Saturday, May 23, 2009

Tooting my own horn.

Reprinted below is an article from the Edmonton Journal - outlining my next two weeks of concerts here in Edmonton. Which will also help explain my quietness lately. I hope to be back blogging at full strength here in about a week or so.

The link to the actual article is here.

The article is cut and pasted below, as I'd like to keep it someone for when the online version disappears! (The actual print version included a nice picture of ME!)

Concerts have Brough working double time

Season-enders for Da Camera, Richard Eaton

It's going to be a busy week for John Brough.

Not that the local music educator, conductor and musician isn't always juggling multiple roles; it's just that with season-ending performances for two organizations to take care of in six days, he's taken on an impressive workload.

"I've got some very able help with both of these concerts," he chuckles over the phone from Holy Trinity Church, where he's subbing for vacationing staff. "I'm able to step in and just do my job because of it. I think that afterwards I'll need some rest. Maybe hit the links."

The golf season beckons, but for now -- music. He'll be sharing duties with conductor Jordan Van Biert on Saturday night for the Da Camera Singers's performance, one that has Brough leading the choir through a take on Josef Rheinberger's impressive Mass in E Flat, known as the Cantus Missae.

"I've sung it before with Len (Ratzlaff) and the Madrigal Singers," he notes. "I guess I was just waiting for an opportunity to conduct it myself."

The Rheinberger piece that Brough enthuses about will be part of a program that includes works by Brahms, Wolf and Schubert.

The Da Camera Singers's season-ender takes place Saturday at 8 p.m. at the First Baptist Church, 10017 109th St. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students and seniors, available at Tix on the Square or at the door.

Brough won't get much time to relax after the concert. Next Friday, he'll be leading the Richard Eaton Singers on their final outing for the season.

Anton Bruckner's Mass No. 2 gets singled out by Brough as the centrepiece of a program that also features Mark Sirett's For Music, a compendium of poetry by Byron and Shelley set to music by Sirett, as well as Ralph Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs, with baritone Michael Kurschat, pianist Leanne Regehr, and the 17-piece Edmonton Symphony Winds also helping out.

"The (Bruckner) Mass is thick and rich," Brough explains. "It ranks at the height of his compositional powers. The piece is very bold and powerful, and quite beautiful."

In Every Corner Sing takes place Friday, May 29 at 8 p.m. at the West End Christian Reformed Church, 10015 149th St. Tickets are $30 for adults, $20 for students and seniors, available at Tix on the Square, 780-420-1757, or at the door.






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