Serenade to Spring Dinner & Auction, last week for tickets

Tickets are available this week for our most important fundraiser of the year. Please support your PEI Symphony Orchestra and plan to attend our Serenade to Spring Dinner and Auction on Saturday, May 25th.

Every spring the PEI Symphony presents our most important fundraiser, entitled “Serenade to Spring”.   It’s a gourmet dinner and auction featuring high quality items including paintings and works of art by local PEI artists, gift certificates for meals, golfing and quality services by local businesses, special music lessons and concerts by top Island musicians and other special items.

Please support your PEI Symphony Orchestra and plan to attend this key annual fundraising dinner and auction.

For 2013 the event is set for Saturday May 25th in the elegant Georgian Room of the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel, with a gourmet meal and a wonderful assortment of art, gift certificates and donations for both the live and silent auctions.

Saturday May 25, 2013

6:00 Cocktails and Auction Viewing
7:00 Dinner & Bidding

Location:  Rodd Charlottetown

Hosted by Fraser McCallum
Music by Singing Strings

Tickets are $90 per person with a $50 tax receipt. If you’re not available for the dinner why not just send us the $50 donation in return for the tax receipt for next year’s taxes.

Tickets are available by calling  (902) 892-4333.

We need your help. Thank you for your continued support, and please pass the word along!

Concert April 14 – Celebrate Mozart & More

• Symphony No. 40 in g minor, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Choose Other Routes, by Jim O’Leary featuring jazz trumpet master Paul Tynan
• Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns and featuring piano soloists Frances McBurnie and Dr. Frances Gray, with narration by Patrick Ledwell.

On Sunday April 14th the PEI Symphony Orchestra will present a concert celebrating Mozart, Canadian composers and the career and contributions of PEISO Conductor James Mark.  This concert will be Dr. Mark’s last leading the PEI Symphony as Music Director. After more than twelve years of inspired leadership, and many more years of inestimable contributions to the PEISO, James Mark is retiring, and will become ‘Conductor Emeritus ‘ for the PEI Symphony Orchestra.

As the PEISO’s Music Director since 2000, James Mark has masterfully lead the PEISO’s dedicated and gifted musicians, shaping the musical collaboration to a high level of artistic excellence and professionalism befitting the premiere orchestra of a provincial capital.  Thanks to his talents and musicality, PEI audiences have enjoyed years of wonderful orchestral performances and his flair for concert programming that fostered in PEISO performers both young and mature, while providing orchestral music with great appeal.

On the program for this concert, Dr. Mark will lead the orchestra to perform Mozart’s very popular “Symphony No. 40 in g minor”, often called the “Great G Minor Symphony”. One of his most admired works, this tragic and emotional work is one of only two that Mozart wrote in a minor tonality, and has been described as “a work of passion, violence and grief” by Charles Rosen in The Classical Style.

Also on the program, the orchestra welcomes guest artist Patrick Ledwell as narrator for Camille Saint-Saëns’ multimedia work “Carnival of the Animals”; an early example of poetry set to orchestral music, and a brilliant example of the composers’ ability to musically describe his animal subjects so the audience can visualize them. For this work, the PEISO is delighted to welcome back two of our finest piano soloists: Dr. Frances Gray and Frances McBurnie. French composer Saint-Saëns penned this suite as entertainment for his friends and family and never meant for the piece for public consumption, but it certainly has become a global fan favourite. “A kangaroo can jump incredible. It has to jump because it’s edible!” Saint-Saëns’ motifs musically describe creatures ambling across the stage: lions, hens, wild asses, tortoises, an elephant, and the kangaroos skipping along to the pianos.

Jim O’Leary, the PEI Symphony’s Composer-in-Residence will see the world premiere of his latest work.  A departure from his previous works, “Choose Other Routes” has been written for the acclaimed jazz trumpet performer Paul Tynan, who will be its featured soloist. O’Leary has dedicated this work to retiring music director James Mark. According to Jim “the only honest attitude of an artist is to express himself, to bring something in which one really believes. Because to follow the tastes of other people, to try to please them, it’s a false direction.” – Witold Lutoslawski.

The PEI Symphony is delighted to partner with Cedar’s Eatery with the latest edition of our popular “Symphony and Supper” special offer. Bring two ticket stubs from the April 14th concert, order two entrées, and receive 50% off the second entrée. Offer valid Sunday April 14th from 4pm to 11pm or Monday April 15th all day, at Cedar’s Eatery at 81 University Avenue.

To help make it easy for families to enjoy the beauty and power of live orchestral music, the PEI Symphony continues to offer discounted tickets for children and students at $15 for any seat in the house.

Concerts begin at 2:30pm, and everyone is welcome to the pre-concert talk at 1:15pm in Studio One.  Tickets at the Confederation Centre Box Office, or online.

PEI Symphony Fruit Sale 2013

The PEISO Fruit Sale is back! Beat the winter blues by biting into a taste of sunshine! Help support live orchestral music in PEI by purchasing some juicy naval oranges, or perfect pink grapefruit from us this year.

Still only $10 per bag, or pick up a half box $30 or full box $50 to really beat the blues! You can pick up your fruit order at any of the following locations:

Fundraiser Depot:

On Brackley Point Road, right beside Chucker’s Trophies and across the street from Birt’s Furniture. The mailing address is 161 St. Peter’s Road, but the actual storefront is right on the Brackley Point Road in the old Canada Revenue building just before the mall.  Many thanks to Fruit Sale sponsor R. Birt & Associates for donating the depot.

