Sounds Natural at the VanDusen Botanical Garden – SOLD OUT

Friday August 6, 2021 | 11AM & 1PMHeron Lake at VanDusen Botanical Garden | Map

L’harmonie des Saisons; Silk Road Music; Elinor Frey, Cello; Jonathon Adams, baritone

For the 2021 Vancouver Bach Festival finale, a smorgasbord of artists perform in the spectacular setting of Heron Lake at the VanDusen Botanical Garden. EMV’s artist-in-residence Jonathon Adams will sing baroque gems, Opus Prize Performer of the Year Elinor Frey will perform solo cello works by J.S. Bach, JUNO-winners L’harmonie des Saisons perform ravishing French baroque music, and Vancouver’s Silk Road Ensemble will perform classical Chinese works.

How to attend the concert:

CONCERTS ARE NOW FULLY RESERVED.

This concert is free with garden admission but reservations are required for the concert. VanDusen Botanical Garden is currently operating under limited capacity with designated entry times. We recommend purchasing your admission tickets in advance at vandusengarden.ca. Garden members can simply present their membership card for scanning upon entry, but must have reserved tickets for the concert.

Capacity of the concerts is limited to 100. Reservations are first come, first served.

To be put on the waitlist for for the 11AM concert, click here.

To be put on the waitlist for the 1PM concert, click here.

Programme

L’harmonie des Saisons performs:
Marin Marais
Folies d’Espagne – Boutade, Muzette, Biscayenne

Michel Corrette
“The delights of Solitude”

Elinor Frey performs:
J.S. Bach for solo cello

Silk Road Music performs:
Roots & Shoots

And more…

L’harmonie des Saisons

Founded in 2010 by co-directors Mélisande Corriveau and Eric Milnes, Ensemble L’Harmonie des Saisons inspires audiences with its fresh and unique interpretive approach to period performance. After presenting forty different programs in over 150 concerts, the ensemble continues to garner acclaim throughout Quebec, Canada, and on its tours abroad. Their recordings on ATMA Classique, Las Ciudades de Oro (2016) Pardessus de Viole (2017), and Marin Marais: Badinages (2020) have been the recipients of the coveted JUNO prize, the Prix Opus, Radio-Canada’s Recording of the Year, was featured among the CBC’s Top Ten CDs of the Year, and was placed on the Apple Music Top Ten Classical Recording list (2020).

The ensemble is host to a prestigious series of concerts in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, and has been featured at festivals across Europe, North and South America. They are the recipient of generous grants from the Conseil des Arts et Lettres du Québec, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Musicaction Foundation, and a number of Montérégie and Eastern Township municipalities. This past season they met the challenge of the pandemic by presenting over fifty of the ensemble’s performers in a series of eight online concerts on the Canada Classique streaming platform.

Upcoming productions include performances on tour of Bach’s St. John Passion and Magnificat, Cantatas of CPE and JS Bach, Handel’s Messiah, and a premiere performance of Faure’s Requiem on period instruments. In October will be released a duo CD of the music of JS Bach on ATMA Classique, followed by plans for four recordings in 2021-2022: Bach Arias and Chamber Music, Bach Concerti, Vivaldi Concerti, and French Baroque Chamber music.

Silk Road Music

A Vancouver based ensemble that bridges classical Chinese music to the practices of the 21st century. Since 1991, it has performed hundreds of concerts in many parts of the World. From festivals, universities and with symphony orchestras, its artistic direction reflects the fundamental desire of each musician to strive for discovery.

Members:

Qiu Xia He 何秋霞：Artistic director⾳樂總監/Pipa琵琶/Voice歌唱
Yun Song 宋云：Erhu⼆胡
Zhi Min Yu 于志敏： Ruan阮
Zhong Xi Wu 吴忠喜：Suona唢呐/Sheng笙/Bili
Charlie Lui 呂畇初：Dizi笛⼦/Xiao箫/Xun埙
Min Lin 林敏：Guqin古琴/Guzheng古箏
Andre Thibault： Percussion打擊樂

Elinor Frey, Cello

Elinor Frey is a leading Canadian-American cellist, gambist, and researcher. Her albums on the Belgian label Passacaille and Canadian label Analekta – many of which are world premiere recordings – are the fruit of long collaborations with artists such as Suzie LeBlanc, Marc Vanscheeuwijck, and Lorenzo Ghielmi, as well as with composers including Maxime McKinley, Linda Catlin Smith, Christian Mason, and Lisa Streich. Elinor’s recording of cello sonatas by Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco received a Diapason d’Or and her critical editions of Dall’Abaco’s cello music is published in collaboration with Walhall Editions. Early Italian Cello Concertos, her album in collaboration with Rosa Barocca orchestra, won the 2023 JUNO Award for Classical Album of the Year (small ensemble).

Elinor is the artistic director of Accademia de’ Dissonanti, an organization for performance and research, and she has performed throughout the Americas and in Europe in recital and with numerous chamber ensembles and orchestras (Constantinople, Les idées heureuses, Il Gardellino, Tafelmusik, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, etc.). In March 2023, she performed Boccherini and Sammartini concertos with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra.

Recipient of dozens of grants and prizes supporting performance and research, including the US-Italy Fulbright Fellowship (studying with Paolo Beschi in Como, Italy) and a recent research residency at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Elinor holds degrees from McGill, Mannes, and Juilliard. She teaches Baroque cello and performance practice at McGill University and the Université de Montréal and is a Visiting Fellow in Music (2020–2023) at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University. Frey was awarded Québec’s Opus Prize for “Performer of the Year” in 2021.

Jonathon Adams, baritone

EMV’s 2021 Artist-in-Residence, Jonathan Adams was born in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton, Canada). Jonathan is a Two-Spirit, nêhiyaw michif (Cree-Métis) baritone and performance artist. In concert, they have appeared as a soloist with Philippe Herreweghe, Sigiswald Kuijken, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Václav Luks, Ensemble BachPlus, Vox Luminis, il Gardellino, and B’Rock Orchestra at Opera-Ballet Flanders. Jonathon is a featured soloist in the film MESSIAH / COMPLEX produced by Against the Grain Theatre and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (2020). Jonathon was a fellow of the Netherland Bach Society in 2020 and performs regularly with Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir. Future solo engagements include recording and concerts with il Gardellino, concerts with Servir Antico, Les Voix Humaines, Ensemble Caprice, L’Orchestre Baroque Arion, Studio de Musique Ancienne de Montréal, L’Harmonie des Saisons, and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra amongst others.

Thanks to a long term ‘Creating, Knowing and Sharing’ grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, 2021 witnessed the world premiere of Adams’ performance piece nipahimiw / the plaint with collaborators Christi Belcourt, Reneltta Arluk, Evan Ducharme, Susie Napper and Catalina Vicens. nipahimiw / the plaint is slate for presentation at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver’s UBC First Nations Longhouse, Montreal’s McCord Museum, Quamajuq Inuit Art Museum (Winnipeg) and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.