunning close to the concert; with cascading octave runs played with great confidence and skill; giving the effect of two players. After a short encore (I couldn’t hear the title as it was announced off mic) and a second standing ovation, Charles Richard- Hamelin bid his audience adieu. What a wonderful evening indeed!
The next NOCCA concert will be on Saturday March 28, 2020 at 7:30 pm. It features a cellist, harpsichordist and archlutist. More information can be found at nocca.ca.
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!
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
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.
Il Violoncello Italiano!
North Okanagan Community Concert Association 