When Quartetto Gelato brought the house down in the concert that closed the Valley Concert Society’s 2024-25 season, it should have been a perfect night—our largest crowd since the pandemic, outstanding musicianship, rapturous applause, spontaneous laughter, exclamations of joy from … Read More

Wow! (First draft) Wow! (Feedback from my editors: Too short. Redo.) Wow! (Second draft) That was incredible! (Feedback from my editors: Still too short. Lacks imagination. Change the title.) Virtuosity (Third draft) It just feels like that’s all there is … Read More

The sweet spot—that place where everything just feels perfect. Saturday’s concert hit the sweet spot. At least it did so for me and for many of the people I heard from afterwards. It was four remarkable musicians finding that magical … Read More

The world of classical music is regarded by some as being populated with stuffed shirts. Pompous. Formal. Dull. Superior. And if there is any genre in classical music that represents the height of such a reputation, it has to be … Read More

I wasn’t prepared to like musica intima.  Why can’t they just put capitals on their name? I worried that they would be too dissonant, too esoteric, too modern.  When I saw the program, my fears increased.  There were no familiar … Read More

As one of the people responsible for bringing you the concerts in our series, I listen at our events for two different things. One ear is tuned to the music; the other is paying attention to our audience. How is … Read More

I was late. I grabbed my keys and headed into rush hour traffic. Fingers drumming impatiently on the steering wheel, I waited for the endless line of cars to move. Sitting in the snail-paced traffic, thoughts of the day swirled … Read More

In almost every conversation I’ve had with people about last Friday’s concert featuring the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the first thing mentioned was “that piece”. Not a single person named “that piece”, maybe because they didn’t know now to pronounce it, … Read More

Ever since the first human being discovered the joy of beating on a hollow piece of wood or blowing through a reed, music has been a shared human experience, people sitting or dancing together with their families or friends. It … Read More

The ‘chamber musical’ which took place on Friday evening was unique in several ways. The format was that of a small intimate group of musicians telling a story through words and notes. While we knew the topic of the evening … Read More