WELCOME TO VETTA’S 2024-2025 SEASON, CONNECTIONS!
“Music connects us to meaning that would be hard to express through language.”
— Joan Blackman, Artistic Director
Connection is something that music does. It connects us to meaning that would be hard to express through language. Throughout this 39th season we will encounter connections between composers, artists, and music. We will explore connections between Canadian musicians and composers, the traditional canon of chamber music repertoire, as well as connections between cultures. I also hope we will connect with each other as we experience the joy of live music.
In our opening concert, performed by the Vetta String Quartet, we explore the movement between dissonance and consonance in Mozart, and the elasticity of musical tension and relaxation in Beethoven. We then find connection to that concept in Canadian composer Jeffrey Ryan’s String Quartet #4: Inspirare, which seeks a musical iteration of the breath, in and out, and the instant between the two.
Concert 2 connects two branches of Vetta’s Outreach: Mentorship and cross-cultural collaboration. We are so excited to remount Vetta's 30th Anniversary cross-cultural commission, "Seasons of the Sea", which will be performed this time by the Vetta Chamber Players Mentorship Orchestra, with Rosemary Georgeson and Joan Blackman as mentors and soloists. If you enjoyed the vivacious energy of our Mentorship concerts over the past few seasons, you will love this one!
What do Mozart and French composers Fauré and Françaix have in common? They all compose with elegant style! The Mozart Piano Quartet in G minor is full of virtuosic writing for the piano, while the Françaix Trio, composed in 1933, has a modern, up-tempo sensibility. And there may not be a more elegant piece of music than Fauré’s lush and romantic Piano Quartet in C minor.
Jane Hayes, Julia Nolan, and I have played together as a saxophone trio for many years, but the birth of the “Four Jays” came with the addition of jazz bassist and composer Jodi Proznick for Vetta’s online concert series in 2021. This versatile ensemble presents a fresh take on classical, contemporary, and jazz music, and is delighted to be performing for you this season!
Finally, we are so pleased to present an all-star cast of musicians for our last program of the season. From UBC are Valerie Whitney and David Gillham. From the VSO, we welcome Jeanette Jonquil, Sophie Dansereau, Dylan Palmer, Zoltan Rozsnyai, and Jacob van der Sloot. I am no stranger to the VSO either, having enjoyed many years with the VSO until chamber music pulled me away. I am excited to share the Vetta stage in a celebration of the best of classical chamber music!
Yours in Music,
Joan Blackman