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Saturday, May 17, 2008

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Tracy Harris 2008 masterclass
Located at the beautiful St. Anthony's Retreat in Three Rivers CA, USA, and now in its fifth consecutive year, this exciting three-day master class will be held from July 24 through July 26, 2008 and will feature master classes with Yamaha Performing Artists and Clinicians Mary Karen Clardy, Jim Walker and Tracy Harris with world renowned guest accompanist Svetlana Rudikova and concert harpist Wendy LeBlanc.

The class will also include orchestral excerpt classes, performance practice classes, flute choir classes, ensemble practice classes, flute and harp classes and much more all offered in a nurturing, supportive environment. Yamaha prizes will be awarded at the end of the class and all performers will be awarded class participant certificates. Private lessons with all artists will be available during the class. The class will also include a live televised  gala concert on the last evening featuring performances by all three clinicians, the class flute choir and Yamaha competition winners as well as a world premiere of a flute choir piece written for the class by composer Todd Harris. 

The class is open to all levels and auditors are most welcome. For detailed information and an on-line application please log onto www.TracyHarrisFlute.com


University of Ottawa Chamber Music series
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University of Ottawa Masterclasses
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University of Ottawa Ensemble concerts
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Upcoming Flute Concerts

Friday, May 2nd, 2008, 8:00 PM, Susan ONeill-Senyshyn, flute and Yaroslav Senyshyn, piano, presented by Canadian Association of University Teachers in a benefit concert for Discovery University for the Homeless at Tabaret Hall.  Tickets through Ticketweb: $25 general, $20 for students and seniors.

Susan O’Neill-Senyshyn began playing the flute at the age of eight and studied with principle flautists Ervin Monroe (Detroit Symphony Orchestra), Robert Cram (National Arts Centre Orchestra), Paul Edmund-Davies (London Symphony Orchestra, UK), and Geoffrey Gilbert who taught many top players including James Galway.

In 1986 she won the National Arts Centre Orchestra Bursary and the Ottawa University Concerto Competition. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in both England and Canada. In addition to playing and teaching the flute, O’Neill-Senyshyn has a PhD in Psychology and was a Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of the Unit for the Study of Musical Skill and Development at Keele University in England before returning to Canada in 2003. She is currently a professor at the Don Wright Faculty of Music at the University of Western Ontario. For information please go to:
http://www.music.uwo.ca/bios/soneill.html

Her research interests include motivation and identity issues associated with children’s and adolescents’ musical engagement. She has published widely in the fields of music psychology and music education, including contributions to five edited books: The Social Psychology of Music (1997), Music and Emotion: Theory and Research (2001), The Science and Psychology of Music Performance (2002), Musical Identities (2002), and The Child as Musician (2006), all published by Oxford University Press.

 

Yaroslav Senyshyn's career path has taken him from being one of the prize pupils of the late great Antonina Yaroshevich of the Kiev Conservatory, a fellow student of Vladimir Horowitz at the Kiev Conservatory, to his present standing as one of Canada's finest pianists and most respected educators and philosophers of musical aesthetics. He also studied with Damjana Bratuz, Howard Munn, Clifford von Kuster, Katherine Wolpe and Pierre Souverain.

Dr. Senyshyn's appearances have won him acclaim in many major concert halls throughout the world including New York's Carnegie Hall, Washington’s John F. Kennedy Centre, Toronto's St. Lawrence Centre and Massey Hall and the Bolshoi Hall at the Moscow Conservatory. Georgetown University Radio featured Senyshyn in a programme about Canadian pianism, including Glenn Gould, Louis Lortie and Anton Kuerti. The Washington Post has described Senyshyn as a pianist of “enormous power” and “sophistication.”

In addition to his concert activities, Senyshyn is Professor at Simon Fraser University's Faculty of Education. He publishes extensively in international and national journals such as the Philosophy of Music Education Review, Musica-Realta, Interchange, the Journal of Educational Thought, Educational Leadership, the Canadian Journal of Education, and other publications.

Senyshyn is Past President of the Simon Fraser University Faculty Association and sits as a member-at-large on the national Executive of the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT).

For concert reviews and selected excerpts of Yaroslav Senyshyn's playing please see http://www.educ.sfu.ca/research/senyshyn/ and go to “Pianistic  Highlights, Reviews, Upcoming Concerts, and Sample Clips of Senyshyn's  Recitals / CDs”).

 

Friday, May 9th, 2008, 8:00 PM, Tina Fedeski, flute; Lucile Brais Hildesheim, harp; Gail Halliday, violin.   Refreshing music by Fauré, Ibert, Corigliano, and Saint-Saëns’ amazing Fantaisie for violin and harp.  First Unitarian Congregation, 30 Cleary Ave. 613-725-1066, www.uuottawa.com.

Sunday, June 1st, 2008, 8:00 PM, Lara Deutsch, flute, with Scott Richardson, piano, and special guest, Stephi Bell, flute, in an evening of 20th Century works including: Le Merle Noir – Olivier Messiaen, Sonatine – Pierre Sancan, Ballade – Frank Martin, Out of Doors Duets: Bucolics – Gary Schocker, Sonata, Op. 23 – Lowell Liebermann.  At the Ottawa Mennonite Church, 1830 Kilborn Ave.  Donations at the door.

