The closing event of this year’s Minds and Music concert series offered by UBC Okanagan will feature works for violin, voice and piano by W. A. Mozart, with expert commentary by Pierre Simard, resident conductor of the Calgary Symphony.
“It will be an exceptional event of our series’ first season,” says concert series organizer Dr. Manuela Ungureanu, associate professor of philosophy at UBC Okanagan. “This concert will be the most substantial of our spring events — with the first half devoted to music for violin and piano, and the second half mainly for voice with piano, to showcase for our students the tremendous breath of Mozart’s genius.
“The concert is unique for yet another reason,” she says. “Some of our guest artists have donated their fees to show support for the UBC Okanagan initiative to host music events for our students and for the community at large. We are grateful for their generosity and look forward to their all-Mozart performance.”
The Voice of Mozart concert starts at 12:30 p.m. on Friday, April 28, in the Main Foyer of the UBC Okanagan Student Services Centre. The free concert will offer approximately 80 minutes of live music, with a 15-minute intermission for refreshments. The featured singer is soprano Nadya Blanchette, who will be joined by violinist Denis Letourneau, and pianist Mihai Ungureanu.
Although this is the final event of this season for Minds and Music, the series will start again in the fall, says Dr. Ungureanu.
“We are looking forward to an opening concert in October sponsored by the Alumni office of UBC Okanagan. Mid-November we will host students from UBC’s School of Music in Vancouver who will join their Italian counterparts for a chamber music concert on our campus,” she notes.
Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble, the group featured in the last Minds and Music concert, may return in March 2007 to perform another famous work by Mozart: The Magic Flute.
— 30 —
