Lions Gate Sinfonia presents Tugging at the Heart Strings, with the North Shore Celtic Ensemble Saturday, Jan. 28, 7:30 p.m. at Centennial Theatre. Tickets: adults $39, seniors $35, child - $12. More info: lionsgatesinfonia.com.
The youthful North Shore Celtic Ensemble and seasoned Lions Gate Sinfonia are fusing for a “string fling” concert that will turn classical music on its ear.
“It’s funny, we have a Clyde and a Claude working on this one,” says longtime Lions Gate Sinfonia music director Clyde Mitchell, ahead of another collaboration with the North Shore Celtic Ensemble.
Claude Giguère is the artistic director of the Celtic Ensemble, comprised of young musicians who perform a spirited original repertoire with influences of Celtic, jazz, classical and folk music.
The Celtic Ensemble has come together with the Lions Gate Sinfonia, made up of professional union musicians who dedicate their life to their craft, on several occasions since 2011.
This Saturday’s concert at Centennial Theatre, Tugging at the Heart Strings, will do exactly that. String music, with each vibration, whether plucked or bowed, evokes powerful emotions for the listening audience.
The strings sections from both North Shore orchestras will collide for a “very interesting” collaboration. For the younger musicians this style of music is in their wheelhouse, as the Celtic Ensemble is innately a violin and fiddle group.
Meanwhile it’s the perfect vehicle, says Mitchell, for the LGS to showcase their string section.
“In this case, I decided to do just a nice big string fling,” he explains.
Mitchell is excited to once again join forces with the young virtuosos.
“Those kids are just phenomenal,” he says of the Celtic Ensemble. “They play by memory. And they stand and they walk around and they move and dance.”
Giguère and Mitchell worked together to create a strings accompaniment and combine their playing styles into one entertaining evening of instrumental music.
Mitchell brought one of the greatest strings works ever made to the table, by a little composer named Mozart.
“It’s called ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.’ It’s a big mouthful,” says Mitchell.
The beautiful serenade that is “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” contains four different movements, each with its own flavour. The first movement is fun, bouncy and light; the second is sweet and exquisite, almost like a song; the third is very dance-like, and the fourth just goes flying like the wind, describes Mitchell.
“But I’ve got a really cool twist on it,” teases Mitchell. “We are going to do it in reverse order.”
So what will the instrumental outcome be?
“Well, we are going to find out,” says Mitchell of the musical experiment. “I don’t think it’s ever been done. It’s like reading a book and starting with the last chapter and then finishing with the first chapter – we already know who wins the game, the butler did it, that sort of thing.”
And just when the audience thinks the rhythmic roller coaster ride is over, another surprise is around the corner. Once the performance of “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” reaches the first movement it will jump to a famous fiddle tune called the “Orange Blossom Special,” in what Mitchell hopes will be a fun surprise for the audience.
“They will say, Oh yes, I know that piece (“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”) and then it goes into the fiddling tune. People will be absolutely shocked and thrilled I hope,” says Mitchell.
In contrast to that jaunty number is an arrangement of the angst-filled and romantic “String Serenade” by Czech composer Antonín Leopold Dvorak.
The evening starts with a nod to a local composer who lives in the Seymour area, Michael Conway Baker.
“The only problem with him (Baker) is that he’s still alive,” says Mitchell with a laugh. “There’s a very famous saying in music that the only good music is written by dead composers, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky.”
Baker’s composition “Sinfonia for Strings” was also chosen to be performed on Saturday to acknowledge Canada 150 celebrations happening this year. Mitchell has pledged to include at least one Canadian composition for upcoming LGS concerts. This time around it was easy to infuse some true-north-strong-and-free spirit because of the many Canadian folk and fiddling tunes.
Interspersed throughout the evening are arrangements of compositions by Baroque heavyweights Bach and Telemann.
During the second half, the audience will be amused when the combined orchestra turns a famous Bach tune on its ear and into a fiddling tune.
While LGS and Celtic Ensemble members have been practising their parts separately, they will come together for a rehearsal at Handsworth secondary ahead of the Centennial show.
It just so happens Handsworth principal David Overgaard is a bassoon player with the LGS. Mitchell says he starts every concert by thanking Overgaard for lending his ‘living room’ for the band to rehearse in.
Mitchell also gives huge credit to concertmaster and violinist Andrea Siredze, a 15-year LGS veteran.
“She is absolutely an essential member of our orchestra,” says Mitchell. “She is so important to us because the concert master, she is the one who stands up at the beginning and makes sure everyone is in tune. “It’s symbolic, I shake her hand and that represents shaking everyone’s hands and thanking everyone for their efforts.”
Mitchell has another musical treat up his sleeve for Saturday. If you listen carefully, at one point you will hear an Iranian folk song, a special tribute that Mitchell arranged for a sponsor of the concert.
