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| Majka Demcak & Jiten Beairsto |
As I drive through my Vancouver (since 1975), I feel alienated in a city that my Rosemary, who died 9 December 2020, would not recognize. I see in this city an ultra-clean sterility as long as you don’t approach the homelessness camp that is Maine and Hastings.
With Rosemary we would go to concerts, theatres and dance. I have curtailed most of that as I now choose to attend what in my mind are events in smaller and more intimate venues. I believe that large halls like the Queen Elizabeth, the Chan Centre and even the Orpheum are now white elephants. I warm up to events at Pyatt Hall, the Orpheum Annex and concerts in churches like the one I attended tonight at St. Augustine on 7th Ave. I find the basement hall in Simon Fraser University's downtown campus a manageable one where my fave The Turning Point Ensemble plays.
Marc Destrubé’s musical groups like La Modestine and the Microcosmos Quartet often play in home concerts. These are pleasant even though the music in some cases can be never ever heard before avant-garde.
With no city journalism, and next to no coverage of culture on our CBC (bridge traffic coverage is important with them), the only way I keep track of the wonderful music available here is through email subscription.
One of my fave of these is the Gallo Chamber Players who played an unusual concert last night. One of their features was to rely sometimes on the wonderful echoes a church has. They had their soprano Brittany St.Clair sing Frescobaldi’s Ricercar su Sancta María from the organ balcony in the rear with (I believe) Connor Page on the organ. In another St. Clair sang accompanied by Rebecca Rut on violin.
To me this scandalously fabulous concert is scandalous for another reason.While the Gallo Chamber Players are mentored by Early Music Vancouver in all the concerts I have attended at St. Augustine’s I have never ever seen a member (either musicians or executives) present. To top that, the concerts of this young group feature far more inventive programs as was last night’s. I had never heard of Rosa Giacinta Badalla , Leonora Duarte or Fux!
I cannot wait for Gallo Chamber Players’s next concert Salve Regina on Saturday May 31at 7:30 at St. Augustine’s 2028 West 7th Avenue.