Our depot will be open on Fridays from 12pm to 6pm and Saturdays from 9am to 3pm.

• Friday February 8th and 15th, 12pm to 6pm, and
• Saturday February 9th and 16th, 9am to 3pm

Confederation Court Mall:

Our booth is located by the TD Canada Trust and we’ll be there on:

• Thursday February 7th and Friday February 8th
• Wednesday February 13th and Friday February 15th
• 10 am to around 4pm each of these days.

Charlottetown Farmer’s Market:

Our volunteers are at The Doctor’s Inn booth across from Island Taylored Meats, on:

• Saturday February 2nd, 9th, and 16th
  
• NOTE – due to the big storm the Fruit Sale at the Farmer’s Market has been cancelled for Saturday February 9th.

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Fruit will also be available for sale in the lobby during our concert Sunday February 10th at the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

To order by phone please call 892-4333 and leave a message, or send us a message to fruit@peisymphony.com

For more information call Dan at 388-6042, or Natalie at 892-4333.

Romantic Music for a Summer Evening

Concert “Romantic Music for a Summer Evening”

Saturday, July 28, 2012, 7:30pm, Dr. Steel Recital Hall, UPEI
David Parker, Horn; Karem Simon, Clarinet; Frances Gray, piano

An unusual combination of instruments will be featured at a late-July concert entitled “Romantic Music for a Summer Evening” to be held at the Dr. Steel Recital Hall, University of Prince Edward Island. On Saturday, July 28 at 7:30pm, audience members will be treated to a rare trio by the composer Carl Reinecke. Few trios in the traditional chamber music literature combine clarinet, horn and piano and this is quite possibly a première performance of it on Prince Edward Island. Another featured work is the wonderfully-mature Sonata in F Minor for clarinet and piano by Johannes Brahms, a contemporary of Reinecke. Rounding out the program will be a set of romantic “Pieces Melodiques” for horn and piano by the French composer Charles Gounod. Tickets ($15 adult; $10 seniors/students) will be available at the door beginning at 7pm.

David Parker has been Principal Hornist of Symphony Nova Scotia since 2000.  He has been a member of the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta, and the Quebec Symphony Orchestra.  He has also performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Tafelmusik, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Boston Lyric Opera and the Boston Pops Orchestra.  He holds degrees in music from Boston University, the University of Toronto, and Acadia University.  His teachers have included Daniel Katzen, Hermann Baumann and Eugene Rittich.  Further studies have included residencies at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Tanglewood, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute, and the Pacific Music Festival. Mr. Parker regularly performs in music festivals and chamber music series including Scotia Festival of Music, the Music Room, the Charlottetown Festival, the Garden Room, St. Cecelia Society, Music at Three Churches, Indian River Festival and the New Brunswick Summer Music Festival.  Mr. Parker teaches at Dalhousie University, the University of Moncton, and is currently the horn teacher and Centre Director of Sistema New Brunswick in Moncton.

Canadian clarinetist Karem J. Simon has been a member of the University of Prince Edward Island Music Faculty since 1991. He is an active soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and conductor. A native of Newfoundland and a graduate of the University of British Columbia, Northwestern, and Mount Allison Universities, Dr. Simon has been a featured artist with the Prince Edward Island Symphony, the Saint John String Quartet, and Gros Morne Summer Music. As a member of eklektikos he has been involved with the premieres of contemporary chamber music. Among the major influences of his clarinetistry are Ronald de Kant, Wesley Foster, Clark Brody, Ronald Goddard, and Robert Spring. In 2001 he was recipient of the Association of Atlantic University’s Teaching Excellence Award for Instructional Leadership. Dr. Simon is principal clarinetist of the Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra and was conductor of the 2007 National Youth Band of Canada.

Pianist Frances Gray is well known for her solo and chamber music performances, broadcasts, adjudicating and teaching, She has recorded three solo CDs—Poems for Piano, The Evocative Piano, and Soundscapes of Spain, all nominated for ECMA classical music awards.  She has performed throughout Canada, in the United States, England, Belgium, Russia and Australia. She is the pianist/keyboardist with the Prince Edward Island Symphony Orchestra, with whom she has performed many times as concerto soloist. Dr. Gray holds a B.Mus. from McGill University and MM and DM degrees from Indiana University where she studied with Menahem Pressler, renowned pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio. Awarded a Commonwealth Scholarship, Frances Gray spent a year at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. She also attended master class sessions at Tanglewood with the Russian duo-piano team, Victor Babin and Vitya Vronsky.She has been a long-time valued Professor of Piano and Theory at UPEI in Charlottetown and has frequently adjudicated county and provincial music festivals and competitions in the Atlantic Region.

Karem Simon to perform Alexina Louie’s Cadenzas three times in July

The University of Prince Edward Island’s Dr. Karem Simon will be performing Vancouver native Alexina Louie’s Cadenzas, a piece for clarinet and percussion. Cadenzas was premiered on March 22nd, 1986 at The Music Gallery in Toronto.

Dr. Simon will be performing the work on July 1st, 2012, at UPEI’s Dr. Steel Recital Hall, McMillan Hall, and Schurman Market Square (three performances in one day!) He will also be performing the work on July 13, 2012, at UPEI’s Robertson Library, and July 18th, 2012, at St. James Presbyterian Church.

For a preview, here’s a link to the Centrestreams recording of Cadenzas.