Event poster: pdf

 


OFA Flute Camp 2008

August 11-15, 2008,
9 AM to 4 PM daily,
University of Ottawa,
Department of Music, 610 Cumberland Street
  

Small group instruction at different levels, music history, flute ensembles, improvisation, ear training, performance with piano, informal closing recital.  Early Bird registration (save $20) – April 30, regular registration – June 30.  Cost:  $220 (minus $20).  Contact Flute Camp Director, Kirsten Carlson, (613) 526-5234, kirstentheresecarlson@yahoo.ca.  See flute camp flyer attached.

Event poster/registration form: pdf

anthem_2007

Flute Camp 2007 members were invited to play national anthems at the Ottawa Lynx baseball game.  Camp Director, Kirsten Carlson arranged the anthems in three voices and we sounded superb.


Review of Winter 2008 Concerts

Lara Deutsch, flute, and Antoine Malette-Chenier, harp in Concerto for Flute, Harp and Orchestra in C Major, K. 299 with the Ottawa Youth Orchestra at the National Arts Centre, Sunday, March 30, 2008 under the direction of John Gomez.  Both played from memory.  Lara continues to amaze us with her mature tone and musicianship.  Her Mozart has an easy delicacy, lightness and warmth of tone with an expressive musical line and exquisite dynamic control.  It was hard to remember that she is not some seasoned performer whose pile of CD’s we have at home but a young musician beginning her career.  Antoine played masterfully.  The duo was very well matched.  We look forward to following Lara’s career and hearing her on large stages in the future.

Gertrude Letourneau, flute, and Garry Elliott, guitar in concert at St. Luke’s Anglican Church, Sunday, March 16, 2008.  This warm and lovely duo have given several recitals in Ottawa and Gatineau.   Gertrude is one of Ottawa’s gems, professional, perfect, expressive, a great treat to hear and always delivers an interesting and memorable program.  We were treated to the Sonatina for Flute and Guitar by Castelnuovo-Tedesco a beautiful work showing off the flute’s colours and sheer capacity for fun.  In their rendition of Takemitsu’s The Night from “Toward the Sea for Alto Flute and Guitar”, the audience was spellbound by this mesmerizing and haunting work.  The piece de resistance of the evening that brought down the house was Piazzolla’s Histoire du Tango for flute and guitar.  This is a wild work full of the bittersweet passion and surprises of love and life and all that stuff.  Gertrude playing was perfect, exciting, with great tone colours and finely controlled wild abandon.   The next time she plays, promise yourself that you will give yourself a memorable and invigorating experience – go hear a recital with Gertrude Letourneau.  You’ll thank yourself.


The Susan Hoeppner Experience

Susan Hoeppner flew into Ottawa, Thursday, March 6, 2008 for a day of media appearances beginning with Eric Longley and CTV.  Susan taught Eric to play the Poulenc Sonata.  He mastered the motions under the glare of the camera which slowly panned back to reveal Susan playing the piece behind him.  Then off we went to the CBC where I recorded a brief announcement in one take to be aired on Saturday morning.  Eric Friesen invited Susan to an afternoon of interviews and an airing of exerpts from several of her CD’s.   Meanwhile the Ottawa Citizen boasted a large photo and article announcing Susan’s concert.   Thursday was media day generating great audience interest while storm clouds headed our way.

In a masterclass, Susan Hoeppner is a study of a intense listening and then leaping up and remolding the student in every way necessary.  She is not shy, is direct in her approach and leaves the student with a sense of being well cared for and the auditors enlightened.


A Susan Hoeppner concert is unlike any other.  She is a most natural and consummate musician and plays most of the pieces from memory.  The image of an elegantly dressed lady with a sunshine array of hair and tremendous emotional energy playing the flute with intensity remains forever in my memory.   Pianist, Jean Desmarais was the perfect partner with his exquisite sensitivity and very romantic and expressive musical style.  It is always a thrill and an honour having Jean in our concerts.  The concert opened with the Poulenc Sonata which Susan played from memory.  She is expressive to the nth degree with a flawless easy technique and brings out every aspect of this complex work.  A new standard is set for this new classic.  Schubert’s two lieder, Gute Nacht and Die Taubenpost with their love-lorn lyrics and contrasting cheerful melodies were a delight.  The Hindemith Sonata for flute and piano was a terrific study in tone colours.   I could not have more amazed to see Susan come out and play the Bach Partita in A minor from memory.  This is a rarely heard work due to its difficulty.  Susan’s Bach is a most natural and romantic interpretation, not stilting and formal.  I am sure that Bach is sighing in relief at being well understood.   The audience was transfixed and noone breathed or moved.  The concert closed with the Trio for two flutes and piano by Damase with Camille Churchfield joining Susan and Jean.  Here is a study of contrasting perfection of two superb flutists.  Camille’s rich, solid tone has become a flute landmark in Ottawa.  This piece is fun, perky, lilting, with a tangy sauciness.  The trio seemed to breathe in playful unison and the audience just reveled in the sound.  Those who came out despite the snowy weekend were rewarded beyond measure.  Everyone must have a Susan Hoeppner experience to say that they know the flute in this day and age.

 

Susan Hoeppner Event Pictures:

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last updated: May 1, 2008